shosh86

Looking for one around GA. Thanks.

I'm looking for the same thing. Trying to avoid paying $450+ for a Westin 21000 or 21007 aftermarket bumper.

Gary, what carpet color did you end going with for your regatta blue interior? Trying to decide myself.

Ok I think I’ve made up my mind I’m going to try to find an 87-91 cowl. There are a couple blue 87-91 trucks at a pull-a-part near a buddy of mine. He’s going to scope them out this weekend. Also, Gary, I finally got around to testing the vacuum pressures on my Carter YFA carb. Manifold is 18-19 at idle. Ported is 0 at idle (as expected) and it does hit 21 around 2500 rpm.

GREAT tip Jim. I removed that wire in the relay harness and caulked the hole it left. Thanks. My next project is addressing the issue of leaves and such dropping into the cowl, now that I have the seam in there re-sealed. Of course I have the 86-style cowl with the large slits rather than the pinholes. I'm going to check out a junk yard here soon to see if I can find the newer style cover. If not, I have a roll of fine black aluminum porch screening. I also have a role of much thicker steel mesh fencing. Trying to figure out two things... The fine mesh I think will look better, because it it black and a finer mesh, and I think it will be easier to permanently attach because it is much lighter weight than the steel mesh fencing. On the other hand, the steel fencing is much more rigid and likely less prone to sagging. I suppose I could spray prime and paint the steel mesh black first. The bigger issue I have is, whatever I choose, how I attach it. I know this has been debated before but I haven't seen any really good way. I have some JB Weld. Could I just dab some JB Weld through the screen and against the bottom of the cowl cover at various points? Again, concerned about sagging with this method, and if it sags, having to constantly clean leaves out that get stuck under the cowl slats but above the screen/fencing. What do y'all think?

That's not a bad idea. I do have some liquid electrical tape. I was thinking I'd goop some of that into the ends of the butt connectors, at least for the connectors with positive voltage.

Jim, wanted to let you know I nipped that last remaining leak in the bud. Seam sealer did the trick. I was able to get it in there without taking off the fender, but it wasn't easy like you said. Nor is it pretty, but only I'll know, ha!

Gary, ha! Here you go sir. In this pic, the relay and fuse holder are (obviously) not mounted yet. I'll also likely loom the wires. I'm also going to crimp cap that yellow wire coming off the relay. It's hot when the relay is switched off.

Got the HEI relay wiring in last night, with fuse of course. I also got the tach hooked up. For future folks doing this work, I took the relay trigger and the tach signal right from the two-wire connector going to the old coil. The grounding point I used for the relay trigger ground is the ground screw on the inside of the fender for the front left headlight. High current power through the relay comes from the very large yellow wire under the brake booster. I used a 20 A fuse. That yellow wire is at least 10 gauge. My wire stripper on the 10-gauge notch took off maybe 2-3 strands of copper. I'm mounting the relay and fuse holder on the inside of the driver's side fender, just behind (towards the cab) of the coolant/washer fluid reservoir. It's looking clean and working great. Gary, I've got a vacuum gauge on the way.

I'm going to say the vacuum hose to my DSII distributor is 3/32", but I've got no idea about your HEI (do you know who manufactured it? -not who sold it-) Drive the truck and see if you need to mess with the advance. If you want a tutorial look for the Crane Cams adjustable vacuum advance instructions. This lays out all the basics and the order in which to do them. Thanks very much Jim for all the info. I don’t know who manufactured the HEI. I’ll give the ports a measure at the carb and the distributor.

So if I understand you right you have swapped out the feed back carb & dist.? If so then the mirage is fine and should last LOL On the carb once the motor is up to temp and the idle speed set check each vacuum port on the carb to see what ones have vacuum and ones dont, make note of them. Now bring the RPM up and check the same vacuum ports again noting what dose and dose not have vacuum. 1 of the ports should not have vacuum at idle and then have vacuum with the RPM raised up. This is the timed port that should go to the dist. As for checking the timing with a dial back timing light mark the "marks" for TDC and 10* BTDC if that is where you want to set it. Motor up to temp, idle set, vacuum disconnected & plugged. Turn the dial back knob to line up the makrs to TDC. Where the knob points is what the timing is set to at that point. You can then turn the dist. so the knob will point to 10* BTDC Or you can set the light to 0 and turn the dist. so the marks you made line up at 10* BTDC. To check that turn the knob so the marks on the motor now line up to TDC and the knob should be at 10* BTDC. Dont forget to hook the hose back up to the dist. and take it for a test run. If you get pining pull the hose & plug and test again and let us know what is going on so we can help more. Dave ---- Dave, that’s correct. I bought the truck with the feedback carb already swapped out. But the PO did not swap out the feedback distributor, so I put an HEI in. I just got it timed to -10 deg. Easy stuff. Thanks for your help on that. I can tell it’s idling much better with the HEI. I haven’t test driven it yet since timing it tonight but very soon. I’m also going to get a vacuum hose to run between the distributor and carb. I’ll measure the port diameters unless anyone knows off the top of their head what they should be? Should I fool with the vacuum advance adjustment on the HEI or leave it alone? I have a factory tach so I also need to find the tach wire under the hood and connect it to the HEI. Did the tach wire connect to my old EEC distributor? Assume so.

Hi mat, the distributor I pulled out was the original Motorcraft distributor that interfaced with the EEC module and the previously removed feedback carb. So the EEC is no longer controlling the timing correct? What specifically is not marrying well now?

Well I finally got it running with the HEI. Feeling both very relieved and accomplished. I had to turn the distributor body, and thus the first plug terminal, a good bit further from the rotor at TDC than I thought would have been necessary. Any clue why? I'm going to buy a timing light, and get a white paint pen to paint the timing mark so I can see it with a timing light. I believe I need to set the timing light to 10 deg BTDC and rotate the distributor body one way or the other until I achieve that? I haven't timed an engine before but looking forward to trying. Also, since the HEI install, I seem to be getting some squealing now when I give it gas. Could that be from the timing being off? I also noticed I didn't have the A/C compressor ground cable connected, because it was connected to the coil bracket, and I removed that bracket with the coil. Could no power to the compressor have caused the squealing when revving? I did not have the A/C on. Any recommendation on where to connect this ground now that the coil bracket is removed? I understand I should connect a vacuum hose to the HEI. Is there a vacuum port somewhere I should use to provide the vacuum to the HEI? And do I need to adjust the vacuum advance on the HEI? Finally, should I gap my plugs now that I have the HEI in? If so, any harm in waiting a bit on that, or should I go ahead and do that ASAP. That's a lot of questions. Thanks for bearing with me.

Ok no luck on the foregoing. I can get it to run very poorly and very fast if I hold my foot on the gas while starting. But then it immediately dies if I let foot off or starter off. Also, pretty strong smell of gas under the hood.

I haven’t tried that but it was running just before I replaced the distributor. I think I’ll find TDC on compression stroke again and reseat all the plug wires.