Ex Wife- my LONG term build

[IDIBRONCO]

A little bit of background. I started wanting a crew cab dually in 1992. I've never searched terribly hard for one although I did have a lead or two over the years. In 2008, about a month since I took my last ride in my first F250 with a IDI (pictured below), I happened to see the top of a crew cab Ford sticking above the weeds at a farm about 8 or 9 miles north of where I was living at the time. I found out who lived there, then I got his phone number. Yes it was for sale, and he agreed to show me the truck. I went to look at it and didn't have any way to come up with the money for it so I let it stay there. In 2016, I had moved away, but I came back for a neighbor's funeral. I rode to the funeral with a friend. On the way back to his house, he wanted to go look at a pasture that belongs to one of his uncles. We happened to drive by the farm where this truck was still sitting. That got me a little bit worked up about it again. A few months later, I moved back into the area, only 15 miles to the east. This same friend and I decided that we were going to sell firewood to come up with some extra money. Of course I was going to use this as a way to get the money to buy the truck that I had looked at 8 1/2 years earlier. He ended up having a massive stroke at the age of 35 (he's still alive and doing pretty well considering everything) so that plan fell through. Then, thanks to Covid 19, I had some extra money this year so I decided to try to buy this truck again since it was still sitting there 12 years later. Since I'm making this thread about it, I did get it bought.

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[IDIBRONCO]

Since this was only about a month after I got thrown out during the above wreck, things weren't working quite right upstairs and some details have been forgotten and/or turned around. In 2008, this guy told me that this truck is a 1986. I remember looking inside, but it didn't dawn on me that it was a Brick Nose interior. I knew that it had an ATS turbo on it, but I swore that it had ATS fender badges. I was told that it had a new engine and he had $2500 in just the engine so if he couldn't get that out of the truck, it could just sit (and it did). Now, last fall, I happened to drive down the dirt road that went by his farm and I was shocked to see that it had a Brick Nose front end. That really got the wheels turning again. Now, in 2020, the guy told me that it was a used engine and that the guy who changed the engines out for him took two years to get it done. In 2008, he told me that the engine ran fine, but wouldn't start after sitting all night. Now, it didn't have starting issues that he mentioned (I never did tell him that I had looked at the truck in 2008) and that it didn't run right. I asked if it ran rough or missed.He said that was ok, but it just didn't build any boost. totally different stories so I have no idea what to expect. The rumor mill told me last fall that he was down to $1200 for the truck. I was a little bit disappointed that he said $1500 now. That is until the hood came up. I was expecting to be lucky to get a 088, but it was a 093! Not to mention that it looks like it had just been gone through before the truck was parked. The up pipe and the Y pipe have both been well used, but the down pipe and crossover pipe are both brand new under their coatings of crud. The nuts holding the crossover to the Y are even new.

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[IDIBRONCO]

The 093 isn't the only bonus to the whole truck. Take a look at these pictures. He said that he doesn't remember if it's an overdrive or an underdrive. He does remember that it changed the RPMs by 300. That doesn't sound like much for an aftermarket unit to me. Isn't that about how much the RPMs change when a torque convertor in a E4OD locks up? 200-300 RPM? Is there a way to tell which one it is by a tag or something else?

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[IDIBRONCO]

Now for a look at the outside.

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[IDIBRONCO]

A few of the interior. Something tells me that either the product in the last picture didn't work, or it didn't quite last the whole 18 years that this truck has been sitting. The odometer says 76,601. Due to the lack of wear on the seats, the pedals, and the carpet under the throttle pedal, I'm starting to think that that may be the actual miles. The doors all open and close very well. The under side is all pretty clean and relatively rust free. There's a little bit of surface rust under the floor pans due to the fact that this guy drove on a lot of dirt roads. There is some wear on the lower, right corner of the brake pedal, but this guy bought the truck from an older couple who bought it to pull a camper. The wear could be from a lot of stop and go driving and many short trips.

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[IDIBRONCO]

For a general description, it's a 6.9, C6 transmission, and 4.10 gears (according to the door sticker). The transmission and gearing lead me to suspect that the Doug Nash unit is an overdrive. Maybe they didn't make a underdrive? Since I don't like a C6 behind a diesel, I plan to do a ZF5 swap. I also happen to have all of the parts that I'll need for the swap sitting literally right next to Ex Wife. Sure it's a 4x4 trans, but then I'd have 2lo to use for backing up trailers. After this, the Doug Nash unit will probably go up for sale.
Now for my plans for the engine. Since it's been sitting for 18 years, the bearings HAVE to be dry. I'm only going to turn the engine over enough to get the torque convertor nuts loose. Then I'm going to open it up and look at everything. At a minimum, I'll be able to lube up all of the bearings, port the heads, install head studs (which I also happen to have on hand from a previous engine build), and (hopefully) install my Typ4 cam. Then I'll install one of Wes's intercooler kits. While the engine is apart, I also plan to replace all of the valve springs and the lifters since some of them have been sitting for 18 years with tension on them and have to be weak from that. After all of that, I'll be able to open up the wastegate and let this 6.9 rip!

 

[Scotty4]

Makes me wish I bought the red one with air ride in Seattle before we left and just towed betsy back with it. Looking forward to seeing this thing!

 

[IDIBRONCO]

Now I have a place to use those sweet seats that came in last month's truck buy. I just need to have them reupholstered. I'm thinking about maybe a light gray color.

 

[Scotty4]

Those are gonna look good in there. You plan on touching up the paint at all?

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[IDIBRONCO]

Eventually. I do have three friends in the auto body business. Surely one of them would be willing to tackle my Ex Wife.

 

[IDIBRONCO]

Other than the peeling clear coat, there;s very little body damage that I've found yet. There's slight damage to both dually fenders, a little body filler on the front edge of the hood, and surface rust on the roof. I haven't even found any hail damage, but I haven't looked with a magnifying glass either. The first thing that I'm going to do is to pull the seats and carpet so that I can see what's underneath. Then, I'm going to take the seats and carpet to the car wash so that I can wash all of the mouse yuck off of them. I hurried a little bit to get this truck so that I could do this and let them all have a chance to dry before it gets too cold outside. If there's any rust under the carpet, I think I'll hit it with a wire wheel and then use a roll on bed liner to seal it up. Then, it will be time for some sound deadener before it all goes back in.

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[Scotty4]

Not bad sitting all those years!

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[IDIBRONCO]

I'm going to need new simulators. I hope they're still being made. Despite the fact that the door sticker calls for 215/85R16 tires on it, there's 235/85R16s on it now. The tires look like they're at 20 PSI or less and aren't quite rubbing at the bottoms. It's not a good picture, but I measured about 1 3/8" between the two tires so i think that I will be ok with the 235/85R16s like I was wanting to run on here.

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[IDIBRONCO]

This is one crazy drop bumper too. I think I've heard of a 12" drop, but I don't think that I've seen one before. 10" drop was kind of big at one time. It's kind of a shame. Kids these days (even people in their 30's) who were raised in these days of receiver hitches have no idea that drop bumpers were cool or why they even were.

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[miles1400]

my truck is blue interior with a ford gray seat out of a 92-97 truck that the previous owner swapped in and the seat looks good with blue interior