Gary Lewis

Yipes! So, do you have the replacement?

Looks great!

Ray - Thanks for doing that. All - Please chime in on your thoughts. What is the best location for the ECU? Can I get it sealed under the seat? Time to brainstorm.

Rembrant - Sorry. For some reason I thought you have a 351W. My mistake. Bill - Thanks for the explanation.

Again, I'm not sure that it'll work given the block height difference. But, I will see if I can add a new page to the website, on which this forum resides, this afternoon and show the illustrations as well as the part numbers. If it were me I'd head to a salvage and see if I could find a nice setup on a 351W in a passenger car or another truck. I think the W came out in about 1969, but I don't remember when the AIR pump came out. However, I don't think it had in the early 70's so brackets from one of those should fit. And, the heads, block, pump didn't change, at least as far as the bolt holes are concerned, so any 351W bracket should work on another 351W - as long as it isn't EFI. The 5.0L was EFI'd in '85 I think, and for the 85-86 years it appears to not have gone serpentine. That's why those two years are different. Looks like in '87 it went serp and the brackets changed dramatically. But, you could change to serp and since the AIR pump was down low on those you probably wouldn't see it wasn't there.

I see what you mean. This is what the catalog has for yours: What about this one from a 1985/85 5.0L? I'm not sure it will work as the deck height for a 302 is shorter than for a 351W. But, the catalog shows the same EFI/serpentine bracket working for both, so maybe?

I worked the bracket for a 351M/400 over like shown below. It works well. You start with a perfectly good chunk of fairly soft cast iron that looks like this, and cut on the red lines. And then cut some more. And then grind a bunch. But, it isn't that easy to tell the truth. This thing is all angles and protrusions and is even hard to secure in the vise. But, it can be done. Whack the spacer off that's at the top of the picture and then make a few more cuts to get as much of the excess off that you can. Then cut the rest of the goal posts off where the red line shows at the bottom of the picture. Then turn the piece that mounts to the water pump over and cut more on the red line shown below to get the angle shown. And grind on it to clean it all up. Next up is the spacer. I did mine in the lathe, but that really isn't necessary. And, it takes a long time even with a lathe since the thing doesn't start out very round at all so you have to be really careful and take lots of cuts. Without a lathe I would put a bolt through it and go to the bench grinder, which is what I did at the start to take some of the lobes off. And here's what my finished product looks like mounted. This is the 2nd one I've done.

Looks like the shorter bolts are for the vans? Unless I'm misreading the parts list. Yes, but I changed the page to only include the pickup stuff.

Brandon - The bolts for a van are a different length from those for a pickup. (Guess I shouldn't have included the van stuff.) But I don't have a catalog for the '96 stuff, so I don't know if that takes a different length or not. I should have the bolts and washers out of Huck if you want them. Rembrant - Very good point!

I read the reviews, and I can say that they don't reflect well on Red Head. Were I to buy now I'd seriously consider Blue Top. But I have a brand new Red Head waiting on installation in Dad's truck.

Just for you, Brandon, we have a new illustration and associated part numbers. See Suspension & Steering/Steering/Steering Gear Box. But, to answer your question, you need three 7/16"-14 x 5 15/64" bolts and three 15/32" I.D. x 1" O.D. x 3/16" thick washers. So, let me ask: How many Facebook groups or other forums can, much less will, do that?

No, but we will..........

Beautiful! Well done.

That's about all you can do, I guess, if you are filling it via the heater hose and it is still low. Hadn't thought about the thermostat opening and then closing quickly. That would complicate things, for sure.

Good to know, Brandon. I'll pass the word on to Scott, the welder guy from the show, as he needs a new steering box for Red, his '78. Man, the box on that thing is huge! Much bigger than ours as it is L-shaped. The steering shaft comes in to the top of the L and then a long sector shaft goes down, but it is encased in box.

Yep, I used those on a 350 I built once. Worked fine, but I think the better approach is to buy a pair of cast valve covers. They won't bend, so seal much better.

Mark/Dyn - I can't thank you enough. Those parts are going to make the conversion of Big Blue to EFI much, much easier. Having the right harness to convert it to MAF & SEFI instead of either using one of the SD and bank-fire harnesses that I have will be straightforward. Bill - What is the best approach to burping a 460? I had assumed that filling it via a heater hose would be best, but what did you find worked?

Mark - Thanks. I hadn't heard of Blue Top, only Red Head. But, it looks like they do similar things to the steering boxes. It turns out that Ford's design had the end of the shaft running against the cast iron case. And, while it was submerged in lube there was still wear. But when worn out boxes are "rebuilt" by Cardone and others that wear isn't addressed. Presumably they have a limit on the wear that is acceptable and boxes with more than that get tossed. But, a rebuilt box isn't the same as a new box. Enter Red Head and apparently Blue Top. Red Head explains that they bore out the case and place a bearing where the wear was. And Blue Top says their boxes are "Remanufactured with OE seals and custom fit ball bearings to eliminate play", which I assume means they also bore out the box and put ball bearings there. And that can make a huge difference in the feel of the steering.

Brandon - Do you have a link to Blue Top? And, do you know anything about them?

Excellent! And, Bully for Ron/Reamer.

Quite a day, Jim. Well done. As for what I did "for trucks", although some weren't mine: Got the radio info for MotorsportXLT from the 1985 and 1996 EVTM's. While getting the radio info I discovered that I'd been sold a knock-off version of the '96 EVTM, so I posted a review on Amazon stating that as well as wrote the shysters directly. All in the hopes that other truck owners won't have to go through the same thing. (That's "for trucks", right?) Checked out the valve covers on Huck and found they are heavy cast aluminum. Should clean up nicely when I change Big Blue over to EFI. Speaking of EFI'ing Big Blue, I also talked and texted many times with Mark/Dyn Blin, who spent many hours in a salvage pulling the EFI harness, MAF sensor and air box, OBD-II connector, etc for that effort. Thanks!! Did some work on the fog lamp bezel as Ron/Reamer had discovered we don't have the recess in the rear into which the rubber insert nestles. Not quite done with that, but want to get it off to Ron for Pass 2. Well, looking back on it maybe I did get a bit more done than I thought.

I use a bit more than Pete does, but I still use some silicon seal. However, as I said in the email, that stuff is SLICK when WET. So I tighten things down snuggly, maybe finger tight, which squishes the excess out and fills in any cracks, dents, etc. Then the next morning I torque it down to specs. Having said that, sheet metal valve covers are notorious for denting where the fasteners go through. So you want to flatten them before installing. Place the rim of the cover upside down on the edge of a table and tap the cover flat with a small hammer.

Ok, I got to go to the shop long enough to tap the valve covers - very solid! Obviously cast. And, I got several text messages from Mark/Dyn Blin. It looks like he got the engine harness back to and including the power distribution box, the MAF sensor and the air box, the cold air inlet, the wye and the large hose that goes to the MAF sensor, and the OBD-II connector. But, the ECU was gone and the harness was cut just before the ECU's connector - in the cab I think. However, the wiring being cut is not a problem as I need to mount the computer in a different location so will need to lengthen the wiring anyway. And, I assume that I can do as you did and turn a EEC-V processor from a smaller engine into one for a 460 - right? As for the smaller hoses that go from the wye to the throttle body, did you have trouble finding them? Any chance I can use the ones I have from the F450 Jim parted out or the ones from Huck for that? Oh, and he said something about a cruise control and maybe something else?

I'm so glad you posted those pics! Now I have something to model.