Great motor mounts!

 

Several people have asked me about making a set of mounts for them. Although I am really busy and it would be another distraction I don't need, I would consider it. The problem is that I don't have extra ford towers that are good or dodge frame brackets.

The Ford towers must be from a 77-1/2 to 79 4WD F250 or F350. I am fairly certain the 1/2 ton trucks and the older highboys both used different towers.

I am 99% sure the Dodge frame brackets are the same on 94+ gas and diesel pick up trucks.

If one could supply me with all those parts, I could build a jig and make exact copies of my mounts for other 77-1/2 to 79 F250 or F350 4WD trucks.

 

Awesome build! I'm putting a 4bt into my '77 F-150 right now and have the same CAC set-up you are utilizing. How did you fit your hood release bracket? Could you post a pic please?

Thanks!

 

I'm running a little 2-row rad in my Bronco, and the 6BT runs 180 all day. I don't tow with it though.

 

I did not fit that bracket yet.

I looked at it, decided what I plan on doing, but did not actually make it yet.

I have been working on other things like the wiring harnesses. Since this is a ground-up build entirely from parts, I need to make sure I have all of the right harnesses to make it all work properly. Good thing I have a factory 1979 wiring diagram. I currently have it to the point that the engine cranks, fuel shutoff solenoid is operational, etc. The neutral safety and reverse lights are working with the Dodge transmission's switch. Still need to put in a fuel tank & fuel lines as well as make up the trans cooler lines before I can run the engine in this thing... Brake lines need to all be run before the remaining front end sheetmetal goes on, and that is when I plan on fabbing the hood latch bracketry.

Just like a great big puzzle...

 

Here is a pretty current picture of the engine bay:



90% of the wiring is done. Lately I have been busy plumbing brake lines and transmission cooler lines. Fuel lines are next...

 

Brake lines are made up. I purchased a 25' roll of 3/16" tubing and double-flared all of the ends. I was able to locate a set of the 7/16" nuts for the front brake lines as well as the various sizes for the proportioning valve and master cylinder. This way no adapters are required. I still need to pick up a new master cylinder, but that is not a high priority yet. The junk one in the picture was good enough to make up the lines.

Trans cooler lines are in. A pain, but they are finally done. Had to buy some .500" OD x .035" wall tubing to add straight extensions onto the OEM Dodge lines at the drivers side engine mount. The Dodge lines were too difficult to straighten and rework, so the front half was replaced with straight tubing that clears the crossmember and lower radiator tank. So I TIG-welded the extensions onto the cut off OEM Dodge lines. I had to make a new line for the trans outlet line since the OEM line had too large of a radius to clear the front driveshaft. That 1/2" tubing is pretty hard (literally) to work with compared to brake and fuel lines.

Trans cooler is modified and in. I fit it between the CAC and radiator and attached to the radiator core with an electric fan mount kit. The aluminum tubing was pretty easy to bend around the lower radiator tank. Short sections of 1/2" transmission cooler hose connect it to the trans cooler lines as well as isolate vibration.

Fuel lines are made up. I used 3/8" for the supply and 5/16" for the return. The supply line was straightforward. I made a return line that returns the fuel to the bottom of the fuel tank. I used a brass fitting that connects a 5/16" inverted flare to 1/4" NPT, and drilled the NPT side of the fitting about three-quarters of the way in to accept a section of 5/16" tubing. I pressed the tubing into the drilled side and sweated it together so it can't come apart inside the fuel tank. Then, I soldered the fitting of my tube assembly into a hole I punched into the fuel tank with a tapered punch. I was careful with the heat to avoid affecting the sweated tubing connection. I made my external fuel lines out of steel for the entire run - from the in-cab fuel tank along the frame rail and up along the firewall to the Cummins connections at the back of the engine. A short section of rubber was used to isolate vibration. Because I couldn't make the entire line runs out of one piece, I made a couple sections that connect together with inverted flare unions. Once I had both lines made up and installed, I poured 10 gallons of fuel into the tank and bled the fuel system. It was getting late but at this point I was too excited to stop, so...

I hit the key and... BAM, IT'S ALIVE!

The engine fired instantly and idled great right away. I found that my tach wasn't registering correctly, but it sounded like about 800 RPM to me. A small amount of coolant was leaking at a loose radiator hose clamp. And there was this wierd noise coming from my fuel tank... I put my ear to the filler opening and it was loudest inside the tank. This would be irritating to live with, so more investigation was required. Because I am using a P-pumped engine with a piston lift pump, the fuel returning comes in strong pulsations. These pulsations were causing the fuel lines and tank to make a rhythmic noise that eventually went away with more throttle, I am guessing around 1500 RPM. I checked my POS 1994 Dodge Ram and it has the same strong pulsations in its return line. So I disconnected the return line and ran it into a bucket and cranked the engine back up. It is just awesome how that 6BT engine starts - you can barely hear the starter hit and it is already running. The rhythmic noise was gone. I remembered from a previous job where we sometimes used hoses to dampen hydraulic noise, so I reinstalled my return line with a 2' section of fuel hose inbetween. That brought the noise down to an acceptable level, so I reworked my fuel lines to include more hose in the return line where it runs along the frame rail.

My tach is recycled from a medium duty Ford truck application. It uses a magnetic pickup off the flywheel ring gear and is programmable for the number of teeth. It matches the other gauges pretty well, and also the OEM greenish lighting very nicely. I knew I had it correctly set for 152 teeth, but the problem was I had the sensor too far off the flexplate teeth. I turned it in till it touches and backed it out almost a half turn. With about a .030" gap, it now registers 800 RPM and functions correctly. I am going to make a cup mounting bracket for it and mount it on the right side of the steering column - just like in my other trucks. I thought about mounting it on top of the dash, but prefer to be consistent of habit.

Yesterday I took apart three different 78/79 steering columns from my stash of parts in order to get the necessary parts to assemble a good 4WD automatic steering column. Many of my parts trucks were ex-snowplow trucks, so the automatic ones all had worn-out shift collars. I ended up using a better collar off a 2WD column but still had to repair it. I eliminated the shift lever rollpin slop by drilling the pin hole out to 1/4" and Loctiting in a short piece of 1/4" brake line at each end. I used a longer 3/16" rollpin, because the factory one is really too short for proper support. It fits nicely inside the bushing inserts I added and being steel-on-steel, it will last much longer than steel-on-potmetal. I also wanted to have the lower bearing version of steering column (78 trucks still have it), as it appears that the 79's got a cheaper plastic bushing instead of a bottom bearing at some point. I will not tolerate a loose or sloppy-shifting steering column.

I have a factory sport steering wheel I would like to use, but it is missing the horn button. Anyone have one???

 

CONGRATS !!!
Good to hear she's running
Snows gone here, so now I've got no excuse to get back on mine

 

Nice job!!!

 

Nice Job !!!!

 

Art what did you do for ps hoses? I looked around today on a tidbit of info and found that the high pressure hose from a 92 E-350 with a 7.3 was perfect. Metric end on the pump side and standard on the box side and the right length to boot.

 

Hey art how did you wire up the shutoff solenoid ont he injection pump?

 

I added a few relays on my project truck where the duraspark box used to be at. One relay is for run, and another is for start.

The run relay is fed by the battery to avoid overloading the existing circuits, and that relay is triggered by the run terminal (white wire, I think) that fed the duraspark box. That relay feeds the "hold" coil on the shutoff solenoid (the lower amperage of the two) as well as the 47RH trans solenoids.

The start relay is fed by the battery as well, and is triggered by the "I" terminal of the original ford starter relay. In order to make this method work properly, one must disconnect this wire from the original Ford run circuit. I cut mine where the wiring harness is vertical along the right side of the instrument cluster. The wire is brown at that point, but beware - there is a second brown wire in there that feeds the right front running lights. The start relay I used is a Ford starter relay since this feeds the higher amperage "pull" coil of the fuel shutoff solenoid (white wire). I measured 40 amps on that coil of my solenoid.

I made the neutral safety switch and reverse lights fully functional on my Ford with the Dodge 47RH trans. Another benefit of my aproach is the fuel shutoff solenoid protection. On the Dodge trucks, a diode kit is necessary to protect the solenoid against burning out due to stuck starter contacts. The "I" terminal of the original ford starter relay cannot be back-fed even if the starter contacts weld themselves together, so I didn't need the diode kit

Art

 

Just finished (re)spraying the interior. The project was stalled for a little bit when I had to un-do the previous interior paint job I did this past spring. It was way too purple and not enough blue...

Lesson learned...

Art

 

Very cool project. Hope we'll see more pics soon! Kent