The Camano Experience

Those are impressive numbers!

I'd still look at pwm speed control.
At some point you just can't shed any more heat through the aluminum, and slower air flow may reduce boundary layer effect.

I agree, Jim.  But I'm also thinking about the day-to-day operation where just a bit of fan is needed and not 100% of one much less both.  For instance, when we took Big Blue out the other day it was about 90F and we were running the A/C, but as we drove the temp stayed at 186F - except for when we got stopped at road construction with a one-lane road and a timed light.

We sat there for maybe 5 minutes and I watched the temp come up to the high 190's and was thinking that maybe the idle air adder based on ECT would kick in and spin the fan faster.  But it is set to 0 at 214F, goes to 176 at 220F, and then 304 at 230F, so never came into play.

Anyway, that is the kind of situation where PWM would work nicely.  You could spin one fan at maybe 50% any time the A/C compressor is in, and then bring it on up smoothly as the ECT comes up until you need the 2nd fan.

I also agree and Derale 16797 looks promising. May go for a year or so on this setup and then upgrade to that.

The multi-function relay didn't work out. Was a bit too large for where I wanted it.
Ended up running a fused always on wire to the fan controller and calling it good. Just for the benefit of cooling down after ignition off. The ignition switched wire is still there if I decide to go back to it though. I changed the 3 terminal connector to a 4 so can just move the fan controller trigger wire between terminals and get switched vs always on.
Checked the draw of the controller and it's not enough to worry about but will monitor it for awhile.
Planning to take the truck on a couple hour drive to be an extra in a 1993 based movie soon so will see how the temp does.

Extra in a movie?  Cool!  I'll have to see it.  

I like that Derale controller.  It looks like what I'd want, and would want to add the override for the A/C system.  

That is cool! Let us know how the movie and cooling system goes.

My truck wasn't explicitly asked for or anything like that but my cousin's church is making a movie out in Kansas where they need some people/families for extras and requested 1993 or older vehicles for the parking lot.
Now if only I could fill the tank at 1993 prices.

How far "out in Kansas"?  If I remember what I was taught in grade school, my home state is roughly 200 miles by 400 miles, so it could be a loooooong ways.  And even at Big Blue's newly-discovered efficiency that is a lot of gas.  

It's in Riverton so not too far into Kansas at all.

If you want to break the efi in even more you both should come!

That's about half way 'tween us.  And close to Big Brutus, although I'm not going to make it to the overlanding rally this year as we have the twins coming to see us exactly then.

But Big Blue is going to my home town, Ark City, for Memorial day.  That's a 200 mile round trip, so the EFI will get tested plenty.  Want my brother to get to drive it, and since we go up to decorate graves we'll take it.

Looking forward to seeing your data after that trip!

I'm pushing hard to have it all sorted out prior to that, and I think I'm going to make it.  Just a bit more to go...

Had the headliner out so decided to going ahead and make the upgrade to the later model visors. Ever since I got the truck the driver side visor had to be stored alongside the door or else it flopped too much. During the restore, I chose to keep it that way but didn't take many miles of driving to realize it was less than ideal.

I haven't ventured into the SEM project yet so wanted to find some vinyl visors in the 86 Chestnut color. Fortunately the larger trucks had this color still in vinyl so picked up some like new condition ones off ebay that came from an 88 Super Duty.  Downside is that instead of the 4wd sticker they have 7.3 starting and overdrive instructions but maybe someday a member on here will get into the business of re-printing all these (John? ) and I can fix that inconsistency.

As countless others will tell you, it's basically just line them up and drill the holes. Since I had the headliner out already I decided to see how easy it would be to make a template (spoiler: not worth it). so I ran to the jy and cut the front section of the headliner out of an 87 and took a bunch of measurements.

Worth noting that there is a hump that we don't have in our trucks.



The template headliner quickly went in the burn pile since cutting out two large round holes is riskier than just poking four small holes.

(large round hold in the 87 headliner)


Using the measurements I drilled the 4 holes through the inner sheet metal. I was a bit surprised when I looked at the retainer that it had the hook facing forward. Seemed odd so I message Gary and he let me know his was facing backwards. Checked my dad's 94 and 96 and they also faced backwards. What gave me pause was that I didn't want to be locked into one or the other since I wasn't sure which I'd like. Fortunately, whenever Ford made this switch (year or maybe model?) they left the sheet metal holes the same and just changed the retainer. So the front or back facing hooks can just be swapped out.
Notice the alignment pin and the screw hole are the same despite the hook direction (screw head is always hidden behind the hook).


I then installed the headliner and using a pick while looking above the headliner since the front trim wasn't on yet, I poked the 4 holes thread the headliner. Then I took my junk soldering iron with a fine tip and made holes that were cauterized. I had first tested this on the scrap headliner and while I didn't have any issues with it melting further than wanted, definitely kept it quick. I got this soldering iron to do the same when making seat/seatbelt holes in the carpet.

Once those were in it was just a matter of installing the retainers. I did notice that if I tried to tighten them down all the way, the headliner started to gap a bit at the trim since we don't have the hump stopping it. May be a winter project to 3d print some spacers to make up for the hump.

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This weekend was a local, small town festival with a car show/parade that my family tries to hit. It's about 20min from my parents place where I grew up and usually falls at the time my wife is getting her classroom ready so the kids and I get out of her hair and head there. My daughter wanted to be in the parade this year figured I'd put the truck in the show and join the parade line after that.
Well, comes time to leave for the show so my daughter and I walk out to the truck as my parents go ahead and take off.
Start to get in and there is a 4ft long or so black snake behind the front tire. Not wanting to kill it I poke at it with a stick (didn't want to get that smell all over me). Well instead of taking off, that thing shoots up into the engine bay. Open the hood and that thing is well hidden. Starts making the fake-rattler sound from wherever it took up residence. At that point my daughter is in tears and absolutely refusing to get close to the truck. Start the truck up and wait a couple minutes to see if it will vacate. Doesn't take long to see it come down to the front leaf springs. Instead of taking to the ground though it crawls back to the tcase skid place. Late by this point so I figure it will fall off on the dirt road pretty quickly and better there than in the engine bay. Carry the less than thrilled daughter to the truck and put her in the back seat telling her to watch behind us for the snake to drop off.
Get to the end of the dirt road, no snake. Few miles down the road, still no snake. Despite knowing the path of the ductwok, I'll admit I was prepping myself for what I'd do if I saw a head coming out of the vents. I'll also admit that I could prep for that for years and I still can't be sure how well I'd handle that...
Pull up to the car show, still no snake, put the truck in Park at the registration table located near the start of the autos, and get out. Turn around as soon as I get to the table and down drops that snake. Thing makes a beeline for this yellow ratrod and just as quickly as the lady sitting next to it pulls her feet up into her chair, it's up in that engine
I came back after parking and by that time the owner had fished it out and chucked it in a grassy lot.

Was a fun day already but that added a little more excitement to it.

Good job!

Stupid snake!

Wow!  What an adventure with the snake.  I'm with your daughter - I don't like them!

That was a very thorough approach to installing the visors.  Well done!

But what do you think of the visor?  It didn't flop at all on the dirt road?  Hangs nice and solid where it is put?  What's not to like?

And, what about the way the clip is facing?

Well worth the upgrade if anyone has visors that flop. May be worth adding to the Upgrades page?
No complaints at all. Didn't budge a bit
I have the hooks facing forward which seems a bit odd but haven't used them enough to decide if I don't like pushing them a little forward to unhook vs just pulling back. Not sure what rhyme or reason Ford had.
Once I pick up the SEM paint, I'll be painting both styles just in case.

Maybe we should add that to the Upgrades page.  I'll look later, but you are welcome to do it.

I am not sure I am able to edit the html pages but if I am able to do so, happy to.

kramttocs wrote

Turn around as soon as I get to the table and down drops that snake.

You own the first 1986 F-250 Snake Edition!

That's awesome! Didn't know that was even a thing.
Shelby Super Snake Sport is a mouthful though.

Should have blackened out one headlight and called it Snake Plissken

kramttocs wrote

Should have blackened out one headlight and called it Snake Plissken