Big Blue's Transformation

[ArdWrknTrk]

Jim - Ok, I think I understand. But I think I've worked out where to put the DS-II coil. This is probably the coil off of Dad's truck and I may or may not use it but do plan to use that mount and put the leg under that bolt head on the lower plenum.

The only issue is the female to male adaptor. That's the red thing, which was on Big Blue's coil. And the coil wire Scotty sent me also expects a male connector on the coil. So I could just use that adapter. However, is there a coil that comes with a male terminal and would accept the Ford horseshoe connector and fit in that bracket?

And now for the EEC coil. Here's the bracket that Bill mentioned with the coil bolted to it. The red tape is to protect the valve cover, but does serve to point out how much real estate is wasted on the top of that bracket for things I won't have.

Also note where the leg of the bracket comes off - the back side of the bracket. So I can't easily just cut the back half off. However, read on....

This pic shows a closer view of the leg and its proximity to the dip stick stay. The stay needs to come out a bit farther from the valve cover to allow a bolt to go into it to hold the dip stick. And that will put it up against the leg. So why not cut the leg off there, grind off the lip on the back edge, and bend it to just touch the stay. Drill the leg, drill and tap the stay, and put a bolt in there.

And, if I really wanted to reduce the real estate on the top I could cut the back 2" off and put that piece under the front piece and weld it on. That would still maintain the lips that provide strength but make the bracket only 2/3 its existing size - 4" vs 6". And the trick with the leg bolting to the stay would still apply.

Thoughts?

Gary,

I don't know of a DSII compatible coil with a male secondary output.

I'm a fan of reducing the bulk of that thing in any way possible.

Chop, channel, weld, whatever..

Maybe it wouldn't appear so bulky if it was PC'd the same as the valve cover?

Not sure what this means for your plug wire routing though...

[Gary Lewis]

Gary,

I don't know of a DSII compatible coil with a male secondary output.

I'm a fan of reducing the bulk of that thing in any way possible.

Chop, channel, weld, whatever..

Maybe it wouldn't appear so bulky if it was PC'd the same as the valve cover?

Not sure what this means for your plug wire routing though...

I think I'll be fine with that coil. It probably took the truck over 100K miles, and with a paint job it'll look good. But I'll PC the bracket for it. And I'll use that plug to do the conversion, just as was done on Big Blue before.

As for the EEC coil bracket, I only have three of them, so think I'll chop, channel, and french it in the hot rod style. Narrower and w/o that leg going down to the exhaust it'll look a whole lot smaller, even if it isn't much lighter.

And then, on to the heat shields. I got the driver's side one in, although I think it needs a bit of attitude adjustment as I doubt I can get the plugs out where it sits.

I put it in place, scrunching the pieces that go around the plugs just a bit to slip down in, and front tab slipped right into place and the front #6 exhaust bolt went right in. But the back tab was too long and too wide.

So I pulled it off and measured the front tab and marked the rear tab where the front tab's holes are, as shown here:

Then I shortened the rear tab, drilled a new slot, and trimmed the front side of it to be no wider than the head of the bolt, as the bolt is essentially up against the pipe when tightened down. You can see that here, with the bolt in it:

And, here it is with the bolts tightened up. As said, I think it will need adjusting to get clearance for the plugs to come out, but that will only require making the slots a bit longer on the top end. No studs needed!

[ArdWrknTrk]

I think I'll be fine with that coil. It probably took the truck over 100K miles, and with a paint job it'll look good. But I'll PC the bracket for it. And I'll use that plug to do the conversion, just as was done on Big Blue before.

As for the EEC coil bracket, I only have three of them, so think I'll chop, channel, and french it in the hot rod style. Narrower and w/o that leg going down to the exhaust it'll look a whole lot smaller, even if it isn't much lighter.

And then, on to the heat shields. I got the driver's side one in, although I think it needs a bit of attitude adjustment as I doubt I can get the plugs out where it sits.

I put it in place, scrunching the pieces that go around the plugs just a bit to slip down in, and front tab slipped right into place and the front #6 exhaust bolt went right in. But the back tab was too long and too wide.

So I pulled it off and measured the front tab and marked the rear tab where the front tab's holes are, as shown here:

Then I shortened the rear tab, drilled a new slot, and trimmed the front side of it to be no wider than the head of the bolt, as the bolt is essentially up against the pipe when tightened down. You can see that here, with the bolt in it:

And, here it is with the bolts tightened up. As said, I think it will need adjusting to get clearance for the plugs to come out, but that will only require making the slots a bit longer on the top end. No studs needed!

You've been productive!

That orange highlight against the blue heads.

Diametric complements!

[Gary Lewis]

I think I'll be fine with that coil. It probably took the truck over 100K miles, and with a paint job it'll look good. But I'll PC the bracket for it. And I'll use that plug to do the conversion, just as was done on Big Blue before.

As for the EEC coil bracket, I only have three of them, so think I'll chop, channel, and french it in the hot rod style. Narrower and w/o that leg going down to the exhaust it'll look a whole lot smaller, even if it isn't much lighter.

And then, on to the heat shields. I got the driver's side one in, although I think it needs a bit of attitude adjustment as I doubt I can get the plugs out where it sits.

I put it in place, scrunching the pieces that go around the plugs just a bit to slip down in, and front tab slipped right into place and the front #6 exhaust bolt went right in. But the back tab was too long and too wide.

So I pulled it off and measured the front tab and marked the rear tab where the front tab's holes are, as shown here:

Then I shortened the rear tab, drilled a new slot, and trimmed the front side of it to be no wider than the head of the bolt, as the bolt is essentially up against the pipe when tightened down. You can see that here, with the bolt in it:

And, here it is with the bolts tightened up. As said, I think it will need adjusting to get clearance for the plugs to come out, but that will only require making the slots a bit longer on the top end. No studs needed!

Jim - I thought I'd save the plug wire routing for another post. I don't know the answer to the question. But, I just had a thought that I want to bounce off y'all.

I've been struggling with how to use the aluminum channel to hold the EEC coil. And I think I just "twigged" as the Brits would say. What if I cut a U out of it, as shown below, to clear the valve cover. And either make a coupling nut or, probably better, just a spacer that lets a long bolt go into the intake where the current stud is to which the factory bracket attaches. The space on top of the channel is pretty much just the right size for the coil, and I can drill and tap the aluminum to take bolts to hold it on.

But the issue comes with how to fasten it to the dip stick stay. That will be running at an angle to horizontal, sorta as shown, and it will be the "legs" or "ribs" of the channel that will hit it. So I'm searching for a way to attach it.

Now, why did this come up in the plug wire routing discussion? Because if the coil mount is smaller front/rear I might be able to sneak it between #6 and #7 such that the wires go either side of it. In the pic below you can see that there's not much chance of that using the factory bracket, even if chopped and channeled as it is the mounting tab on the inside that determines where it goes fore/aft. But with an aluminum mount the hole can go anywhere so the mount can move forward.

And yes, then consideration has to be given to where the dip stick will mount, but one thing at a time....

Thoughts? Suggestions? Help on how the outside of the mount/channel attaches to the dip stick stay?

[Bruce moose4x4]

Jim - I thought I'd save the plug wire routing for another post. I don't know the answer to the question. But, I just had a thought that I want to bounce off y'all.

I've been struggling with how to use the aluminum channel to hold the EEC coil. And I think I just "twigged" as the Brits would say. What if I cut a U out of it, as shown below, to clear the valve cover. And either make a coupling nut or, probably better, just a spacer that lets a long bolt go into the intake where the current stud is to which the factory bracket attaches. The space on top of the channel is pretty much just the right size for the coil, and I can drill and tap the aluminum to take bolts to hold it on.

But the issue comes with how to fasten it to the dip stick stay. That will be running at an angle to horizontal, sorta as shown, and it will be the "legs" or "ribs" of the channel that will hit it. So I'm searching for a way to attach it.

Now, why did this come up in the plug wire routing discussion? Because if the coil mount is smaller front/rear I might be able to sneak it between #6 and #7 such that the wires go either side of it. In the pic below you can see that there's not much chance of that using the factory bracket, even if chopped and channeled as it is the mounting tab on the inside that determines where it goes fore/aft. But with an aluminum mount the hole can go anywhere so the mount can move forward.

And yes, then consideration has to be given to where the dip stick will mount, but one thing at a time....

Thoughts? Suggestions? Help on how the outside of the mount/channel attaches to the dip stick stay?

I like what you have going. My thoughts: make the dipstick stay out of a block of aluminum, machine the attaching points at an angle so the outside of stay would be parallel to the frame. Then you could tap holes to mount dipstick, coil bracket, Then I know you didn't want to bend up the spark plug heat shield, but you could bend the mounting tabs up and bolt them to the dipstick stay and wouldn't have to mess with bolts or studs on the headers. Does that make sense? I will catch up on this thread next Wed. taking a few days off.

[Bruce moose4x4]

I like what you have going. My thoughts: make the dipstick stay out of a block of aluminum, machine the attaching points at an angle so the outside of stay would be parallel to the frame. Then you could tap holes to mount dipstick, coil bracket, Then I know you didn't want to bend up the spark plug heat shield, but you could bend the mounting tabs up and bolt them to the dipstick stay and wouldn't have to mess with bolts or studs on the headers. Does that make sense? I will catch up on this thread next Wed. taking a few days off.

You could even mount some spark plug wire holders to it.

[Gary Lewis]

I like what you have going. My thoughts: make the dipstick stay out of a block of aluminum, machine the attaching points at an angle so the outside of stay would be parallel to the frame. Then you could tap holes to mount dipstick, coil bracket, Then I know you didn't want to bend up the spark plug heat shield, but you could bend the mounting tabs up and bolt them to the dipstick stay and wouldn't have to mess with bolts or studs on the headers. Does that make sense? I will catch up on this thread next Wed. taking a few days off.

Bruce - I think you've hit on a reasonable solution. Machine the dip stick stay's mounting points so that it sits parallel with the ground. That way the coil bracket will hit it squarely. And the dip stick will mount squarely.

The question becomes if there is enough meat in the aluminum angle to allow milling it an angle and still have enough strength. I'll have to do some precise drawing to see what I think.

As for the tabs, I could bend them up but I don't think I'd like the look as well as what I have now. And the driver's side is on save for needing a bit of adjustment.

Oh, and the plan had been to put plug wire holders on the stay. Or, maybe to make the stay into a plug wire holder? Just haven't figured out how I want to do that yet. And I'm open to suggestions.

[Bruce moose4x4]

Bruce - I think you've hit on a reasonable solution. Machine the dip stick stay's mounting points so that it sits parallel with the ground. That way the coil bracket will hit it squarely. And the dip stick will mount squarely.

The question becomes if there is enough meat in the aluminum angle to allow milling it an angle and still have enough strength. I'll have to do some precise drawing to see what I think.

As for the tabs, I could bend them up but I don't think I'd like the look as well as what I have now. And the driver's side is on save for needing a bit of adjustment.

Oh, and the plan had been to put plug wire holders on the stay. Or, maybe to make the stay into a plug wire holder? Just haven't figured out how I want to do that yet. And I'm open to suggestions.

The strength is why I mentioned using a solid block of aluminum instead of an angle. Like 1/2 x 3 rectangle block should give you enough room to mill out to go around the oil fill, etc.

[Bruce moose4x4]

The strength is why I mentioned using a solid block of aluminum instead of an angle. Like 1/2 x 3 rectangle block should give you enough room to mill out to go around the oil fill, etc.

Then you could tap into the block and use just a bolt instead of bolt and nut to attach everything.

[ArdWrknTrk]

Then you could tap into the block and use just a bolt instead of bolt and nut to attach everything.

I think it's because: A) he has the channel, B) manual mill, and that's a LOT of chips and time just to get there...