rattle_snake's random shop projects v0.1

[rattle_snake]

Last guy that worked on these headers threw a tantrum and beat the **** out of one of the primary tubes with a large hammer. With steering box gone, no need for that.


Don't have a torch hot enough to try to heat/cool the dents out, so cut out part of the offending section of metal for repair.


Used a piece of pipe with OD just under the tube ID to hammer the tubing back into shape. Pounded the piece up into the bend and got most of the dent out. The piece I cut out was the perfect scab, so I worked it back into a round shape with a hammer and right sized pipe.


Welded it up and slicked it out. Not too shabby.


Sent it out for coating, good enough.

 

[ntsqd]

When I made a new dip-stick for Patch I used a compression to NPT adapter fitting. Screwed the fitting into the block (in this case, could've been an NPT bung), stuck the 3/8" Bundy tubing in it, bent the tubing to clear things (in one plane only), and then tightened the compression fitting. Used a compression by compression fitting to seal the dipstick into the tube. Set both ferrules and then backed the top nut loose to finger tight.

I poured one quart short of full into the engine and let it sit unstarted overnight, and marked that on the dipstick. Poured the last quart and let it sit overnight again, then marked that on the dipstick. I was making a bunch of different changes and didn't need to start it anyway, so letting it sit over a couple of days wasn't a problem.

Water is easy for leak-checking, but terrible about it. Mineral spirits, diesel, and ATF are far, far better. All three will go thru holes that water won't.

 

[M.Brane]

An old trick for getting dents out of pipes is to fill them with water, and stick 'em in the freezer. I can see how that might not be an option for that header.

 

[rattle_snake]

Picked up the rear sump truck oil pan and compared it to the 1980s dual sump car pan.
The area I'm most interested in is the front of the pan that is close to the crossmember. The truck pan is about 1/2" shorter and is tight on the pump body. The Banjo fitting needed to run the dual sumper is 1" tall, so total clearance improvement is 1.5" This will allow me to lower the motor as far as I want, beyond where it was.


Planning on a tube crossmember under cab mounts, like factory. The truck pan sump is farther forward and should allow the tube to run behind it.


The rear sump is deeper on the truck pan by a decent amount, don't really care.


The pans use different pickups, for the different sump location and depth. Car top, truck bottom.


When pan is in position the front sump pocket for the pump is below the saddle still. This means that a minor amount of oil cannot be drained, which is OK. But it also means the front cover dipstick cannot be used. It would always read some oil even is rear sump is empty. Have to abandon it and plug the hole.


The truck pans in general are 6 qts and car pans are 5. I put 6 qts of water in the pan and marked the level to have a target for the new dipstick.


I cut a short piece of DOM (7/16 ID?) and drilled out one side for the dipstick o-ring to fit properly. Next step is to drill a hole in the pan. The flexable dipstick length can be adjusted.

 

[WoodsTruck]

Question:
Did you tilt the pan the same angle as the engine sits in the truck when you marked the 6 quart line?

 

[rattle_snake]

Yes, pan is at the installed angle to account for the tilt.

 

[ntsqd]

Looks like the pan has a guard of sorts for a block mounted dip-stick location. I thought Ford never did that? Timing cover, yes, not in the block. The FSB's dip-stick is in the area where that part is, but I can't really see how the tube joins the engine down there.

 

[rattle_snake]

Some 351Ws have a dipstick hole in the block where you see the provisions in the pan. Some early and then late 90s blocks. The pan I bought is for the late model engines that have that hole in the block. Using that is also an option. Have to look and see if my block has that, I don't think it does. Would be easy to drill it though, so it is an option. I haven't drilled the pan yet.

 

[rattle_snake]

Stared at the oil pan some more. Realized that the entire 6 qts won't be in the pan when checking oil. After running engine, fill filter, let sit. So target is 5 qts-ish and can trim the cable after it's running. Made a longer bung with smaller DOM to secure the tube. Dipstick length seems too short....