One of the fixtures around here for a while now has been the 1994 F150 short bed pickup truck that we picked up early last year for $500. This truck had a dead engine that was already broken down in an attempt to overhaul it but when I got to it the short block was already rusted up so there was no hope of saving that. When I pulled the 302 V8 from the 73 Mustang that ended up being turned into the Mustang Chicken Coupe, I planned on using that engine as the basis of the rebuild of this truck. The long blocks are pretty much the same through the years with the only difference being the balancing of the crankshaft via the use of a weighted flywheel and harmonic balancer. Anyway, the old engine has long since been removed and scrapped and most of the parts going to the engine were laying in the truck loose. My first step in the project was going to be to inventory the parts that would be needed to put the engine back together. Now, I did plan on converting the truck to an old school 4bbl carbureted powerplant using a 5 spd manual transmission so as to keep things simple and not have to worry about the potential complications of the EFI system that is normally in these trucks. I would also keep the serpentine belt assembly with all of the accessories that are normally on this truck so I don't have to do anything extra short of installing a regular 4bbl intake manifold and changing the fuel system around to accommodate the need for lower fuel pressure. Well as of lately I did pick up another 302 V8 engine that is supposed to be running and for all intents ready to drop in. I look at things this way, the claim of the engine being a running engine just means that its not seized up or in a critical state of wear that I shouldn't have to worry about any surprises when I pull the unit apart to overhaul it. I shouldn't find any spun bearings or other issues that would more or less render this engine junk. So with that though, I figured I can start on some small jobs to get the body ready for when I do get the 5spd transmission in my hands and get the engine rebuilt and ready to install. It would be nice to have the truck body ready to go where when I do drop the powertrain into the truck all I have to do is hook everything up, start it up and be able to drive off immediately. I had to clean out the loose parts that came from the other engine that were scattered through the cab and the bed. Some of these parts will be reused, like the alternator and AC compressor brackets and the radiator. Some things were missing like the power steering pump and bracket and harmonic balancer. I ended up finding another PS pump and bracket at the junkyard along with a couple of other small pieces to help complete the front accessory assembly. I'll get a new balancer so I know I have a fresh unit to work with. Same goes for the water pump. I'll end up going with a twin low profile electric fan assembly instead of trying to reuse the fan clutch assembly that can sometimes be worn enough that it doesn't properly cool when at idle. Other parts like the intake manifold assembly with the EFI hardware, the air intake tubes, and some other EFI related components also had to come out, but these will obviously not be reused since I'm going to a 4 bbl. I'll either end up selling this stuff or hanging on to it in case I run across another truck that may need these components, maybe use this stuff in a proposed hybrid gas vapor injection system that I could throw together for injecting propane or maybe producer/wood gas into an engine. Who knows, all I know is these parts will not be taking part in the rebuild of this truck so they will go off to the side. The other thing I had to deal with was removing some trash from the bed, all the way up to an actual bag of garbage that was in there. Some of the stuff was loose and had to be picked up and put into a new garbage bag while the bag that was in the bed had to be carefully removed lest it break open and leave me with a real mess on my hands. After getting the garbage removed from the bed I had to rake out the bed of humus that came from everything from pine needles and other plant matter that settled in the bed before I got it and during its time in our yard. At least this was less disgusting since all I had to do was remove the tailgate and rake everything out. With the material raked out of the bed I moved on to drag the garden hose from the chicken yard over to the truck and give the bed a good hosing down to get everything I could out of the bed. As I said, I want this whole truck body prepared and ready so when I put the powertrain in and hook it up, I can go right to driving the thing, with the proper engine break in of course. The other area that will need attention is the engine bay. While the engine is gone and most of the components are sitting on the ground away from the truck, there is still a matter of removing the E4OD transmission that I won't be able to use due to its being a computer controlled transmission. I would need an outside controller for that particular transmission or find some kind of bootleg way of rigging up the unit to be controlled, which can result in the premature demise of the transmission as the control of the unit is precisely controlled all throughout the RPM range of the engine and through varying load conditions. No, this transmission just has to go and be replaced with the 5spd manual that was an option in these trucks. Another thing I have to do is remove most of the wiring and hoses and other crap that are associated with the EFI system, since most of this stuff won't be used. When I install the 4bbl setup, I plan on using an aftermarket HEI hybrid distributor that only requires one power line running to it to operate the unit. I won't need the extra wires that are used in the EEC-IV distributor that came on the truck originally. The only hookups I will need from the engine compartment wiring harness will be those for the oil and temp gauges and the tachometer. Other than that, all the hookups to the relays, solenoids, sensors, etc will not be needed. Now I do need to see if possible I can remove that segment of the wiring harness whole and just tap into the individual circuits that feed the gauges so I can just hook those up individually versus cutting up the old wiring harness to remove all the unnecessary wiring and then bundling the remainder back up. Either way, I would be looking at keeping most of that wiring for use on the F250 since it still has the EFI system and I already had to borrow a couple of lengths of wiring for a couple of fuel injectors since a rat chewed up the old lines going to two injectors. It would be nice to at least have some of the plugs for this system so I can make repairs when needed on the F250. Unless I end up de-converting the F250 to a 4bbl setup just as well. That's a whole other topic for a whole other time. I might not have that truck in the future, who knows? But for now, we're focusing on getting the F150 Ford Muscle Truck ready to be another member of the family, ready to perform any number of duties that will make it a staple in our automotive family for years to come.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
May 2023
|