Projects 1965 F100 father and sons project

I've been thinking about your gauge issue and that hole in the dash. I looked back at your previous posts and saw this comment...

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So.....here is my opinion again! lol. You like the clean look of the dash. So, make a blanking plate painted dash color and install it. Then install the 2 round gauges in a mount under the dash below said plate. Mount the tach on top of the dash (which is optimal for drag racing since yo don't have to look down). Done! No cutting up current dash gauge panel, no figuring how to fill that rectangular hole in the dash and best placing for a tach.

I don't usually stick my nose in places it dont belong. But the other day I talked to a friend about a car problem and just getting another set of eyes helped get me closer to a solution.

 

Love the "tornado" idear Will.
Having a bit of experience with that on an OT drag car, 135 cu. in., that made 250hp NA, and now makes nearly 500 and spins less RPM to get there, I think the 300 is an ideal candidate and can make reliable power if you don't get greedy. My drag race motor actually gets stressed less making more power because it doesn't have to run insane rpm. 7000rpm thru the traps instead of 8500. I went from a bearing check and valve spring replacement twice a year to every three years.
Keep the turbo on the smallish side, keep the CR within reason and cool the intake charge. And absolutely do NOT run it lean under boost.
On that PowerNation build, they put the tornado on the driver side. Seems like a bunch of unnecessary plumbing to me and makes the driver side way too busy, especially if you have AC and/or power steering. If I were doing it, I'd keep it all on the passenger side and keep the piping short. I'd keep the boost to around 10psi and the rpm well below 5K.
Then you'll find where the next weakest link is. First you'll blow through the clutch on gear changes. Fix that, then the trans will spew it's guts, then the U-joints, then the axles, and so on and so on...
But, if your wallet is deep enough enough, it'll be a fun ride!

 

We're on the same wave length here. All there but, hidden.

Not too exciting stuff recently. Todays projects were making hard lines to route vacuum. Will paint the brake booster line white to match the firewall. Couldn't get any 3/8" fuel line so ended up doing it in copper. Going to go back through old show car photos to see how they deal with hoses. Why Not? Ran the vacuum to distributor as a hard line too. All that is crossing the valve cover is the throttle cable. Will correct that with our manifold install. Also fixed 2 leaks at flared brake lines. Have one more I'm suspect of but, system is energized. With brake booster plumbed that's the last of the plumbing for now.

 

Good Lord Mike, 500 horse is insane out of 135c.i.. That thing must be fun and scary. I'm targeting 350 horse but, the tornado maker is rated for 400 (Thanks @NashRodMan for the code name). I bought it over a year ago and have been tucking parts away for it's turn. Next up once on the road is EFI cast iron exhaust manifolds, single 3" exhaust and our homemade manifold. I want to dyno it in its current form before all that to see what we start and finish with. Following the bolt ons will be head work including hardened valve seats, 1.84 intake and 1.6 exhaust valves, home spun Port and polish and 1.6 ratio roller rockers. If I have the 240 head I read the 1.9 intake valve causes some shrouding issues. The heavy duty oil pump will come with the bottom end work if we get to that. Looking at cams and have some recommendations from the guys at Fordsix. Plan to keep things civilized with an edge. My propane system will keep things cool but, it also clogs up the passenger side of the engine bay. I won't pull beyond 5k rpm often so targeting to keep it hitting peaks below that. Should be a somewhat tame savage beast. After each round of work we will dyno. I need real numbers to know what we will do at each stage. The last year has been slugging it out in the trenches - it's going to get fun shortly.

 

Sounds like a fun project Will! I think it will surprise more than a few. I wouldn't be too concerned with valve shrouding. You can lay the chamber walls back a bit to help that. Forcing air in overcomes a lot! Of course there is the Pro Max head that just might be the more economical option by the time you get a 300 or 240 head configured. If you haven't seen the Power Nation videos on the 300 they built, it is a very good place to start. Sounds like it could be a blueprint for what you have in mind.
It'll continue to be fun following along to see what you come up with!

 

Start up video set up, did a couple fumbled dialogues then thought hey, lets turn on the tank and get the party started. A good hiss helped me find the easy leak but, then the new bulkhead fitting started to leak. Replaced all the hoses and fittings before I installed the tank. Yanked it apart and it ended up being a tapered gas fitting which shouldn't have needed tape but - did that. Wasn't a full leak just a faint hint of propane in the air right at the fitting and a tiny bit of sweat. Out it came. Damn lowered trucks. Got it! 3:05 my time. Still time to fire it up. Grabbing a quick cool down beer then back at it.

CARS! Next up - my phone wouldn't take a video. Out of storage space. Ended up pulling the headlight switch apart. Love these harnesses with writing on the wires. I had a couple wires flip flopped into the switch so pulled them all out and plugged back into the correct spot - everything worked after that. I do have an issue with my front signal lights. I'm using United Pacific headlights with the LED signal built in. I think I need a resistor in there somewhere. Left or right signal flashes both sides. The park lights are tied in there also so thinking the LED doesn't like the set up. I pulled the incandescent bulbs out of the back to try LED's and they wouldn't work at all. Put the normal bulb back in and it's all good. All buttoned up, ready to try again tomorrow.

 

Tomorrow is today!! Cant wait! Please delete some stuff from your phone first to make room for the video. lol

 

Tomorrow is today, will be ringing in my head for a while. I've lost steam this past week. The Langley Cruise In is Sept 10. Targeting to drive Clementine to that show or tow it. One or the other.

I'll be making fun of myself after this one. The big gaping hole in the dash will be remedied by this 'temporary' measure. I started making a panel then snapped my die grinder bit. OK - what now. I really didn't want to wire idiot lights then have to rewire (thanks for the schematics @Crazy Steve) so I picked up some cheapy gauges to give me some info and dealt with the hole - to be revisited at a later date. No room under the dash for the typical install. The shifter sneaks up to within 2" of the dash in 3rd. so turned the panel upside down and made a tab to mount because that seemed to make more sense. OMG it looks Hokey. Think the next interm patch will be oval top and bottom but, big enough to hide the cut corners. Wired up the gauges so they're functional. NEXT!!! Stumbling around chasing down tech issues like how to bend extremely tight radius brake lines and power steering lines. Boring but, big obstacles with the tools we have. Timing might force us to make some wooden bucks to bend lines.

 

Yea Baby Yea!! She's alive. Let's see if I can figure out how to post this. Nope - Will have to get kids to do it - I'm daft. YouTube link somehow. It's coming!!

 

Last time I did a video was 10 years ago. Seem to remember it was a lot easier back then. After the kids got it loaded I see it sitting sideways . My young guy is working on getting it flipped. Had another interior video showing gauges during the 2nd startup. Voltmeter showed 12V when running so suspect that means we're still not charging. Big smiles today man!! Cranked it with the coil wire off to get some oil up top before starting it. Remembered you have to manually switch on the choke to get it to grab the high idle for warm up. I was checking oil and temp mechanical gauge leaks as that was the first time for everything. What a journey. Didn't get to the steering shaft this weekend but, will pounce on it this week and maybe, just maybe, we are road worthy albeit with some leaks and little things to debug. Exhaust manifold leaks but, that manifold is going away next round so not going to worry about it, it quiets down once it's warmed up.

 

Progress! Good for you. And its good to walk away now and then. That's what I've been doing for a few weeks now. lol. You pretty much have it running now which is very cool and a big step. Just working out the kinks. Ya know, with your welding skills why don't you just weld the dash hole up, smooth it, skim it and paint it. Then you can drill holes for the gauges there and be done. Anyway, you're doing great and it looks like you'll make it for the Langley Cruise in.

 

I was cheating towards fast and easy. I wanted a place holder until I came up with something I will be happy with in the long run. I've been looking at the ashtray/glove compartment design. It's a winter project because if I go this route the truck will be down for a bit. Kind of like 2 glove compartments then I could put all the gauges in it. Not definitive because I'd still have the shifter hitting the door. Just random design stuff to stretch the custom muscles.

 

I like it! How about 1 of those swan shifters. The lower bend starts lower then bends back up. Just brainstorming.

Actually, after relooking at your pic that won't hrlp

 

I'm all over the place on this gauge panel deal so all suggestions are welcome. I like so many styles I have to boil it down to the theme then stick with that. I'm going with a T5 at some point as I'm going to be doing a bit more highway driving mixed with drop the hammer. That moves the shifter back even with the S-10 shifter on it. Right now it falls into the show category and I'm shifting to the go dept. soon. I have the hoe filled and some gauges in it so we'll call it a hiatus.

 

Here it is, courtesy of my 16 year old. I tapped out a few days ago on this effort. Give me some more rusty floors to work on.

 

Awesome!! What a great feeling that must be. Congrats

 

Looking forward to getting it on a dyno to get a base line. Now taking bets - Plus or minus 100 horse?

 

170 HP easy

 

Whoa, with no test ride he's guessing the 300 cu big beast. I'm going conservative and guessing 148 mighty ones from the seatofthepantshorsometer but, my memory might be off. Going to pull a plug, check the stroke and report back. Will call and book a dyno run for a random saturday to be determined. This should be good.

 

Sandbagger 17 year old is guessing 150 even, 16 year old is lame and going with 143 - the trend is they're guessing close to the driver's guess.

 

I like the video, and congratulations on the first start-up, but...um... I don't think your pooch is too impressed!

 

Sounds great! Silky smooth big six!
As for HP.....does it really matter?

The shifter for a T5.....
I bought the generic T5 that has the shifter fairly rearward. I made my shift lever from 1" X 1/2" rectangular steel, but a forward bend near the bottom, the a rearward bend about 2/3 the way up to clear the bench seat. Position is near perfect to act as a hand rest in 2nd and 4th gears.

 

Ha, I didn't notice his response. That's Wally for you. Super easy to tell what he thinks in almost every situation. He could teach a course for mimes.

 

And look damned cool while doing it.

 

I like this question. The answer is, Nope - but, yes.
Bench raced my whole life and I never even stood next to a dyno. I'm gettin' numbers for this one. I think it's $75 for a pull. It'll be good for a chuckle. I'll keep the results of it on display and hide all future ones.

 

Truth be told, I'd be interested in your results too. It'll be fun to see what you have gained with the addition of the hair drier. (That's what we call 'em).
On that Power Nation 300 build, they got a really big power boost just from the intake swap.
On my own, the performance seemed a bit sluggish, but I was OK with it for the time being because I drive very conservatively anyway. The I was dinkin' around with my gas pedal....or lack of, and I made a nifty oval pad that I just welded to the stub end. Sorta like the "Lakester" style that Lokar sells. I was then that I realized I was only getting about half throttle. So, man o man, she's a screamer now!
Well, not really. But it does feel quite a bit spunkier!

 

I'll let you know how she pulls and I'll post it here!

Long weekend starts now. Going to get insurance and start to debug this weekend. Tues drive to work (hopefully). Need to network the aluminum welding for our intake and get bolting. Also asked everyone I know if they have an oxyacetylene torch. No one. Need to cut a partial coil out of the front end with a disk then flatten the end of the coil to knock 2 more inches out of the front end. Common thing for the OT front end I have. Was going to wait but, if I do it now then get it aligned I do it once as opposed to twice.

 

Got the column pulled again to fit the steering linkage. Ended up cutting the old mounting pad off the column where it mounts to the bottom of the dash. I don't think it is original to the truck based on mounting holes. Ended up getting it mostly complete including drilling and tapping the universal and drilling a shallow hole in the shaft to index the bolt into. Will paint it in the am, loctite the bolts and hit the wrap up round. I ended up rewiring my kids headlights that were hacked by a previous owner. All this time spent wiring our F100 helped as we whizzed through that task. We sold a car my kids got free from a family friend that was taking up driveway space. Good payday for the kids as they split that. Overall quite productive.

 

It runs and it steers. Had to bust back into the wiring harness to pull back idiot light wires now that we have mechanical gauges. Will pull apart and get everything routed appropriately when I have the fenders back off for inner fender paint. Our wire loom is temp, will do final with tech wrap. Frame gets detail work next round when the motor comes out and I think I'll figure out the z bar dilemma then. Went against the current theme and painted steering shaft instead of fab/prime because we are about to hit the rainy season here and I don't want rust. I'm really done with rust for a while - now the theme is Paint, thread locker and install.

 

Let's see how quickly we can shift into the power and go dept. More porting today if I can jam it in after I tighten down some miscellaneous bolts and hook up the clutch return spring. The anchor point went away when we took the cross member out. Bit of a schlamozzle(sp?) under there right now with OT steering in the way. May have to reread @Mike Lawless clutch setup. Running and driving first though.