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Freebie-150

Toreadorranger

Atomic Test Lab Rat
Joined
May 21, 2020
Member Number
874
Messages
1,089
Loc
CT
Picked up a "free" 94 F150 from arse_sidewards last week. 4x4 Single Cab long bed 300 i6 with an auto. Plan is to clean it up a bit and use it as my Home depot ride/ winter beater with a some trail riding tossed in. The budget for this is almost nothing, Since I'm already building my 88 F250 trail truck. Plan is to keep the D44 TTB and 8.8 out back, fit 33s or 35s as cheap as possible and fix a few things along the way. This is the first time Ive messed with TTB other than tearing it out of my F250.

I need to get the motor running again, swap the rear springs out for a set of stockers I have already. And figure out what Im going to do to fit the tires. I have a bunch of universal body lift pucks but Im also on the lookout for some drop brackets for the front.

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Enjoy the highschool quality fab work. :flipoff2:

I forgot to tell you when you were picking it up but that A/C condenser that's acting as a trans cooler was a brand new one. So you don't have to worry about residual compressor lube in the trans.
 
I really want a mid 90's F250 with a 5 speed and an I6 300... For my daily driver. Love that engine. Did they make such a combo?
 
I really want a mid 90's F250 with a 5 speed and an I6 300... For my daily driver. Love that engine. Did they make such a combo?
Yes. They made fucktons of them. ZF 5spd and pretty much always 4.10s though 3.54s were an option. But they were basically all bottom dollar fleet trucks that got rode hard and put away wet and have mostly been scrapped by now.
 
Gonna flat bed this ugly bastid? Find a new box? Run it as is?
Right now I'm leaning towards chopping the frame down to Single cab length and then chopping up the longbed and making it a short bed. I just dont have a use for the longbed and the wheel base (133") is shitty. I have a 5x10 trailer so anything I would haul in a longbed will fit on that.

I took 10" of frame out behind the cab on my F250, so plan right now is to do the same but the 16" required to get down to a short bed.
 
Stopped by the yard down the street from me. They happened to have a 95 shortbed with a mostly solid bed. $200 and other then some minor rust in the typical wheel well area I'm going to grab it. Will save me from having to chop the bed.
 
Brake overhaul is in the mail. Have to love an entirely new brake system minus lines for $200.
 
I have the same truck except 5 speed

I run the best 33" mud tires I have ever seen.

Really aggressive pattern yet very quiet going down the road.

I can't remember what they are right now but can look when I am home sometime.
 
I have the same truck except 5 speed

I run the best 33" mud tires I have ever seen.

Really aggressive pattern yet very quiet going down the road.

I can't remember what they are right now but can look when I am home sometime.
I'd like to know.
 
arse_sidewards What is the deal with all the coolant lines? You added a oil cooler then patched the heater core lines into it? 2nd filter is for?

Custom remote thermostat housing on the upper radiator hose? trying to figure out what Im dealing with before I start pull stuff apart.

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The bypass circuit runs from the tstat housing to the engin oil cooler. There was a marine style trans/steering oil cooler bolted with P-clips to those two bolts on the back of the upper intake hence the adapter up to like 1" hose. Then it went to the heater core and back to the pump like OEM. Regarding the oil cooler by the filter, that's a nice copper cooler off a boat you have there. You shoudl run it IMO. It's worth a few PSI at hot idle, a few more if you're running the truck hard. If you don't want it feel free to send it my way along with the steering gear.

The brown painted filter housing was for the coolant system until a filter started falling apart. You might find a tablespoon of filter media left in the system but I got what I could out and that's about all that was unaccounted for after cutting apart the filter. I suspect it's in the bottom of the radiator somewhere but that's a relatively new radiator (i.e. last 5yr) so I wouldn't worry about a tube or two being plugged. I ran the truck for a couple years after that without any overheating issues. I wouldn't worry about it) The small (like 3/8) lines to the filter housing have since been removed. Protip: Automotive shit uses inverted flare for a reason. I never had leaking issues but when I went to remove the lines I was able to bend and pop them out of the fitting without actually loosening the fitting.


Remote thermostat housing is because the truck wouldn't warm up enough to give good heat with the thermostat in the normal location. I tested several thermostats and slapped them in with no change. I suspect the $20 "HD" fan clutch may have been to blame. It was the middle of winter in Maine so I just made a remote thermostat housing so I could be sure the only way shit was flowing through the rad was if the entrance to the rad was up to temp. Thermostat in the remote housing will have a 1/4" or so hole in it to allow flow. There is no thermostat in the OE housing at present. When I removed the housing to sandwhich my tensioner bracket in there I just trashed the thermostat since the remote one was doing all the work.
 
Got the bed removed today. Pulled out the pressure washer and gave it a nice soak. The frame is in pretty good shape for as bad as the original spring hangers are. Only real rot I found was in the crossmember that runs over the front tank. Plan is to restore the suspension back to the factory mounting and run factory springs again. Still going forward with the short bed conversion and I'm going to delete the front tank and replace the rear with a Spectra F26D.

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Got the fuel tanks out today, the leaf hangers off and went and picked up the bed from the yard down the street from me. plan is to do the suspension first tomorrow so I can roll around the rear frame section after I cut it. going to plop the bed on it before to get all my measurements and then start cutting.

Anyone have any pointers on deleting the front tank? Do they make plugs for the quick disconnect fittings or do I just cut the braided line and run a bolt in each one with some hose clamps?
 
I actually have a pair of "plugs" made from an old fuel sender sitting around somewhere from the year when I was running with no front tank.

I'll mail them to you.

They're the first few inches of stainless line that comes off the sender filled with solder. They didn't leak for a year so how bad can they be?

Alternatively, this is your excuse to buy a flaring tool that can do stainless.
 
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I found "bypass caps" on Amazon that are meant for bypassing heaters.. those might be a clean solution worth ordering.
 
Got it back sitting on the OEM suspension. Right now it is still using the shackles that were on the old setup so it is a bit lower in the back then it would be. Im going to swap the shackle hole from where its at now to gain a bit back and then Ill decide down the road if Im going to go with a shackle flip or not.

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This is what $200 gets you in New England.

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I also pulled the rear cover off to check out the gears and locker and drain the fluid for a change out. I need to pick up a better cover before I fill it back up. Everything looks like its in good shape.

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I have to figure out after the frame chop if the factory lines will work or not. If not then Ill run AN adapters and make new lines.

I actually have a pair of "plugs" made from an old fuel sender sitting around somewhere from the year when I was running with no front tank.

I'll mail them to you.

They're the first few inches of stainless line that comes off the sender filled with solder. They didn't leak for a year so how bad can they be?

Alternatively, this is your excuse to buy a flaring tool that can do stainless.

Thanks, but If I end up keeping the stock lines, Ill run these with a cap on the end.

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I found "bypass caps" on Amazon that are meant for bypassing heaters.. those might be a clean solution worth ordering.

I have used them in the past and I find the rubber is generally pretty crappy and tends to not hold up well. Id be even less inclined to trust them with fuel.
 
Reserved for Part Numbers I want to keep track of.

Dorman 800-007
Motorcraft FG872
Moog CC824


And links
 
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It took me a few times in google to find them. Another company makes a billet plug as well, but they are $20 a pop and the AN conversion fittings are like $7 each with a $4 cap. and down the line I can use them to make fuel lines if I need to, so it makes more sense than the plug I think.
 
Ended up grabbing a gas tank for cheap. Its a F26E tank, so its for a diesel truck same dimensions as the gas trucks rear tank. Only difference i can see is it doesnt have the vent in the filler tube. The rubber filler neck itself has the vent, am I going to have filling issues without the metal vent piece? The rear tank that I pulled out was plastic and was just an open filler neck, so I might be over thinking it.

F26D vent

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My tank inlet.
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You can turn the rollover valve hole into the vent . Use grommet and plastic npt barbed 90* fitting and run hose to too of filler neck and attach another barb with method of choice.



Id like to add I love this platform of truck. I'm on my second one. I daily drive an 89 rclb, 2wd, c6 2.73 rear. Dont have shit for issues and no speeding tickets. It was an x dot truck with 124k, im at 164 in about 3 yrs. still rockin the r-12 etc. swapped a dodge 2ng gen 40/20/40 seat in. She s tripped down fleet truck, has manual windows, locks cable hvac controls etc. struggling with the urge to sas it with the 79 f150 frame and suspension/drivetrain I have sitting out back
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The only failure point I've ever had is the dizzy mounted ignition module ford had that class action suit filed for. Youve got the remote mount so your good. I keep thermal paste and spare module in toolbox

I've really been eying the tuning that's out there for the factory ecm now, these things run so damned lean from the factory they could use some love. It would be nice to lose the egr and be able to tune it to make up for the mpg loss of having to back off the timing.


Had the exact same truck I dd’d for 6 years I bought for $1200 with low oil pressure, rolled bearings in it and rode out.
This was back in my wilder days, the engine never let me down but eventually the truck couldn't take my drunken weekend woods abuse anymore. (Broken motor mounts from rocking truck with foot on floor from rev to d), broke sector shaft, put fan thru radiator 2 times, busted all the running lights out twice ripped off the tailgate etc etc
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Looking forward to following this thread
 
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The OEM tank I replaced with the plastic one had no extra holes compared to the plastic one. You'll be fine with just the rollover valve. Basically all of the venting when you're pumping on any vehicle is done through the neck.

If you ever tune that ECU be sure to post up here. There's lots of talk on various boards about the new options but nobody posting their long saga of getting it set up then trial and error while tuning it. You can even get a Megasquirt preassembled in an EEC-IV package that's pin-compatible with a 5.0 Mustang harness.

Also let me know if that steering gear doesn't work or has the wrong fittings. I was cleaning the garage and found another. :laughing:
 
If you ever tune that ECU be sure to post up here. There's lots of talk on various boards about the new options but nobody posting their long saga of getting it set up then trial and error while tuning it. You can even get a Megasquirt preassembled in an EEC-IV package that's pin-compatible with a 5.0 Mustang harness.
Check this out

 
The OEM tank I replaced with the plastic one had no extra holes compared to the plastic one. You'll be fine with just the rollover valve. Basically all of the venting when you're pumping on any vehicle is done through the neck.

Also let me know if that steering gear doesn't work or has the wrong fittings. I was cleaning the garage and found another. :laughing:

I figured it would be ok since the filler neck has the built in vent tube. Worse case if it gives me issues ill use the rollover valve to make a vent.

If you ever tune that ECU be sure to post up here. There's lots of talk on various boards about the new options but nobody posting their long saga of getting it set up then trial and error while tuning it. You can even get a Megasquirt preassembled in an EEC-IV package that's pin-compatible with a 5.0 Mustang harness.
You will have to rely on Levi for possible tuning, this thing is going to live its life 1 motor hickup away from a $200 4.8L LS.
 
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You will have to rely on Levi for possible tuning, this thing is going to live its life 1 motor hickup away from a $200 4.8L LS.
I made it clear you need to do head work. #2 intake valve guide at a bare minimum (i.e. just toss on a junkyard head).
 
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