Gary Lewis

The HEI's had problems early on, but they corrected them pretty quickly. One problem was that the rotors and distributor caps weren't up to handling that much energy. I've see rotors with the tips burned off and distributor caps with holes burned in them. The power in that ignition system is fierce. But, with that power came a requirement for power. By that I mean the wiring providing power to them had to be large. And that wasn't always the case out of the factory. IIRC, Bill has a story about just that problem. So, if you are going to run an HEI you need at least a #12 wire to it and maybe even a #10. And that needs to be controlled by a relay. But not everyone does that, so some get poor results from the HEI distributors.

Jim - That's an idea! As for what I did today, the hose clamps came in so I installed one of them on the fuel filter & bracket. And the length is just right as there's maybe 1/2" of excess sticking out. Then I got the fuel sender relay installed. Here 'tis w/o the cover on it, although it is on there now: With that done I installed the skid plate on the mid-ship tank: After that I removed the resistance wire in the power feed to the fuel pumps. So instead of a pink/black wire running to the fuel pump relay I have a red/yellow wire as I didn't find a good source of the right size pink/black wire in my stash. Then I got the convolute, tape, and zip ties back on the harness and re-installed the speed control, which I'd taken off to get access to the wiring. Last, I checked out the mounting options for the fuel pressure regulator. I'm thinking an aluminum bracket attached to the bolt coming through the firewall will work nicely. And the regulator will be oriented as shown, with the inlet and return pointing up and down and the outlet in the middle. I'll use 90's on each of them, which lines things up nicely. Maybe I'll get to do that tomorrow. Or, we may go to the lake.

I don't know. They don't seem to say if it is set up for EGR or not. But at $300 it is pricey. Scott Johnston @ Parkland Automotive will curve a new DS-II distributor for you for $200. You'll need the DS-II module and some wiring. George - His TFI is controlled by the computer, so he needs to change it. And the HEI's aren't a problem, especially on the 300. Several guys on here are running them.

Matthew - I'm sorry for your loss. That must be really hard.

No. My understanding is that your computer, ECU, controls solenoid valves that apply vacuum to the EGR valve.

EGR stands for Exhaust Gas Recirculation. It is a form of including an inert gas into the air/fuel mix. That slows the combustion process and reduces the oxides of nitrogen in the exhaust, and NOx creates smog. But with a slower combustion process you need to add the spark a lot earlier in the piston travel. So distributors that are set up for EGR have a lot more advance in the mid-range, and that is frequently done via the vacuum advance. Recurving refers to changing the overall curve of the ignition's advance to suit the engine as it is being used. So, if you remove EGR "recurving" would mean taking out the extra advance associated with EGR. EGR is not necessary. Some say it is advantageous as you can get a bit more MPG out of the vehicle with it. Others say that the complications associated with it and the carbon that is introduced via that system isn't worth it.

Thanks, John. I'll report this to Nabble support.

She's looking at SE OK/western AR as I type. And I have a FB friend, Susan Dragoo who writes for places like Overland Journal. She and her husband have driven many scenic roads down there, so I've asked her were to go. Gotta GO! (And have to quit typing so I can get this thing ready to GO!!)

Yes Gary, by all means. I hesitated posting it on Big Blues thread, but did not know where else to put it. As to my inabilities here, I cannot email anyone from the forum. When I do, I do get the Robot thing which I have to address and when I send I get an undelivered mail return notice in my email. Also, I cannot follow any threads. If I click on the "Alert me by email when someone posts to this thread" box, I receive nothing. John - No prob on Big Blue's thread. And no need to move it here. We'll just work it here. Ok, on the subscription issue, you are saying that when you post you tick the box that says "Alert me by email..." and then reply you never get an email notification. And you've checked your spam folders. Right? And on sending email to people, you get an undelivered notification. How 'bout emailing me and then post the undelivered notification? Maybe I can spot what is wrong with the email address.

I'm trying to follow along and add some thoughts here and there, but you guys are going faster than I can keep up. And, I'm trying to think about what needs to be done on the 3G page as this transpires. We can't answer every possible question, but we should answer a # of them. Maybe multiple schematics, including one leaving the shunt in place but with the alternator output moved to the to-be fuse, and one showing the ammeter turned into a voltmeter with the relay added - awa a fuse. Others?

I agree, that's either L or M. I know 'cause I cut them out on Big Blue. And I also agree that the mystery wire is the red/orange wire. The orange is very hard to detect from red, so they look completely red.

Dane - Yes, they used to say that. My brother still calls me "bro". Started it back "then" and hasn't stopped. Jim - My may have gotten it from Matthew's , but with the understanding that it was worn out. Imagine putting a Edelbrock intake and water pump, and supposedly cam, on a worn out engine?

Yes, I want to do it my way. And in this case my way is the easy way. Bill had a good point about simplification, but that would have required me to bring the sending unit wires up into the cab. And then swap the fuel tank switch and associated connector, with the assumption that the existing wires would go into the other connectors. But the plug in that picture has exactly the circuits needed: power, ground, the gauge feed, and the output of both sending units. And nothing else. So it just jumped out to me that a relay there would do the trick. I'm really pushing to have this truck on the road come show time. Janey is going stir crazy and we are going SOMEWHERE, and I'd like to at least have an opportunity to do it in Big Blue.

Grumpin - I'm with Scott. Please get one so we can see how they look on our trucks. And, thanks for explaining. I hadn't thought about the weight nor leaks.

Florida seems to be the destination for some brotherly bonding time. My brother and I went to retrieve Big Blue from there.But, apparently there are good and not so good ? Yours not only proved the engine was good but pulled it and set it in your truck. Mine took four years to deliver Vernon's 460, but it appears it was actually pulled from a salvage and just prettied up.Anyway, glad you had a good trip, Matthew.

And which version is burned into your mind, Jim? The one with the relay or the tank switching valve? (You did see the difference?)

Good idea, Scott. You get the pics and I'll add them.

Is there somewhere we record mistakes in documentation? There are two in this drawing -- circuit 159 & 195 at the buzzer and plug should be the same but I don't know which is correct. Also the brown wire (circuit 14) in the plug is marked as BK and marked correctly as BN at the buzzer. My truck has a brown wire. Mark Mark - I can edit the page and mark it up. And I agree with what you are saying on Ckt 14 - it can't be both black and brown. And since yours is brown we'll go that way. And I see what you are saying - the plug says 195 and the circuit going to the buzzer says 159. And looking at pages 83 and 84, which is where that circuit comes from, I see it is actually 159. Good catches! I've made the changes, although the page size isn't quite where I want it yet. Anyway, see what you think.

Yep, EOTZ 3A733-C is for an 80/86 F-U150/350 - - 4/W/D - 8 cyl. 302 (5.0L) and is marked E0TC 3D673-CA

Those are different than any I think I've seen. Instead of a "chisel" front they appear to be chiseled and rounded at the same time.

It's the myraid layers of frustration. My new universals came with grease fittings in the end caps. Okay, I've got my tiny pistol grease gun with one of those for chainsaw bars. I get under the truck and get two good squeezes..... Ok, I'll put that tip on one of my two air rifle pump type grease guns. Getting the needle tip off was a challenge. Putting it on the other flex hose gun (with no flats or knurling) was like fighting a snotty eel. I have the other big gun... I can lube the drag link and ball joints I was supposed to replace last year! I get to the last upper ball joint and run out of grease. Usually, I'd just grab the other one. But... I try to force it into the universal, and kink the hose right at the head creating a leak. I dig in my bin looking for another tube of grease. I KNOW I just bought one.. Oh! That's right. I bought it in Vermont, and while I finally found Bill's grease gun in his disaster of a garage I used his grease and left the tube behind (because I'm considerate and do that sort of thing if I borrow something of yours) And now... it's raining. This is my life, every day. That sounds like a lot frustration! But, I've been there and had that day. No fun! Hang in there, tomorrow should be better.

I hope it is more the flakey servers. We are still making progress on the new server front, so maybe that problem, and others, will go away when we get that fixed? I hope.

John - Can we move this discussion to the Website & Forum Suggestion Box thread? Not that I'm worried about keeping this thread pristine, but I'll never think to look here for forum or website issues. But, since we can move this post as well, let me ask a few questions. First, what do you mean by "either of the above"? I missed something. Email and??? Jim suggested spam folder, but I think you are not even getting the email to go to anybody. Right? What happens when you click on "Send Email To" someone? Do you get the page shown below - using Jim as an example? What happens when you fill out the form and hit Send Email? We ran some errands today so I didn't do much in the shop. But I got the relay box positioned, as shown below. And in this pic you can see the wires that would have gone to the tank selector valve but will now go through the gland nut into the box. And here's how I'll wire it. The tank selector switch is a DPDT that provides 12v to the Br/Wh wire and ground on the Red wire in the Front position, and 12v on the Red wire and ground on the Br/Wh in Rear. I want the relay to be in the Front position w/o power and in the Rear position with power, so the diode ensures that it only works when the power is on the red wire. And for reference, here's the factory wiring with the tank selector valve:

John - Can we move this discussion to the Website & Forum Suggestion Box thread? Not that I'm worried about keeping this thread pristine, but I'll never think to look here for forum or website issues. But, since we can move this post as well, let me ask a few questions. First, what do you mean by "either of the above"? I missed something. Email and??? Jim suggested spam folder, but I think you are not even getting the email to go to anybody. Right? What happens when you click on "Send Email To" someone? Do you get the page shown below - using Jim as an example? What happens when you fill out the form and hit Send Email?