Back with another Flareside (#4, I think)

Hi Folks,

I haven't been around in a while. I had some projects to take care of (non automotive related) and I'm finally back with another truck, although not a Bullnose. This one is a 1994 F150 Flareside, 2wd. It's a Florida truck, so it is 100% rust free, but it is by no means a show vehicle;). It has a 5.0 with MAF, a 4R70W auto trans, and the typical 3.55/open 8.8 diff. I bought the thing on a bit of a whim, and I'm not even 100% sure what I'm doing with it yet, but for now it is project for hobby use only.

It has a couple issues that I am still diagnosing and working on, so we will see if it turns out to be worthwhile or a bad decision lol (I do that sometimes unfortunately).

Cheers, and I hope that you're all doing well.

Good to see you back Cory!
In your case the FOG keeps rolling in.  

What's up with your Mercury?

Hope the summer has been treating you well.
We've heard a lot about the climate conditions there in NS.

Hey Jim,

The '52 Merc pickup is gone. I sold it to a guy that I know that is a bit of a Ford collector. I sold him another truck previously. The Merc was finished really and I put about 1500 miles on it like that but I needed something "new" to work on. I also bought an '83 Jeep CJ-7 for a toy/project but it didn't work out and is gone also.

We used to have a huge local cruise in/car show here every Thursday night, but it was shut down and cancelled last year. It was really big, and always very entertaining, and it being gone has kind of thrown a wrench into my gearhead hobby lately. I used to really look forward to that every week. Anyway.

The weather has been pretty crazy here lately. At first it was crazy hot and dry. We had some really big forest fires here. The one most local to me was barely 20 miles away...less as the crow flies. Besides all of the acres that were burned, a 150 homes burned down too, with a total of 200 structures including garages and barns, etc. Then we've had record rainfall, and flooding. Then we had another record rainfall again last night and into today...many of the road/culvert/bridge repairs that weren't yet finished have been washed out again. It's pretty crazy.

Our summers are usually pretty uneventful really. It's our winters that vary wildly and we get record storms every so many years. Our summer weather has usually been reliably the same.

We have been very lucky throughout all of it thank goodness.

I actually sold the Jeep CJ-7 I had to a guy that lost his in the fires recently. It had been in his family since new and he was actively searching for another one when I had one that I didn't really want, so it made for a quick transaction.

But back to the trucks! I picked up this little Flareside for something to tinker with. I'm not 100% sure where I'm going with the whole car/truck hobby, but for now I still need something to tinker with until I do get it figured out!

In any case, I'll try to drop-in and hang out with you guys a little bit;).

Glad to hear you, wife and 'kids' are okay!  

Damn shame to hear your Thursday cruise-in has been cancelled. You were always so enthusiastic about it.

You'll be comfortable with yet another Flareside no matter the direction you take.
I'm always impressed by how practical you are with your reincarnation projects.  

Good to hear from you. Yeah, too bad about the car show.

Fires are no fun. We were doing ok this year then had one start about 30 miles east of us. Evacuated a bunch of homes. Mostly under control now.

Enjoy the 94!

Wow!  That’s a LOT of change!  

But glad you are back, and that have another project. With as quickly as you Togo through them you must have a wealth of knowledge!

Let's see some photos!  

Back with photos.

That's a really clean machine for as old as it is!

So what plans do you have for it Cory?

Nice looking truck Cory!

ArdWrknTrk wrote

That's a really clean machine for as old as it is!

So what plans do you have for it Cory?

Hey Jim, it's super clean in that it is absolutely rust free, but it has been painted which is why it looks so good in the pics. The paint job was not of the best quality, but it still looks pretty decent and I'm going to put some time into cleaning it up with a cut/buff/polish, etc. As per our local regulations, as a 1994 model it will actually qualify for Antique plates/registration in a little over 4 months on January 1st, 2024. It's weird because this generation of truck is not one you look at and instantly think of "antiques"...lol.

Do you have antique plates / registration in CT? The two big benefits of the antique registration here is that it's only $25/year as opposed to more like $200 every two years, and that the bi-annual MVI inspections are no longer required. There are some limitations on vehicle use, but I don't think anybody is enforcing the laws on it.

Plans for the truck? Good question. Tune-up, and clean-up for now. It's not running quite right, but it does have an error code for TPS fault, and there are two codes in memory both related to O2 Sensor. I need to fix that up and get it to a point where there are no fault codes at all, and that it is running smoothly. It needs fluid changes, and a little bit of wiring work/repairs. It needs new ground cables from the battery to the frame, block, etc. I'll replace and clean all grounds, etc. It needs a new steering wheel, and I want to find a factory chrome rear bumper for it (It currently has the factory roll pan, or valance whatever you want to call it). The interior needs a little work...the dash is all broken up around the windshield. The seller said that it was "cracked due to the Florida sun"...haha, but these are not sun cracks. It may have been in a wreck, I don't know, and I don't really care...and I'm not bothering with a Carfax at this point. It's a 30 year old truck. It is what it is.

It rides smoothly, but "spongey"...so it surely needs shocks, and it has no anti swaybars, so I think it would benefit greatly from those if I can find a set.

So really just tune-up and maintenance stuff I guess Jim. The old '52 Merc kinda burned me out on big swaps and stuff, at least for a while. I just wanted an old truck to play with and to have for some of the cruise-ins and stuff.

Nice!  And it should easily serve to play with and take to cruise-ins.  

Gary and gang,

This "new" truck of mine has dual fuel tanks...which is a first ever for me. 16 gallon side tank, and I believe the rear tank is 18 gallons. I know this is probably a dumb question, but I can I simply flip the switch on the fly, doing 65-70 miles per hour? Or is this something where you're supposed to be stopped/pulled over?

With 34 gallons on fuel on board, this means I'll have a potential range of 500 miles or more. Should I be using both tanks all the time...like fill-up, drive 500 miles, then fill up again? Is that what you do with dual tanks?

I'm just wanting to keep the fuel fresh I guess.

Yup, you can switch tanks at any time.  

ArdWrknTrk wrote

Yup, you can switch tanks at any time.  

Thanks Jim. That was a dumb question I'm sure, but you never know...lol. Going to test it today.

I suspect my front/side tank had bad gas in it, so I'm guessing there's 18 gallons of bad gas in the rear tank too. The guy I bought it from said he only ever used the front tank...but he only had the truck for a year and a half. Part of me wants to syphon it out and put fresh in with some stabilizer...but I'll try it out today and see what happens I guess;).

Thanks again.

So, now you have enough gas to get well on your way to the show?  

As for how I use dual tanks, I try to never put gas with ethanol in the tanks.  Pure gas lasts longer than that with ethanol, but it isn't always possible to get pure gas.  So when I do have to put some ethanol in a tank I use that one until it is "empty" and switch to the other one.

If I'm on the road I'll alternate tanks, and if I don't plan to be using the truck for some time I fill up both tanks so there's not much air in them to keep the moisture down.

Cory
I also have not been in here a lot, you know life LOL

You had a lot of change with your projects and now this one.
Nice looking truck but you know if the tail gate dose not have chains it is not a flare side  

I have dual tanks on my flare and as they say you can flip the switch on the fly.
I fill both up at the same time. I run the front tank down first keeping the weight over the rear for a better ride. I dont know if it helps or not but that is my thinking. When the rear is almost empty I fill both  back up.

Now my truck may sit for a week or 2 at most between using in for weekly trash runs.
Then I may use it for a week to / from work putting on 400 miles.
I dont worry too much about rusting the tanks as 1 of them has a little as seen in the fuel filter when changed last.
As for the gas going bad I also dont worry, the 300 tractor motor can run on anything
I just dont see it going that bad between fill ups.

BTW we have the same plate here with the same restrictions on driving but we also get a break on taxes IIRC. The club had a speaker on this but I could not make the meeting.
I was also not going to use the plate as I want to drive my truck when & where I want to.
Good luck with the truck.
Dave ----

The Ford's I had with dual tanks were a 390, two 460's and a 7.3 diesel.

They were daily drivers so I didn't have to worry about gas sitting in the tanks!

That's cool you have dual tanks on your Flareside! Give you some range.

With EFI you don't want to run a tank dry.  Doing it accidentally once or twice isn't likely to cause issues, but running the pump without any fuel around it to cool it isn't supposed to be good for it.

I have run my '97 and my old '95 dry (more than once or twice actually ).  You notice right away as the engine sputters.  Hit the switch and it catches almost instantly.

I think '94 is the same system as my '95 and '97 had/have.  There isn't a typical switching valve between the tanks.  Whichever tank is selected, only that pump is on so fuel comes from the correct tank.  The return line however is a bit of a challenge.  I've never had one apart to try to understand it, but each tank has an FDM (Fuel Delivery Module) which includes the fuel pump and a check valve on the return line.  The valve isclosed if the pump is shut off and opens when the pump is on, so the return fuel goes back to the tank that's being used.

Or at least that's how it's supposed to work.  A common failure mode is for a check valve to leak.  When that happens fuel will go back into both tanks.  That might make you think you are getting terrible mileage as you empty a tank much faster than you expect.  And if the tank you aren't using is already full you'll end up over-filling it and dumping fuel out on the road.

I had that happen on my '95.  My solution was to always use the bad tank first, then when I switched to the good tank there'd be room for the gas to go.  It meant I had quite a bit of gas back in the bad tank when I filled up (even after mostly emptying it before switching tanks).  But it wasn't really a problem.

The actual fix is to replace the FDM on the tank that is getting filled.

Right.  That's why I put "empty" in quotes as I try not to run it dry.  It has happened, but that's not my intent.