Gary Lewis

Bill - Do you read lips? Grumpin - The 4wd HD 250's are the worst of all worlds. I think I have the same spring pack in the rear that Bill does with his football field long DRW. And up front I have maybe 1 1/2" of wheel travel before hitting the bump stop. So the springs are STIFF! I've wondered if adapting an F150's coil front suspension to the 4wd 250HD's TTB's wouldn't work, and use the same springs Bill has on Darth. I mean, the axles and all look the same between Dad's truck and Big Blue, so why couldn't it have coil springs?

Ford went through lots of attempts to make a good fuel system in the Bullnose era, and all of them were flawed. Fatally flawed. And at this point in time the new parts to fix them are drying up, and in many cases have dried up. One of the especially troublesome components of the fuel systems was the switching valve, and the latest version of that is no longer available. So, if you are going to run two tanks with the ~'85/86 system you have to find a way around that, and it isn't easy. Or, you could go back to the earlier system as long as you have a carb, but for the fuel-injected systems you are stuck. In my case I intend to go to the later "fuel delivery module" which has all of the switching done electrically and in the tank. In other words, outside the tank the supply has a Y and the return has a Y, and that's all. However, the sending units have a totally different resistance range than ours, so much so that our gauge would read backward and not go to either Full nor Empty. I intend to fix that issue with an Arduino computer - and then make that easily available to everyone. But, if you want to stay with Bullnose senders you can either graft one of them onto the fuel delivery module, which shouldn't be too hard, or go with one tank, say the 38 gallon one, and do away with the need for the switching valve. And to do that you can use the Bronco's 33 gallon pump/sending unit combo and lower the pickup as well as the float. Or, just use the Bronco's 33 gallon tank and pump/sending unit and give up only 5 gallons. As for the spare tire, the one on Big Blue is so big and heavy that it couldn't go under the rear anyway. So currently it rides in the middle of the bed. But, I've designed a very heavy duty spare tire carrier/bumper that, when built, will resolve the problem and put the tire just behind the tailgate. Here are a couple of "artists renderings" of that:

Yes, that would be a whole less expensive. But, Big Blue would continue to be less than fun to drive for any distance. There's an initial surge of "Wow, this is fun!" However, that soon wears off after you've hit a few bumps. So, I'll continue to hope I can find just the right truck, and locally, for both the front suspension/axle combo and the cross member. Hopefully on Wednesday or Thursday I'll have the 1990-99 MPC and can determine which trucks used the cross member I'm looking for and I can put the word out via social media and the salvages.

I now have a running ECU! I rang out the test harness and everything was good with one exception - Vehicle Power. Turns out that my switch of choice, a marine grade 30A pull switch was flaky. But, since it is the only one I have that is easy to tell if it is on or off, I pulled out the CRC QD Electronic Cleaner and shot it full. A few pushes and pulls and it started working properly. Then I added the Harbor Freight fuse/ammeter, hooked the rig to a 5AH battery normally used in a trailer brake system, added a battery charger to that, and hooked the test harness up. As expected, there was no current w/o the ECU. So I added the YAZ3 ECU, which came from a '95 w/a 4R70W. Then, with the "key" switch on I saw .2A. Then I added my ELM wifi dongle to the OBD-II port and turned the "key" to On. The current jumped to .3A and I got a wifi signal. Then I fired up my scanner app on my iPhone and discovered that it is reading a Ford OBD-II ECU that runs an SAE J1850 PWM protocol at 41.6 Kbaud. And, oddly enough, the MIL is not lit and there are no trouble codes outstanding. Then I discovered the Terminal function of the app where I can send the ECU specific commands, as explained here. So I sent it "0100" which is "In mode 01, what PIDs are supported?" And the answer came back: 416B 1041 00BF 9FF9 10C9. I'll have to see if I can decode that. Then I asked it what the engine RPM is by sending "010C" and got back 416B 1041 0C00 00DC. Again I'll have to translate that. But, the bottom line is that:

Dave - The lights look GREAT! I really like them set into the bumper that way. But, that's a bummer about the core plugs. However, you are doing it the right way so you'll be done with it soon and not have to worry about them again.

While 210 might be a bit warmer than I'd expect, it should be at least the 195 of the 'stat. And thermostats aren't terribly precise. Nor are infrared thermometers. So 210 isn't hot by any means. If your heater isn't kicking out heat then there are several possibilities: 1. Your heater core or a heater hose is plugged 2. Your heater controls aren't working correctly 3. Your fan isn't running to blow the hot air out 4. The engine really isn't warm, much less hot As for the bypass, there's a link on the page previously reference to an ARE page that explains how it work. But to boil it down (get the pun? ), most engines have one so that coolant is circulated through the block even when the thermostat is closed. Otherwise there would be hot spots in the engine that might cause damage. And, it would take a lot longer for the thermostat to "feel" the heat and open. The vast majority of engines have an external hose for the bypass. But Ford designed the 335 Series, which includes the 351C, 351M, & 400, with an internal bypass. No hose to fail. But, it takes a special thermostat.

Thanks I cant wait either. I was up at 5am but nothing opens around here till 9am (auto zone) and 10am (hard ware both next door to each other) to get parts to do more work. Couldn't even cut the rest of the grass, did half yesterday before I helped at the pet adoption for a few hours, because it was raining when I got up. The plan today is to measure the leaking plug, pick up 2 in case the first gets thrown across the shop because it doesn't want to go in, and get the needed bolts so I can finish the lights in the bumper. Also need to paint the back side of the bumpers to stop the rust with paint I have to stop the rust. Maybe when the paint is drying I will see if I can replace that leaking freeze plug? I hope to take the bumpers with me this week to work and if I have the time stop by the wrapper to see what the $$ will to wrap them will be. Dave ---- Remind me what you are going to have them wrapped with? I've forgotten. As for mowing the yard, we have memes of John Deere mowers in 1' of water mowing around here.

Welcome! Glad you joined. We have a member's map (Bullnose Forum/Member's Map on the menu) and I'd be happy to add you if you'd like. Nice truck! Please do start a thread about it in the main section. And, tell us more about the engine. That sounds like it is fast.

Doing a bit of research on the D60 swap and will use this post to catalog some things I find: Rowdyredneck's swap onto his '84 F250 460/ZF5. Good, but not a lot of info. Mjonesjr's "how to" on the Dieselstop. Lots of detail as well as a list of donors and needed parts. God Of Leaf SAS Swap: This is a thread in FSB with lot's of links to other threads. (Kind of reminds me of the old-time barber shops with mirrors on both walls so you could see off into infinity.)

I'm in Skiatook, ~20 miles north of Tulsa. Plan on coming to the Garagemahal Ford Truck Show & Swap Meet here on September 21st. On the speaker, the mono radios did have a speaker mounted in the dash. So you can add a speaker there and do as we did "back in the day" and create a "center channel" by using the negative speaker lead from one side and the positive lead from the other side to drive that speaker. And, you can certainly splice in to add the clock. The wiring diagram is here: http://www.garysgaragemahal.com/digital-clock2.html.

Bill - I'll be using this Microsoft Surface tablet for my in-truck logging and tweaking. However it only has two USB ports so I'll have to use a USB spliter to accommodate the Direct Flash Cable, the one to the Innovate wide-band, and the Core Tuning dongle that's needed to let Binary Editor work. But Adam has assured me that a splitter works fine for that. In the shop, while I'm learning and getting my head around things, I'll use the Windows 8 desktop. I already have it running Binary Editor, as described above,t but now need to do the same on this one.

I agree with all that's been said. And Jim is spot-on, the Clevelands and M-blocks take a different thermostat, as explained here (Engines/351M & 400) on the Thermostats tab. Since very few people know that, I'd be willing to bet you have the wrong one in there. But, I doubt that explains the overheating indications. Were it not for the poor running I'd say you have a gauge/sender problem rather than true overheating. And there might be other explanations for the poor running. So check out the things the others said, make sure you have the proper thermostat, and check your initial timing as too late of timing can cause the engine to run warm.

Yes, I remember the Apple problems. But I have a later app for my iPhone as well as an ELM device that worked fairly well on Russ' Suburban and our Subie. Having said that, I doubt it can do what the Direct Flash Cable can do - write to the PROM on the ECU. So I'll use that cable to connect the Windows machine to the ECU for data logging and tuning. And I'll probably have another cable from the Arduino that will plug into the OBD-II port to monitor various things as I drive. Or, I could use an Arduino with wifi capabilities and use an ELM wifi dongle. But I don't really like the idea of having wifi emanating 24x7 from the truck, so like the hard-wired idea better. As for changing yours over to OBD-II, that's a significant undertaking. Bill's the one to tell us how hard it is, but you'd need a harness and an ECU out of a truck just like yours but with EEC-V. Anything 1996 and later should be V, but I've heard that there were some prior to that as well. Plus you'd need the MAF, air inlet tubing, and maybe another O2 sensor as well as other sensors. Basically you'd need a donor '96 or later truck. I'm not sure the view is worth the climb.

Dave - Those really look like they belong! Well done. I can't wait to see the bumper on the truck and how the lights look with the whole front end.

You assume that the broken tabs are still in existence. More problems will probably result in a new grill, but seeings how I settled for a broken one for the last 15 years, it is unlikely that this one will bother me... Yes, I assumed that some of the tabs are still there. Silly me. As for the magnifying spot in the top of the lens, that would be a big help. I've tried turning my glasses over to get the bifocals into play, but they won't stay on.

Well done! Time for a mess of onion rings!

I really do like the black! The faded-out grilles that most of these trucks have are just wimpy. Has been. But the black really makes things pop. However, there are glues that can probably make those tabs stay on the grille. I'll have to look, but Jim/ArdWrknTrk could tell us off the top of his head. So, if you decide to fix that one, let us know.

Ford went to plastic in '85 if I remember correctly, so you could probably get one from a salvage. I have. But, there are heater-only ones, Hi-Lo Vent/Air Conditioning ones, and High Output ones. I think. Anyway, well done! Trifocals? Must be time for cataract surgery. I sure like the results from mine.

I suspect your ignition module is the altitude-compensating one. So it may not be an EEC-III system, but an odd-ball EEC-II system. I'd trace out the wiring in the engine harness and see what you really have as it is remotely possible what you have will work with a DS-II blue-grommeted box. However, the oil pressure and coolant temp senders are in the wrong place on a Windsor to use the 300's harness, so at least they will have to be shortened or lengthened.

To help me get my head around what the "system" is that I'm working on, I created the block diagram below. The dashed lines indicate things that aren't always there. In other words, the EEC-V system will always be there, as will the Innovate wide-band AFR meter - until I move it to Dad's truck for tuning. But the Windows computer won't always be there. In fact, once the tuning is done and I'm happy with the way it runs then the it'll probably not be used again, unless I want to tweak something. However, not shown is the Arduino computer I plan to use to convert the later fuel level sending unit's output to match the Bullnose gauge's input. And, it turns out that there's plenty of ways to interface an Arduino to an OBD-II port. For instance, this guy has a kit and says the Arduino can get and display the following info: So, that might be a way to get the additional info I was planning on having the Arduino display - potentially in a display housed in a F600ish radio bezel. And, I could have switches in the switch openings for things like the air compressor, PTO input to the EEC to up the idle, parallel the batteries, etc.

Welcome to the forum! Where's home? I ask for two reasons. First, we have a member's map (Bullnose Forum/Member's Map in the menu) and I'd be happy to add you if I had a city. Second, I know where a cassette/AM/FM radio is in a Bullnose truck in a salvage. I have no idea if it is any good and don't know what they'd want for it, but can ask. And, if you are close to me in Okiehoma that would make it easy. But not all trucks had a center speaker. In fact, I don't believe any of the stereo systems had a center speaker. On the clock, it is a plug and play - if you have the harness that was used with the clock. It plugs into the clock's pig tail and then it plugs into the dash harness. Did you get it?

Belts were LMC 48-2352-BL, $200 for a set. Of all the stuff I bought from them, this is the only item that I was disappointed with. The other thing about these was that the L-shaped mounting tab for the floor on the outside mounts was bent the wrong way. In my truck, the bolt hole is against the door pillar, so the tab where the belt mounts is toward the center of the truck. When they were mounted this way, there is a half-twist in the belt. It is not noticeable in use, but it doesn't match the original in that manner. That is certainly disappointing. Thanks for telling us.

You are on the map.

Ned - You are on the right track. That ignition module is not a DS-II unit, which would have a blue grommet and no cylinder sticking out the front. And your distributor probably doesn't have a vacuum advance - right? If that's true then you would need to replace the distributor, ignition module, and engine harness with DS-II units. I did that on a 351W and it was plug and play. But the harnesses aren't all that easy to find any more, although Painless has one. And, you might be able to find one at a salvage. On the other hand, the distributors and modules are not expensive. Another option is a one-wire distributor. Lots of cheap Chinese units available. Or you could go with Tim Meyer's Ready To Run (RTR) dizzy, which looks like a Ford unit but has the HEI module built in. But, unless you have emissions testing I'd not go with the EEC-III system. And, you might want to read this thread: http://forum.garysgaragemahal.com/351w-2bbl-to-4bbl-amp-intake-swap-td20103.html#a20174. Plus here's how he did the HEI conversion: http://forum.garysgaragemahal.com/Goodbye-2-barrel-emissions-and-computer-tp27184p27295.html. However, as Jim/ArdWrknTrk said, you could use a DS-II box and put an HEI module in it. Stealth.

Big Blue's engine cross member has been sawz-all'd. It is toast and has to be replaced. So, while I'm doing that the guys have suggested that I replace the F250 teeth-jarring suspension with the F350's. Given that, if I can find a truck with everything it shouldn't be terribly expensive. Still have to find the cross member even if I can't find the front axle and suspension.