1951 F16

[kb426]

O&S did small stuff today. UPS didn't bring the new bed cover hinge until almost 6pm. I took the heat gun to the bed mat to remove the curl at the tail gate area. I heated it and put about 30 lbs of weight on it. I helped it but it needs some more work. The ac condensate line had a kink in it where a 90* turn was required to exit the firewall. A trip to the hardware store provided a nylon elbow to rectify that problem. I welded a small pad on the throttle pedal arm and sprayed some flat black on it.  I went through the setting procedure for the IAC and didn't find anything much different than it was so I believe I'm back to looking at contributing factors that affect it's operation. I'm pretty sure I will find I did something incorrectly, I just don't know what yet. LOL. I pulled the front wheels and adjusted more preload into the front springs. The front valance was dragging on the edge of the street if you back the truck into the drive. I raised it 1". If the weather forecast is correct, there will be no work tomorrow.

[jaybee]

Your IAC just needs a P O N T added first.

[kb426]

Over here in the land of really boring, I went to the shop for a while and have the new hinge mounted on the bed frame. I put the upper flange in the mill and slotted the holes .25" to make leveling easier. The wind is blowing in between 30 and 55mph so I left the truck in the shed.

[kb426]

O&S had the bed cover mounted and then removed for painting. I thought I had a good pic but it has optical illusion all over it. The new hinge allowed me to level it front to rear. The bed front now has nutserts and button head fasteners. I'm going to paint it black to match the bed cover.

[kb426]

O&S turned it blacker than it was. A rotisserie sure would have made it turn out better.

[jaybee]

That bed cover is coming along nicely. it's going to add a nice finish to the truck and be good aerodynamically as well.

[idrivejunk]

[kb426]

O&S plodded along for a couple of hours today. I flipped the cover over and trimmed some of the material back to make the sides and ends closer to the edges. I bolted the unit together and installed on the truck. After leveling the cover I realized that the latch had to be relocated. I had made it non-adjustable. Quite brave of me. I adapted a bracket to the latch and attached the bracket to the tailgate. I may revise that when the tailgate gets' painted. By machining a slotted plate to weld into the tailgate, I could make this nicer. For now, this is crossed off the list.

[chimp koose]

looks nice!

[jaybee]

Looking good!

[kb426]

I have been chasing an erratic idle air control valve operation. I tried a different setting procedure today. After a few cold starts, I will know if I gained anything. In reading through the Holley Sniper forum, I read that it is a known issue for RFI to be a problem on small Ford's because of the proximity of the ecu to the distributor. There are people selling a plate so it must be wide spread. I made a bracket from left over alum. and installed it today.

[jaybee]

I just took a trip back through this thread but I don't quite get the answer to what I'm wondering about. Is the engine a stock, freshened 5.0 with an aftermarket intake and Sniper EFI? When I went back I recognized the discussion of how you started with a 5.0 and a 351W but weren't happy with the big Windsor and moved it along to a new owner. I also see a comment about finishing the heads and setting them in the corner but not a lot of other discussion of the engine.

[kb426]

I ended up using the 1987 mustang 5.0 engine. The 351 was not a roller block and the cylinders had lots of wear. The 5.0 was a low mileage engine that was full of sludge. I vatted the block and heads. It has new rings, bearings, oil pump, etc. The only upgrade was valve springs so it will rev past 5 grand. The intake is a Professional Products that I purchased about 30 years ago. It had been up in the attic with a Holley carb that was a factory replacement for a 1969 428 cobra jet. That carb is on a friends 1969 Mach 1 that has a 390 and 4 speed. It was doing me no good sitting there so it's on "loan". If somebody had a standard bore stroker kit on the shelf, this would probably be a 342 by now. It's never ending though. It would need heads, a cam and the stroker. When you get done, you will have another 5 grand in an old design engine. That wasn't one of my goals but right now I'm not willing to put a bunch more money in the engine department until the availability of newer engines gets better.

[jaybee]

The Coyotes are fantastic engines but they'll devour your checkbook. Even the F150 versions are expensive to get used, and if you start to modify them you're looking at serious money. I got to ride in legitimately fast Mustang that dyno'd at 700hp, he showed me the dyno sheet. It was so fast my back tried to climb the seatback, but I don't want to think about the money involved. The car had everything from locked out cam phasers on billet pulleys and an oil pump with billet steel geroter gears to aftermarket halfshafts and forged wheels with track day tires.

[kb426]

Jaybee, one of my goals for this was no fat engines. No coyote, hemi or big block stuff. That left me with sbc, sbf, ls and godzilla.

O&S plodded along today. I had half of a plan in my head from months ago. That went out the door in less than 5 minutes. I had thought about carpeting the rear panel of the cab. After removing the seats and seeing how dirty everything was, I decided on easy clean to be a priority. I had some 1/8" abs left over that became the center panel. It is fairly rigid so I don't think any strange noises will originate from it. I used 1/16" on the radiuses on the ends. The carpet is cut but needs the edging sewed on. I have not done that before so there maybe room for some education there. I'm planning on carpeting the firewall above the dynadeck. I need to make a pattern for that and do some research on how to attach it to the firewall over the insulation. Lots left in the interior but there are less bare spaces now. I don't think the pics show much detail, just lots of black. There are some dirty spots on the rear panel that will need some chemical to clean them. A quick wipe of water was not successful. I didn't have any button head fasteners to install, yet.