For a while I had been smelling the smell of oil that was being heated on a hot surface coming from the Tracker while driving. This wasn't a burning smell like the engine was physically burning oil in the combustion chambers with gasoline but oil vaporizing on a hot surface. After doing an examination I determined that the valve cover gasket was leaking and needed replacing. After getting a replacement gasket I took some time to pull everything apart. This wasn't as bad as it sounds as all I had to do was remove the four coil packs, all held in with one bolt, and a few cap nuts that held the valve cover in place. Once all of this was removed I popped the PCV valve hose and another hose from the cover and pulled everything loose. Upon doing this, the gasket, which fits in a groove in the valve cover, broke into a couple of smaller pieces while leaving the bulk of it, still somewhat hardened, in the groove of the cover. Obviously this gasket was shot. Replacement was everything in reverse. Other than cleaning a couple of fragments of foreign matter from the groove, the new gasket rested nicely in the groove enough so to allow me to place the valve cover back on the top of the cylinder head After replacing the cap nuts the coil packs and hoses went back on. I did have to replace the PCV valve as it broke when I removed the hose in the beginning. I had to use a pick to pick the pieces of the valve's body from the cavity in the valve cover but once that was gone, greasing up the replacement valve allowed it to slide right in with no problem. Once everything was reassembled I ran the truck for a while just to verify I didn't see any new oil leak out. Of course I'll have to run this engine a while, during normal driving of course, to burn off the remaining oil off of the surface of the engine. The next thing I turned my attention to since I still had time during the day was cleaning up the engine bay on the F150, or what I had to dub the FMT (Ford Muscle Truck). This truck is originally an EFI system with its associated hoses and wires and what not for that particular system. Since the powertrain I plan on putting in this truck is going to be an old school system with a carburetor and an older gen electronic ignition system (probably one of the hybrid HEI systems using a Chevy top with a Ford bottom), I won't need all of the hardware that still remained in the engine bay after removing the old powertrain. One of the first things I pulled free was the wire harness that held the fuel injector plugs and the other plugs for sensors and what not. While I will need the plugs for the temp and oil sensors, I'm not going to retain the bundle of wires just to use two small circuits. I will try to isolate those circuits from the other end of the large plug and tap into those to feed the temp and oil circuits. I might even just bypass the bundle all together and run a whole new circuit for those two sensors, I have to look at everything before I sign off on a plan. The next thing to go was the fuel injector rail, which because this was a V8, had two banks of injectors. Either way, there were two lines feeding the rail, an input and output or return line. This rail uses the common Ford lock ring coupling that requires a special tool that comes in two semi circular inserts that clamp around the fitting then press into the round spring to push it out enough to remove the other half of the coupling. Once I fought and separated the two ends of the two couplings, the fuel rail was out for good. Moving on to the passenger side of the truck there were a few things that I felt necessary to remove. One was a couple of vacuum lines that fed the EFI system. The other was the charcoal canister for the fuel vapor recirculation system, that takes fuel tank vapors and routes them into the engine to be burned instead of vented into the atmosphere. Some emission control crap. Well since the whole fuel system is going to be changed around, this stuff isn't going to be applied so there was no point in keeping the large and in the way components. By removing these components it'll open up the engine bay some more and make it a little more neater and easier to work inside. With everything that really was no longer needed having been removed from the engine bay, I can focus on removing the automatic transmission that's in place. Since this is an E4OD, a computer controlled transmission, there is no way for us to use this transmission without an external controller. Besides I have an M5OD, a 5 spd manual transmission that came as standard equipment in these trucks and that will be going in this truck instead. From there I will have to slide under the truck and drop the two fuel tanks and the double fuel lines so I can re-do the fuel system to accommodate the simple mechanical fuel pump low pressure system that is used by a carburetor. The engine going into this truck comes with said mechanical fuel pump so other than some metal fuel line and a little modification to the sending unit to delete the in-tank fuel pump, I will have the fuel system taken care of. Now another thing I gave some thought to was the idea of not keeping the twin fuel tank setup. Since this truck does have two tanks, to simplify things I thought about just removing the rear fuel tank all together with its associated lines and sticking with the fore most tank. I may even fill in the body on the quarter panel to remove the rear fuel door as well, I don't know yet. But one thing I did think of was finding the mechanism for winching a spare tire up under the bed and affixing this hardware under the bed in place of the rear fuel tank so as to facilitate carrying a spare tire without having to put it in the bed, like in the F250. This would make things that much neater, especially if this truck is to serve as an interstate hauler where I'll need all the room I can get and still maintain some level of style with this model of truck. Whatever is decided, you will see it posted here and on our YouTube channel. Stay tuned!
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