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2000 Ford F-550 Build

Thanks for all the responses guys! I will look at 22.5's and what I need for for clearances on a 36in tire.

Looking at my options for lowering rpm the most economical route seems to be these 3. I am throwing other transmissions out the window and a reverse mounted t case out the window.

1. Regear. I called 1 place and left a message and emailed another yard today. The guy I emailed asked if it was a ford application and he said his isn't and wont work because it doesn't have ABS. I gotta go under there and see if there is an ABS sensor port on the 3rd member for the ring gear. I know the front has ABS, I wasn't sure if the rear did. With 4.10s and 245s put me around 2000 rpm at 70.

2. switch to 255/70R22.5s, according to the RPM calculator that gets me 70 mph at 2200 rpm. So its still higher then a regear.

3. The brownie box is intriguing to me, I don't know much about them but can they handle 30k gvwr? Can they handle modern day freeway speeds and can they handle the low end diesel TQ because I thought they were behind gassers? Can they shift on the fly with an auto? The nice thing about them too is that I can run in underdrive when driving on dirt roads to camp. Probably not necessary but its cool :grinpimp:I have searched on some forums and old pirate and the info is different and usually conflicting because there were quite a few models so its hard to know which is the go to.


As for the S110 axle, they claim its weight rating is 14k but some say its under rated for tire carrying capacity and the truck its under. the S135 is 16k. I have 6k on the rear axle now. Throw a 6k 4x4, some crap I am bringing to camp, and tongue weight of a trailer I am probably near 14k.

Lastly, I should consider what my cruising speed is. When not pulling a trailer I don't see why I cant go the speed limit. When I drove the truck back to Idaho with my brothers jeep on the back it felt very stable at freeway speeds. Those damn leaf packs barely had the overloads engaged.

When towing a trailer behind it I am not sure what speed I'll be going. I am the first to admit that I am a heavy towing newb. I have done quite a bit of sub 5k towing but the only towing near 9k or so was when I was switching back and forth driving from CA to PA with my H3 on the trailer for Ultimate Adventure. With that said, I will learn quick and try not to kill a school bus full of nuns. :laughing:

Only worked on it for a very short time yesterday and got the injector cups out. The Riffraff Diesel tool rental makes it a breeze! I will get the new cups in and injectors show up Tuesday.
 
06h3 said:
Thanks for all the responses guys! I will look at 22.5's and what I need for for clearances on a 36in tire.

Looking at my options for lowering rpm the most economical route seems to be these 3. I am throwing other transmissions out the window and a reverse mounted t case out the window.

1. Regear. I called 1 place and left a message and emailed another yard today. The guy I emailed asked if it was a ford application and he said his isn't and wont work because it doesn't have ABS. I gotta go under there and see if there is an ABS sensor port on the 3rd member for the ring gear. I know the front has ABS, I wasn't sure if the rear did. With 4.10s and 245s put me around 2000 rpm at 70.

you might be able to get a speed sensor on the back of the transmission or tcase if you do decide to replace the rear axle. I know they are available for the 90s for tcases. bw1356

2. switch to 255/70R22.5s, according to the RPM calculator that gets me 70 mph at 2200 rpm. So its still higher then a regear.

3. The brownie box is intriguing to me, I don't know much about them but can they handle 30k gvwr? Can they handle modern day freeway speeds and can they handle the low end diesel TQ because I thought they were behind gassers? Can they shift on the fly with an auto? The nice thing about them too is that I can run in underdrive when driving on dirt roads to camp. Probably not necessary but its cool :grinpimp:I have searched on some forums and old pirate and the info is different and usually conflicting because there were quite a few models so its hard to know which is the go to.
Brownie boxes were available in rigs that haul up to 80k pounds 30k should be no sweat. i have never had one in an automatic, but i have seen automatic medium duty trucks with them so i would assume they could be shifted while driving. the brownie boxes are rated based on hp from what ive seen. the one i had was a spicer 3 speed unit rated at 300hp, it had a 2:1 under drive, 1:1, and 0.73:1 overdrive. it had to be rpm matched to shift it. Im not sure how thatd work with an automatic. I do see these on ebay occasionally for around $1000. itd be awesome to be able to use it in between gears with the 4r100, not sure if thats doable though.


As for the S110 axle, they claim its weight rating is 14k but some say its under rated for tire carrying capacity and the truck its under. the S135 is 16k. I have 6k on the rear axle now. Throw a 6k 4x4, some crap I am bringing to camp, and tongue weight of a trailer I am probably near 14k.

Lastly, I should consider what my cruising speed is. When not pulling a trailer I don't see why I cant go the speed limit. When I drove the truck back to Idaho with my brothers jeep on the back it felt very stable at freeway speeds. Those damn leaf packs barely had the overloads engaged.

When towing a trailer behind it I am not sure what speed I'll be going. I am the first to admit that I am a heavy towing newb. I have done quite a bit of sub 5k towing but the only towing near 9k or so was when I was switching back and forth driving from CA to PA with my H3 on the trailer for Ultimate Adventure. With that said, I will learn quick and try not to kill a school bus full of nuns. :laughing:

When towing in the mountains, having more truck than you need, takes a lot of the pucker factor out of it. The big brakes you have and stout suspension is going to be a huge improvement over the one ton stuff. As long as you dont go billy big rig and start hauling 60k down passes you will be fine. 😂

Only worked on it for a very short time yesterday and got the injector cups out. The Riffraff Diesel tool rental makes it a breeze! I will get the new cups in and injectors show up Tuesday.
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ill have to keep that riff raff tool in mind for when i do mine, im glad it went well!
 
God damnit, now I want to put a brownie in my 97 :laughing::flipoff2:​​​​​​

Low for towing heavy shit around town, 1:1 for towing in the mountains and OD for highway cruising. Or possibly using it to split gears.

4.10s does seem like the easiest solution, although the 22.5s would be cool.

Edit: I would not have thought these existed, pretty decent option for 22.5s if you decide to go to a newer rear.

https://buytruckwheels.com/collecti.../22-5x6-75-10x225mm-accuride-steel-ford-dodge
 
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I kind of want a brownie box too :smokin:

outdoorexplorationgear Do you have a list with specs on over/under ratios, GCWR and HP rating? I have searched and info is extremely lacking. I would like to find a specific model and start looking for one.

Update: Havent gotten anything done this weekend, I was out at Idaho Tuff Truck Challenge yesterday competing and I am unpacking and doing housework today. I hope to get the injector cups installed tomorrow night.
 
06h3 said:
I kind of want a brownie box too :smokin:

outdoorexplorationgear Do you have a list with specs on over/under ratios, GCWR and HP rating? I have searched and info is extremely lacking. I would like to find a specific model and start looking for one.

Update: Havent gotten anything done this weekend, I was out at Idaho Tuff Truck Challenge yesterday competing and I am unpacking and doing housework today. I hope to get the injector cups installed tomorrow night.
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this was the same model i had in mine. i dont have a master list of them, most of the info ive found was based on looking for "auxiliary transmission, brownie box, aux transmission etc" for search terms on ebay. then looking up the specs based on the model number.

this is a pdf of some info i gathered on spicer boxes, hopefully this works

View attachment dana 7231d brownie gear ratios.pdf
 
this was a video i made of shifting with the spicer 7231d aux box. it had a 5 speed clark in front of it with no over drive, and a 453t 2 stroke. it took a lot of practice and unlearning some 18 speed shifting techniques to be this good, which is not great, barely decent in my opinion. the aux box worked great to shift into over drive as a 6th gear, trying to split gears upshifting was a challenge, downshifting even more so. the clark 5 speed could be shifted with the clutch, the aux box had to be shifted with rpm matching. i have no idea how well this would work with an automatic. i know with the 453t detroit, it kinda sucked because the powerband was only a couple hundred rpms and it had no grunt for such a big truck. so just some food for thought. start asking old truckers about them and there will be more info surfacing. they are definitely cool, but also require a ton of talent.
 
If I was to do a brownie box it wouldnt be to split gears, it would be used as an OD gear that stays in OD once at highway speed or used in underdrive and to stay in underdrive when moving slow. The minimal shifting would be the goal lol

I got some more work done tonight. Minimal work, I spent a bunch of time trying to decide on what I needed to clean the cup bores properly, finding those parts at the store and then being OCD but in a bad way. OCD that I didnt clean it enough but not OCD enough to spend 12 hours making each bore look brand spanking new. I hate that feeling. I got 4 cups in and called it a night as it's just a nerve racking miserable process that makes me anxious lol.

The thoughts were, is this bore clean enough?

Then, did I put too much loctite on the cup?

3UGSy2el.jpg


Then, crap, I see residue, is enough on there?

fqyTtuOl.jpg


Then, oh shit I see a spec of oil on the tool, did I oil residue get between the loctite, bore and cup?

Just an OCD type of night so I stopped and will continue tomorrow. One of the nice things about this truck is that I was so used to thrashing on getting my rig up and running because it was my only vehicle back in the day, or I have a trip coming up. Having some time and other vehicles allows me to step away when I want.
 
Not sure how clean you got the bore but if you have the brushes and a drill that shouldn't be too hard to get clean. It needs to be surgically clean with no residue or oil. Only you will know if you did that well enough. It looks like you got the bearing mount everywhere though, definitely need to clean all the external residue.
 
Yeah, I cleaned up the bearing mount stuff. I am very confident in 3 of them. The last injector cup was tough to see. I will probably finish the other side, fill it up with coolant and pressure test the cooling system to 15-20 lbs and see how it looks.
 
06h3, good call on the minimal shifting. that truck was tough to drive especially towing, thats why i sold it.
 
Just a boring picture lacking update post:

I got the injector cups on the driver side in Monday night, got the injector cups in on the pass side Wednesday night. Tonight (Thursday night) I rented a cooling system pressure tester from orielly's to pressure test the injector cups. I filled the coolant resi up with water, I would listen as I heard the water fill around the radiator and motor and keep adding water as it went where it was supposed to go. When it finally stopped I ran the pressure up to 16 psi. I let it sit for 25 min, during that time it dropped like .2 psi. The gauge moved but barely so its tough to confirm the exact amount but it was definitely less then .5 psi. With that said, its a used coolant pressure tester, my buddy told me sometimes they will naturally drop pressure as they just get used and abused and dont always seal perfect. I also looked inside each cup and didn't see any bubbling or water. While I didn't have water flowing via water pump, that was as simulated as I probably could get it.

My concerns were, did water actually get to the injector cup area or was it an air bubble? Even if that was the case and it was leaking, I would imagine it would drop more then 1 psi in 25 min. Feel free to chime in on that.

With all that said I decided to install the new 180/30 injectors! Returned the coolant pressure tool, picked up new motorcraft glow plugs and dorman valve cover gasket harnesses.

I hope to start the turbo tomorrow night or saturday.
 
back woods said:
Not sure what turbine housing you are planning on running but the .83ar/73mm is worth looking into. Have been running a .83 on my S366 and it brought down spool times significantly without increased EGTs.

https://agpturbo.com/s300sx-borg-warner-t4-divided-inlet-4-21-marmon-v-band-outlet/
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I would make sure you get some feedback from someone that has used a S300 wit the gearing you have. Spinning 2800+ is much different than a stock 2200 rpm gear. It's common to run a smaller AR for manual trans to keep boost up during shifts but since you are running the 364.5 vs the 66 it's not apples to apples with 4.88 gears. The good news is turbine housings aren't super expensive if you miss it the first time.
 
Update:

Got the truck basically done.

Wasted some time as a friend suggested I paint the valve covers...they aren't perfect but I spent as little amount of time on it as I figure they will get dirty. It seems 7.3's have oil leaking from somewhere all the time...or atleast that's how this 7.3 was when it showed up.

VAB4mXDl.jpg


e7btNBul.jpg


Old vs new

vmEjPHrl.jpg


The start of the turbo install



Pulling the up pipes wasn't bad, one stripped bolt from the previous owner but welded a nut on it so it wasn't too bad.

Putting in the up pipes wasn't bad and the new turbo mount went together nicely.

bpBQ8bIl.jpg


Downpipe was a little tricky and definitely easier with 1 person under the truck and one in the engine bay so you can line up the V band clamps. All in all the install wasn't horrible. Things seems to fit pretty good, not perfect but pretty good, as I mess around with the boots I am sure I can get things to fit perfectly, I stopped before making it perfect because I might replace some of the boots that I had to reuse, who knows how old they are and I don't know if they will hold up to the added boost. Batteries are back in, and PHP Hydra is installed. I just need a new air filter because the factory setup wont work. I will probably order the one below. I need to figure out what to do with the CCV and the other stuff that was attached to the factory intake.

https://www.riffraffdiesel.com/donal...e-6637-filter/

o11LR6Hl.jpg


I am also waiting on the tunes, I thought mine had the tunes loaded for the new injectors but they didn't so I am waiting on that as well.

2n2RRXcl.jpg


Have the USB cable out and ready for when the tunes get emailed over. I did find out I have a reman PCM which sucks, I am not a fan of reman electronics...especially because I am sure it was the cheapest one around if the last guy changed it as he changed 1 injector at a time. Hopefully that was changed when the state of CA had the truck, if thats the case I would assume it was a decent reman.

Other then the tunes, intake stuff and some new boots I just need to do an oil change, replace the water with coolant, swap out the fuel filter and she's good to go!

After that I will get some test miles on it to make sure I don't have any boost leaks, injector cup leaks, etc. Cant wait to see how she drives after this!
 
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Make the PCV a draft tube like god intended.

Or plumb it into the exhaust
 
TRINDU said:
Make the PCV a draft tube like god intended.

Or plumb it into the exhaust
Click to expand...

I know it doesn't make sense but myself and 2 buddies all noticed a huge increase in oil leaks after doing a pcv draft tube. Then all stopped when put back to stock.

I'd do a fuel bowl delete for sure, I hate that pos
 
YotaAtieToo said:
I know it doesn't make sense but myself and 2 buddies all noticed a huge increase in oil leaks after doing a pcv draft tube. Then all stopped when put back to stock.

I'd do a fuel bowl delete for sure, I hate that pos
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same, my 7.3 idiT did that...
 
I don't think the PCV setup is capable of flowing the right amount of air for a draft tube style setup or the tube used isn't large enough or setup correctly to pull vacum at speed.

I have had it both ways, draft tube and exhaust mounted moroso vacu-pan. Draft tube blows stinky ass fumes in to the truck at drivetroughs etc. and exhaust mount blows them out at the rear but not to bad in the cab but at night can look like there is problems due to haze.

Ideal setup would be routed back to the intake tube with a decent oil seperator inline.
This is a kit with the Racor seperator that should be perfect for the job. This way you will get maximum CCV vaccum for low leaks, better ring seal, etc. with little oil vapor in the IC piping/turbo with no funky smells or smoke.
 
YotaAtieToo said:
I know it doesn't make sense but myself and 2 buddies all noticed a huge increase in oil leaks after doing a pcv draft tube. Then all stopped when put back to stock.
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air filter causes vacuum
vacuum in the crankcase holds the oil in
 
[486 said:
;n153795]

air filter causes vacuum
vacuum in the crankcase holds the oil in
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That was kinda our theory also, you wouldn't think there would be enough to really matter, but I guess it makes sense.
 
YotaAtieToo said:
That was kinda our theory also, you wouldn't think there would be enough to really matter, but I guess it makes sense.
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it makes a huge difference on a turbo, they'll piss oil out the shaft seal rings real good without proper crankcase vacuum
 
I’m running that Donaldson on my truck. Get the pre filter that wraps around the filter. It’s worth it. Makes the filter last way longer.
 
I'm running the same filter. Works well.

I have a road draft tube run all the way out to the back bumper. While it does leak a little oil, I don't think the lack of vacuum is doing it. Also, in road salt land a little oil going out the bottom side ain't a bad thing.
 
I was gone all week for work, first week of travel since March. Definitely weird to be on the road again. I have seen the PCV Valve debate on ford truck forums and it seems it's never-ending, people will literally fight to death over the topic. I will just go back to the factory way and probably throw a catch can in there.

I got the tunes from 1023 Diesel Monday after I left so I loaded those last night. The air filter and boost fooler from riff raff should be here tomorrow or Monday.

In the mean time I am looking to buy a monitor or gauges. I think I narrowed it down to the monitor. I was going to go with the CTS3 but found a new in box CTS2 for a fraction of the cost. Anything good or bad to say on the CTS2? Were there problems with it? One thing I didnt like was I read that edge didn't have the best customer service to people with older models.

I also spoke to outdoorexplorationgear via social media and he was very helpful. I think I will rebuild the 4R100 and go with a Spicer 7041 box in the future. A kid ran one in a bus behind an allison auto with great success. I just need to find the max TQ it can handle, GCWR and speeds it can run. I hope its like my Eaton HO72 under my 4x4. I was concerned about the 60 year old age of that axle but slapped it in almost 5 years ago now and it doesn't give a shit if its bound up in 4low or driving at 85 mph on the highway its just big, dumb, and strong and just as reliable if not more so then the newer parts on my rig. I wanted to stay as near stock as possible for reliability and I wouldn't want an aux box to fuck up the reliability.

I am going wheeling tomorrow AM but I will probably do an oil change on the truck tonight, make sure all the boots are tight and get the truck fired up for the first time either tonight or Sunday!
 
1023 tunes made my trans beg for mercy in my 2003



I meant their trans tuning is horrible and customer service sucks, not make bunch of power
 
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Have Bowman Trans in Mountain home build it. Billet converter and the typical 4R100 upgrades.
 
06h3 said:
Have Bowman Trans in Mountain home build it. Billet converter and the typical 4R100 upgrades.
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if IT AINT BILLET THEN DONT BOTHER. Billet is the only way to make metal stronger than popsicle sticks. I have a billet dildo and I wouldn't be caugth dead with a forged or cast dildo. Billet is life. :lmao:
 
06h3 said:
I was gone all week for work, first week of travel since March. Definitely weird to be on the road again. I have seen the PCV Valve debate on ford truck forums and it seems it's never-ending, people will literally fight to death over the topic. I will just go back to the factory way and probably throw a catch can in there.

I got the tunes from 1023 Diesel Monday after I left so I loaded those last night. The air filter and boost fooler from riff raff should be here tomorrow or Monday.

In the mean time I am looking to buy a monitor or gauges. I think I narrowed it down to the monitor. I was going to go with the CTS3 but found a new in box CTS2 for a fraction of the cost. Anything good or bad to say on the CTS2? Were there problems with it? One thing I didnt like was I read that edge didn't have the best customer service to people with older models.

I also spoke to outdoorexplorationgear via social media and he was very helpful. I think I will rebuild the 4R100 and go with a Spicer 7041 box in the future. A kid ran one in a bus behind an allison auto with great success. I just need to find the max TQ it can handle, GCWR and speeds it can run. I hope its like my Eaton HO72 under my 4x4. I was concerned about the 60 year old age of that axle but slapped it in almost 5 years ago now and it doesn't give a shit if its bound up in 4low or driving at 85 mph on the highway its just big, dumb, and strong and just as reliable if not more so then the newer parts on my rig. I wanted to stay as near stock as possible for reliability and I wouldn't want an aux box to fuck up the reliability.

I am going wheeling tomorrow AM but I will probably do an oil change on the truck tonight, make sure all the boots are tight and get the truck fired up for the first time either tonight or Sunday!
Click to expand...

I know nothing about the Spicer box's but in the real engine world (not pickups) the ratings of 300hp or so will be much more power than a pickup rating.
An example is a CAT C7 truck engine with a 225hp rating has torque rating of 520 lb ft and the max rating that engine has is 300 hp and 925 lb ft.
That's a inline 6 cylinder 7.2 liter engine used in Medium Duty truck applications.

So depending your goals I think you will safely be under those ratings even turned up from your stock 275hp/525 rating. IF you stay around 400 hp your Torque should be down there around the 800-900 mark. Obviously you might have the fuel/air to push that up to 500+ but towing HEAVY at that HP will be taxing on that pickup engine/transmission I don't care what anyone says.

It's easy to talk a bunch of shit with a chipped 3/4 ton truck but when you get to the 25K GVW class weak parts will leave you walking and cause catastrophic failures. Not trying to scare you, I think you are making all the right choices.
 
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