Gary Lewis

It is a "washer head":

Assuming you mean the bolts that go into the head, here's what the catalog shows:

I have "a lot" of the parts, but not all. This is turning out to be a very expensive engine to build. I have the pistons with ceramic coat and total seal 2nd rings which is a grand in itself. I have the bottom end main girdle and chromoly stud set. The crank is perfect. I have the R&D cam. I have the special mls head gaskets. The oil pump and lifters are perfect and better than the junk replacements that you can buy. Even the new dealership lifters are known to have problems and you are better off re-using the old ones if they are not too worn. My outstanding parts shopping list includes main and rod bearings, wrist pin bushings (hoping to find a nos set), ring set (the rest of the regular ones), ARP 2000 head stud set, oem engine gasket set, and engine rotating assembly balance job. I am getting there but I have a ways to go yet... Yes, at least some of it is bound to turn itself into engine parts! 😉 Teamwork Gary! Engines are expensive to build, and much more expensive to have built.

Chris - I can't answer your question about removing it, as I've not done it. But you can see the schematics here: Electrical/EVTM/1986 EVTM/Speed Control. However, there are some differences in those kits:

Progress!!! Getting the block "home" is a major step. Do you have all the other parts? As for the '68, I remember my '72 very fondly. So I can understand the bittersweet emotions. But just think of all the parts you can now buy. And, I agree with you - the quest continues for an XLS-like paint. That ain't it. I'll perfect sealing wax, I mean fog lamp bezels, and you perfect XLS trim.

So, Ford didn't learn? Glad you found it. But, to dry it can you pull the threshold and blow air under it?

I already had the book Programming Arduino - Getting Started with Sketches and read again a large part of it last night. So today I wrote this "sketch", which is Arduino for "program". I am not saying it is perfect, but I think it is close, and it is all the programming that is needed to do the interface. I think it really is that simple. Having said that, I'll put I/O to a USB-attached computer into the sketch to output the voltage reading taken in from the sending unit and the duty cycle to be written via PWM. That way it'll be easy to check to see what is going on. But I wanted you to see the simplicity of the sketch w/o the I/O, the base calculations. Anything after the two slashes (//) is a comment that will be ignored by the computer (compiler). But they are there for our edification. And note the two variables of "m" and "b". These are our knobs to twist in order to dial in the equation.

That's very good, Jonathan. But I think with a bit of tuning you can be above 18 MPG, especially when "summer" gas gets there. And that's very good MPG for a truck of this age. In fact, my 2015 won't do much more than that on the average - although its tow rating is several times what yours is. And it does have a few more creature comforts. And runs like a scalded cat if you step on it. But MPG? Not so much.

Welcome! Tell us where you are? I think it is AZ, right? Jonathan's there as well. And, by the way, that's his truck, in Death Valley, in the pic above. Also, you are officially the 100th member! (Yes, if you were to look it would show 101, but I have a "Test User" account as well as Gary Lewis.)

Yes, you can easily have gotten some crud into the carb from the bad gas. Case in point: My original '69 Bee was essentially brand new when I got a tank of bad gas. The gas mileage went away and it ran poorly as it was obviously quite rich. I ran that tank out and refilled - to no avail. I rebuilt the Holley but that didn't fix it. So I put several cans of gas cleaner in it and we took off from Wichita to Salina. I could see the gas gauge going down, but we made it to Salina on fumes. Filled it up and had the same problem. Stopped at the rest stop on the interstate roughly half way from Salina back to Wichita and pulled the carb down again. It was spotless inside, but there was a gummy residue on the needles. I wiped that off, put it back together, and it purred like a kitten - 'til the lakes pipes roared. (Credit to B. Wilson) So, I'd tear it down and clean it. And, since you already have a problem with the accelerator pump, and given what Bill says about those pumps going bad, I'd put a kit in it. As for the timing, you'll need an allen wrench instead of the timing light. Just start dialing in more vacuum advance 'til it pings and back off a turn.

Yes, the aerodynamics are worse than a proverbial barn door as these trucks have recesses, like headlights, that capture the air. That's why Ford flushed them in '87. Could your fuel problem be icing? Do you have heat plumbed to the air cleaner? As for timing and tune, have you ever had pinging? If not, you probably don't have enough advance dialed in. I think we've talked about that before, but best MPG is going to be just short of pinging. And that occurs at part-throttle, which means you need to adjust the vacuum advance.

I sent you links directly to them. You don't see them?

I like the 'scope trace of the ICVR. Gross! As for the light, I'm not sure that it wouldn't just be a blur if it is an incandescent light. Perhaps an LED would show something. I used to have a Heathkit powered breadboard and an open account at Digikey, but I gave the breadboard and all of my stock to my nephew - the one that I'm sure will mentor me on Arduinos. I'm all for buying it in, assembled, and getting on with things - although not for many months to come. But, if you can do it then GREAT!

You have access to the 1981 EVTM and 1986 EVTM. Why not use them? And, as you will see on Page 12 of the '81 EVTM, what you are looking for is a white/black wire. It comes from the stator, or "S", connection on the alternator and gives about 7 volts to the choke. And I think that one is marked "6 volts". Right?

Ray - That isn't a monkey wrench. It is an alternative. A monkey wrench would say my approach won't work. You didn't say that at all. On the ICVR, do you remember my thread on FTE re ICVR Thoughts & Observations? I was able to measure things with a DVM as I installed a true voltage regulator in place of the "flasher" - and that is exactly the right term. So I had steady state and could measure it. Anyway, your solution will probably work great. I know how transistors work, but I don't understand the math so will have to assume you can nail it. However, I see the flexibility of the Arduino and, given my programming and math background, I am sure it'll be plenty accurate. And, changing parameters will be a piece of cake - as opposed to soldering in new resistors.

Don't think I haven't thought of that. But it ain't that easy as each post needs to be copied. Which means you could edit out some of the rabbit-chasing. But, there's usually a reference to said rabbit some place later, and then the thread is broken.

I don't think that E2TZ 13A805-B is a black horn pad. I have a note on that (Interior/Horn Pads) that says it is the cruise control version for the XLS. And to rotate a pic you need to open it in a photo editing app and then save it. That usually does the trick for me w/o even rotating it. Forums, like this one and FTE, don't seem to look at the metadata that modern cameras or phones embed that includes the orientation. But the photo editing apps do and they fix it when you open and save.

Jim - You aren't hijacking anything. Happy to think about other uses for the interface. In fact, I was just wondering about using it to drive the ammeter - as an ammeter. One issue we have with our ammeters is that the shunt doesn't know outflow from inflow, so the discharge scale has to be the same as the charge scale. But if we put a 3G alternator in then the capacity to charge has gone up to 90 to 160 amps while the discharge stays roughly the same. So, if we size the shunt to go full scale on the ammeter when charging you'll never see the ammeter move should the alternator fail. What if we used an Arduino to move the ammeter and it monitored two different shunts? We could set the charge scale to fit the alternator, and the discharge scale could be set so that failure of the ammeter would get your attention. (And, we could light a warning light somewhere.) Bill - I was aware of why Ford did it. However, I'm not sure it is fair to say 5.4V. That's my number based on what it took to make three different Bullnose gauge setups work properly. You may remember, but I used the resistors that Ford recommended for calibrating gauges to come up with the voltage needed to make the gauges work correctly. And, 5.4 was it.

Bill - I really like the detail you are including on Darth's write up. When people ask what it takes you'll have the answer. Well done! As for what I did today (neatly dodging the "to" my truck aspect of the title), I designed a gauge interface to adapt Bricknose sending units to Bullnose gauges. And then tried to explain how it'll work. Several times. Then I did a bunch of media-blasting for parts for Dad's truck as well as for a friend. Not much to show there yet, but here's a before/after on the two stub axles that I blasted. Hopefully I'll get some powder coating done tomorrow.

Hey, this person knows what s/he has! Kudos! It says 1981 and indeed that is what it is for.

That is correct for the passenger's side for all years. (But seems kinda expensive for a piece of metal.)

We can put a capacitor on the output of the Arduino/ground side of the meter. An electrolytic would damp it handily. And we should be able to nail any two points on the scale. Maybe Empty and Full would work well enough for the area just above/below. But, if not, you could plug into the Arduino and change the M and B parameters. However, I'm not sure that I understand the "sink resistor". Do you mean what I've called the "pull up resistor" below? If so, you could put a pot there, but my concern is that it would confuse things. I think it is easier to play with M & B as it is easy and precise. Basically it would be the same system as I'm planning but w/o the ICVR, and since resistance values of the sender are different the pull up resistor would be different as well.

Jim - I think the short answer is "Yes". The 1987 EVTM shows your gauges are fed battery voltage and the sender just changes the resistance and, therefore, the current to ground. But an Arduino could be programmed to sink the same current, thereby playing like a resistor, depending on the input voltage from the Bullnose sender. However, it will still have to be PWM, but I think it can be so fast that the inertia of the movement will do the integration. The key will be in determining the equation. But do you really care to have "accuracy" in the middle of the range? We should be able to nail it at Full and Empty, but the easiest equation will be a straight line. However, if you could somehow measure the resistance as a function of the tank level then maybe we could come up with the equation. But, let's see if this works for me and then move on to yours? Do you like the approach?

EDIT: I've added in a document that I'm writing to bring together all of the various threads and posts about this truck:Apparently I don't have a thread/topic about the whole of Dad's truck, just ones for EFI & E4OD. But there are lots of little details that will get lost if I don't have a place to capture them, so here's a thread about those. Having said that, there is a question if this ought to be in the Dad's Truck project topic, so let me know what you think as I can move it easily. Anyway, today I got a bit done toward the front suspension/driveline. I cleaned and media-blasted the two stub axles. That isn't as easy as I'd expected since there are things that need to be protected from the blasting, and there are lots of cracks and crevices in which grease hide. And if the grease isn't gotten out before the part goes in the powder coating oven it'll melt and run out from its hiding place and ruin the finish. So, I may have to bake the parts in the oven for an hour prior to coating them with powder just to bake the grease off. Then, once they come out of the pre-bake I have to wash them again with brake cleaner and then put high-temp tape on the not-to-be-coated places, including the bearing race, splines, and the u-joint cup bores. So these things are fiddly! Anyway, here's a before/after on the two shafts. I'm going to be coating them with Eastwood's Silver Lining instead of the Blasted Aluminum I've been using as the Silver Lining has a smoother finish and may not hold dirt/grease as easily as Blasted Aluminum.

Technically there is no PM function on this forum, but you can email him by clicking on his handle and hitting "Send email to..." And, by the way, I think the price on that bezel is good. I should have said that on my previous post.