Man its lookin good Jeremy!

 

Loooks awesome buddy, cant wait to see the outcome.

 

Jim, the blocks are made of forged brass. Not sure what's plated on them to make them the silver color though. I did use Noalox on all of the wires ends at their connections in the blocks though.

 

Not able to do anything today, except call PCS. Right about the time I got done with work for the day, winds kicked up, skys got dark, and it looked like impending doom. Big fat rain & lightning followed for about the next 45 minutes. I was not going out in that stuff to start putting in big chunks of aluminum.

I had to call PCS because I started thinking about the OD Off button and wondering whether it would still work or not. Found out it doesn't, but it's pretty easy to make it work. I simply have to hook up one of the extra wires in the harness to the correct wire in the column, then set the controller to the appropriate settings via the software. PCS was awesome help, as they told me exactly which wire I'm looking for in the column, which wire to use on the PCS harness, and what the settings in the software need to be.

The only thing they're not sure of is whether the OD Off light on the shifter will work correctly or not. Since it's controlled by the Ford PCM, it might still come on when I hit the button. I'm going to try a T-tap into the button wire first and see if the light works. However, if it doesn't, they told me how to make it work as well, although it's a little more involved. That light uses a PWM signal, and the PCS harness doesn't have an extra PWM output wire in the harness, so I have to add one. They send a bunch of extra wires that already have pins crimped on them, so it's just a matter of getting one and pushing it into the connector. Piece of cake. Then , I'll have to find the wire that they identified in the column, cut it, connect it to the wire I just inserted into the PCS harness and program the software appropriately, which they also gave me the settings for.

I've got all weekend to basically get the OD button and light working, get the front end back on, get the battery cables fully connected, hook up the OBD II port, fill the fuel filters, prime the fuel lines, send the file to the PCS controller, and wait for parts. Friday's are usually pretty slow for me, so I may have most of that done tomorrow. Here's crossing the fingers that more parts show up tomorrow and I can get it running this weekend.

 

I have lost the ability to control my OD, I miss it. It's been the only downfall to the BTS without electronics. That and no way to 'kick it down.'

I've been meaning to talk to Brian about a full manual valve body, but work, work, work...
Please let me know about your OD button venture, I may have to look into the PCS as this tranny's going in the '99 behind an '05 CR. I've also been meaning to get with him about bringing down the stall speed 800-900 rpm's.

 

Aww, come on now, where is your sense of adventure?
Think of it as charging the batteries the hard way.

 

LOL Brandon. I thought about braving it but decided against it. Probably a good thing too, because I have found some tree damage in my yard from the high winds.

 

Wouldnt that suck if a tree fell on the front end of the truck. I'd go shoot myself if that happened and i was in your position!

 

Yes Kris, it would suck bad. Luckily, all my trees are nowhere near my driveway.

 

If you'd like a suggestion on how, take a look in my gallery. That's where I mounted my coolant filter.

Pop

 

Reps to you, Pop! I very much like your mounts. So clean, simple, and using existing bolts. It's awesome. It's not at all what I had in mind, but now know how I'm going to do it, copying your setup.

 

I am still waiting. Looks like a quality build Jeremy. Don't be afraid of a little lightning, just ask Sparky, no big deal. JK.

Right about now a big Joe Bob 4 car car port like mine would come in handy for you. I gave up on my basement garage after getting the truck but still wanted shelter to work on it. Doesn't help much in Jan-Feb, but sure keeps the rain off and the sun from beating you down.

 

Worked good to hide from the sun with a hangover during a hot day in June - IIRC (the time Mike made me drink too much).

 

A car port of some type would be a welcome relief, but the truck's almost done now (I hope) so no big deal. Rich, you sure it was the same Mike I know that made you do that?

Got the front end on last night, so it kind of looks like a truck again. I didn't get any pics, because it really doesn't look any different than it did before, with the hood shut. It wasn't difficult, as I had test fit everything previously and made any modifications necessary. The radiator is almost touching the upper crossmember now, and it's very close to the radiator. I put a little rubber weatherstrip on the edge of the IC to ensure that it won't rub the radiator. The upper mounting tabs on the IC are also now flat up against the crossmember and bolted solidly, rather than with the rubber cushions. It's got nowhere to move though, so it shouldn't be an issue. Those upper tabs also had to be notched just a bit, about 1/8" to let the crimped part (where the plastic tanks meet the core) of the radiator move back a little further. The only other thing I had to modify was to use some longer bolts and a couple spacers to move the hood latch forward a little bit, or the bottom of the latch mechanism would hit the IC. There was plenty of room on the latch pin to move it forward too.

Probably just going to take it easy tonight and break from the truck for a day or two. Monday I'll get the coolant filter hooked up, radiator hoses hooked up, prime the fuel system, and the couple bits of interior wiring. Then, I'm just waiting on parts.

Speaking of parts I'm waiting on, the IC pipes have me a little concerned now. Kris made mention of the Optima batteries being 30% smaller, earlier in the thread. Kai, who is making my IC pipes, has Optima batteries. I'm not sure that I have the same clearance that he does. I'm hoping the pipes he's making will work, but I may run into the issue of having to get an IC tube made locally by someone. Depending on what that cost, it may be cheaper to buy a couple new Optima batteries.

 

Sounds like we are getting real close to seeing a video of a purring Cummins . It has taken you less time then I though it would Jeremy you have definatly went above and beyond on documenting this project, I'd rep you if I could.