Gary Lewis

Interesting! But since the outfit is called White Gauges I'm not sure they'll have black ones. Chris/ctubutis has white gauges on his truck if I remember correctly. Perhaps you'll want to have him post pics? Here's some of the info from their eBay advert:

Dave, Just the engine heat, I guess? I'm fairly inexperienced with this stuff, so I can't give much of an explanation. I did do some reading on these spacers a while back and I thought the general consensus was that if you must run one (a plastic one) then you'll also have to replace them when they fail. Probably not a big deal on a track car that's being worked on all the time, but for a summer cruiser this is a pain. Funny how one's memory works isn't it?... I distinctly remember thinking that I had to replace this spacer, but forgot about it. In any case, I'm going to swap in an aluminum spacer and get this baby all sealed back up and then install my new O2 sensor/gauge kit and find out where everything is running. Problem is, I'm kinda running out of good weather....but anyway... The other thing I'm leaning towards is swapping out the Holley 4160 600 CFM for a 500 CFM carb like the Summit M2008. I've been reading that this Summit carb is actually a refresh of an discontinued Holley design (a 4110 or something?). Anyway, I have some reading to do on the topic...more on that later;). I think the Summit carb is based the old Autolite 4100 design. There's an excellent article on it in Hemmings. And I think Rick/Fonzie is running one and loves it. It is basically a 4bbl version of the 2100 and is said to be a very reliable carb. And its annular boosters are supposed to provide good atomization of the fuel.

The floor is bolted right to the frame, no rubber between the bed rails & top of frame as that is how it was on the style side. Now a normal flare side has the rails on wood blocks on top of the frame. Then you have the wood planks or ply wood on top of the rails. Some of this wood the bed bolts go thru then thru the rails & wood blocks so no way for it to ground. Then the bed sides sit on the wood planks or ply wood, the light brackets bolt to the bed sides so I can see why the lights need a ground like Cory did. I cant see how it could ever get a ground? I don't think I will have any problems with grounding the bed IIRC I have 6 or 8 bed bolts and my battery ground hits the frame first then to a starter bolt and a 10ga. wire from motor to firewall for the body ground. And yes I have the hood grounded to the firewall. Think I am covered Dave ---- I was just wondering about the paint on the frame and the bed. Will the bolts make good contact?

Au contraire! If you remove the kickdown linkage on the C6 it won't downshift until you pull it down with the shift lever. I ran Rusty that way for several years 'cause I was too cheap to invest in the Edelbrock adapter to fit the linkage to the carb. Then I got to liking it and didn't want to change.

Sorry to see about the fire. I'll bet that was quite a shock. Glad you are ok. And good luck on selling the house. So you have the later (85/86) style with the high wheel well opening trim. Let's see what we can do, guys!

Bob - Why don't you really tell us how you feel? Don't lay it between the lines, to quote Peter, Paul, & Mary. Seriously though, I agree with all you said. But let me add two data points. First, using Core Tuning's Binary Editor on an EEC-V you have the ability to determine at what throttle opening you want the torque converter on an E4OD to unlock and when you want it to downshift. If I remember correctly, Bill has Darth set to unlock at 80% throttle and to downshift at 100%. Second, the 6R80 in Blue does a remarkable job in the Tow/Haul mode. Coming back from Lake Powell pulling the Sea Ray there's a really long and steep descent that's posted at 45 MPH. I touched the brakes at the top and it started downshifting. We went down the hill at 45 MPH and 4000 RPM w/o touching the brakes again. But I could have very easily downshifted it myself and done the same thing.

Yes progress cant wait to get to drive this truck! Thanks on the harness. The ground was only an issue when I tested the style side harness. I wanted to make sure I had power out back before I went cutting up the harness. I know Cory ran grounds to each of his new lights, I did not and they are grounded. Then again I have a metal floor not wood so maybe that's it? Dave ---- The metal floor should make a big difference as the bolts go through it to the frame, which is ground. But you might want to make 100% sure your bed is grounded well.

I'm not there yet, but Bill tells me it will work as he's using the same system on Darth - an EEC-V ECU. It'll control both the EFI as well as the E4OD. Yes, Ford never EFI'd a 400, but there's no problem in doing so as all of the components are available. I'm using Trick Flow's 351C upper and lower plenum with injector bungs, and then adapters to fit the lower plenum to the wider M-block. I'll be using a 351W ECU, so the theory is that the open-loop maps will be close enough.

Sorry! Are you doing that on a phone?

Congrat's, Kris! (And Brandon, the professor. )

Brandon - I think you posted before you were done. And I find it hilarious that you left us hanging by saying "I pulled it to findbthe infamous hanging"...... But for the others, he found a wire that was power from the PCM Power Relay to the PCM and other things that was bad and grounding out. Apparently that was causing the fuse to blow and stop the truck. He said the truck started and he was driving it home from the shopping mall's parking lot where it quit last time I knew.

Progress!!! Good job on the harnesses. As I was reading I was thinking "don't forget the grounds", but you didn't. Those door locks are a pain! The rods are hard to tell apart, and the whole mechanism seems overly complicated. Glad you got it figured out. Keep on truckin'!

Congrats!!! The bumper does fit well.

Well, I think you found a melted and smoking gun. Yipes! That thing would cause all sorts of problems.

Good job, Rick! I saw the new thread and commented.

Good job, Rick!

Ray - I like the aluminum rims. So I don't blame you for going that way.

I certainly plan to save the website for posterity. Both of my kids know how important it is to me, so I'm sure they will preserve it. And one of the many reasons I want to move it to Wordpress is the ease with which it can be backed up. Anyway, before we can answer your questions we need to know a bit more about what you want to do with the vehicle. You mentioned "heavy hauling". How much of that, and how heavy do you plan to do? For heavy hauling you need torque in the engine. To me, that leaves the 302 out. And while the 300 Six can probably tow anything, it won't necessarily do it easily. So I wouldn't go with anything smaller than a 351W. (A 351M can be made to be as strong as a 351W, but if you are building one you really ought to make it a 400.) So that leaves the 400, 460, and IDI. But even the IDI w/o a turbo isn't going to tow very rapidly. But, you also mentioned cruising. Are you thinking long distance or just short trips to enjoy the truck? If there's going to be much long-distance cruising, the 460 isn't the best. Back to manual transmissions. Big Blue has had a T19 from birth. And Rusty, the '81 F150 w/a built 351M, had an NP435. And while they are stout transmissions, the lack of an overdrive makes them very poor for cruising. But the ZF5 is a truck transmission, and even one with good syncro's doesn't like to be shifted rapidly. So you need to think about what your needs and wants are. If you aren't going to "tow heavy" then maybe one of the lighter-duty OD transmissions? As for the auto, I'm not a C6 fan. Yes, they are stout. But they are thirsty. With three speeds, no overdrive, and no lockup torque converter they are not cruising-friendly. So that probably means E4OD, but that takes a computer to control it.

Ray - These aren't quite what you are looking for, but thought I'd post them anyway, just in case. It is a closed group but I can message the guy if you are interested.

Well done, Bill. I fully understand the issues of looking down to see the aftermarket gauges. Even though Big Blue's are lighted, they are still hard to see.

Ok, the pics are up: Documentation/Picture Gallery/1985 F150 4x4 Flareside. I picked up the "SOLD FOR $12,000 ON 10/26/17", but what is the actual status on this truck?

When the dust settles I'll have one of each, as you can see from the signature. Dad's truck is being set up as fast, albeit still a capable 4wd truck. The E4OD will make it shift quickly while accelerating with no lost time between shifts. And, reasonable economy due to the OD and lock-up torque converter. Big Blue is the work horse as well as offroader. The ZF5 will give the low 1st gear to get anything rolling, and coupled with the low ratio in the transfer case it'll crawl nicely. Having said that, Ford's documentation gives the trucks with autos a higher GVWR for towing, as shown in the towing specs: Documentation/Specifications/Towing.

Thanks! With that new tubular cross member and its 1/4" inner and outer flanges I'm sure it will put lots of strength in the front.

Will do, Vic. I've downloaded them and now will create a page for them....

I think the all-white one with the black trim looks good. And clean. But make sure the trim lines up properly. You can see that the bed and cab line up correctly, but the trim doesn't. And that is very conspicuous given the black on white.