Gary Lewis

Sorry about your friends, but happy to see that you and yours are safe. That was a horrible thing to have happen. So I fully understand the need to turn your attention to help them. Plus you don't want to be out in that weather! It is already down to 16F here in the Tulsa area, and just walking to the shop will get your attention. Take care!

The courtesy lights attach to the bottom edge of the dash via one screw each. The left one attaches near the emergency brake handle, and the one on the right is a couple of inches left of the kick panel. And that panel closes off the inner fender area. Trucks with A/C had the panel, and those w/o don't and have a kick panel with vents for fresh air. So yes, you can put screws through it. But the outside end of the screws will be exposed to the elements and will probably rust if not plated.

So you have .041" of clearance, or quench, and it seems to be working. Cool!

Any idea why or how you were pulling them apart? I realize that with the crawl ratio you had a lot of torque at the wheels, but you didn't have any more at the engine. However, now that I think about it the "engine" mounts are really mounts for the whole engine/transmission/t-case module, so it isn't the engine's torque but the torque that the module puts out, and you doubled or trebled it. Hadn't really thought of it that way, but now it makes sense.

Ok, let's use this thread to continue the discussion on seats. I've found a pair of 2011 Navigator bucket seats for $295. They are in black leather and are said to have been taken out of the Navigator when new so are in perfect shape. I'd like your thoughts of what these seats would look like in Big Blue. http://www.garysgaragemahal.com/uploads/6/5/8/7/65879365/waving_orig.gif It cost $1000 to have the captain's chairs rebuilt and recovered for Dad's truck, and that was several years ago. So these seats would be a lot less expensive than having to rework used seats. However, I don't know how easy it would be to mount them. I have the base from the mid-90's Ford truck that bolts into our trucks, but it remains to be seen whether these will be easily adapted to that base. Does anyone know anything about 2011 Navigator seats? Here are the pics I got of them, and yes they are folded. The guy said they can't be unfolded until installed, so I've found some pics online of the same seats. However, most of those pics show seats with arm rests and these don't have them. And here's a pic from the internet. Again, these buckets have arm rests and those for sale do not.

I saw something similar on Big Blue's speed control. I was running that VSS I sent you, meaning in the middle of the speedo cable, and couldn't get the speed control to be as stable as I wanted. So I switched to the VSS in the output of the transfer case. But, at the same time I discovered that the speedometer drive gear in the t-case was slipping. So I fixed it and took the truck out to test it - much improved. But I don't know if it was the VSS or the drive gear, or both. However, I can't imagine that the output of the VSS in the middle of the speedo cable is as stable as that of the VSS in the t-case. That long, skinny speedo cable probably has some whip to it. Anyway, you are making progress!

I appreciate the videos on Moab. I'm really interested in going there, and being able to watch your videos helps me a bunch. Fins N Things: You make it look easy! Apparently it is steep, although not all that rocky, but the stone gives the tires plenty of traction? Looking like something Big Blue could do? Top Of The World: There are a number of steps in this that make it seem very hard. You have enough approach angle to handle it, but it is still tough to get up over. But even the down sections are STEEP. Sevenmile Rim: No, that isn't a dirt road. There are some really steep sections in there. And several large steps. But the Bronco just motors on up, or down as the case may be.

Finally have a chance to look at the latest videos: Black Bear Steps: Thanks for including the Black Bear Pass sign. As you know, that's as far as we got with Big Blue. Still would like to make it all the way. Poughkeepsie Gulch: Where you engaged the locker is about where Mike, in his 4Runner, had to engage his locker, but there seem to be fewer rocks now. And, I think you may have had the same driver's ed teacher that I had since you seem to signal for turns even on the trail. But at The Wall things got dicey. I think I echoed Lesley's "eek!" But, you made it. (Sure glad we didn't try that. ) Spring Creek Trail: Man, you sure seem to find hard trails. But you get through things well. So, what seems to be the problem with the mount tearing?

Yeah, that's my take as well. I might be more concerned about it if I was shooting for something like 9 or 9.5:1 because the increased compression would push combustion closer to detonation anyway (esp on 89 octane) and having a good quench would mitigate that. But to get good quench with one of these engines, looks like it's going to cost some money in modifications. I have about 310k kms on the original 5.8 HO in my truck now. By the book it has 8.3:1 compression and probably doesn't have a good quench, yet I tow with it all the time and only recently have been getting some slight pinging if I'm on the gas too hard while climbing this one hill near my house. Yep, you should be fine. And I agree that it would take a lot of mods to get to effective quench.

My understanding is that "effective quench" is when the gases in the combustion chamber are squished so tightly that they move rapidly and both cause effective mixing of the fuel and air and prevent detonation. But that by .060" clearance you don't have "effective quench". Motor Trend says "It's not uncommon for old-school, low-compression, smog-motor, stockers to have over 0.060-inch quench at TDC. We've even seen some '70s-era Chrysler 440 engines with the piston 0.150 inch or more down in the hole at TDC. Originally, this was done to lower compression and slow the burn rate in an effort to reduce detonation. Current theory is that this is counterproductive, producing more unburned gases and such a slow burn that the detonation tendency actually increases. Don't run more than 0.060-inch quench, even if you have a need to run a low compression ratio." But to answer your question of "but if this is so important for an 8.5:1 engine, why didn't Ford design the block that way in the first place", I don't know. My guess is that it wasn't that important to them. So, what should you do? I don't think it really matters when you get very far past .040". With your deck height of .032" you aren't going to get to .040" regardless of what gasket you use. I say don't worry about it.

How far down in the bore are your pistons? If they aren't pretty much at deck height you won't get to the ideal "quench" with any gasket. That's because you need about .040" between the piston and the head to have good quench. Summit says you should be at "0.035 - 0.045 in." So with even the thinnest gasket you mentioned of .039" you can't get there w/o being zero-decked.

Wow! That sounds like a serious problem. Our EFI documentation is pretty badly scattered on this website, but let me point out some of it: Documentation/Electrical/Electronic Engine Control (EEC): This covers EEC-III, IV, and V systems. Yours should be EEC-IV, assuming the dealership installed an '85 system in the truck. So go to the EEC-IV tab and then the Diagnostics tab to see how to troubleshoot as well as wire colors, connectors, etc. Documentation/Fuel & Air Systems/Carbs, Chokes, & EFI//EFI: This has illustrations from the Master Parts Catalog, pinout, acronyms, as well as the Factory Shop Manual section on EFI. EEC-IV Quick Test: This is part of the 1986 Engine Emissions Diagnosis manual and has some testing procedures. EEC-IV Light Trucks: This is also part of the 1986 Engine Emissions Diagnosis manual but has more detailed instructions than the Quick Test chapter. EEC-IV Pinpoint Tests: This is also part of the 1986 Engine Emissions Diagnosis manual but has more specific tests. That's about as much as I can find, but I'm probably missing something. Anyway, as I said previously, I don't have one of the trucks with this system so cannot get pics. Perhaps others can. But we do have lots of documentation on this site so maybe some of that will help.

Is that yours? I saw it advertised and thought of posting it here, but decided not to do so as that price is about what you can buy a new one for, and an old one like this one is going to crack. In fact, Shaun bought one similar to that one and it cracked sitting on a shelf. But a new one shouldn't crack. So I'm really leery of these old ones that aren't yet cracked.

Waine - Welcome! Glad you joined. I'm sure you'll start a thread on your truck in the main section to discuss the ECU problems you are having, so I'll watch for that. But where's home? I ask because we have a map (Bullnose Forum/Member's Map in the menu) and we can add you with a city/state or zip. Who knows, you may be near someone else that can help?

The 4x4 might be a little sturdier with the heavier 3" wide leaf springs, and extra heft of the truck overall? I don't know how much that would account for over a 2wd, but it would be something. I know my little 2wd '84 was pretty "loose" feeling until I stiffened her all up. My '80 4x4 was quite sturdy by comparison, but it did have front and rear swaybars and quad shocks up front, so far from an apples to apples comparison. However, I didn't tow anything with either of them, so I guess it's a moot point;). Rusty, an 81 F150, was converted from 2wd to 4wd and still had the 2 1/2” wide 2wd rear springs - and no sway bars. The PO told me that it towed like a champ, but I’m not sure I ever towed with it.

That does sound like a looooong day. But, you got it done. It is raining here, and it is 36F and headed to 12F tonight, so rain and cold are headed your way. But maybe not before the show. Good luck!

Happy New Year!!! I do hope this one will be better than the last one.

Glad you got the wipers going. Well done. On the HVAC control, you found something I'd left out of the documentation. But I've now added the information below to the Part #'s tab on the page at Documentation/HVAC/HVAC Systems. Note the "YH-361". That's the Motorcraft part number, and I found some of them with this search.

Glad it worked out. Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Years!!!

I don't think I've ever seen it. Fits: 80/81 E —F—U100/350 -— w/tilt wheel E2TZ 3511-A Upper

I forgot you didn't have the rock sliders on then. And I was assuming you have snatch blocks so you could come in from the side. But w/o those things the winch wouldn't have helped - much. Just some. And yes, in the mud it would have been a huge help.

Happy New Year, Dave! Hope the "work" today goes well. I assume you are going to put a heavier spring where the light one is to slow the centrifugal advance down. Right? Remember that the heavy spring, which should have a long loop on one end, doesn't come into play until the peg hits the end of the loop. So until that point it is all down to the light spring. Then it is both of them. IIRC, you have pinging going on pretty quickly RPM wise, which means you are getting too much advance at low RPM. And you are getting all of it by 1500, so I'd move that up to at least 1700 - if not more. And then test with the vacuum disconnected. You want to kill the pinging caused by the centrifugal advance before you move on to the vacuum advance.

Day 1 looks like it was fun. More of the same kind of thing, but in many cases the rocks seem bigger than before. Fewer of them, but bigger. That bang at 30 seconds on Day 2 got my attention. Was that why you were under the Bronco in a shot at the end? Anyway, you got to use the winch. Made it easy, right? Thinking back to where you were off the trail and having to jack it up and have it fall toward the trail, I'll bet you'd have liked to have had the winch then. I know that having the winch on Engineer Mountain made all the difference for us.

Come on down! But bring your machine. Seriously though, I learned by taking a community college class, one semester on the lathe and the next on the mill. That was the most fun I ever had in school. The "kids" in class surely hated me. Read the book, twice. Did all of the examples on my own machine. Didn't miss a question, ever.