Little Blue 82

Yes, Cory. The 1986 and older had raised areas around each of the bolt holes for the old style [4 pieces] gasket. All one has to do is file the raised area off [side grinder] and you are ready to go.

I ordered an engine gasket kit. It has the 4 piece. Didnt know you could do an upgrade. The 4 piece would be better if you dont want to drop the pan.

Got a few more goodies today. Moog caster chamber eccentrics, rad hose, gas sender unit to try to solve the fuel gauge not working, and the rear wheel cylinders.

Exhaust.

Hedman header or junk yard efi manifolds?

Header has advantage in performance but may interfere with something. Its listed for 2wd only. I see nothing on my 4wd different on the passenger side from a 2wd. Its more expensive. Its easy. Looks great. I can just order it and wait for it to arrive.

$20 a piece at the JY for the efi manifolds IF I can find them, and I have to go get nasty at the yard. But I still need to buy a y pipe or go to a shop. Y pipe reviews on the walker brand are junk. I havent found a set of flanged pipes for true duals. Walker y pipe is $70 or so. So thats $110 in efi manifolds plus donuts, and the rest of the exhaust, muffler etc.

I just cant decide.

I did a swap with a member a radiator for the EFI manifolds.
I bought the Y pipe, look up cats as that is the only way I could find it, think thru Rock Auto.
The opening where the Y is welded was good as I hear some are almost closed when they welded the pipe on.

I did not use the cat. I had the stock exh from the parts truck that was like new so I picked up a 6" pipe to join the Y pipe and the rest of the system together.
Wish it was not so quite but other than the Y & 6" pipe it was a free up grade.

And yes I also bought the heater plate for the bottom of the stock intake manifold.
I had to make a gasket for this as the part did not come with one and the one in the manifold kit I don't think would seal.

Now before you install the manifolds lay the intake & exh. on a flat surface and check where the thick washer fit to hold the manifolds to the head.
IIRC something had to be done, sand down the exh. manifold?, to make the washer sit flat.
I used a belt sender, sand a little, test, sand some more, etc. till it sit flat.

I also bought studs & nuts. Thread the studs into the head and use the nuts to hold a manifold wile you fish the other manifold into place and get the nuts started. Then you get to do the same for the other exh manifold & intake. One of them jobs 3 hands would be good LOL.

Dave ----

Dave, thanks for the advice. Rockauto is out of stock on the y pipe. They have the manifolds but I am on the fence. By the time I buy the ypipe and manifolds I could spend just a little more and get the hedman headers.

I guess the prices are so high on straight 6 stuff because they arent as popular to hotrod. It takes twice as much to build a ford as a chevy....

Anyway....got the engine bay cleaned up some. Still needs work, but this is much improved.

Aight. Cuzz im feeling lazy, and feeling risky, I bought the hedman header. I'll put the engine back together and get it running with the stock intake and carb. I will wait until I find or make an intake.

Engine paint. I am leaning towards the factory gray color, and put blue "Powered by Ford" on the valve cover.

I will take the propane torch and burn off the protective black coating on the header after I am sure itll fit. Then coat it high temp silver or black exhaust coating.

Also got door panels.....not sure about the color. May have to get SEM coating and do all the interior to match eventually.

Looking good Ray!

Rembrant wrote

Looking good Ray!

It looks better in the pics than real life. The truck needs a lot of cleaning, paint, freshing up.

Do you guys know what kind of shims the factory used on the fenders and doors? This truck has some kind of weird shim, its like a heavy duty cardboard or something. I think the previous owner replaced the passenger door and possibly the fender at some point. The door for sure, it is black under the door panel. The drivers side was blue under the panel.

Ray Cecil wrote

Rembrant wrote

Looking good Ray!

It looks better in the pics than real life. The truck needs a lot of cleaning, paint, freshing up.

Do you guys know what kind of shims the factory used on the fenders and doors? This truck has some kind of weird shim, its like a heavy duty cardboard or something. I think the previous owner replaced the passenger door and possibly the fender at some point. The door for sure, it is black under the door panel. The drivers side was blue under the panel.

I did not find or seen posted of shims for the doors as you should have more then enough adjustment between the door post to hinge (front/back & up/down) and the door to hinge (up/down & in/out).

Now that fender shim up by the cowl, don't you love it!
It is some type of pressed board and over the years when pulled they fall apart.
I was able to save enough to make a pattern. I took this pattern and used it to make new shims using 12"x12"floor tiles. It is a flex-able type tile like you would find on a store floor but hard to compress.
I made a bunch but I found when fitting the fenders and tightening them down they would fall apart when removed to add/remove shims to get the fender lines right. Once I knew how many was needed on each side I made that amount and installed them.
I am happy with them so far but truck is not on the road yet.

I would say the door with the black under the panel has been replace as there is no need to paint there as it gets covered up like you found.
Dave ----

Oh forgot looking good.
On the motor paint I went Ford blue because I did not know what color it should have been till after it was painted.
Myself I like the blue over the gray.
It may have something to do with seeing and painting gray floors for 15 years, engineering at a hospital.
Dave ----

Did a little detailing today with some 303. Sure restores the plastics a lot. It helps get the dirt out of it too.



Found a nice wire harness at Rural King today. This has a 40A 12VDC relay, 40A fuse, kill switch all nicely qired up together. This will run the HEI. The kill switch will be run and hidden somewhere my wife cant fi d, so she cannot drive the truck.

Here is that funny shim. Why not use steel? Man Ford was trying to save pennies eh?



Just a fun pic, from the loft.

Also, today ordered the brake booster with master cylinder, belts, and a new front bumper. Previous owner hit a deer and did some damage.....maybe he said his mom hit a deer. I cant remember.

Ok, back from Branson.  And Ray, you are making good progress.  

Gary Lewis wrote

Ok, back from Branson.  And Ray, you are making good progress.  

At this rate, maybe I will make it to the show in September....

I thought about that kill switch....what if I leave it on? Will it drain the battery? Heck with it. I ran the wiring to the coil wire to trigger the relay. Problem solved.

Good to see someone has some steam, I have lost a little and just cant get back in the garage

Did I ask why the HEI dist.? The one you have would work just fine.

On the shim. All you can find are the small square ones used on mostly GM cars or front ends to get caster/camber back to speck.
I felt they would not give enough support like the long ones Ford used.
They also tend to rust and did not want that under my hood.
Keep going doing good
Dave ----

FuzzFace2 wrote

Did I ask why the HEI dist.? The one you have would work just fine.

Its easy, cleaner looking, 1-wire, and I have chevy blood.... The stock dizzy had a bunch of wires coming out of it. I don' t need them, because I removed that computer thingy, californication smog doodads etc. I was under the impression that computer doodad thingy that seems totally unnecessary, was controlling timing somehow. Was it not? If not, then I am really confused as to what the heck that yellow grommited pooter is for...