Engine Swap Pics and Story!
 

So here is the story of my “famous” engine swap and then a nice little tale of my truck’s poor life beyond that swap. My first winter in Alaska has been full of lessons and stories that I can hardly believe myself. I should also add that I grew up in Georgia and both 4x4 and snow are new to me. :D
Background: I recently graduated college and spent a summer in Alaska. I went home to Atlanta and decided to come up here again and find a “life” for myself. With the help of FTE I was able to locate and find a perfect truck for my needs. Since then life has been an absolute adventure and I can’t honestly say that I regret a single mistake I have made. These experiences have created new friendships and lasting bonds with so many new people in life. FTE has been a huge part of all of this and I can only hope that one day I can afford to cruise down to the lower 48 and be part of a rally to meet and spend time with so many people that have been amazing in all of this.

These two threads are worth reading over before you embark on this tale. :)

Thread of when I first bought her. A little more history as well such as where she got the name "Mugly".
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/8...ate-sorry.html


For those of you that are interested in my pics from the drive up to Alaska from Atlanta, GA.
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/9...to-alaska.html

A pic of her the day after I bought her. I was so excited to buy it I picked it up a day early and the previous owner was upset that he didn't get to clean it up for me. I told him I wanted a day to clean it. :) Love those first days.

Not bad for 260,000 miles right? This was about two weeks before my 7000+ mile trip to Alaska.

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Before that trip began I finally retired my old 01 Mustang GT. Survived my wild youth and learned everything I know about cars from that thing. 110K miles of fun! Took her up to rest at my Grandfather's farm until I can afford to support more then one vehicle at a time. You understand. :)

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So within a month of getting to Alaska I began adventuring in my new ride. 4x4 is a beautiful thing! Well sure enough in my adventurous ways, I managed to fail a river crossing and pop (More like Kapow!) my engine. On 7 cylinders, she got me out of the riverbed and most of the way back to town. She smoked, she sputtered, but she gave me every little bit left until she ran out of oil and shut off. I had made it back into town and was able to park in front of a museum that let me keep the truck there until I figured out what I was going to do.

After getting out of the truck I took one peak under the engine. Oh yeah, she is done.
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I did what any person in my situation should do, calmed down over the course of a couple days and figured out my next move. First off, I threw a gathering in the back of the truck. It was a packed crowd and we listened to our favorite tunes until the batteries died out. It was a great way to put a good truck to rest.

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While saving up, I spent some time around the state enjoying Alaska. (I just love sharing these, sorry!) My first salmon ever was this Silver.

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A glacier cruise in Seward, thanks to a borrowed vehicle. :D

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Edit: As you go through the pictures you can look at the leaves on the trees or ground for a better idea of just how long this took. Blew it up in May and got her patched up and running by early October.

Then it was time to assess the damage and deal with my problem. I moved the truck to a local park since I couldn’t find anyone who would let me use their shop. A friend of mine had recently driven up to Alaska and spent the day repacking his vehicle while I unloaded mine. The inflatable monkey on the windshield was won at one of my jobs and he became the full time seat occupier in my vehicle, much to the amusement of people in town.


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As the drinks flowed, my one friend was lucky enough to get with the Saint Pauli girl! On a more serious note, this kid was small enough that he could live in the back of my truck comfortably and so I let him live in it so that he would keep an eye on it . Not joking.


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This is was certainly a bad sign of things to come.


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Quick444 has realized that this is going to be an expensive and painful lesson.


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During my trip down to Seward I stopped by a Lowes and picked up some expensive plywood to use on the ground since moving an engine hoist in the dirt was going to be a huge pain in the wazoo. FTE was quick to point that out to me!


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Finally I acquired an engine out of a 97 which was delivered to me by the seller. Complete trust on this deal! I hid the engine and all the accessories in the back under a tarp until I was ready for the swap. Most didn’t even ask what was in the back until after a couple weeks when the truck began a little squat.

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Since I didn’t have a place to keep things, I used the cab as storage. When I wasn’t working on the truck I wanted all the parts inside to keep them clean, secure and out of the elements. Most people also appreciated that I took the time to clean up every day when I was done.


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Since I worked nights, I began working on my nights off since I could get a lot done and be finished before sun up. A local dog left this little toy next to my truck and it just stayed in or around the entire summer.


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Day 1 of work as the sun is coming up. This project took a couple of months between financial and parts delays, but I am trying to keep this short and simple for story telling purposes.


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Time to pull her out! My friends are all non-car guys and I can’t thank them enough for spending all of their free time around me to keep me company, encourage me and most of the time keep me hydrated and fed. The lady friend who was with me during the engine kaboom made the shirt I am wearing for the project. “I do what I can, I do what I do, I do what I want” A sort of perfect motto for the way I have been going about things looking for adventure, always dealing with the consequences and in general trying to avoid the frequently traveled roads in life.


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I wanted to work in a shop but few people knew me and I understand that its tough to just let someone use your shop for extended lengths of time. I figured if people didn’t like my project, they would find a place for me. Instead, most people just started coming over to see how I was doing and complement me on my eagerness to grab this bull by the horns and deal with it. What an experience.


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Carnage!
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Piston lodged in the cylinder wall and snapped the rod which then tore the inside of the engine up. Honing marks at 270k miles, sweet right?


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Cleaning up from the first step in the process.
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Oil pan remains.
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Engine was out celebration! And no, I wasn’t drunk for this entire project. My friends just helped me keep my head up any time I was done working.


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So at this point my truck had already held a party or two, housed my small friend for two months (I kicked him out for this swap), and now it was even babysitting dogs while people were at work. If only Ford knew!


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Big day! Time to move the new engine around from the back and start swapping stuff over. Most of these steps were pendant on weather conditions of course.


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Swapping the injectors over with new orings as Clay and FTE suggested. I believe RebelChevy02 and I talked on the phone to help me get the injectors out. I didn’t want to break anything at this point. Big thanks! The

OBS injectors went to Clay as cores for a customer.


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My friends taking a moment to try and understand what the hell I was doing. They kept things interesting by frequently quizzing me on where things went since none of us were quite sure that I could pull this off.


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Moving the engine around on the dirt roads was a puzzle of plywood and 90 degree turns but as you can see my friends really helped out when they could. In this case I took a breather and snapped pictures!


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Operation underway, please do not enter operating room.


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All back together and hooking wires back up. Surprisingly simple but the harness was a pain in my wazoo to line back up.
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Where did I keep all my tools you ask? Here ya go. Quite unorganized but I managed to know more or less where to look most of the time. :D


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Jump start time! Two cars and I couldn’t get it to turn over. Remembering that the batteries were old to begin with, I saved up and bough two new ones.


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Running! Time for a celebratory lap!


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Upon seeing my truck my friend and former “truck resident” ran out and sprayed us down with Champaign.


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Tragedy strikes. After dealing with a unstoppable leak it is pointed out to me that my HPOP reservoir is cracked, thanks again to FTE and my 300000 threads on my problems. Engine had to come back out. This was a horrible emotional defeat so I took a break for a week and then attacked it again on a 3 day weekend. This guy is a young friend who wants to be a mechanic when he graduates from high school. I enjoyed company and I think he enjoyed lending a helpful hand.


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Engine is out, cover and oil pan are off.


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Because I didn't have a shop with tools I can into tons of simple little problems. The simplicity and lack of basic tools almost drove me crazy. The closest hardware store is 15 miles out and the closest Sears/Walmart/Autozone is 70 miles out. For instance, when I needed the old front cover off the old engine, not only did I have to put down the other engine safely, but move my plywood around and pick up the old engine. Then I had to come up with clever ways of getting the crank bolt out. People really thought I was losing my marbles when they saw me standing in the rain jumping on a wrench and curse at the old engine. In my defense I had jerry rigged a little setup which eventually worked.

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This sucks but damn it’s going to be a funny story one day.


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Dejavu, let’s see if I can get her going again.


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After solving a couple wiring issues and a coolant leak, she is up and running. I sat and starred at her for about 20 minutes before driving.


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She was back in use just in time for my commute out to my first Alaskan construction experience. She was happy to be around other working trucks and I enjoyed showing off my old engine which was in the back of the

truck the entire time.


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Then came another fateful trip for us. Off to Petersville, Alaska. A old mining road which leads out into the middle of nowhere but is a popular off roading spot in the summer with the road ending at a state park. In the winter the road is mostly used via snow mobile. My friend and I decided to ride out and have lunch at the Famous Forks Roadhouse since with a couple more snow falls, we wouldn’t be able to get out there in a vehicle.


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Forks Roadhouse

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After lunch we decided to drive further down the road since I had never been down it. Most of my friends had travelled the road mid-summer and said it was worth doing. I knew of a couple river crossings but my friend had completed it in a stock Honda Pilot so what did I have to worry about?

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Yep, the bears are out!

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It was at this point I opted to turn around. We had already made two small river crossings but this one didn’t look safe. The truck wouldn’t have sunk by any means but I didn’t want to get high centered on the ice if my tires went through.

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While we drove back over the last river my truck fell through the ice. Water came over the hood and the engine was quiet. Of course I thought of the worst but on the turn of a key, she came back to life. Fewf!

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As you can see my air filter was nice and wet again. Man that was close.

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After getting over our initial shock, we took a moment to analyze our situation. We were stuck on the wrong side of the river with enough diesel to keep us warm for a night but that wouldn’t be enough time for the river to ice up again. No food and too far away to risk hiking out as the sun was setting. I made the executive decision to turn the truck around and use the bed to break up ice and slowly back into the river using my friend as a spotter. Turns out the water is much deeper than any of my friends had told me but to be fair, it was a different season. I just didn’t expect such a change.

I don’t call myself religious by any means but the series of events and the manner in which they happened has me amazed. Right after the last picture my friend’s camera died and my phone went dead so I have no photos of my river experience. If I had taken a video it would have been a hit on Youtube.com.


I slowly backed into the river as my friend told me how deep it was. I backed into a chunk of ice and it broke away. With my old engine in the bed I was able to keep traction and it worked as a sledge when I backed into the ice. I knew my truck was getting beat up but this was for a greater good. It took about 10 trips backing in and back out but eventually most of it was broken away. I pulled out one last time and my friend hopped in. I slowly backed into the water and turned around. I took one big breath while pushing the skinny pedal down and off we went in a water muffled roar. With a big crash the truck broke through the ice, sideways with the tires spinning muck into the air and the beautiful symphony of engine sounds that come along with that. As we got up onto the other side of the river bed we cheered and high fived.

We got out of the truck and looked at the damage while she warmed up again after being the glacial water for quite some time. She was messed up but hell bent on getting us home. We got home over our 30 mile trip back to the highway and another 35 of highway miles just to get home in time for Halloween celebrations. My friend that was along for the ride is a Subaru man, but you won’t even hear him knock a Ford again. He owes his life to one as he put it. We went out into the middle of nowhere with bad information and an unexpected trip to the unknown. We messed up and weren’t prepared at all but damn if this is one tough truck.

















The next morning I went out and took pictures of the events. Edit: I should also add that my friend and I were laid off from our construction jobs the next morning. It sucked but fortunately I still had a couple shifts working at a little bakery in town. The bright side was that I didn't need the truck to get to work on a daily basis anymore.

Edit again: Notice the hole in the upper right corner for my grill? From ice!
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If you look closely, you can see that a large chunk of ice landed in my spare tire and went into my hitch.
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With the old engine sliding around in the back, the tail gate got a tough push outwards every time I rammed into the ice.


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My 5 inch exhaust was backed over in the process and broke off at the downpipe luckily, or I assume the truck would have shut off.


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Mangled!
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So here is my dumb ass again. Proud to have survived another wild adventure and prouder of the chunk of ice I pulled from my grill! I should have put it in the freezer as a momento.


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If you look closely you can see the water line on the side of the truck, just under the tail light.
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The truck held together fine from the incident but eventually the starter died out, I pulled the beaten up exhaust off, and replaced a series of electrical components as a result of my multiple trips into the water.
Eventually I went to a body shop for an estimate. They were impressed with the trucks condition despite all of its mileage. It’s just nice to get a compliment from people at a GMC dealership when she’s all beat up. Frame is bent at the back and front but not badly. About 400 bucks of work to straighten her out. My insurance company totaled her and I bought her back for 1500 knowing that I can part her out for more than that. At this point, I can’t get rid of her. Too many tales! I can and I will rebuild her. I used the insurance money to pay part of her off (family loan) and the rest to fix a couple small things and help with some bills. I owe this truck tons of work and she will get her rewards this summer when the money is good and the weather is nice.


Here she is at the GMC dealership (closest Ford dealership doesn’t do their own body work and my insurance suggested this place. Absolutely amazing customer service ever) They are going to work with me on the frame straightening since I plan on doing my own work to her and build her up better than before. Since she was in a warm shop for the first time since the crossing the ice all over the truck just starting melting away. It was almost embarrassing, sort of as if I brought my new puppy over to your house and we both watched it pee on your new rug.


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So believe it or not a couple weeks later my other friend and I went out to the Forks Roadhouse. But this time we didn’t adventure.


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On our way home we found a snow mobiler who was stranded.


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We looked at his sled and I offered to give him a pull but in the middle of all this, it started running again. So he hopped on and took off. I followed him back down the road in case it quit. He vanished off the road and I knew he was on a trail close to the Roadhouse. So I turned around and decided to get home. The road wasn't wide enough to turn around in so I pull off into the first flat appearing roadway.


And got stuck! No good deed goes unpunished! We dug for hours and eventually my shovel broke. I called it quits and went to bed while the truck kept us very warm all night in the -15 weather. I want a tool box that will fit real tools!

Once the sun came up I got out and looked over everything again.
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A quick pic after we got pulled out. I had tried everything once the shovel broke. We jammed all kinds of branches in the ruts and I even used the factory jack to lift up each wheel and place big branches under the wheels. With nothing but flares for light, no saw to acquire real branches, we were didn't have much to work with. You will notice the melted snow spot right under the truck. Since the exhaust is gone its basically blowing out right under the cab. Every time I woke up in the night I checked in with my buddy to make sure we were both coherent and hopefully not being effected by the exhaust fumes coming out right under us.

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Next day we got out and walked back to the Roadhouse we had spent time at the evening before. The instant they saw us they knew we must have spent the night outside. Turns out the guy we helped out is their weekend bartender! So the cook got up and cooked us a fresh breakfast before the entire crew took us back to our vehicle and pulled me out. Classic way to make new friends.
:)

We drove back to Talkeetna (my home) in high spirits, having survived yet another adventure.


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I did however, finally get a ticket for my broken tail light and no proof of insurance, which were both taken care of. The officer gave me a fix it ticket so I can’t actually be upset, he was reasonable with me. The tickets were long enough to be a declaration of independence for a small country. Once I told him my tale, he actually just wanted to know what the snow was like out there before he took the family for a snowmobile trip. :D


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I also eventually used my local rail road depot to fix my rubbing problem.


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And since all of this my truck has gone on without missing a beat. Put over 1500 miles on her when my friend came to visit, driving all over the state and even doing a little 4x4 towing to guess where? Petersville, Alaska. But this time we let the truck rest and rented machines to abuse. I did however run her through a heated car wash. First bath since I left Oregon on the way up to Alaska.

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A photo of my buddy and I getting back after our snowmobile trip. He enjoys the range while I just enjoy the view of my truck still providing.

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There might be many like her, but this one is mine. I have literally beaten this truck to death and she has kept me warm or gotten me home every time.


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And that is all folks! Thanks for reading the latest chapter in the little life that I call mine. I am putting together a list of things that I need and want for the truck. Like anyone with a limited income it will be a slow build up but I can deal with that.

I should add that the other week my truck and I both became official residents in Alaska with the intent to stay. Alaska isn't easy and I love a good challenges. I love the fact that you always have to be prepared to help yourself and often cannot rely on others.

I understand that many people may be mumbling to themselves that I am a dumb young kid who doesn't know better. Why would anyone keep returning to a place full of terrible experiences? I can't easily defend my case but I can say confidently say that I push limits and test curiosities and when I mess up I DO try and solve my own problems before asking for help. This all started as a huge @*&# up and turned into a wonderful adventure that will definitely shape the rest of my life. I have literally paid for all of this by working two jobs in the middle of no where Alaska instead of following the suit and tie jobs that I was offered right after college graduation. Eventually I will give up the seasonal work and pursue a better lifestyle but I will not grow up.

This forum has been a huge part of this entire experience and I owe many of you great thanks and cold beers. This would not have been nearly as "easy" as it was without all of your help and contributions in advice and parts. If I can pull something off like this having barely ever worked on the truck before this, anyone can. To be clear however, I have spent many a time working on cars in college so I wasn't completely new.

And if anyone finds a job that involves product quality testing please let me know. I am certified "Tough on stuff". :-X22




I also found this attached picture hanging on my wall. A the family just down the road monitored my progress on the truck. The father drives a white F350 long bed and so their young kids called mine the twin.

Frequently the two young girls would come over and ask all kinds of questions as to why my truck was "broken". One of them explained to me that if I could get the propeller (fan) to spin again, it would move again. I followed her advice and after asking me why I had pulled the engine out a second time, she was kind enough to draw this picture for me as encouragement. Little stuff like this just adds to the story.

As it was explained to me. "I like your truck, good job."

Orange is mom with her two daughters. I am the smiling guy and the red thing is my engine hoist which was lent to me by someone in town. Another person that helped make this possible.

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The truck will be apart this summer when I can easily walk around town and not rely on it occasionally. I hope to fix the mechanics and cosmetics too. She deserves a good face lift but that doesn't mean I won't hesitate to adventure. This summer we will make it to the end of Petersville Road. And for Christmas I did get a nice entry level DSLR so that I can continue to document my adventures.

Nice work, thanks for taking the time to tell the tale.

AWESOME STORY!!!!!!!!!! This has built Ford tough written all over it.

Sounds like quite an adventure. I admire your persistence in getting that engine swapped out. Those are some good friends.

Great story, and you tell them so well.

One day I'm sure you'll look back on this and think of yourself as that foolish young kid, but you're right. Experiences like this will stay with you and shape the rest of your life.

You've learned to keep your chin up and not accept defeat as an option, but rather to deal with life as it's dealt to you. My money says you will have a fulfilling life. Congrats. :-drink

Damnit Alex you have an amazing Sprit to just keep going. Its time for that truck to get some special treatment and a lift kit come spring!

That is a great story!! Truly an adventure!!!