Gary Lewis

Good deal! But 13 MPG @ 70 is nothing to write home about. Do you have more tuning to do?

One more layer peeled.

Actually, it is just the crank and pistons that Ford changed from the 400 to make the 351M. The rods are the same. I slipped a 400 crank and TMI pistons into Dad’s 351M block To make a 400.

You are now on the map.

Welcome to the Bullnose Forum! Glad you joined! You probably didn't see the email that asked you to go to the New Members Start Here folder, read the guidelines, and then start an introduction thread about yourself and your truck. That email seems to get lost frequently, but the main thing is that you've had a chance to read the guidelines, where are kept there. We hold everyone to them so want you to have had a chance to see them. As for MPG and the 351M, there are at least two problems. One is that the original timing set was retarded, so replacing it with a straight-up set will help. The other is the tranny, and a ZF5 with the OD will certainly help. BUT, you cannot just bolt a 460's ZF5 to the M-Block and get it to live. That's because the flywheel on a 460 sits ~3/8" farther back than that of the M-Block and the input shaft will JUST BARELY reach the pilot bearing. There are a couple of solutions to that, but the guy that has them is Tim Meyer of TMeyer Precision Automotive Machine. There's a discussion about all of this on the ZF5 Behind a 351M or 400 tab on the page at Documentation/Driveline/Transmissions/Manual Transmissions/ZF5. With Dad's truck, which had a built 351M and a ZF5, I got ~14 MPG at 65 MPH.

Was just sharing my experiences shopping on Amazon with my daughter and SiL. They've recently purchased things from Amazon that are blatant copies of name-brand goods. But the font is wrong in the packaging, the material thickness is 1/2 what it should be, etc when compared to the genuine goods they can buy locally. So I'm confident that the Gardner Bender terminals are copies, not genuine. Hopefully the Molex are genuine. But I'm getting very wary of things purchased from Amazon. Even what are said to be name-brand items aren't.

Excellent! Going to be fun bolting the fresh panels on.

Tell her you are buying it for me?

Excellent! Glad you found it and got it fixed.

I think Janey must be a cool chick, man! Indeed, those grab handles don't look cool!!! I really out-punted my coverage when I married her!

Before I had two tanks working I drove around with a 5 gallon can of gas in the back until I had a good understanding of how far it would go. And it seems that every fuel sender is very different. But many go for a long time on empty.

Update: The crimper should be delivered on April 6th. So they are now in stock. Meanwhile I've been looking for good terminals. I need some to install the fender-mounted starter relay. So I did a lot of searching and found what looked to be a very good terminal set: Gardner Bender 15-108 Electrical Ring Terminal, 12-10 AWG terminals. But a bit of reading on them seems to say they are not made in the USA and are of inferior quality, which may mean they are not from Gardner Bender. So I moved on and found this Molex 194130109 Solderless Terminals Kit from Amazon. It purports to be made in the USA and has excellent reviews. So I ordered a set. We shall see.

I understand the feral cat symptoms. I just put door lock motors in my doors, and where they go is difficult to get to. Then you need to run the wires and secure them. And, and, and... By the time I was done I was bleeding in several places.

That's really good info, David. The only concern I have is that Dave's AFR meter may give different results. I was told that mine is likely to read lean. And I know where you place the O2 sensor, meaning how far from the closest exhaust port it is, makes a big difference. So Dave, I think your readings are still a bit rich but I may be wrong.

Yes, where in Georgia? I ask because we have a map (Bullnose Forum/Member's Map in the menu) and we could add you if we had a city or zip. Nice truck.

Good point, David. So if Dave's 16 degrees works for starting it might be good for MPG.

Bill - See what you think: Documentation/Electrical/Distributors and the Specifications tab. I left off the Alldata, but can add it if you think we should.

I paid $70 for the used step bars on Big Blue. With them and the door Janey gets in pretty easily.

Normally I would say the same thing at 16* BTDC. When I had it set to 10*-12* it would crank a long time before starting. Now some of that could be the accel pump may have stopped work at the same time I don't know? I get no kick back when starting, 1 pump and it lights off with a tap of the key. Real close to what my 02 Durango EFI 5.9 dose on starting. I don't know if the timing retard works or not? How would one go about checking if it did or not? Guessing check timing at idle and say its 16* BTDC. Then with a helper have them start the motor and when checking with the light see if it starts at say 8* BTDC? Oh I also did not have any pinging and that was a vary good thing! With the run to work yesterday morning (1am) it was about 45*f out and the AFR was high 14's to low 15's at 65 - 70 MPH and was happy with that readings and the truck ran great. On the way home (4pm) it was about 70*f out and the AFR was high 13's to low/mid 14's at 45 - 55 MPH (back roads) wish the readings were like on the morning run but the truck still ran great. Right now I am keeping an eye on the see through filter to see what tank may have rust issues before doing much more with tuning for MPG and a carb swap. Dave ---- oh wait to reading are off because of the 10% gas I run so it is running richer right? Darn it Yes, running ethanol means your true AFR is richer than what you are seeing on the gauge. But you aren't too far off now. On the retard, you can test it by starting the engine and then pulling the R/LB wire from the starter relay/solenoid and turning the key to Start. As seen below that will send 12v to the ignition module telling it to retard. If you have a timing light on it you should see the timing retard, or at least hear the RPM drop.

Sorry, Dave. Didn't realize you weren't on the map. But you are now.

Those look NOS. Excellent condition and not faded, so probably haven't been installed from what I can tell.

Walter is looking good!

Nice truck, and a nice price. David - I wouldn't have seen that handle, so thanks for pointing it out. But I showed it to Janey and she said "I'm not having problems getting in, and that doesn't look cool on the outside." So I guess I'm no longer in the market.

Welcome! Glad you joined and that the info is helping. But we have a saying here - pics or it didn't happen. So, how 'bout some pics of your truck to prove you have one? Seriously though, you may want to start a thread in the main section, or in Project (your choice) on the truck. As for the carb, I'm one of the Edelbrock fans. Bought a new Super Bee in 1969 and it came with a Holley. That was my first Holley and it was junk. (Our resident carb expert, Bill/85lebaront2, agrees that those specific carbs had serious problems.) Since then I've not been a fan. Having said that, I know they work for a whole lot of people so it is just my opinion/experience. Anyway, where's home? I ask because we have a map (Bullnose Forum/Member's Map in the menu) and can add you if we had a city/state or zip.