Gary Lewis

Looks great, Randy! But I'm curious how bright they are at night. This will be a subjective evaluation as the camera can't really tell us. Are they bright enough? Too bright and you have to turn them down? Or still just adequate? On the temp gauge, ground the wire at the sender and see if the gauge comes up to Hot. If not, then there's a problem at the gauge.

I can't imagine why the change would change the temp. It might at idle a little bit, but certainly not overall, and not enough you can see on the gauge. I think you have a thermostat problem.

At $6300 with 6 hours left.

That would work. But did it wash out? Did the video actually show the welding? I assumed that the sensor would be overloaded with light and wash out.

Nice truck! I'm not familiar with the 5.8L enough to know for sure, but I think that one is EEC-V with MAF and SEFI. If so it would be a lot easier to maintain than the earlier ones. Plus it would allow for more modifications that the earlier speed density system would.

That is going to be one very nice, and solid, machine. Is that guy shielding his eyes with a cell phone? Did he put it on camera and watch the welding?

I agree. I think you'll find the difference between the Sterling and the Dana are small enough you can use the same shaft.

Yes, another step closer. In fact, there's a chance I'll have the tool box in and the cover on by the end of the week. As for the grease fitting, I had a right angle one on there when I first put it together. But before even getting it on the ground I discovered the axle wouldn't turn. What are your thoughts on the axle leak?

I know the question wasn't to me, but I can't help but add my two bits. I tried both an Edelbrock 600 as well as the Edelbrock 750 on Big Blue's well worn 460 a couple of years ago. The 600 performed very well, and might have had a slight edge just off idle but the 750 had the edge on top end. I say that add to what Jim has said. You need to determine what you are going to do with the truck and what other mods you are going to make. But unless you are going to spin the engine up quite a ways you won't need more than about 600 CFM in the carb.

Those are beautiful wheels. But I'm not seeing the dimensions on that page. Am I missing them? And while I've heard good things about those tires, I've not run them so don't have any personal experience.

Buy it! For $50 it is a steal. And it'll work on a whole lot of things. I have one very similar. And I think Bill/85lebaront2 has one very similar - that I took to him. I rarely use mine as I've not done all that much troubleshooting. But it works.

And the tires are Cooper Discoverer S/T Maxx LT285/75R16.

The tires cleared fine before I put the D60 and RSK on, meaning with stock F250 4wd suspension. And I bought my stereo via CarID and it worked great. But that was the first time I'd used them so I, too, was nervous.

Well done! You sure are getting quite a bit accomplished. And I don't think I'd have thought of using a socket to flare the tube. Ingenious!

I’m looking for something like what Gary’s Big Blue has but I was thinking chrome instead: Those wheels are Wheel Vintiques 82-680804 16 in.x 8 in., 8 x 6.5 in. Bolt Circle, 4 in. Backspace.

Thanks, Bill. I knew you'd know.

If there's no mass air flow sensor then the truck has EEC-IV with what is called speed density. In other words, they know how many cubic inches the engine has, what cam it has, how big the valves are, and what exhaust system is on it. So they know how much air it ingests with any given throttle opening. Assuming, of course, that none of that has been changed. Most EEC-IV systems don't have an OBD-II port, and I believe the few that do have don't have a fully functional OBD-II interface. But I'm not sure on that. I'm going to ping Bill Vose as he may know about this.

That's a bummer, but one that many of us have experienced. Your fix looks good and should last as long as the truck does. Good luck on the A/C. The hoses are frequently an issue, which is why I'm really glad I pulled a complete system out of a newer truck.

When I walked into the shop this afternoon I was greeted with a little puddle under the front tire. Turns out the D60 is leaking a bit. I'm not going to panic and pull it down now as this is the first time it has leaked, but I turned the axle a bit to see if maybe it stopped with a rough spot down. Then I went to work pulling the toolbox out. With that done I drilled two holes for the drain hoses from the bed cover. Then I welded all six bed bolts to the bed. Finally I tightened down the left rear bolt, the one that had been loose. I think I got it tight, but it took everything I had. I couldn't get my impact on it so had to use a breakover with very limited movement range. But the weld held. Tomorrow I'll do a bit of cleanup on the welds and then hit all the rust and bare metal with primer. Then I'll install the fender-mounted starter relay.

I think the Sterling is the better of the two, but up front is a good place for a Dana 60. As for the driveshaft, is this the truck that gets the GVOD?

Congrat's! Glad you got it home. That "L" bit probably would have escaped my attention as well. My Super Bee has left-hand threads on the left side, but I frequently forget. May change them out to right-hand when I rebuild it. Started to suggest you do the same, but you aren't going to use the axle, right?

That's the stuff. Don't know what it was like originally, but some of it is almost rock hard by now.

It is a bummer when plans fall through like that. But at least it is a fairly simple fix - assuming your homemade flaring tool works like it should. I don't know of a source of the fins, but I think you are right that baseboard heaters have them. Or maybe your other compressor does? Good luck!

Yes, the bed looks wonderful! Well done! And yes, I was in the same predicament. And my transfer punches are only 4" long, which leaves them way too short to go through the bed and supports to reach the box. Janey's solution was to put the bolts in place, heavily coat the ends with fingernail polish, and then push them up against the bottom of the box. It worked very well. As for getting in and out of the truck 500 times, yep. I was worn out last night. Not sure which would be the hardest - getting in and out of the bed and rolling under an F150 or getting in and out of the bed of a tall F300 (F250 on steroids) that is on a lift. For the most part I lifted the truck up to get under it so was standing up. But there were plenty of times I crawled under. And getting in the bed got to be a real challenge towards the end of the day as I don't let the lift come all the way down or the truck tends to walk sideways a bit each time, so I'm stepping on the step bar or rear wheel to get it and it is still a chore from there. Plus, I wonder if the fact that I'll turn 74 in just over a month had anything to do with it?

Yes, you have to figure in wind drag. Big Blue put a lot of drag on because when you looked in the rear view mirror on Blue all you could see was the Ford logo on BB's grille. It sure set up high. For a couple of other data points, we got about 14 MPG just pulling the trailer down to FL to pick BB up. We were running more like 70 MPH, but the trailer towed very nicely and obviously had very little wind drag. And when we pulled the 25' Sea Ray to Lake Powell we got 11.0 MPG running 65 MPH for the 2500 miles. And it was on that trip where I found that the truck likes higher octane gas when towing - just like the owner's manual says.