Project CrewCab

ifrythings

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Figured I would start a build thread to track my progress and hopefully help others in a few of the mods I have planned.

This is going to be a slow build but hoping to have it driving before winter.

So to start off, got a 95 F350 460 4x4 E4OD CrewCab with a bad motor in it.

Donor vehicle is my 87 F250 regular cab which the cancer is starting to convert it back to dirt. I have a rebuilt 91 7.3 with turbo rods, pistons, Justin's j2 cam and head studs, 94 factory turbo with a new ats exhaust housing from Russ and new bearing kit. Cylinders 7 and 8 got sleeved, 8 had a hole in it, got the whole rotating assembly balanced and a ZF S5-42 trans behind it.

I'm basicly transplanting a lot of the 87 stuff to the 95, engine, trans, tcase, front driveshaft, bucket seats, hydro boost and pedals, radio and speakers, chevy rearview mirror and the box.

The nice thing about the 460 and diesels trucks is they share the same engine crossmember so everything is a bolt up deal besides having to drill 4 rivets out to remove the gassers driver side engine peach, passenger side is bolted on *** Ford??

Mods planned
Gas to diesel
-Auto to stick
-05+ superduty axles
-2016 rear springs
-99 up rear shackles and hangers
-Backup sensors off of either 99 up truck or backup and forward sensors off of a freestar van (these are both stand alone systems)
-Electron chromatic rear view mirror with temperature and compass readout
-04 4 wheel ABS swap

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This is what it looked like before I touched it.


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Front clip off and engine ready to come out


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Engine out, front diff ready to come out just waiting to preasure wash and start removing rivets.

I found 2 cracks on the front frame horns (the clean area with red paint pen around it) not sure the best way to fix that but I do have a welder and not good at welding at all haha.

Found a 06 f350 with the 5.4l in it that I got the axles from, 4.10 gears, got the spring mounts which was a waste of time as where the rubber spring insulator go was rusted so bad that I bought new ones, also got radius arms, brackets, springs which may or may not work, sway bar, steering linkages and gear box, tracbar and bracket, shocks which will be replaced after mock up.
Also got the rear axle with blocks but missing all the brake stuff.

2016 springs- got these from a guy that bought a new truck and put a lift on it right away, they have 23km on them, brand new, came with the overloads and ubolts and ubolt plates.
These springs are 10" longer in the front and an inch longer in the rear, they are also a progressive spring and should make a great improvement to the ride quality.

The 05 up steering box pretty much bolts right in, I had to drill the frame side holes out to 9/16" (14mm). The inside frame "sleeves" are big enough to accept the bigger bolt so your not weakening that area of the frame. The other side of the frame where the box goes is already big enough or just needs a little clean up. The factory gear box uses 7/16" bolts and the 05+ box uses 14mm, the intermediate steering shaft is the same so I can reuse the obs one as the newer ones look to be aluminum and the one I got had tons of play in it. Now I could of bought a reamer and enlarged the hole in the obs box but the newer box has a 4 bolt top plate, bigger selector shaft and bigger pitman arm though the pressure lines are different but easy to get around that. I wanted to keep everything the same so if later down the road I want to do a lift kit I don't have to piece together odds and ends.


I'll grab more pictures of everything later and add more as I do each step.
 

IDIoit

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before you go welding up those cracks, cut a "V" in the center of the crack so you get the weld in where it should be. if you weld on top of it, the crack is liable to come back...
and weld to BRIGHT SHINY METAL ONLY!

HEAT UP, WIRE DOWN!
 

ifrythings

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I will definitely be v grove it, should I drill a hole at the end of the crack? Never understood how that stops the crack, wouldn't welding over the end of the crack get rid of it?

I don't know if my 120v wire feed is strong enough to do that thick of material but I do have a 200A tig/stick that should work.
 

IDIoit

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its good practice to drill a hole at the end of the crack, but you can also grind it out too.
basically youre trying to get rid of all of the cracked metal. thery say to do this to ensure you address the entire crack.
you can compare it to wiping your ass, don't leave no racing stripes LOL
 

laserjock

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Fractures typically happen at stress points or defects caused by grain boundaries. Drilling the hole gives a strain relief and removes the sharp edge terminating the crack. It's good practice on anything but on brittle items like cast, it's a necessity or it will just keep cracking.
 

FORDF250HDXLT

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its good practice to drill a hole at the end of the crack, but you can also grind it out too.
basically youre trying to get rid of all of the cracked metal. thery say to do this to ensure you address the entire crack.
you can compare it to wiping your ass, don't leave no racing stripes LOL

I didn't know your ass crack would keep growing if you didn't wipe it regularly.:D
 

ifrythings

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Small update, got the front end pressure washed and mostly degreased, started removing rivets and bolting the engine frame mounts on.
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Also enlarged the steering box holes to 9/16" to accept the M14 superduty gear box bolts, anyone doing this swap will require longer bolts as the obsframe is thicker then the superduty frame. I used M14 x 140mm with thick hardened washers and they fit just right. Pitman arm is very close to the crossmember but doesn't seem to hit at all from lock to lock so I think I'll just leave it alone.

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ifrythings

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Found some cracks in the cab floor and tunnel area that I'll have to try and weld up, any advise how to fix and weld the giant crack?

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DaveBen

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You should drill the crack at the end to stop further cracking and then weld it up. That last pic shows movement that is causing the cracks.
 

ifrythings

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That big crack in the last picture is right where the drivers feet are, I'll drill a hole at the end of the crack and try to get the sides of the crack lined up, I'm just not sure what caused it to crack that bad. I know the cab mounts are toast as part of the cab has been hitting and rubbing on the frame but that's closer to the back of the cab. This thing has been 4x4 hard by the looks of it so maybe that's why this crack developed?
 

DaveBen

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My guess is the biscuit between the frame and the floor is gone, causing a metal to metal contact and that will cause cracking.
 

OLDBULL8

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Looks like a rivet in that last pic cracks. I would grind it smooth, line up the cracks, drill the ends, weld the cracks, grind smooth then scab/weld a 3/16" to 1/4" thick plate over to cover cracks about an inch past the cracks, even drill a hole in the plate at the rivet and fill with weld.
 

ifrythings

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Haven't updated in a while but I have been making progress.

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Before putting the buckets on for mock up I had to remove a few rivets including this large huck rivet and a smaller one further back. After that I got the buckets and radius arm bracket clamped on for mock up
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After massively over thinking the placement and measurements of the spring buckets I finally settled on 12.75" back from the rad support mount which if I were to do this again I'd move it to 13.25" or 13.5" back to avoid the engine crossmember when drilling holes for the drivers side.

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For the radius arm brackets I just butted them up against the cab mounts which moved the axle about 1/2" to 3/4" forward. One thing I did have to do was drill a new hole in the radius arm brackets for the tranny crossmember, if you had an auto you wouldn't need to do that.
 
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