'02 Crew Cab F-350 Tow Pig Overhual/Build

[PSU Taco85]

Fuck it was hot today, got another good chunk knocked out.

Red loctite applied to flywheel bolts and torqued to 100 ft-lbs

A little trick I learned working solo, use a pressure plate bolt and chain it to the bell housing mount in the motor to keep the flywheel from spinning when torquing it down

First clutch disc

Intermediate plate

Outside clutch disc

Red loctite applied and pressure plate bolts torqued to 45 ft-lbs

Made sure both of those discs are lined up perfect to themselves and the pilot bearing or else it will be trouble trying to hoist that heavy fucking trans up there.

Also had found that the transfer case shift lever has two bolts that secure it to the linkage, one of them was missing. The threads were stripped out so I guess the previous owner said fuck it and ran with just one. That's alot of leverage for just one small bolt, so I tapped the top hole to 5/16-18 and used a grade 8 bolt I had lying around

Put the grill back on

I have a buddy coming over tonight to help me install the trans. Once that's in it's just re-connecting the driveline/shifters and some small stuff in the engine bay. Should be finished by tomorrow night

 

[Silverback]

Looking good man.

Just an idea, tap that bottom hole to the same. This way in the future if something goes wrong and you have to pull that t-case lever off you (or the person you sell it to at a very reasonable rate.. like me ) aren't wondering WTF is going on with two different sized holes. Since its right there and all.

 

[PSU Taco85]

Looking good man.

Just an idea, tap that bottom hole to the same. This way in the future if something goes wrong and you have to pull that t-case lever off you (or the person you sell it to at a very reasonable rate.. like me ) aren't wondering WTF is going on with two different sized holes. Since its right there and all.

Thanks, sorry I just read this update and it was too late. The drivetrain is already up in the truck now and that bolt is just barely accessible

During reassembly I did notice that the front driveshaft u-joint is toast. Fortunately with manual hubs and a manual t-case the front driveshaft never spins unless you are in 4wd so it shouldn't be an issue until the winter time. That'll have to wait, I'm tired of wrenching on this thing for a bit.

 

[achirdo]

This project works have taken me a year. Hell it took me 6 months to replace the fuel pump on my welder.

 

[PSU Taco85]

This project works have taken me a year. Hell it took me 6 months to replace the fuel pump on my welder.

haha, well to be fair I bought the clutch and turbo back in the end of March but then I got busy with work. Then when I finally did start working on it (middle of June) I had all the problems with the rusty exhaust manifolds and I discovered I would need a new oil pan, so I just kept going deeper down the rabbit hole. The time from the middle of June until middle of July was spent researching what else I should replace and ordering parts in preps for removing the engine, I only wanted to do this job once

By the time is all said and done I probably have 50-60 hours into working on it. I figure if an average going rate of a mechanic is $100/hr and that's on the cheap side, I saved myself a good chunk of change by doing it myself

Also, my 4runner has been sitting on jackstands with the front IFS torched off since last September and I've barely touched that since, I tend to take on too many projects

 

[tx_shooter]

Good to know other people that take on too much at one time can get some of it knocked out. There is hope for the rest of us. I need to get a few things knocked out this week/weekend that have been on the list for a while now.

 

[PSU Taco85]

Good to know other people that take on too much at one time can get some of it knocked out. There is hope for the rest of us. I need to get a few things knocked out this week/weekend that have been on the list for a while now.

Oh yeah, I have all the big plans in my head and they look good on paper, then when it comes time to get them done I get overwhelmed and just stay fuck it


So the ford is all back together, went to fire it up yesterday and the engine started after cranking a while to fill up the oil rails and re-pressurize the fuel. I had one small issue, and a lesson learned for me and hopefully pass on to anyone reading this. Keep an eye on the routing of your hoses/lines. When I re-connected my transmission cooling lines, apparently one of them was pretty close to the starter motor, and when the engine cranked over and shuddered a bit while I was cranking it, it shorted out against the starter and blew a hole in the line

So once the truck started I got out and saw fluid puking out of the bottom so I killed the engine and investigated it. Luckily those lines are cheap (supply and return lines were $80 shipped) and they probably could have used to be replaced anyway due to some rust issues, so it wasn't the end of the world. Hopefully those lines will be in this week if not early next week, and I'll be back up and running again.

 

[PSU Taco85]

Got the front bumper mounted and aligned and installed the headlights. While I had them out I converted the headlights to LEDs, I had already had the running lights converted to switchback LEDs, so figured might as well have them match. Here was an old youtube video I had after I converted the running lights to switchback LEDs

Here are just the parking lights on

Parking lights and headlights

Sorry my shitty iPhone 5 camera doesn't capture lighting too well, but I was happy with how they turned out. May have to re-align the headlights after I check the beam pattern. Still waiting on those transmission lines, apparently the place I ordered from didn't stock them so they are drop shipping them and should be here next week sometime.

 

[PSU Taco85]

Ok so after the final shakedown it appears everything is good, time will tell I'm sure.

Here's where the transmission cooling line touched the starter bolt

The hole it blew in the hard line

New lines came in

To prevent that from happening again I covered the lines in rubber tubing with some hose clamps where they are closest to the starter

Took it for a shakedown and stopped at my local plumbing supply store to pick up some stuff

Found a small pile of oil under it, at first it looked like the pan was leaking but after further investigation it was coming from up on top of the engine and dripping down the valley. After cleaning everything up and starting it, I found the NPT fitting that connects the high pressure crossover was leaking from the head. I took that off and re-sealed it with some high temp thread sealant and let it sit overnight, then fired it back up and all seems well

Got a new decal, gotta love busting friend's balls who have prius cars

Already put her back to work hauling a desk from my dad's shop to the scrap yard

Here was a night shot from tonight with the LED headlights, they are pretty bright. Quite a bit brighter than the silverstar ultra bulbs I had in there before

One thing I did notice is that the headlights flicker on and off every few seconds when they are in the "off" position and the truck is running. After a little google machine research, turns out I will need to get a canbus decoder like this one which can be had for fairly cheap

 

[PSU Taco85]

I ordered the canbus decoder today, $15 shipped. Hopefully will be here next week.

Tonight I finally decided to fix my parking brake after a year of it now working . the previous owner replaced the rear wheel seals, rear brakes, calipers, and parking brake cable/hardware but the parking brake never really worked great. It was a pretty simple fix, remove caliper and rotor then adjust the star. The parking brake is just like a drum brake so it occasionally needs to be adjusted and the star does not auto-adjust like the toyota rear drums.

30 minutes later the parking brake locks up like a champ now

 

[tex]

All that rust....nope

 

[PSU Taco85]

All that rust....nope

, it's actually not as bad as the pictures make it look. Most of it that red clay where i got the truck in lancaster PA, and the rest is a small amount of surface rust. The calipers have a healthy coat of rust on them I'm guessing they are aftermarket.

I think my Tacoma that's 8 years newer has more rust than this truck

 

[Anathollo]

I ordered the canbus decoder today, $15 shipped. Hopefully will be here next week.

Tonight I finally decided to fix my parking brake after a year of it now working . the previous owner replaced the rear wheel seals, rear brakes, calipers, and parking brake cable/hardware but the parking brake never really worked great. It was a pretty simple fix, remove caliper and rotor then adjust the star. The parking brake is just like a drum brake so it occasionally needs to be adjusted and the star does not auto-adjust like the toyota rear drums.

30 minutes later the parking brake locks up like a champ now

You wanna know what's really cool in the 7.3's with the parking brake? Go ahead and fix it > then engage the parking brake > Then push on the throttle for 3 seconds.

The parking brakes on these are a joke. The truck has so much torque it'll drive right through it without the driver even realizing it was on. None of the parking brakes on the 7.3's at the company I used to drive for worked because the other drivers drove through them. Hell, my stepdad with his 7.3 fixed his parking brake (because he drove through it), as soon as he was done, his son moved the 7.3 out of our driveway so he could pull in his truck into the garage to work on it and drove through it too! All my stepdad could do was laugh and pull out his wallet to go order the same parts again. That parking brake's total life span was 5 minutes

 

[Silverback]

My brother had a 99 F-250 4x4 with the Powerstroke (he had several 7.3's but I think it was the 99).. anyhow, used it to pull grain wagons from the field and into the town and the grain elevator. Pulled the wagons across the scales at 48k pounds.. not recommended for your average vehicle. Grain wagons don't necessarily have the best brakes on them.

 

[PSU Taco85]

Yeah I had a few beers in the garage yesterday and did that same exact thing. So I had to re-adjust them again

My taco brake hasn't worked in forever so I'm not even used to setting a parking brake much. Took the truck out for a spin last night and got her up to a good 28 lbs of boost, she runs pretty good and no more puddles of oil under the truck now

 

[tex]

I know it was mentioned before but I was talking to a guy yesterday who said his truck was stolen in Dallas sometime over Saturday night. 2001 f250 7.3.
Get some kind of kill switch or antitheft. I think some of those programmers have that feature but no idea.

 

[Silverback]

You know with the mentioned theft issues I'll say it again. Let me take it off your hands. Its just going to be a PITA to keep

But it an awesome tow pig. 28 lbs of boost.. what is factory?

 

[tex]

You know with the mentioned theft issues I'll say it again. Let me take it off your hands. Its just going to be a PITA to keep

But it an awesome tow pig. 28 lbs of boost.. what is factory?

I will take your 81 so you have room

 

[PSU Taco85]

I know it was mentioned before but I was talking to a guy yesterday who said his truck was stolen in Dallas sometime over Saturday night. 2001 f250 7.3.
Get some kind of kill switch or antitheft. I think some of those programmers have that feature but no idea.

Yep, that's my next priority. Trying to save a paycheck in between car parts every now and again.

You know with the mentioned theft issues I'll say it again. Let me take it off your hands. Its just going to be a PITA to keep

But it an awesome tow pig. 28 lbs of boost.. what is factory?

i'm beginning to wonder who will be the first suspect if it does get stolen

I'm not sure how much the factory turbo and setup puts out, but I could only get around 11 psi with my setup before. I've read on several of the powerstroke forums that 15-17 psi is typical for a stock setup.

I had found the wastegate rod on the old turbo was locked and seized open so I was bypassing alot of exhaust gassess to the turbo. With the ts tuner and turbo it does pretty well now, I also haven't been whomping on it too hard so I can break in the new clutch. I also installed a boost fooler on the MAP sensor prior to putting everything back together so the most the MAP sensor will only see up to 25 psi (otherwise the service engine light comes on and fuel cuts off)

Have about 150 more miles to go before it's broken in, then maybe I'll see how high I can really push the boost pressure.

 

[achirdo]

Yep, that's my next priority. Trying to save a paycheck in between car parts every now and again.



i'm beginning to wonder who will be the first suspect if it does get stolen

I'm not sure how much the factory turbo and setup puts out, but I could only get around 11 psi with my setup before. I've read on several of the powerstroke forums that 15-17 psi is typical for a stock setup.

I had found the wastegate rod on the old turbo was locked and seized open so I was bypassing alot of exhaust gassess to the turbo. With the ts tuner and turbo it does pretty well now, I also haven't been whomping on it too hard so I can break in the new clutch. I also installed a boost fooler on the MAP sensor prior to putting everything back together so the most the MAP sensor will only see up to 25 psi (otherwise the service engine light comes on and fuel cuts off)

Have about 150 more miles to go before it's broken in, then maybe I'll see how high I can really push the boost pressure.

Wow 15-17 seems low...my 5.9 would hit 31 stock and 37 with the tuner. The new 6.7 I think I've seen around 35 stock.