when i start this new engine, the tack will say that it has 1xx,xxx miles on it...i know some vehicles it is a pain to replace the mile counter b/c you have to replace a ton of crap...can get expensive....is it the same thing on the 93 fords. are they complicated and expensive? it doesn't really bother me but if i can replace it for cheap, i thought i would. thanks.
chris

 

Well, the REST of the truck certainly has that many miles on it. With a 300, that is the part that will generally wear out first, not the engine. ;^). I think you will also find that resetting the odometer is illegal.

 

Resetting is legal in certain circumstances, but generally it involves a complete restoration.

 

why not leave the odometer alone and put an hour meter on the new engine?

 

where would i get an hr meter, how much, and how difficult to install?

chris

 

also, i don't have a tach on my truck...is it hard to install one of these? at the time being, i have no knowledge of gauges...thanks for the help.
chris

 

The factory tach is very easy to install. Buy a cluster with a tach from ebay and just plug everything in. Here's an article:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/article/idx/17/126/article/Installing_An_OEM_Tachometer_In_A_19921996_F150_Or _Bronco.html

 

don't all hour meters add up at a constant rate, no matter if i am driving 9 mph or 900 mph? if this is so, how would it help me?

 

while searching for a tach, i came upon a sunpro air/fuel mixture gauge for $21.88. seems to be a good deal and looks a bit nifty. on a stock vehicle, will it do me any good to monitor the a/f ratio or is this more for engines beyond stock?

summed up throughout this post:
1: how will an hour meter help me if it measures a constant rate?
2: will a/f ration gauge do anything for me with a stock engine?

thanks for the help. as stated before, i know very little about gauges. any information will in some way benefit me.

chris

 

the a/f guage will move around and look neat. thats probably about it.

hour meters are nice because they still take into account for idling. a cop car with 100k on it has a lot more engine wear than an every day commuter.

please don't drive 9 or 900mph. Thats really annoying for other drivers.

 

At least on our old tractors, the hours were measured as "hours at 1750rpm".

So they ran faster at higher rpm. I would assume that an electronic one would come off the sparkplug/distributor the same as a tach, and vary its rate depending on rpm.

The only problem with getting a new cluster with a tach on it is that you lose the odometer reading. I have 244k well earnd miles. Just like my gray hairs, I would rather they weren't there, but I dang sure earned 'em, so I'm gonna wear 'em.

 

I think it is a three piece unit and you keep the center piece in there to retain mileage.

 

Yes, that is true. I just swapped out my non-tach cluster for one with a tach. I also was able to swap the entire speedometer so that my odometer milage would be retained.

 

It wont replace a odometer, but it will give you a good idea how much running time your new engine has on it and running time is really more important then milage for the engine.

All "time at 1750rpm means" is that 1750rpm is a standard for running a tractor with the PTO in high. It still only times the engine from an ignition hot wire.

 

alright here is a thought of mine...a thought of which is probably wrong but bear with me (remember i know very little about this stuff). fuel regulators regulate the amount of fuel going into the engine. if i get an air/fuel gauge to monitor the mixture and dial down the fuel pressure to run the lowest possible in the stoich range, will this save me gas for highway driving? will this even work? does the computer automatically do this? i apologize if i just asked a stupid question. any thoughts are appreciated.
chris