Big Blue's Transformation

[Gary Lewis]

Jeff - I've not tried two clamps, but I have had some problems over the years with leakage so have been thinking about the best way to solve that. I think moving the clamps next to the ring is a good first step, and it frees up enough room to install a second clamp I'll do it - especially on the lower radiator hose which is hard to see.

Just got the truck back with the A/C fixed. There was a bad O-ring that was easily fixed, and the system is blowing cold again.

But I wasn't out the door of their shop very quickly. First, the guy wanted to talk about the EFI change. He'd driven the truck last summer with the carb on it, and he said today that "The EFI made it a completely different truck!"

Then he asked if I've had it on the Ozark Trail. A further conversation determined that Marty and the owner of the shop are planning to go overlanding on that trail late this year. So we are going to have a longer conversation as my son, Bret, and I might want to go along with them.

And, speaking of trips, I think Janey and I are going to take the truck on a trip tomorrow!

[kramttocs]

Just got the truck back with the A/C fixed. There was a bad O-ring that was easily fixed, and the system is blowing cold again.

But I wasn't out the door of their shop very quickly. First, the guy wanted to talk about the EFI change. He'd driven the truck last summer with the carb on it, and he said today that "The EFI made it a completely different truck!"

Then he asked if I've had it on the Ozark Trail. A further conversation determined that Marty and the owner of the shop are planning to go overlanding on that trail late this year. So we are going to have a longer conversation as my son, Bret, and I might want to go along with them.

And, speaking of trips, I think Janey and I are going to take the truck on a trip tomorrow!

That's great!

Glad it was something easy AND you have the option to take BB tomorrow.

[Machspeed]

Just got the truck back with the A/C fixed. There was a bad O-ring that was easily fixed, and the system is blowing cold again.

But I wasn't out the door of their shop very quickly. First, the guy wanted to talk about the EFI change. He'd driven the truck last summer with the carb on it, and he said today that "The EFI made it a completely different truck!"

Then he asked if I've had it on the Ozark Trail. A further conversation determined that Marty and the owner of the shop are planning to go overlanding on that trail late this year. So we are going to have a longer conversation as my son, Bret, and I might want to go along with them.

And, speaking of trips, I think Janey and I are going to take the truck on a trip tomorrow!

Yes, sounds like you had a good day....cool air and a buddy to go overlanding with!

[1986F150Six]

Yes, sounds like you had a good day....cool air and a buddy to go overlanding with!

And a date with a pretty lady tomorrow!

[Gary Lewis]

Yes, sounds like you had a good day....cool air and a buddy to go overlanding with!

And a date with a pretty lady tomorrow!

Yep, all the above: It was a good day; it was an easy fix; we get to take BB; I may have found a buddy to go overlanding with; and I get to be with the love of my life, a very pretty lady!

In addition, as if that isn't good enough, we are taking the Garmin Montana along. I've learned enough about it to be able to create a route for today's trip and hope to pair it to the Sony in BB so we get turn-by-turn guidance. Not that we need it as these are roads with which we are familiar, but want to ensure I have the Montana working properly.

But, I probably do need to update the thread re the Montana as I'm finding the learning curve to be quite steep on this thing. I think it is going to work for what I want to do, but there have been times I've had my doubts.

For instance, our son and family are headed to the Olympic National Park in a couple of weeks and I'd told Bret I would send the Montana to him so he could take it along. But from what I've seen on the Montana, and what I've heard about his job, he isn't going to have time to learn how to use it. Instead I've recommended he use Gaia.

Anyway, I'll report back on the Montana awa the MPG today. The route is a bit over 100 miles long, so should be a decent test.

[Machspeed]

Yep, all the above: It was a good day; it was an easy fix; we get to take BB; I may have found a buddy to go overlanding with; and I get to be with the love of my life, a very pretty lady!

In addition, as if that isn't good enough, we are taking the Garmin Montana along. I've learned enough about it to be able to create a route for today's trip and hope to pair it to the Sony in BB so we get turn-by-turn guidance. Not that we need it as these are roads with which we are familiar, but want to ensure I have the Montana working properly.

But, I probably do need to update the thread re the Montana as I'm finding the learning curve to be quite steep on this thing. I think it is going to work for what I want to do, but there have been times I've had my doubts.

For instance, our son and family are headed to the Olympic National Park in a couple of weeks and I'd told Bret I would send the Montana to him so he could take it along. But from what I've seen on the Montana, and what I've heard about his job, he isn't going to have time to learn how to use it. Instead I've recommended he use Gaia.

Anyway, I'll report back on the Montana awa the MPG today. The route is a bit over 100 miles long, so should be a decent test.

Seeing Big Blue in the driveway with the hose all pulled out for washing, got me to thinking about my leaking exterior frost-free faucet which I absolutely cannot stand. It has a built-in anti-siphon valve on it that continues to spew water. Every year I replace the plastic valve and a few months later it leaks. Recently it started leaking from the shut off valve when turned on, so I decided to take the whole thing apart and fix it. I've fixed the valve assembly, but I need to come up with an alternative for the anti-siphon apparatus. My solution is a simple plug, but of course no one that I can find sells such a thing as it is essentially illegal. But, I'm thinking, surely someone out there makes such a thing, as this is not an uncommon problem. Wondering if anyone can advise?

And, before I'm condemned for breaking the law and plugging the anti-siphoning valve, they make a screw on valve which I intend to utilize.

Gary, hope I didn't trash your thread....LOL!

[Gary Lewis]

Yep, all the above: It was a good day; it was an easy fix; we get to take BB; I may have found a buddy to go overlanding with; and I get to be with the love of my life, a very pretty lady!

In addition, as if that isn't good enough, we are taking the Garmin Montana along. I've learned enough about it to be able to create a route for today's trip and hope to pair it to the Sony in BB so we get turn-by-turn guidance. Not that we need it as these are roads with which we are familiar, but want to ensure I have the Montana working properly.

But, I probably do need to update the thread re the Montana as I'm finding the learning curve to be quite steep on this thing. I think it is going to work for what I want to do, but there have been times I've had my doubts.

For instance, our son and family are headed to the Olympic National Park in a couple of weeks and I'd told Bret I would send the Montana to him so he could take it along. But from what I've seen on the Montana, and what I've heard about his job, he isn't going to have time to learn how to use it. Instead I've recommended he use Gaia.

Anyway, I'll report back on the Montana awa the MPG today. The route is a bit over 100 miles long, so should be a decent test.

Just a quick report before we leave. Started the truck up in the shop where the temp was 71F and the R's went to 1300ish and stayed there for several seconds. I wasn't data logging so don't know the engine coolant temp, but I'm guessing that it had gotten just below a threshold where the high idle kicked in for a bit. Will investigate later...

And I got the Garmin Montana paired with the Sony, so it looks like we'll have turn-by-turn guidance. That is big since it frees the co-pilot to actually enjoy the scenery instead of keeping their nose glued to the screen. Not only that but I got a notification on my Apple watch about guidance, so apparently having Garmin Explore on the phone and paired it via BT to the Montana I'll get guidance that way as well. So I may have more than I want, but I'm sure I can turn it off if need be.

Now off to Mr. Bass to fill up before heading out of town...

[Gary Lewis]

Seeing Big Blue in the driveway with the hose all pulled out for washing, got me to thinking about my leaking exterior frost-free faucet which I absolutely cannot stand. It has a built-in anti-siphon valve on it that continues to spew water. Every year I replace the plastic valve and a few months later it leaks. Recently it started leaking from the shut off valve when turned on, so I decided to take the whole thing apart and fix it. I've fixed the valve assembly, but I need to come up with an alternative for the anti-siphon apparatus. My solution is a simple plug, but of course no one that I can find sells such a thing as it is essentially illegal. But, I'm thinking, surely someone out there makes such a thing, as this is not an uncommon problem. Wondering if anyone can advise?And, before I'm condemned for breaking the law and plugging the anti-siphoning valve, they make a screw on valve which I intend to utilize. Gary, hope I didn't trash your thread....LOL!

John - You can't trash this thread! It wanders all over the place. And I hope you get your faucet sorted out. Ours dribbles when in use, so I understand.

 

And now for today's results. Let's start with the Garmin Montana. It works, but there are issues and I have a lot to learn. But one that that doesn't work too well is the Bluetooth to the Sony. Each time the thing comes on to tell us about an upcoming turn we lose about the first two syllables. For instance, when she says "Continue on..." we hear "you on...". That may not sound like much of a problem, but when she tells us how far it is to a turn we lose the first part. So if it is "one and one-half miles" we get "one-half miles" I'm going to see if there's a way to connect the Garmin to the Sony via USB, which might fix that.

 

But the truck ran perfectly. I am continually amazed at how different it is. Now when we pull into a little town with a 35 MPH speed limit I can putt-putt through in 5th at 1000 RPM and never shift. And corners are taken at least one gear higher. So overall the shifting has been cut in half.

 

And the speed control is soooooo smooth. Plus, the ability to drop or increase the set point in 1.0 MPH increments with the touch of a button is wonderful. Today I was catching a slow poke and just dropped the speed two MPH and followed her w/o having to kick it off cruise.

 

And, I ran it on speed control the whole way today at a true 65 MPH, up hill and down. So imagine my delight when I filled up at the same pump and realized we'd gotten 13.6 MPH! So I'm absolutely sure that I can feed it manually and easily get over 14 MPG.

 

To put this in perspective I've included the MPG spreadsheet from the trip to Ouray last fall when we were running the carb. If you take the first two and last two tanks, which is where the land was pretty level and I know we were running on cruise, we got an average of 10.9 MPG. Yes, we were running a bit faster at maybe a true 70 MPH. So if I compare that to today's trip we are up by over 2.0 MPG, which is a 17 - 20% improvement.

 

 

[grumpin]

John - You can't trash this thread! It wanders all over the place. And I hope you get your faucet sorted out. Ours dribbles when in use, so I understand.

 

And now for today's results. Let's start with the Garmin Montana. It works, but there are issues and I have a lot to learn. But one that that doesn't work too well is the Bluetooth to the Sony. Each time the thing comes on to tell us about an upcoming turn we lose about the first two syllables. For instance, when she says "Continue on..." we hear "you on...". That may not sound like much of a problem, but when she tells us how far it is to a turn we lose the first part. So if it is "one and one-half miles" we get "one-half miles" I'm going to see if there's a way to connect the Garmin to the Sony via USB, which might fix that.

 

But the truck ran perfectly. I am continually amazed at how different it is. Now when we pull into a little town with a 35 MPH speed limit I can putt-putt through in 5th at 1000 RPM and never shift. And corners are taken at least one gear higher. So overall the shifting has been cut in half.

 

And the speed control is soooooo smooth. Plus, the ability to drop or increase the set point in 1.0 MPH increments with the touch of a button is wonderful. Today I was catching a slow poke and just dropped the speed two MPH and followed her w/o having to kick it off cruise.

 

And, I ran it on speed control the whole way today at a true 65 MPH, up hill and down. So imagine my delight when I filled up at the same pump and realized we'd gotten 13.6 MPH! So I'm absolutely sure that I can feed it manually and easily get over 14 MPG.

 

To put this in perspective I've included the MPG spreadsheet from the trip to Ouray last fall when we were running the carb. If you take the first two and last two tanks, which is where the land was pretty level and I know we were running on cruise, we got an average of 10.9 MPG. Yes, we were running a bit faster at maybe a true 70 MPH. So if I compare that to today's trip we are up by over 2.0 MPG, which is a 17 - 20% improvement.

 

 

That’s good MPG! Good to hear. I forget, what gear ratio do you have? My 94 F250 with the 460 had 4.10’s. IIRC I would have to drive around 60 MPH to get mid to upper 13 MPG.

[Gary Lewis]

That’s good MPG! Good to hear. I forget, what gear ratio do you have?

My 94 F250 with the 460 had 4.10’s. IIRC I would have to drive around 60 MPH to get mid to upper 13 MPG.

I'm running 3.55's. And when I was running the carb I was kicking myself for going with those gears as I could have just as easily gone with 4.10's and thought it needed them. But now that it pulls so much better from idle these gears are working great.

Ben, the guy from Core Tuning, took a look at the timing table and said it doesn't have enough advance. So I'm thinking that there's more to be had in MPG.