ChrisRWG
Build & Film
This is a project I have been working on for about the past year and I think it's time I start a thread for it. It has been on the farthest back burner possible, so that is why I have not shared it much.
A family member of mine had a 1996 F-250 single cab long bed that had been parked for several years. They were the original owner and the truck resided where I grew up in Washington state for its entire life. I have always wanted an OBS truck but refused to pay the premium they are demanding now. My family member reached out to me and told me if I wanted it, I could have it for free. I was able to arrange a vehicle trailer to scoop the truck up from Washinton and take it to me here in Texas. I believe I paid around $1500 for the transport fees, which was still cheaper than any OBS truck on the marketplace.
I had not seen this truck in over 15 years and I knew very little about the condition of it. I was told it was parked because it had a complete lack of power and had major exhaust leaks from the cast manifolds. Otherwise, it was known to be a 4x4, HD long bed with a 460.
Here is what the truck looked like when it was extracted from its 3-year parking spot:
I received the truck about 4 days later and the condition was slightly worse than I was anticipating. It had a pretty thick layer of PNW grime coating it, but it also had some body damage under the passenger rocker. I laughed when I popped the hood and discovered that the engine was a 5.8 v8 and not a 460 like they thought (my family member although is the original owner, they are not mechanically inclined AT ALL) This was a big bummer for me because I was wanting a big block engine for towing.
The truck is indeed the HD version, so it has the increased GVWR of 8600lb and it has the Dana 50 TTB and sterling 10.25 rear end. It just doesn't have the motor to tow that much.
The problems I initially assessed on the truck were as follows:
I spent time completely gutting the interior, cleaning it, and applying some sound deadener. I found at least 2 mice nests under the seats. I discovered the heater wasn't blowing because one of the mice crawled into the heater inlet and built a nest. They also happened to meet the spinning fan and perished in there. I had to completely disassemble the heater box to clean it, replace the fan with a metal one since it busted during removal, and I changed the resistor.
The exhaust was trashed. I cut everything off since it was all junk. I installed JBA shorty headers that allow me to retain the EGR. I made a custom 2.5-inch y-pipe to a high-flow cat and out to a Borla turbo XL muffler. This is the first Borla muffler I have used and I like the sound of it. While I had the manifolds off I checked compression. For a 230,000-mile engine, there was only a 15 psi difference between all the cylinders. New plugs, wires, EGR, ignition etc. all got installed during this time.
Once the exhaust was done I could finally drive it. It idled fine, but as soon as a load was put on it, it would stumble and struggle. I checked fuel pressure and both front and rear fuel delivery modules were shot and barely making enough PSI to run. I changed both front and rear FDM's, filter, FPR, and the rear tank (I busted a hole in some rust during removal).
My next test drive went great. It had power and accelerated smoothly. I was surprised at how well the transmission shifted and went through the gears. The brakes were junk but I expected that. I just didn't want to invest any money on the TTB front end since I was planning to get rid of that.
A family member of mine had a 1996 F-250 single cab long bed that had been parked for several years. They were the original owner and the truck resided where I grew up in Washington state for its entire life. I have always wanted an OBS truck but refused to pay the premium they are demanding now. My family member reached out to me and told me if I wanted it, I could have it for free. I was able to arrange a vehicle trailer to scoop the truck up from Washinton and take it to me here in Texas. I believe I paid around $1500 for the transport fees, which was still cheaper than any OBS truck on the marketplace.
I had not seen this truck in over 15 years and I knew very little about the condition of it. I was told it was parked because it had a complete lack of power and had major exhaust leaks from the cast manifolds. Otherwise, it was known to be a 4x4, HD long bed with a 460.
Here is what the truck looked like when it was extracted from its 3-year parking spot:
I received the truck about 4 days later and the condition was slightly worse than I was anticipating. It had a pretty thick layer of PNW grime coating it, but it also had some body damage under the passenger rocker. I laughed when I popped the hood and discovered that the engine was a 5.8 v8 and not a 460 like they thought (my family member although is the original owner, they are not mechanically inclined AT ALL) This was a big bummer for me because I was wanting a big block engine for towing.
The truck is indeed the HD version, so it has the increased GVWR of 8600lb and it has the Dana 50 TTB and sterling 10.25 rear end. It just doesn't have the motor to tow that much.
The problems I initially assessed on the truck were as follows:
- Clogged catalytic converters
- Rotted-out exhaust
- Cracked passenger and driver exhaust manifolds
- Needs a tune-up
- The interior is inhabited by mice
- The heater blower does not work
I spent time completely gutting the interior, cleaning it, and applying some sound deadener. I found at least 2 mice nests under the seats. I discovered the heater wasn't blowing because one of the mice crawled into the heater inlet and built a nest. They also happened to meet the spinning fan and perished in there. I had to completely disassemble the heater box to clean it, replace the fan with a metal one since it busted during removal, and I changed the resistor.
The exhaust was trashed. I cut everything off since it was all junk. I installed JBA shorty headers that allow me to retain the EGR. I made a custom 2.5-inch y-pipe to a high-flow cat and out to a Borla turbo XL muffler. This is the first Borla muffler I have used and I like the sound of it. While I had the manifolds off I checked compression. For a 230,000-mile engine, there was only a 15 psi difference between all the cylinders. New plugs, wires, EGR, ignition etc. all got installed during this time.
Once the exhaust was done I could finally drive it. It idled fine, but as soon as a load was put on it, it would stumble and struggle. I checked fuel pressure and both front and rear fuel delivery modules were shot and barely making enough PSI to run. I changed both front and rear FDM's, filter, FPR, and the rear tank (I busted a hole in some rust during removal).
My next test drive went great. It had power and accelerated smoothly. I was surprised at how well the transmission shifted and went through the gears. The brakes were junk but I expected that. I just didn't want to invest any money on the TTB front end since I was planning to get rid of that.
