Hi Ted just looked in and saw your build up towards the top again. I thought I would look in and see how its going. Parts Parts Parts .....

 

Just the same old crap, doing nothing on the project. Hopefully sometime this coming spring, that will change.

 

Hang in there. Do a little when you can.

 

If it doesn't change soon the whole thing might make a trip to the scrap yard.

 

Well it's been a while since I posted any updates.

Still haven't done much of any work on it. Been buying more parts since the last update. And I picked up a new Eastwood 250amp mig welder. Couldn't afford the Lincoln Power mig I wanted. And I also picked up a used little bench top milling machine.

Anyways I had a day or two free, while I'm waiting for some parts to fix my daily driver. So I decided to dig out one of my 240 heads and try to get started on the intake/header flanges.

I decided to pull out the worst of my 240 heads to use for making patterns and mock up purposes.

Here's the 240 head after an hour and a half or so of cleaning. This came off an old industrial 240 that was used to run a huge water pump. This sat outdoors for many years and came off a block that had multiple cracks in it. So I suspected it was most like junk too.




After cleaning it up some I checked it over and it's in surprisingly good shape. I don't see any obvious cracks or other damage. It did have 5 stuck valves and the rest aren't sealing. I worked on them a little to try and free them up some. The one exhaust valve broke the head off. So I was able to pull it out. But I think I'll actually be able to use this head. I'll have it hot tanked & magnafluxed before I sink too much time or money into it just to be sure it's ok. Then I'll probably use in in my 89 E350 after a full rebuild, including installing larger valves and a full port & polish job. But that's a whole different project.



I pulled out the 1/2" steel plate that I'm using for the header/intake flanges. The one is going to be a common flange for both the intake and header. This is for the 54 project. The other will be cut out for separate intake and exhaust like the originals were. That will be for my 89 E350.




I had bought a stock replacement combo gasket thinking I could use that for a pattern. But when I checked it on the head half of the bolt holes were way off. And a few of the port openings weren't much better. So I decided I could do better by starting from scratch. So I pulled out a sheet of tag board and made a couple templates/patterns.





Then I gave the two pieces of plate a coat of Dykem Blue. And right about then it started raining. If the parts don't show up in the morning for my 96 E250, I'm going to try and get a good start on drilling/cutting out these flanges.




I've got 3 vehicles to repair this month and then if everything works out I'm all set to get to work on the 54 for a solid month in Sept. Hopefully life and mother nature won't get in my way. I need to get the entire body mocked up and cab length finalized. Then get all the body mounts, box sub frame, my headers and intake configured and the gas tank filler neck set in the rear fender. And then get the entire chassis tore down. Once I get to that point I can focus on each individual piece of the drivetrain and getting the cab work done. We'll see what I can get done before old man winter shows his ugly face again.

 

Well I was able to get my 96 E250 buttoned up yesterday. So Today I thought I'd do a little more work on my header/intake flanges. I started drilling holes in them. I was hoping do get all the drilling done today but just ran out of time. I drilled 44 holes in the 1/2" plates. I've still got 32 more to drill. And then a whole lot of cutting.









I dug out these chunks of bar stock to use as some hammer forms to shape the tubing for the headers and intake runners. It's going to take some grinding to get them into the shapes I need.








Well I've got a couple caravans that need fixing before I do much more work on the 54. I'm hoping I'll get both fixed before the end of the month. Then I can get to work on the 54 and try to get something done on it.

 

Looks good! I like your little drill press, I recently got one and I've been impressed with the damage the little guy will do.

How do you plan to attach the primaries to the flange?

Sam

 

Thanks. I've had that little drill press for years. I don't even remember where I got it. I think I might have picked it up at northern tool. It does the job. I've drilled a lot of holes in some fairly heavy material with it. There are a few little annoyances with it. But I can't really complain for what I've got into it.


The intake tubes and header primaries will be formed into the port shapes. And then inserted into the flange and welded on both sides of the flange.

 

So was your September as prosperous as you had hoped with the 54? I have been following along as I find it interesting how you adapt to all the opportunities that come your way.
Keep plugging away we are always interested in your progress.

 

Sad to say no it wasn't.

My daily driver broke down and I had to fix that. Then I had a couple family members that had vehicles break down and I fixed those. And there were a few other things pop up. basically life just keeps getting in the way of the project.

I'm just going to keep collecting parts for it and hopefully someday get to work on it.

 

That's too bad, it sounded like you were geared up and ready to go. Maybe over the holidays if the snow isn't too deep.

 

It won't happen over the holidays. Way too much going on. After the first I might have a chance to work on some small stuff. But there won't be any major work until spring at the earliest. And that's if everything goes right.

The 54 is most likely going to stay on the back burner. I'm going to have to tear into my 89 E350 van project. I need to get that built and back on the road so I can retire my 96 E250.

I've got three project vehicles and my 96 E250 daily driver. It just seems like the more projects I've got, the less that gets done on any of them.

 

I hear you on the projects, I am a bit underwater at the moment myself. Several months back I found a 9ft flairside box at the wrecking yard for $200... Grabbed that! I've spent the last few months getting it installed and fabricating a million little pieces to fit it onto my 73 F250... But it was worth it! I sheeted the bed floor with 3/16ths and 1/8th inch treadplate! It's not "finished" yet, but it's driveable and useable... Then a buddy of mine just found me a 361FT and clark 5spd, so of course I had to drag that home. Now I am going to build a air compressor out of a 2.9 v6 from a ranger, I need something that will run my 3/4 drive impact. But now my 76' F100 needs a clutch... They never stop! Fortunately, they keep me (in)sane.

Sam

 

It sounds like you've got some cool projects going too.


The projects I mentioned are just the trucks & vans I've got. I didn't even mention the motorcycle, riding mowers, gas weed trimmers, air compressors, shop tools, etc..... I've got enough projects to keep me busy forever.




Just to add some more pictures to the thread. Here's some pictures of what I am currently working on. I've been working on the design of my 2-2V intake manifold for the 300 going into my 89 E350 van. I just made a mock up & patterns out of some tag board. I still need to make some adjustments but it's getting close and gives me an idea on the dimensions. That way I can order the rest of the steel I need to build this when I get some cash.








I'm going to have the 1/2" thick steel flange that bolts to the head ( pictured up in post #486 ) . Then I'm going to have some 2" long intake runners ( made out of 2" OD .120" wall DOM Tubing ) . I'm going to flatten out the sides some so they match the shape of the intake ports in the head a little better. Then I'll have two of the plenums pictured above. I'd like longer runners but the room in the van just won't allow it. But I think between the size and the shape of the plenums it will still perform like I want it to.

Once the intake is done I'm going to build a single outlet header for it. I was going to run dual EFI exhaust manifolds in the van. But I decided I'd be better off just building my own header. It will be less likely to leak at the head. And with a single outlet I won't have to mess with a Y-pipe. And I can't keep it farther away from the starter to help with the heat issues vans can have.

 

Well some things have happened.

Back in February the city decided my 78 chassis shouldn't be sitting where it has sat for over 2 years under a tarp. It was sitting between an enclosed trailer and my garage. You could not see it unless you were standing right by my garage. So I had to tear down the chassis. I had to put the frame in my trailer and all the drivetrain parts in the back of my cargo van.

Once I had the chassis tore down. I was looking the 78 frame over and decided it was going to have to be completely tore down to the bare rails. It is rusty enough that I don't want to just clean it up and repaint it without removing all the crossmembers. I didn't have time to do this before I packed the frame away.

Since then I have been thinking about this off and on. Anyways I came to conclusion that instead of using the 78 frame I might as well build a new frame. I did some looking and it looks like I can get all the materials to build the frame for less then $500.00. I'm thinking of going with 6" x 2", 3/16" wall steel tubing for the rails. And a combination of 6" x 2" & 2" x 2" tubing for the crossmembers.

Building my own frame will give me some benefits. I'll be able to move the engine forward, requiring a smaller firewall recess. This will give me more leg room and more room for the heat & A/C unit in the cab. And it will also make the intake manifold and carb lay out much easier to do. Without having to worry about rear carb clearance with the firewall. The front cab mounts will also be much simpler.

Now here's my issue I'm torn between making it a 4x4 or going back to my original plans of it being my summer hot rod. The hot rod would be 2wd with the 2003+ Crown Vic front suspension and a Explorer disc brake 8.8" rear diff. Doing that would be simpler and quicker then setting up the new frame with the 4x4 parts. Since there would be less parts to buy/rebuild with the 2wd set up that means I could get it on the road sooner. The down side to this is the 54 would loose some of it's truckiness ( how's that for a made up word ) . It would ride and drive more like a car then a truck. But this with a nasty built 240 inline 6 and a manual transmission would be a blast to drive.

No matter which way I go with it. I'm still going to extended the cab and have the full tilt front body clip.

Ok let's get back to today. I dragged the cab out and decided I was going to try and get some work done on it this coming week.

This is the first time the cab has seen the light of day in a long time.






The time in storage has not been kind to my fab work. It's going to take some clean up before I give it all a POR-15 bath, much later.






I didn't get a whole lot done today. Mainly I just spent a lot of time looking things over. I did clean up the hole from removing the louvers from side of the cab.




I also did the final fitting for the patch panel to fill the hole. But installing this is going to have to wait until after I get the kick panel plate welded in.




Here's where I'm going to start. I'm going to do some grinding/wire brushing to clean up some of my uglier welds and the rust. Then I'm going to fab up the kick panel plate like I did on the driver side.



I made up a template and did some rough layout on a piece of 10 gauge steel. I'm going to cut this all out tomorrow.



Now some more bad news. While I was looking things over I noticed some things that need work. First is if I'm building the frame I won't need the huge firewall recess I started. Second what I started to do for a transmission tunnel just does not look good. And it will need to be changed due to the transmission being farther forward. And third is my driverside kick panel plate is bent/warped. And I'm not going to be able to straighten it out with the floor in place. So I'm going to cut out all the driverside front floor and redo it. I'm going to get the firewall installed and then do the floors and transmission tunnel.






Sorry for the really long post. But I thought I'd give you guys an update. I came very very close this winter to just deciding to bail on the whole project. I've got so many projects going that it just seems like they were all at a stand still. But I'm going to keep at it and see how it goes.