Gary Lewis

The percent leakage helps you decide what to do. Something like 20% leakage is poor, but not the end of the world. Big Blue's 460 had ~50% leakage on two cylinders, and all of the others were 20% and above. And all were leaking past the rings, into the sump. Toast. The engine is badly worn. In your case, with one cylinder leaking, maybe there's something with that one cylinder that can be changed. Jim is suggesting that the rings may be stuck and if you run the right additive and work the engine hard they might free up.

I've seen videos of doing it that way. I've also seen it done with just compressed air. The compressed air method is a lot less dramatic. To my way of thinking, that's a good thing! However, it does require pretty good flow rate. A ratchet strap around the outside of the tire to sort of squeeze the beads onto the rim looks like it helps too (so far I haven't had to reseat a bead, so I'm only going off what I've seen). I haven't seen it done, but I did get a first-hand report (pun intended) from my brother. They were towing their ATV's back home and lost two tires on the same side of the trailer. He called me and I found two of them at the Walmart close to them. They dropped the trailer, leaving someone on guard, and got the tires. When they got back the highway patrol was there and he asked how they were going to seat the beads when all they had was a little air bottle. My nephew put a ratchet strap around the tire, whipped out the WD40, squirted it in, and tossed in a match. Boom! The tire was seated. The patrolman was impressed! But my question to my brother is why they didn't take the wheels to WallyWorld and have them mount the tires.

Bummer! I've not pulled the heads on that engine, but I can only imagine that they are HEAVY! I just put heads on Big Blue's 460 while on the stand, and there's no way I'd want to put those things on while the engine was in w/o using the shop crane. The reach plus the weight is just awful. Maybe you could take the fenders off, put the front on jack stands and pull the tires and wheels? That would get you a LOT closer to the engine and take the over-the-fender reach out.

Cool! Love the sound of the exhaust on that thing.

I agree w/Angelo and Jim - either rebuild it completely or put a used engine in. It isn't a good idea to rebuild part of it. But, it will be less expensive to get a long block, and the odds of success are much higher.

That's him! Compare the console and seats. The pic on the left is from the advert, and the one on the right is from our page here: Documentation/Picture Galleries/Big Blackie.

I was just thinking about later Broncos yesterday. I really like the Bullnose front clip over anything later, and know that could be changed fairly easily. And my paint/body man could put the Bullnose rear wheelwell outline on. But, the interior is MODERN! Don't know if I would like that. (I know Bill's Darth is that way.) Anyway, on this one, I'm not sure I like the grille. It is probably to mimic the Raptor's grille, and I've seen some that said FORD that looked good. But the BRONCO seems too big.

Perhaps that's it, Jim. I didn't mind the smell 'cause it evoked memories.

Wow! That really DOES look GOOD! What did you use on the fuel rail? The same as the engine? Is that the early Ford blue? Your stuffer in the dizzy's hole is the same color as mine.

Dad would have said "If that's a compliment I thank you."

Michael - I will do that a bit later when I get out to the shop. But, how 'bout sending me an email (click on my name above the avatar and then click on Send Email) and give me your address. I'm headed to the shipping place in a bit and having an address will make getting a guestimate easier.

The NP435 is one tough tranny, and with that 6.69 1st gear you can get a mountain moving. Don't think you can go wrong.

I think for most use the 1/4" hose would be fine. The foreseeable (but hopefully not likely) use that I can see for you needing the highest possible flow rate would be if you need to reseat a tire bead. You'd pull the valve in that situation (if you thought of it, which you now will!) so the valve stem would still be the main restriction, but not as much as normal. And you'd want to minimize all other restrictions. Would a 1/4" hose be enough there? Probably, especially at 200 psi. So like I said before, don't take my statement to be worth more than it is. But 1/4" just seems small to me. There's not enough price difference to worry about, and the size difference is probably not too much either. So I think I like the idea of 3/8". And, I'll remember to pull the stem if I have to do that. Now, just have to remember to get the Coyote automatic deflators and with the compressor mounted and the hose bought I'll be good to go! Oh wait. Maybe I need an engine, tranny, t-case, front axle, .....

I think he may be saying that the smell will run you out when it gets hot. I've heard that said of Peel & Seal, but I have used it and did't mind the smell - and it gets HOT in Okiehoma.

Yes, tail wagging the dog. My 2015 F150 should weigh right at 5,000 lbs. My trailer weighs almost 3000, and Big Blue is probably about 6000. So with all the stuff we had in Big Blue and on the trailer we had almost twice as much trailer weight as we had tow truck weight and it handled it fine - with brakes on both trailer axles. But I'd not try that w/o brakes on the trailer. Nor with brakes on only one axle. So I was just saying that when you get to a situation where the trailer weighs an appreciable portion of the truck's weight you need to have brakes on the trailer.

I would like to be wrong on the price. And perhaps I said it incorrectly. But I don't think you can have the machine work done and buy the parts for less than $2K. So, if you can find a long-block for that or less you are much better off going that way.

LOL! That might do it.

Glad you guy found us. Yes, we try to be uplifting. We are all in need of help at some point, and sometimes that is just for moral support, so pitch in to help others when and where we can. Plus, we have more documentation on these trucks than anywhere else. So it makes for a good combination.

You? Pushy? No, I really appreciate the help. And, I do think the truck is going to be stellar. Very capable, very strong, and quite useful. I'm hoping a 3/8" hose will be big enough to do the job well, but small enough to be easily stored. But I can easily try my bigger hoses with the pressure dialed down to protect them. So, we shall see. As for the waveform, I was a bit surprised by the voltage, but things seem to work nicely on it so I'm not worried. While the compressor was running today I looked it over for airflow. The inlet in the plastic housing is at the nose of the motor, and there are several outlets toward the back end. So I'm thinking of creating a box on the end of the toolbox into which the compressor goes. It would have a central divider that goes up against the plastic housing, or maybe down over the plastic housing, to keep air from circulating in the box. And there would be a lid on it. Then the side of the toolbox would have an inlet and an outlet with screens. So the compressor would pull air from under the wing of the toolbox and discharge air back under the wing, but about 18" apart. Further, in the path of the air coming in or going out there could be a little power steering cooler, through which the compressed air flows. It would probably be plumbed from the head to it via pipe for rigidity, and then hose from it out through the side of the box and then down to the tank. Clear as mud?

Jim - I think you may be reading it incorrectly. I certainly did when I first looked. I was looking at the A/C weights, which vary by the engine. Is that what you were looking at?

Angelo speaks truth. You could easily be w/o the vehicle for a long time as you work on the engine. So a used engine might be a good alternative in the interim. As for working on it, I've come to the conclusion that I'm going to farm the bulk of engine building out. On the engine for Dad's truck I spent months awaiting the machine work to get done. Months. And then it wasn't done correctly. I finally sent it to Tim Meyer to fix the mistakes and then assemble and test it. Had I not had Tim check it out I'd have had an engine that didn't have the appropriate oil pressure. Then there's the engine the previous owner had built for Big Blue. It took four years for him to get it back from the machine shop and when he did it leaked oil everywhere. Not only didn't it have valve cover gaskets, there were other significant mistakes. And on top of that, I'm convinced that they sold him a worn out engine from the salvage. So in future I'll be buying either a complete engine or at least a short block from a reputable source. On Big Blue's replacement engine I bought a short block from Scott Johnson, aka Scotty The Mad Porter. But, if I'd not already had the heads done locally I'd have bought a long block instead. In fact, I probably would have had him break the engine in on the dyno before shipping it to me. But we are talking about big money. An engine is going to run an absolute minimum of $2k if you do a lot of the work, and probably more like $4k or more.

1/4" seems a little small. It won't be the restriction the Schrader valve is, so maybe it won't be significant. Don't take this for anything more than it's worth but it just seems small to me (I have a 25' long 3/8" hose and a 12' long coiled 1/4" hose that I carry with me). As to field serviceable, I second that (or is it "third" by now?). I had a hose spring a leak on one trip. It had a lot of cracks in the outer sheath, I really should have replaced it before, so it's my own fault. But it was nice to be able to repair it in about 2 minutes. When I had air bags they were mounted to both the frame and the leaf spring (at the axle), with the air line going into the top where it was attached to the frame. So no flexing of the line while the suspension cycled. Not that the line supplied couldn't handle flex, but it was nice to keep it all tucked up against the frame where it was protected rather than needing an exposed run to get it from the axle up to the truck. I'm not sure how your plan to let the bag and mount separate to keep it from limiting droop will affect that. But I guess I envisioned keeping the bag attached to the top frame mount and let the bottom spring mount fall away. If you do it that way your line will be up at the frame like mine was. And for what it's worth, I put the valves on my truck inside the bed. They were just inside the tail gate, on the front-facing surface of the stake pocket / tail light thing. I suppose they could have been exposed if I was hauling a load of gravel, but otherwise they were pretty well protected. And usually not too hard to get at. Thanks, Bob. I guess I'll look for a larger hose. Oddly enough, it occurred to me that "HOPB1450" is 1/4" x 50', so I Googled Bostitch HOPB3850 and got hits. But, no one carries it. Amazon's page for it says "We're sorry. The Web address you entered is not a functioning page on our site." And Walmart says it is out of stock. But I'll just keep my eyes open for a 3/8" hose with a 200 psi rating and field-repairable fittings. As for the air bags, I'm sure that the Daystar cradles will attach to the axle and the bags to the frame, so the air lines should attach to the body somewhere. And I'm kinda liking the idea of them being on the control panel for the compressor in the tool box. That way there won't be anyone messing with them and they shouldn't get hit. Looks like I'll have the electric line between the compressor and the inverter to come out of the box as well as the air line to the tank. So if I bring the air bag lines up in that bundle and protect it then it should be clean and solid.

You may either have an ignition switch problem or maybe just the linkage between the tumbler and the switch is dragging. See the Ignition Switch tab on this page and see if it helps: Documentation/Electrical/Ignition.

Ray, I actually weighed my '84 Flareside, and it was just under 3400 lbs. That was with me NOT in it, and I believe I calculated it based on the fuel tank being empty. Not sure how a 302 compares to a 300 in weight though. You'd have the add weight of the transfer case, front driveshaft, and front diff and axles, wider springs, etc. I think you'd be pretty close to your 400 lb estimate once you added it all up. I did post about it, so I'll see if I can find the thread back when I did it. Edit:...Here is the link to when I weighed the truck. http://forum.garysgaragemahal.com/My-1984-F150-2wd-Flareside-Project-Blue-Mule-tp4515p14566.html We have had a page that was intended to answer some of these questions: Documentation/Specifications/Dimensions & Weights. Heretofore it has just had the dimensions and base curb weights, but today I've added the accessories weights. However, as of now it doesn't include the engine and transmission options, and I've not found that information - yet.