KansasIDI’s 1986 Ford F250HD 7.3L IDI

Thank you for the welcome, @adam g .

It's been a while since I've posted about my truck on here, I guess this thread was not exactly on topic. All good though.

Anyways, I've done a little bit to my truck, and have some questions that I will get to later on here.

Got the junior West Coast style mirrors on them, and wow. Those are great. I really like how they look, and best part is, with the small round convex mirrors, there are no blind spots. It seems people either really like them or really don't. All good, everyone has their preferences. The truck looked a little dorky with those mirrors at first, but then a couple days later I installed the cab lights. Oh man. That did the trick in my mind. Some people with different taste might not agree, but in my opinion that made the truck look... almost sharp for as rusted and worn down as it looks. Can't quite place it, but something still doesn't look quite right, even if you ignore the rust. I really noticed it when I removed the Ford logo front license plate to flatten it back out.

I hope to find a decent service bed for it, as the box bed doesn't quite work that good for what I do with that truck. I work on it all the time, so I might as well have nice tool storage on it.

I advanced the injection pump timing. Made a substantial difference. Not sure exactly how much I advanced it, probably about 4 degrees. Now if you get on it, it can almost get out of it's own way. And it'll do 81 mph now. Still doesn't quite keep up with traffic around me, especially in Manhattan...

However, in an attempt to advance the timing, I broke the fuel advance arm off the driver's side of the injection pump when my prybar slipped. Wrong tool for the job... and when it slipped I broke the return line elbow off the top of the injection pump... damn me.

Speaking of Manhattan, I pressed my brake pedal when a stoplight turned fast, and the old Ford didn't stop very fast. I tried the pedal again, and she locked up. Slid to a stop right next to somebody, certainly not ideal. Replaced the brake pads and bled the brakes, and also learned that the check valve was bad on my brake booster. Replaced that and adjusted the rear drums, now it stops good. The brake pedal still goes down pretty far before it gets hard, but when you get to that spot in the pedal, the brakes work plenty good. But I am wondering if it might need a new master cylinder to fix that?

I learned that you can line up the gears and switch from low range to high range while in motion. I know it says not to do that on the visor, but the way I always understood that it isn't bad for it if you don't grind the gears. Makes it really fun to drive, floating 1-2-3-4 in low range, then pull it out of 4th, wait a little bit, put it in high range, then in 2nd gear, 3rd, then 4th and man, is that ever fun. Reminds me a little bit of a range divider like in an old semi, that's kinda how I use it when I do that. No clutch input between gears, only need the clutch for starting off.

I have not tried to shift from high range to low range while moving, I do not see the reason to, even though that truck is geared so high.

I will post pics later today, if I remember to.

These pics aren’t very good, but here you go

These pics aren’t very good, but here you go

So recently it has been getting warmer here, sort of like spring is/has rolled around...

My truck's cooling system has also been getting warmer. I have replaced the water pump, the thermostat, and flushed the coolant, as well as blown out the fins on the radiator. I also replaced the coolant overflow tank hose, it had a cut in it and when you revved the engine up, it would blow coolant into the intake, causing a bit of white smoke until it warms up.

It still gets unnervingly hot, 'al' in normal on the gauge

Are you able to check with a real gauge? I once ran a 460 that opened the thermostat at L on the gauge because the gauge was just worthless.

Just checked it with a temp gun. Gauge is right

I think it needs a new radiator

Does it still blow white smoke in the morning?
Does it misfire until it runs 30 seconds or more?
Do you have to add coolant?

It no longer blows white smoke later than 30 seconds after start up. It clatters when it starts for about 5-10 seconds, quiets up a bit once oil psi is up. If I use ether like when it is really cold then it clatters for 45 seconds or so, ether knock kinda thing. I don’t have to add coolant.

And now it just sips a tiny bit of coolant and blows white smoke after I drove it hard all day yesterday. Also started getting warm again, I made a different thread on that.

The clutch in this truck is so weird. It is brand new, the PO put it in right before he sold it to me. It is stiff at the top half of the pedal, and if you push it down all the way, it is soft at the bottom half. But at the very bottom, it acts just like a clutch brake in a big rig. Also same where you only need to push the pedal in part way to shift, if you so desire. I only use the clutch for starting off.

Earlier you mentioned the fan clutch being bad. That, of course, could cause overheating. Does the fan roar like a tornado when the gauge shows hot? If not, it's not working.

It roars almost louder than the engine itself. Louder than my stock exhaust.

Sounds like it's working to me.

So my truck has the Ford blue oval emblem in the center of the grille, but it also has the Ford letters across the front of the hood. Would it be not the original hood then?

81 was the last year for letting on the hood.

James