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1990 F350 4x4 7.3 IDI

Had not followed this thread in a while. Great job! :)

General commentary about adding a turbo is that it will improve power *and* fuel economy. IIRC, some of them came with turbos as OE, so it is not like you will have to re-invent that wheel. Seeing as this is a toy, your call on whether potential fuel savings is worth the cost of a turbo though ;)
 
JayTheCPA said:
Had not followed this thread in a while. Great job! :)

General commentary about adding a turbo is that it will improve power *and* fuel economy. IIRC, some of them came with turbos as OE, so it is not like you will have to re-invent that wheel. Seeing as this is a toy, your call on whether potential fuel savings is worth the cost of a turbo though ;)
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Thanks Jay! I'm pleased with the results - the truck gets a lot of looks every time I drive it and it's pretty fun to drive overall.

My plan has been to do a turbo upgrade eventually, so turbo, intercooler, hot and cold piping, head studs, hotter IP, stronger clutch, yadda-yadda-yadda...... But lately I've been thinking about doing a DT360/Spicer 6+1 swap instead. It works out to be about the same amount of money, but then I have a true medium-duty engine and transmission that's still IH and it's more unique than your average build. Plus a DT360 has huge power potential if I ever decide to take it that far. In the meantime though, I may just get a factory turbo take-off kit to get a little more power (and efficiency) to get me by.....this thing is sooooo gutless right now!
 
Naturally aspirated diesels are pretty well gutless. My k30 crew cab with it's 6.2 would cruise at 65mph with a combined weight of 18k but as soon as it saw the mountain passes it dropped to 25mph haha.

With the rear shocks measure the length at full extension, and full compression and contact Bilestien with those numbers. Would be amazed if they don't have something in that length available.
 
red said:
With the rear shocks measure the length at full extension, and full compression and contact Bilestien with those numbers. Would be amazed if they don't have something in that length available.
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That’s a good idea. Thanks!
 
79jasper said:
https://m.ebay.com/itm/BILSTEIN-SHOCK-ABSORBER-SET-FRONT-REAR-SHOCKS-86-98-FORD-F-250-F-350-4WD-TRUCK/291203903262?rmvSB=true&ul_ref=https://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?type=3&campId=5336121863&toolId=10001&customId=jffib0m770000b5200004&mpre=http://www.ebay.com/itm/291203903262&srcrot=711-53200-19255-0&rvr_id=1484801931781&_mwBanner=1&ul_noapp=true&epid=1930415518

Rear 24-016186
Front 24016179
(May or may not be right, found those on another site)

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk
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Well that is interesting. So I went to Rock Auto to see if either of those numbers matched what I bought for the front. Sure enough they do, but.....what’s really interesting is I see both numbers there. They list the other one for the rear of a 4x4 F350 that has front COIL springs. I hadn’t really thought about that before when lolking through the catalog, but no such bird ever existed. I would say there is a catalog problem. I’ll have to look up the specs for those and see how they compare. Thanks for the link.
 
Did a little work on the Farmadillo this past week. I pulled it into the barn to turn the fuel screw down a little. It’s been a little smokey and the fuel mileage sucks so I hoped to turn it down and gain a little mileage since I’m driving it more with the Tahoe off the road.

After that I decided to take a look at the blower motor. It has never blown very strong. I did some research and people said they had the same experience with a bad resistor. I thought the resistor wouldn’t affect high speed, but it was worth a shot. I pulled the resistor out and out came a tuft of black fuzz. Hmmm. So I looked in the hole and there was a lot of fuzz. So I yanked the blower motor to get better access. There were remnants of a nest in there and a bunch of it was jammed in the fins of the evaporator core. Wheeee!!! Gotta love rodents. So out came the whole evaporator case.

40A20B12-1F26-4DEE-B746-40C921F196F4.jpeg

Here’s some of the fuzz I pulled out.

4AF7923E-50B9-44E2-A74B-18FFEEE7E2AE.jpeg

Here’s the evap. How did ANY air get through this!?

D4C4C837-6546-4EBD-ACF5-9A34DBE48F02.jpeg

It took many atrempts with a shop vac, compressed air and chemicals before I could get the core clean-ish. Good enough for who it’s for. Here it is after vacuum.

8C904E60-87D9-45B3-BBA5-ACEF10B7D26C.jpeg

And then air. I didn’t get any later pics, sorry.

088E4553-B70D-4E1D-8349-C6F56909DB6A.jpeg

While it was apart I added some heat shielding to the case since most of the factory stuff was disintegrated.

556A0B0A-0D12-47EF-A818-2B1B2F5E747F.jpegF016692B-36EC-4DD7-A99C-4767B94FABD7.jpeg

And while it was in the barn I swapped the factory radio out for a 2nd hand Sony unit for improved tunage.

183D19E9-8D9C-4584-9471-49F916564DC8.jpeg

So now that it’s back on the road I can report on the results. Yes I can actually feel the air flow on me from the vents now. More important though is the fuel situation: I ended up turning the screw in 1 flat. Now I don’t see any smoke and I have the same acceleration I had before. In fact, it feels a little stronger in the mid-range. AND the throttle used to be really touchy when cold advance was on, but now it’s smooth. So was the timing mechanism sticking before and me getting in there freed it up? Dunno. I haven’t driven it much yet to check the mileage.....I sure hope it’s better than the 11 I was averaging before!! Best I ever got before was 13.73 on a highway trip. Ick. Fingers crossed.....
 
JayTheCPA said:
IIRC, that motor should mate to either a ZF-5 or ZF-6 which will also help with the fuel economy.
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It has a ZF5 in it right now. I have no history on the IP and injectors and I suspect those are partially to blame as well. We'll see what my fuel screw adjustment does. I'm hesitant to invest parts into this engine because I think it's ultimately going to get swapped out for a DT360.

I just looked at your signature....you sold your Sub!!!???
 
Yup. It spent too much time in the shop looking for love.

In the 40K miles that I had it, upgraded stuff to make it more durable / reliable. But there were too many repeat repairs of items that I would have expected to last a good bit longer and it turned into an economic decision.
 
JayTheCPA said:
Yup. It spent too much time in the shop looking for love.

In the 40K miles that I had it, upgraded stuff to make it more durable / reliable. But there were too many repeat repairs of items that I would have expected to last a good bit longer and it turned into an economic decision.
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Sorry to hear that. Someone got a sweet rig.
 
Welp, my tale with the Farmadillo has come to an end.....just sold it to a kid about an hour from me. It’s his first diesel truck (and manual transmission truck too!!) and he’s super stoked to own it. I’ll miss it, but now I can refocus on GMs with 6.5s 😎
 
DieselSlug said:
Was a neat old truck for sure! Hopefully he will do it justice (and not do kid type rolling-coal stuff with it).
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I agree! I'm hopeful that he uses the truck as a learning tool. I included a full set of factory manuals with the truck so he has those resources and I told him to keep in touch and ask questions if he has them. He's really green (he didn't know what a fan clutch was and asked other novice questions), but he wasn't afraid to ask questions, so I take that as a good sign. My fingers are crossed.

Oh and thanks, yeah it was a neat old truck. I plan on building a square body Chevy in the same style in the near-ish future.
 
MrMarty51 said:
I have a 78 SB Chevy, its bent and dented but it sure is dependable, K20, 400V8 and TH400 trans, NP203 with part time kit and double stick shift. One tommy lift installed and another for a spare. LOL
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The 400 sbc in that will be a 4 bolt main. The 4 bolts came in trucks and a couple oddballs like some impalas.
That is one that is a good candidate for turning into a 427 cid small block- ya get tired of that truck, you might find an old school hot rodder that would pay more for the engine than the truck is worth.
 
Will L. said:
The 400 sbc in that will be a 4 bolt main. The 4 bolts came in trucks and a couple oddballs like some impalas.
That is one that is a good candidate for turning into a 427 cid small block- ya get tired of that truck, you might find an old school hot rodder that would pay more for the engine than the truck is worth.
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There is also a spare four bolt main 400 block in the shed, cleaned up at .030 over. Have the main caps and bolts, a set of heads that are nothing special. I also have a tuned port setup from a 305 I thought about upgrading to handle the larger engine, sending in the computer for a tune and installing all of that onto the 400. I have been rounding up components for this truck for some time but just seem to not have the want or desire to get after it. I do kinow if I sell it, I`ll miss it terrible bad, even though it sees only about ten miles a year. LOL
Maybe I should get the new radiator and battery for it and start driving to save some on the K3500. LOL
 
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