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In the interests of hopefully getting this thing back together before I head back to work on Tuesday, I decided that the old exhaust manifolds are good enough for now. They didn't leak before, and they also had a bunch of broken studs then too.




Getting the truck back into the garage was a bit tougher without an engine in it, but between my wife and I manouvering it around with the quad and a little bit of hillbilly ingenuity, we got it in. The wall of the garage was doing a bit of creaking before I added the snatch block, but spreading the load out a bit did the trick.


We got the engine in place, bolted up to the transmission, and the torque converter bolted up. I was going to put the little access cover in place and thought hmm, that doesn't cover as much as I remember. Then my wife fished this out from under the bench, supposed to go between the engine and trans, oops. At least we didn't have to pull the engine right out, just unbolted the transmission and slid it back a bit with a pry bar.

The exhaust Y pipe is next, so I pulled the old o2 sensors and put three of the new ones in. The last one called and pulled the threads out. I spent probably an hour on the phone to a bunch of places to find an 18mm helicoil set, but no luck. One of the auto parts stores has weld in bungs the right size though, so I'll pick one up in the morning when we have to go to town anyway. Feels good to at least have this thing sitting where it should be again.
Kristian

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V6 in a book frame build. Now registered.
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Today wasn't the best day ever. I've got the engine in and most of the stuff is hooked up, accessories, intake, etc are all installed. First real issue was when I cracked the elbow on top of the thermostat housing tightening it up. Ford uses an o-ring instead of a gasket, and the parts don't sit flat against each other. I didn't realize that, and one of the mount tabs broke when I was tightening it up. The next issue is a bit bigger. I figured I was far enough along that I could crank over the engine to prime the oil system, and unfortunately the engine doesn't crank over. When I slipped the spacer plate between the engine and transmission, I figured I could just scoot the transmission back a bit and avoid undoing the torque convertor from the flex plate. Turns out that might have been a bad idea and wasn't quite the time saver I thought it would be. It's time to BBQ some burgers and have a drink, I'll get back to the truck tomorrow and hopefully I didn't screw it up too bad. Fingers crossed that I can scoot the transmission back far enough to figure this out.


Kristian

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V6 in a book frame build. Now registered.
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It's alive! I just spent the past hour or more trying to figure out why the stupid thing had no fuel pressure and the pump wouldn't run. Oh look, there's the fuel pump relay, sitting right where I left it so that I wouldn't accidently start before I put oil in it or something. I still have to put the cooling module on the front and put fluids in it, but I couldn't resist firing it up for a few seconds just to make sure it was going to actually run. I cranked the engine a bunch with the crank position sensor pulled to prime the oil system, then cranked it a bunch more while I was trying to figure out my lack of fuel pressure, so it built oil pressure pretty quickly. Hopefully I can have it moving under its own power by the end of the week.

Turns out I didn't have to pull the engine back out again to fix my misalignment issue on the torque converter either, I unbolted everything and slid the transmission back about 1/2" on the mounts, and had my wife bar over the engine while I watched and wiggled from underneath. The torque converter slid back to it's home and I bolted everything back in place. I did have to pull the exhaust, alternator, intake manifold, and coolant crossover tube to get that far though, but better than pulling the engine again.
Kristian

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V6 in a book frame build. Now registered.
viewtopic.php?f=35&t=7587
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New vehicles are definitely more complicated to work on, but they're built for ease of service too. At least this one is. Putting in the core support and all the various coolers (radiator, transmission cooler, power steering cooler, and Ac condenser) plus connecting them took less than a 1/2 hour. Off to town tomorrow to pick up fluids, and then I'll be able to drive it again.
Kristian

_________________
V6 in a book frame build. Now registered.
viewtopic.php?f=35&t=7587
viewtopic.php?f=33&t=18172

Winter is coming, so yesterday I was busy installing a pellet stove so we aren't using electric heat in our house. Turns out pellet stoves don't use just normal stove pipe or the same type of chimney as a normal wood stove. I had to drop a 4" stainless liner down the existing chimney, and use expensive double wall stove pipe with a stainless liner, and the total bill for materials was about $1200. Got it done and fired it up last night though, and woke up to snow this morning. First drive of the truck today. Topped up fluids and stuff, then went down to the highway and came back up the hill to our house so I could get some load on it and seat the rings. It came up to temp pretty quick and the cooling system was easy to bleed. Power steering took a bit longer to get the air out, but it's good now. On the first trip the check engine light came on, turns out I didn't get one of the coil pack connectors seated properly and it pulled loose a bit. It clicked in and the light didn't come back. Air bag light is on and a chassis code for the airbag system is set, but the only other code is for the emissions self test not being completed. That will take some time to clear anyway. The airbag is probably due to a small sensor under the rad that I may have stepped on and may have broken while working on the truck, so I guess I'll need another one of those some day.
Kristian

_________________
V6 in a book frame build. Now registered.
viewtopic.php?f=35&t=7587
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I posted about this rebuild on the GRM board too, and one of the guys there mentioned that a messed up fuel injector could wear a cylinder fast due to fuel washing the oil off the cylinder wall. I think I'm going to run it low on fuel and add a bottle of injector cleaner before fillip at the very least, and keep an eye on the fuel trims to see if one bank calls for more fuel than the other. If there's any issues showing up either injector cleaning or replacement would be a good idea.
Kristian

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V6 in a book frame build. Now registered.
viewtopic.php?f=35&t=7587
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Yeah, I quit GRM when they did this latest forum update. I can't easily find or read anything. It takes up way too much real estate on your screen and there's no "take me to the last post I read" button as they promised so with the extra space, etc. it's just too much work to try to navigate. I'll miss it, but if'n you can't easily find your place or see what's being posted then it's not worth the bother.

I wonder what their post count has done? All this to say, there's usually lots of good info over there, but I know several of the top posters have left.

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mobilito ergo sum
I drive therefore I am

I can explain it to you,
but I can't understand it for you.