Project Thread: 1986 F250 “Farm Truck #1” Build Thread

SkylabTech86IDI

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The truck has received a lot of attention since the last post, and it’s time to give this thread a needed update.

The F250’s drivers seat felt like it saw a lot of rear-end miles (and smelled like it, too).

So I picked up these bronco seats out of a junkyard truck & accuform dash pad cover.
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Accuform dash pad that my wife spotted on our way out of the yard.

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I also Started ripping out the rotten wood bed to redo it and make tracing and rerunning fuel lines easier to troubleshoot hard starts. The plan is to use this stack of scrap deck wood my neighbor gave me to rebuild the bed.

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That stack of wood in the pile back there. Also, found this exhaust stack for $8 that I couldn’t pass up out of principle. Someone else paid a lot of money for this silly thing to wind up on my truck - Love Them or hate them, it’s up there for now.

The blue tape around the rear window is a result of discovering a window leak and it’s making the carpet wet.

We had a tropical storm that gifted? my yard with a paint booth that’s no one has claimed in a couple of weeks now. Not sure where it came from or how far.
 
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SkylabTech86IDI

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I also picked up a Lund cab visor
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I picked up a parts washer for $40 off of a buddy at the auto store. It’s an old chicago
Electric basin washer.

Going to use this parts washer on some parts that I’ll turn in for store credit at classicdieseldesigns to put towards a new injector pump. I think I’m sitting on about $780 store credit for the items I can exchange. Still deliberating on that. Not quick to separate myself from in-demand parts, but I could use an injector pump + injectors now.

Speaking of the pump, I turned up the fuel screw 2 flats and it cleared up the smoke to a light haze under WOT. I don’t have an egt/pyrometer yet, so not trying to pushing it. I’m not billowing coal yet, so I think I’m in the clear for now and don’t have to be concerned with metaling a piston.

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I also spent some time refreshing the fuel system and added some paint to the injector lines. I’ve bypassed the selector valve and ran 10ft of clear line directly to the rear tank, and routed that to a $18 amazon electric pump that advertised 5-7psi. In reality, the oil suspended fuel pressure gauge mounted in place of the fuel sensor says I’m getting 3 psi, and then it drops to 1 psi at idle and down to 0 under any load. The truck will run, but I can feel the obvious fuel starvation. Still, the e-pump has been immensely helpful in troubleshooting air intrusion. I’ve replaced hard line connections with barbed NPT fittings and high compression clamps, installed new injector caps and supposedly viton o rings.

Most of the fuel olives have been eliminated from the system and the only remaining 2 are at the IP hardline
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SkylabTech86IDI

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I got the 6.9 tucked off to the side and got the shop walkable again and now the next step is to really get it organized.
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Once I got the motor in place I started looking it over to get a bead on what year this 6.9 might be.

Turns out that it’s an earlier block meaning it’s more prone to cracking at the block heater and these have press-in (as opposed to threaded in) oil squirters. That makes me weary.

6.9 has reduced risk of cavitation, but the smaller head bolts thus less boost potential & thinking about about oil squirters failing on my build doesn’t meet my idea of a bullet proofed IDI build.

Undecided on how to proceed, so right now just focusing on getting the truck running well as an N/a 7.3 and take it from there.
 

SkylabTech86IDI

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The C6 revealed 3rd gear all on its own. Just need to drive it and recondition.
The plan is to flush the trans and TC and put new filter in and test and run.

Still planning to put the T19 swap in, but still need to get parts to complete it
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SkylabTech86IDI

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& for the biggest update so far, I’m happy to announce that I bought my home and here’s a victory one wheel peel

I didn’t have to make a deal with the devil to do it in this market. the monthly payment is less than what I was paying to rent here.

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The first project was to put gutters on the house and the next is digging out the sewage line to find and cut the roots that are growing into it away and assess a need to repair or replace the 20ft line with a $120 schedule 40 pipe.
 

Jesus Freak

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You've been busy for sure. Everything looks good. And the truck moving under it's own power is a WIN!
 

IDIBRONCO

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That's the same parts washer that I have. You can't use solvent in it. You have to use a non petroleum based cleaner in it. Let's just say that I've been less than impressed with mine so far. maybe I just need to find a better cleaning fluid?
 

SkylabTech86IDI

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You've been busy for sure. Everything looks good. And the truck moving under it's own power is a WIN!
Thanks for the kind words, Jesus Freak. The familiar names around here keep welcome company.

About that cab visor, I mock fit it to the truck. Looks off to me. Maybe it’s a cab visor for a van, but that’s just my best guess.

What do you think?
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Driver corner
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Driver corner

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Flush driver cab corner.
Flush against a pillar and drip rail over the door. Like it’s supposed to be on the truck.

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SkylabTech86IDI

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That cab visor part # is:
LUND MPLS MN 55433 PN FP2

eBay has a listing for one that’s for a 1980-96 f-series but these gaps don’t look quite right to me. is there a place that I can request other cab visor reference photos?


Thanks for the kind words, Jesus Freak. The familiar names around here keep welcome company.

About that cab visor, I mock fit it to the truck. Looks off to me. Maybe it’s a cab visor for a van, but that’s just my best guess.

What do you think?
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Driver corner
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Driver corner

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Flush driver cab corner.
Flush against a pillar and drip rail over the door. Like it’s supposed to be on the truck.

You must be registered for see images attach


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SkylabTech86IDI

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That's the same parts washer that I have. You can't use solvent in it. You have to use a non petroleum based cleaner in it. Let's just say that I've been less than impressed with mine so far. maybe I just need to find a better cleaning fluid?
Thanks for the advice. I was thinking a compound of 50/50 simple green and distilled water and maybe a bio-organic abrasive like used coffee grinds.
 

SkylabTech86IDI

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Keep an eye out for that little pre-filter clogging up. I had one on a cube pump that took me 3 days to figure out why it kept dying and starting and dying and starting...unreali

Yes sir, I’m fighting with this problem right now. I noticed that the pump wouldn’t output the same fuel psi as when it first went on in the first 36 hours. By week 1 the best fuel psi id get is 1-3 psi, depending on where sediments have settled.

I need to throw that filter out and get a better temporary inline fuel filter at the auto parts store. What did you do to upgrade your filter?

At idle it used to read 1, and now it’s just 0 the whole time now. Yesterday The truck was sputtering and coughing real bad and searching for fuel.

Sounded like a chuff chuff POP chuff chuff chuff POP chuff POP, like fire crackers were going off. I bet the injector timing was off due to low psi, and would combust with the exhaust valve is open. Is that about right? Fuel psi affects IP timing
 

SkylabTech86IDI

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Keep an eye out for that little pre-filter clogging up. I had one on a cube pump that took me 3 days to figure out why it kept dying and starting and dying and starting...unreal
Aside from the filter, for a $18 kit I am impressed.

I’m looking at upgrading to a Facet 40990 50gph 9-11 psi pump. I’m told these pumps are numbered kind of like clothes, and that you need to get the next size up to get the numbers you want.

My understanding is 5-7fuel psi at idle is ideal for 8.5deg BTDC stock timing
 

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