Gary Lewis

Have been doing some searching for gaskets, and drilled down on the Fel-Pro site to this page for a 1995 Super Duty w/a 460. As it turns out, there's a different valve cover gasket/o-ring for trucks under 8500 GVW (VS 50067) as opposed to trucks over 8500 GVW (VS 50474 R). I'm going to guess that the valve covers with the deeper groove take the over 8500 o-ring and the shallow groove take the under 8500 o-ring. Boy, it sure would be nice to have the 1990 - 99 master parts catalog so I could look these things up.

Wow, Dave. I understood every word, but got lost when you strung them together. Seriously though, you had quite the day. But, it looks like you made good progress and have the filler pipes figured out. And, I'll hope with you that the vent is in the right place as filling the tank with a bad vent is a pain. Anyway, well done!

I doubt you'll be 1000 lbs heavier. What will you have beyond a crew cab (+482 less the frame you cut off) and the diesel's weight that Big Blue doesn't have? Your tires will be lighter. Will you have a winch and winch bumper? What about the heavy step/slider bars? Tool box and lots of tools? So I can't see you at more than 500 lbs more. And with smaller tires comes more torque. So I'm thinking it'll be a wash. Oh, by the way, I am supposed to have a 12" clutch. And you'll have a 13.

Please let him know about this forum as well as the show in Sept. I'd love to have him bring Big Blackie to it. And, he should join the forum.

As said, the valve covers that Jim pulled from the 1995 F450 came in last night. I ran them through the parts washer this morning to get the goo off, and they came out nice and clean. And then I put the more-corroded one in the blast cabinet to see how it would clean up. Here's a shot of it with its brother that hasn't been blasted. I'm quite pleased as there's enough texture for the powder to grab but not enough to show through the powder. I'm still going with wrinkle/crinkle black, but I'm not sure it would be necessary. As for the differences between the early and late 460 EFI valve covers, here's a shot of the early ones above and the late ones below. Easily seen is the grommet for the push-in PCV valve on the early cover vs the screw-in PCV valve on the later one. There are at least two other differences. One that is visible in this shot is that the little "lands" that the wire retainers go into, shown in the top left of the shot, are bigger on the earlier covers. And, those holes on the later covers are tapped 8-1.25mm while the early ones aren't tapped. Here's a shot of the other difference, although you really can't tell in the pic. Anyway, the groove for the o-ring is deeper on the later valve covers. Here are the measurements: Early Covers: .162" wide x .162" deep (E7TE-6583-EE & E7TE-6583-EE) Late Covers: .162" wide x .234" deep (F5TE-6582-BA & F5TE-6A505-DA)

I was wrong! The 1983 facts book says a regular cab long bed F250 HD 4x4 starts at 4372 lbs, which is about 400 lbs heavier. And it shows a DRW to be 297 lbs heavier than a SRW. And a crew cab is 482 heavier than a regular cab. Plus, an F350 is 100 lbs heavier than a HD F250. So, if I take Darth's 6400 lbs and subtract 100 for the F250, 297 for the SRW, and 482 for a regular cab then Big Blue should weight 5521 lbs - without the big tires, big bumper, toolbox and its significant contents, extra battery, and winch. I know Darth's tires are big, but these are HEAVY! And the bumper is 1/4" plate. Plus the toolbox has a full toolbox of hand tools, chain, ratchet straps, chocks, tree saver strap, 3 boomers, snatch block, hooks, bottle jack, 4-way, jumper cables, the winch 10' 2/0 jumper, and chain links. So, I'm going to guess that Big Blue would come in a bit above 6000 lbs.

Bill - I already have it under Electrical/PMGR Starter Wiring. Steve - Does that answer the questions?

He is pretty emphatic about a number of things, including it isn't dependable nor your daily driver. I think I'd give it a miss.

I was blown away with the fact that there were no more bids. Ray Cecil and I both watched the last few minutes and expected fireworks. It was disappointing.

Worked yesterday on the radiator support. There were several small cracks and I used a narrow cutting wheel on the Dremel to open them up for welding. I'm not sure that was a good idea as that made it even easier to blow a hole in the metal - and that metal sure is thin and easy to blow holes in. But I finally got the welder dialed in and have most of the cracks welded up and hope to finish them tomorrow. And then I'll take it up to John for him to have media blasted and then he'll paint it satin black. And the valve covers came in from Jim/ArdWrknTrk today. I haven't had a chance to compare, but they look quite a bit different than the ones off Huck's engine. But tomorrow I'll run them through the parts washer and maybe get a chance to media blast them a bit to see how they'll clean up.

I'm happy with the T-19's 2nd gear starts, and am sure I'll also be with the ZF5. As said, even the 351M pulled 2nd gear starts just fine with the ZF5 and 3.50's, although it was a lighter truck and had smaller 30" tires.

I know, but it doesn't hurt to look right?...lol. I recently drove that far to pick up my spare Flareside box (in pieces). A whole vehicle that isn't running though? That's a problem for me. There is an '80 Flareside 4x4 locally (well, by "local" I mean 500 kms away) that I have had my eye on. The truck isn't for sale, not yet at least, but it is in need of an engine. I have communicated with the owner and let him know that I'd be interested in it, running or not, if he decides to sell it. What did I do to my truck today? Got its A/C fixed. They pulled a vacuum on it, found no leaks, so charged it up. Now I can take it to the Fordification show in June over in MO. And, I'll take it next week when I go down to see what my neighbor has in the way of surplus pallet racks. I'll take the trailer as well, but Big Blue's getting used to it.

I'll watch for the commercial. Good luck on the valve geometry.

Brilliant idea. Ford went to them later for the small blocks, and they not only take less power to crank but also have a built-in relay. So you wind up using the relay on the fender to pull in the relay in the starter, and the fender-mounted one lasts forever.

Yes, sir, all good stuff for me. I was an industrial controls tech for quite a few years, so I know all about the good crimping tools and good connections. I just don't have any more of the sealed connectors left, so I think I'll just grab a handful of sizes to make sure I have enough. Good! Too many people think that the cheap crimp connectors are the way to go. But they will be a problem some day - it is just a matter of when. And when is partially determined by where they are used. On trailer connectors the "when" will be very soon.

Somewhere in my literature I have the add-on weights for each accessory. I've found one set in the master parts catalog, but haven't found the weight to add for a 460, T-19, etc. I also have the 2nd battery, winch, and big bumper. But I doubt it'll exceed 6000 lbs. On Fri, May 11, 2018 at 4:19 PM, 85lebaront2 [via Bullnose Enthusiasts] <redacted_email_address> wrote:

Would sure look good. Do you have that engine running yet?

Sorry, late to the party. But Bill is right. However, you may want to make sure that your connections are good. Low voltage causes the starter to drag and that pulls more current. So check all the connections.

Do you just want to pick up fasteners "down under"? Or do you need me to pick something up?

I'm headed out, but the tires are LT285/75R16. Don't know the diameter. And the 1983 facts book says an F250 4x4 starts at 3994 lbs. They you add a 460, A/C, the huge tires, dual batteries, tool box, etc. Some have said 6500 but I'm not sure it'll go that much. EDIT: The 1983 facts book actually says 4372 lbs for a regular cab, long bed F250 HD 4wd. But, you have to add to that the 460 engine, dual batteries, etc.....

You do plan to use the high-dollar butt connectors that have a seal to them - right? My belief is that the run-of-the-mill butt/crimp connector has no place in a vehicle if not used with the high-end crimpers that create enormous forces and effectively make the metal of the connector one with the wire. Or, used as the base for a soldered connection that is then covered with shrink tubing. I've seen way too many of the crimps made with the cheap crimpers pull loose, and even those that don't frequently have problems later due to corrosion because the crimp is so poorly done.

Bingo! There are wiring booklets that have many very wide fold-out pages, and there are the EVTM's. I have an example of a wiring booklet here: Electrical/Wiring Diagrams. However, I don't find the on-line version useful at all, and rarely refer to the physical version as they are really difficult to use since you usually have to trace wires across several pages. Instead, the EVTM's break the circuits down into digestable lumps that typically are contained on one page. But, the wiring booklets/diagrams are "the bible". They appear to have been done first and the EVTM's then created from them. So sometimes I go to the diagrams if there is a question about something on an EVTM's page.

While I think buying an EVTM rather than relying on my on-line versions is a good idea since you can put your fingers in pages and flip back and forth, I'm not sure a 1981 version is the best for you. I say that because it will not contain any info on Eunice's EFI system. But it will work very well for the issues with Espy. To explain what little I know of EVTM's: 1980: The wiring for these trucks had some differences to 1981 and later trucks, especially in the instrument wiring 1981: The first of the "standard" wiring for the Bullnose trucks, but doesn't contain anything about EFI and probably has very little about the EEC-III or IV ECM 1982: Pretty heavy into EEC systems, feedback carbs, etc 1983: Should have the first of the 460's and diesels, but the pages on the 460's will be the first iteration of the evolving fuel system. 1984: The hot-fuel handling package on the 460 should show up as well as TFI ignitions. But DS-II is still shown for 351HO's and 460's. 1985: Probably much the same as the '84 EVTM, although there may be another iteration on 460's fuel system. But I don't think this one gets into the 1985.5 changes to the fuel systems. 1986: The first thing to note is that for '86 Ford did away with the dots and hash marks on the wiring, so this version of the EVTM may be confusing if used on earlier trucks. However, there really isn't that much change as the dots and hash marks just became stripes. Also, this one should have the mid-year changes to the fuel systems with, if I remember correctly, the elimination of the 6-port valve. In addition to all of that, there was a change to the clock wiring some place in there. And, there were new radios, tape decks, and CB's added over the years. So, the earlier EVTM's may not show some options that were on later trucks.

They do have some kits, although I'm not sure exactly what they have. Which leads me to a discussion of a long conversation I had yesterday with their machinist, Bernie. He called to work with me on my needs for Big Blue as they don't have a kit for the EFI 460's. In fact, I don't think they were aware that there are differences in the normally-aspirated 460's and the EFI'd 460's. In the course of the conversation Bernie let me know quite a bit about the company. Apparently he and the company founder were working together on another job and the other guy was working on a VW. He wanted some stainless fasteners for it, so Bernie made them. Others also wanted them so they started selling them. Then the other guy started finding other people with other vehicles and the company was born. They kept expanding their offerings by taking vehicles apart and measuring things. And along the way they started buying in the more common fasteners and making up the kits. But, many of the things, like the knurled air cleaner nuts, are still made by Bernie on the old South Bend manual lathe. Unfortunately the founder of the company passed away about 18 months ago, so now it is his wife, his daughter, and Bernie. And I think I see a way to help them by our expertise in Ford trucks, and especially the Bullnose trucks. So I've started liaising with them on the EFI 460 fasteners as they would like to have kits for it. Given that, would you folks take a look at their catalog and see what might be missing for our trucks? I already know they don't have the door striker bolt as ours first appeared in 1980 (thanks to the 1982 MPC). What about bed kits for the Flaresides? Is there interest in those? Anyway, I think we could help them help us. What do y'all think?