THSIM9’s 1991 F250 Project

[THSIM9]

Well it’s about time to start a build thread now that I’m almost done.

I will be updating the thread over the next few days with a general timeline of how things went down and I will eventually catch up to where I am now.

To start, the truck has been in my family for about 20 years. It was purchased by my Grandfather as a parts truck for his 60’s Ford with an IDI swap. After sitting for a short period my Great uncle purchased the truck from my Grandfather, to use as a daily driver. I remember the truck being around for the majority of my teenage years and into my early twenties. It eventually ended up as mine after my great uncles death in 2016, my great aunt knew I loved the truck and wanted me to have it so it wouldn’t just sit and rot.

Here is the first photo I can find of the truck this is after I got it running and drove it from my grandparents place to my parents place, I had also already bought new wheels and tires for the truck since the AZ sun had all but rotted off the previous set.

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[THSIM9]

I was active duty Army at the time of acquiring the truck so it remained in AZ at my parents house for the next several months. I eventually decided to ship it up to Fort Drum NY where I was stationed so that I could get it ready to drive me home upon my departure from the Army.

I also purchased a used Banks Sidewinder for the truck once it arrived in NY. I installed the turbo and did a bunch of other maintenance in the barracks parking lot the summer before I needed to drive it 3,000 miles back home to AZ.

Here was the engine when it was NA.

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It took me pretty much two full days to get the turbo in but it wasn’t to bad.

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And after working out the bugs for the rest of the summer I was headed home to AZ in the early fall.

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[THSIM9]

The next year or two were pretty uneventful, the truck was my daily driver and it was stupid reliable. I decided to go to college and bought a commuter car to ease my fuel costs so the truck went back to my grandparents house to sit while I got learnt.


After about two years I was sick of the car, and I had moved to Flagstaff AZ for college and needed a 4x4 to handle the snow, so I sold the commuter and pulled the ole girl back into the daily driver role.

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She handled the snow, and everything else I could throw at her for the next year or so until electrical demons put her on the sideline. I replaced her daily driving duties in the fall of 2019 with a 2013 F150 that is still my daily driver today.

I let the ole girl rest for about 2 years while I finished school, started my career, got married and handled all sorts of life business until I finally had the time and money to get her back on the road.

Here she is on the trailer a few months before I got her running again.

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After some electrical fixes and minor maintenance she was back at it helping the wife and I move our stuff to our new place. It was a short move just about 30 miles from Flagstaff to Mormon Lake.

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[THSIM9]

After a short stint in Mormon Lake she once again handled the moving duties. This time about 250 miles from Mormon Lake to Sahuarita. Where she went on the sideline once again since I had a company truck and the wife drove the F150.

After a year in Sahuarita just pulling weekend fun duty we got her ready for the big move from Sahuarita AZ to Kuna ID. This is where the real fun starts… About 6 hours into a 16 hour drive while pulling a steep grade I noticed a knocking sound that correlated with some smoke from the exhaust. I Didn’t have any choice but to run her all the way so she ran the rest of that day and half a day the following Day to get us all the way to our new home. Still pulling 11 pounds of boost, coolant at 200-210, oil pressure at 35 PSI and pyro never getting over about 950 so I knew we were going to make it, plus once we got there she didn’t have to do anything but look pretty. Pulled into the driveway on 7 cylinders where she sat for another couple of months while the wife, son, and myself got settled.

 

[IDIBRONCO]

It was a short move just about 30 miles from Flagstaff to Mormon Lake.

That's cool. I knew an old timer who used to talk about going hunting around Long Lake. He tried to get drawn for an out of state permit around 2000 (he was living in Kansas by then) and I was going to go along with him if he was drawn, which he wasn't. I wanted to go for the experience. Plus I could have gone hunting for small game with a regular out of state license.

 

[THSIM9]

That's cool. I knew an old timer who used to talk about going hunting around Long Lake. He tried to get drawn for an out of state permit around 2000 (he was living in Kansas by then) and I was going to go along with him if he was drawn, which he wasn't. I wanted to go for the experience. Plus I could have gone hunting for small game with a regular out of state license.

Northern Arizona is an incredible place for all things outdoors, but especially hunting. I am going to be applying for tags there for the rest of my life.

Luckily the property we were on is still in the family so we always have a place to go.

 

[THSIM9]

Once the winter set in my father in law was gracious enough to allow me to take up half of his shop for the teardown of the truck.

At this point I foolishly suspected a simple failure in the injection system that was causing the miss, and puffing of smoke. When I went to move the truck to the shop the glow plugs cycled once, and she turned over maybe twice before firing up and idiling, albeit she sounded like a bucket of loose bolts but she fired up none the less.

Here she is in her winter cave.

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I immediately commenced with the removal of the bumper, hood, passenger fender, and the cooling stack, to get easy access to the engine. At this point the plan was, I.P, Injectors, upgrade the turbo, install an intercooler, head studs, valve springs, reseal kit, leaf springs, shocks, and cleanup some wiring mess.

Here is my initial progress.

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[THSIM9]

At this point I ordered all the fun goodies from CDD and began getting the engine ready for removal. I found a local rental place that had a cherry picker for 50 bucks per weekend, and got the boat anchor removed.

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I purchased the Daytona gear driven engine stand from HF to hold the hunk of iron.

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With access to all the fun stuff I began the process of tearing down the engine so I could get to work on putting it back together when my fun parts arrived.

Well then I found this:

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Uh oh, got a bent push rod, so I’m hoping that the piston and valve are okay. Well that’s not the case, there was a solid dent in the piston where the valve and piston had their first disagreement:

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After this I also found the exhaust valve guide on this cylinder that was completely toast. I could wiggle the valve probably 1/32 of an inch or more in the guide. So I took the heads and my new Comp 910 springs to the local cylinder head shop to get everything rebuilt.

 

[THSIM9]

I decided while I was in the heads I would have them install new valves, keepers, bronze valve guides, the comp 910 springs and get everything set back to spec. While they worked on this I continued to tear down the engine and found another damaged piston.

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I measured the bores once the teardown was complete and everything on the block was checking out as in spec. Decided to replace all 8 with new Mahle “compression reduced” pistons just due to availability my educated guess based on measuring the old and the new is that these are .001 shaved pistons. Part number is 224-2908WR.

Got those bad boys installed.

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Ohhh, shiny.

Finally got the heads back from the shop after way too long of a wait, and way too much money. Lesson learned just send these to Justin next time. I was scared of the shipping but ended up paying more to get them done locally. Hopefully they did a good job and I won’t have any issues, otherwise I will really be kicking myself for not using Justin.

Anyway, got them installed with the studs.

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Started to put everything on the top end together. Most of this is happening without a hitch. I did break off 1 of the bolts for the cooling jets when I was still in the bottom end, but I was able to extract it and tap the hole to take a new bolt so crisis averted.

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This is my first full engine build. I’ve been really enjoying the process. Having a 30’ by 50’ shop with a big ole Bose sound system and a wood stove really helps when doing this work between December and March in the dark winter of Idaho.

 

[THSIM9]

Lots of time spent cleaning old dirty parts and getting things painted and ready to go back together. Took the opportunity with the engine out to replace the motor mounts, front leaf springs, and shocks.

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Now that’s it’s warming up it’s about time to roll the truck outside and pressure wash the cross member and the rest of the front end, might paint everything here as well.

Moved on to getting the engine painted this past weekend which pretty much catches up the project to where I am now. Wanted something a little different and being an Arizona native I have a thing for Copper.

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We are just about ready to get this bad boy back in the truck. I’m currently waiting on a 38 gallon tank and E-fuel kit from CDD. I think I’m going to leave the midship tank in place and repurpose the old facet pump as a transfer pump from the midship tank to the 38 gallon tank.

Also going to need to do a bunch of wiring. Has anyone used a universal kit from painless or someone like that and adapted it to an IDI? My harness is pretty hacked at this point.

 

[THSIM9]

Pressure washed the frame and everything up front, added some new stick on insulation to the firewall, sprayed everything down with a little black VHT and clear coat, and got the engine back in the frame.

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Hopefully tomorrow will be return lines, injectors lines, turbo, and the belt drive assembly. We are getting close to being able to start this thing up and pray that I didn’t mess anything up.

Still trying to decide what to do on gauges, and wiring. I’ve got a bad speedometer, so I’m considering doing a full custom gauge set and either piecing together with Autometer gauges that match my boost, pyro, or going with New Vintage USA or Dakota Digital for the dash and keeping the auto meter stuff on the pillar.

 

[THSIM9]

Return lines, injector lines, turbo, and downpipe all installed today.

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Don’t look too closely at any of my painting. I’m more of a wrench guy than a paint guy.

 

[Nero]

Still looks pretty good

 

[THSIM9]

38 gallon tank installed and plumbed through to the engine bay. Belt drive brackets installed, alternator, vacuum pump, and power steering installed. Still need to install the AC compressor.

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Fuel filters sit just barely higher than the skid plate for the transfer case. Should be a pretty safe spot for them.

 

[rburt]

Enjoyed the ride, awesome trip! Outstanding job. Am sure the "ole girl" is a happy camper!