1990 F-350 4x4 Ambulance Revival/Long Term Build - "Betty"

[cre1992]

Hello everybody, long time lurker here. I'll start with some background. I was looking for a weekend get away vehicle was going to purchase a 1991 E350 4x4 conversion, when I stumbled onto this truck. She's a 1990 Ford F-350 4x4 Ambulance "with 100,000" miles on her to convert into an off-road camper of sorts. Now I think the odometer has rolled around at least once, but the truck is super clean. The bad, the engine has no compression (verified, shes getting a new engine/trans swap). Now you might have noticed her in the classifieds awhile back, but I found her on craigslist. After a brief discussion with the previous owner we struck a deal. I grabbed my truck and trailer. drove 7 hours North, slept terribly in the back seat for 2 hours, and promptly arrived at 7:30AM to pick her up. We then loaded her up, bs'ed a little, and I then drove 8 hours South, with Betty in tow.

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

(The suspension isn't sagging, I elected to let the air out of the rear airbags)

The plan was to bring her home and work on her in the driveway, but the after thought of poking the proverbial bear (aka The HOA) and dealing with the consequences just wasn't worth it. Lacking the ability to stick in her the driveway, the decision was made to store her at a farm for now. Stay tuned.

 

[cre1992]

Fast forward to waiting for my compression tester to come in. I decided to pick up two brandy new batteries and go an verify for myself that the engine wouldn't start/had no compression. Well being it wouldn't start I couldn't test it warm. So I pulled all of the glow plugs, and test 4 of the 8 cylinders.

Cylinder 1 - 50psi
Cylinder 7 - 30psi
Cylinder 2 - 10psi
Cylinder 8 - 110psi

I elected to squirt a little oil into the cylinders, the compression hardly came up at all, with all 4 corners having low compression, I figured I could rule out busted head gaskets. I decided to pull the oil fill cap, and crank the engine over to see if there was excess blow by coming out, upon cranking the engine with a push button switch, I promptly received an oil mist bath of sorts. BIG MISTAKE. I was surprised the cap didn't blow off in the process of cranking it over with the amount of pressure coming out of the case. I think its safe to say the rings are likely toast, however this will be verified when I pull the engine.

Also, note the the fuel filter set up is mounted where the normal passenger side battery is, due to the ginormous 240 Amp alternator! Batteries are mounted in the ambulance box.

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[Fredrickson]

We had a discussion about one like this that was very similar.
https://www.oilburners.net/threads/1991-f350-4x4-idi-ambulance-3-500-atlanta-area.88481/

I think the owner was on expedition portal.. the engine had decent IP and injectors but no compression.

 

[cre1992]

Pretty much convinced that the engine was currently toast, and not wanting to fork out 4 plus K for a reman, I decided to look in a 4 hour radius of where I am in Florida for a suitable replacement. Having looked for a few weeks, I am convinced that people either hoard IDI engines, have scrapped most of them, or want a ton of money for an engine that was out of a truck and couldn't verify that it was in running condition. I was even less likely to find an IDIT so I started looking around at complete running trucks that I could pull an engine out of and use. Well of course I found one that was exactly 4 hours away in Miami. So I drove down and looked at a 1991 Ford F-250 4x4 with a 7.3L and a ZF5. I then rented a UHaul car trailer, forked over some cash, and loaded her up. (She was within the weight limits of the trailer and U-Haul deemed it okay to tow.) With the rear tire barely on the trailer, and the ass end hanging off, I started heading back.

You must be registered for see images attach

Upon approaching 60mph (55mph trailer limit) the trailer decided to sway all over the place, and sphincter tightening ensued. :***:

I pulled over to check out the trailer and noticed that the leaf spring bushings were completely shot, yet one axle was brand new... A quick call to other U hauls in the area yielded there were no other car trailers available. I chose to continue on . 5.5 Hours later I made it home and unloaded Betty's organ donor.

 

[cre1992]

We had a discussion about one like this that was very similar.
https://www.oilburners.net/threads/1991-f350-4x4-idi-ambulance-3-500-atlanta-area.88481/

I think the owner was on expedition portal.. the engine had decent IP and injectors but no compression.

This is the same truck. Has brand new injection pump, fuel pump, injectors, and glow plugs. But no boomboom.

Ill be posting on the "other" forum, once I get her up and running and begin working on the box.

 

[Farmer Rock]

first response vehicles have a really hard life most of the time. They get virtually no warm up time, then are floored to the governor. Those are some super low compression numbers though. Looks like a neat project, I am looking forward to seeing it completed. I think 4x4 idi ambulances are pretty cool trucks. I wouldn't mind making a camper out of one either.



Rock

 

[cre1992]

first response vehicles have a really hard life most of the time. They get virtually no warm up time, then are floored to the governor. Those are some super low compression numbers though. Looks like a neat project, I am looking forward to seeing it completed. I think 4x4 idi ambulances are pretty cool trucks. I wouldn't mind making a camper out of one either.



Rock

Yeah, I am aware of that.. I may or may not have driven first response vehicles in a previous career haha. Also thanks, thats the plan, the boxes are constructed extremely well, and even rated for roll overs... Not that I am planning on trying to do that. I'm just playing catch up posting what I am up to now. Should be a few more posts today, or tonight.

 

[cre1992]

After getting the organ donor home, I started to strip some of the parts off of it make it easier to remove the engine. Apparently the maroon truck had some sort of brush guard on it at one time, which had pieces of angle iron that ran across to each of the frame horns, but made it impossible to get to the few bolts to remove the bumper. After much cursing, beating, and cutting I was able to remove the bumper. What a pain that was. Wish I would have had a fire wrench to assist with that. I sold the tires off of the red truck to recoup some of my money (Brandy new BFG KO2's), and threw a set of worn out tires on it to still be able to move it around.

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[cre1992]

After much debate with a friend, and the unknown condition of the E4OD, he convinced me just swap the ZF5 into the ambulance with the engine. However this would be no simple feat due to the console that covers the wires. So with that in mind, I drove out to the farm and took some general measurements.
I had seemingly convinced myself that almost anything is possible if you put your mind to it.....

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[cre1992]

Now convinced that I could make Betty trans-****** and install a ZF5. I got to work on figuring out what was going on with the debacle of a wiring harness. If you don't already own a label maker, I recommend you buy one.

Step One, remove the gauge pack.

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

Step Two: Cry a little about what I had just gotten myself into. And continue disassembly, marking/labeling every single wire. (Going to turn this switch console into a gauge pod)

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

Step 3 Yank out Carefully remove the console.

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[cre1992]

Step 4 Remove, disconnect, clean, and move wires in preparation to get down to the trans tunnel cover.

You must be registered for see images attach

Step 5 Remove the seats

You must be registered for see images attach

Step 6 Make sure you spend extra time carefully removing the vinyl floor only to tear it to pieces while taking it out of the truck and to gasp upon the discovery of rust!...

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[Fredrickson]

Looks good so far..

I would wager a call to Wheeled Coach might get you a pdf of the wiring schematics for the box.
(have VIN in hand)

If not, I can always send you a copy of the schematics for a AEV 94 box.
Nothing solid state. all relays.
May or may not follow some sort of gov standard.

 

[cre1992]

Looks good so far..

I would wager a call to Wheeled Coach might get you a pdf of the wiring schematics for the box.
(have VIN in hand)

If not, I can always send you a copy of the schematics for a AEV 94 box.
Nothing solid state. all relays.
May or may not follow some sort of gov standard.

Thanks, I've been working on it on my spare time which varies by week. I plan on using POR15 on the floor and rockers underneath. I just have to weld a patch in two spots of the floor first, nothing crazy. Just bought a welder to take care of that project.

Also, I reached out to Wheeled Coach when I first bought it. Unfortunately they supposedly don't have schematics for anything prior to 2001. It was wired by someone named "Connie" according to various labels I found in the electrical panel. All relays here as well. A whole freaking lot of them!

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[IDIBRONCO]

One suggestion here. Since you're keeping this out at a farm, you may want to do some rodent prevention. Especially seeing all of those wires. If you're out there working on it a lot, you may not have any issues, but if you have to leave it alone for a few weeks for some reason, they could move in pretty quickly.

 

[Fredrickson]

Regarding rodents:
as silly as it sounds. Peppermint oil on cotton swaps keeps them away.. (some say Bounce dryer sheets)
AND..
break up bubble gum into small pieces.. (Freeze some sticks and they break easy) Rodents will eat it, but they can't digest it. . Blocks their digestive system.. and sends them to the big cheese wheel in the sky.
(works on moles in the yard too.. drop it into the entrance of the holes)