The chronicles of Lou, '70 F350 dually Cummins project

[Ranchero50]

The wife still hasn't shown me where she hid the camera... Tig welded the stainless 2.5" intercooler tubing and have been tinkering with the front sheetmetal to see what spacing I can get for the intercooler and help get some ideas for a hood latch. I'm pushing hard for a cable release '90's F series setup.

I start working 12hr nights tonight so blech...

[Ranchero50]

Well, finally pleased (tormented) the wife enough to get the camera. I've been tinkering and daydreaming about the front end. I tried to fit the '70 and '71 grill shells and finally the '68 grill. None of them fit well because of the intercooler. It's a matter of how much I want to modify them to fit. I'm seriously thinking about just cutting out the radiator support where the intercooler fits and putting it right up against the radiator. That way at least the '70-'71 grill shell will fit with minimal trimming / tweaking...



The '68 grill fits the worst of the three.


Intercooler plumbing done, still need to finish the inner fenders.




Jamie

[averagef250]

Piping looks good.

If you need a slightly longer upper radiator hose the 94-98 dodge upper hose is a little longer and still has the kickout in it to clear the oil fill on the timing cover.

Regarding the intercooler- Got that "what did I get myself into" feeling yet?

[Ranchero50]

Regarding the intercooler- Got that "what did I get myself into" feeling yet?

That thing is turning into a real nuisance... I think the feeling is that odd tingling sensation you get from sleep deprivation more than anything. It has simplified things a bit. I'm not going to use the '68 grill so I don't need the '68 fenders so I don't need to rust repair them. I'm going to use the '71 fenders with the thin chrome trim and I'll get the clips to put the door trim on. The '70 grill is only about 1" too close at the bottom vs. 3" with the '68.

I was going to test fit the 2nd gen upper hose, figured it would fit so thanks for the confirmation. The IC piping is pretty heavy duty, dairy food service grade stuff.

Depending on how I feel tomorrow I'll see what I can get done witht he radiator support.

[Fordman5]

nice work, is the inner fendes getting in the way of the engine, it looks like a tight fit.

[Ranchero50]

The intercooler plumbing is tight on the sides. Otherwise it fit well.

Jamie

[Ranchero50]

Spent the last couple days sanding fenders and figuring out the intercooler. Today I trimmed the radiator support to fit the intercooler and shortened the side tanks on the I/C so it would fit better. I think it'll turn out pretty good but I have a good bit of fab work to make the mounts and have it looking decent. Once finished I shoud just buy a repro and do it nicely since this support is full of hidden rust.

[Ranchero50]

Well, it's been two months of grinding at work. Twelve hour night shift still sucks...

This evening I finally put the first complete coat of primer on the hood, fenders and hood scoop. I'll probably put a couple more coats of primer on and let them set up for a week or two before block sanding it. I had a bunch of dings and social contact marks to smooth out plus a little stealth rust.

The trucks outside with the yellow hood and red fenders on so it looks driveable. I even got half the intercooler mount done.

I'm tired, like normal and should get some pictures posted sooner or later.

Jamie

[elgemcdlf]

Jamie on the subject of intercooler why not take a page from street rod AC? We would put the condenser under the car between the rails with elec fans. I have no quick answer as to where you might locate it & it might be something that would require multiple smaller units.

[averagef250]

Jamie on the subject of intercooler why not take a page from street rod AC? We would put the condenser under the car between the rails with elec fans. I have no quick answer as to where you might locate it & it might be something that would require multiple smaller units.

The more complex the air piping from the turbo to intake the bigger waste of time it is to do it. If it isn't low bend count with mandrel bends and a decent size cooler it's not an upgrade from no intercooler at all. You will lose efficiency with a bad setup, bigtime. I don't know what the difference would be in efficiency from front of truck VS underneath, but I've built rigs with radiators in their beds and it took huge fans and huge radiators to keep up.

[elgemcdlf]

My thought on advantage is the issues with making it all fit with a grill.

[Ranchero50]

It' fitting with the grill. I have the '68 steel grill on now and there's a good bit of room. I just had to open up the radiator support and put the intercooler half way through it. One slight hang up I'm having now is the lower radiator mount uses ears that go under the cooler tubing bungs so I'm not too sure how I'll be able to take the radiator out without removing the grill shell to remove the intercooler. The PITA factor will be pretty high so I stopped with that section to work on the front clip bodywork. The end goal has always been OEM maintenance accessability, something my '93 Mustang with the paxton up front made me want with any future builds.

If / when I do mount the under dash AC I have I'm going to install the AC condensor behind the bumper unless I can find a really thin one.

Back to welding on my hood...
Jamie

[averagef250]

My thought on advantage is the issues with making it all fit with a grill.

I understood this. My point is intercooler piping that looks like a pretzel is functionally useless so if you can't put the IC up front and don't want the complexity of a water to air setup then get rid of the intercooler altogether.

[Ranchero50]

Still working on it. Going to pull the radiator support off and get it modified to hold the intercooler and radiator. I'm thinking about mounting the radiator to the intercooler and have the intercooler hold them both to the support. We'll see how I can mutate that idea tomorrow when I'm off.

[Ranchero50]

Today as the rust free area of my radiator support got smaller and smaller I punted and now have a decent dentside support to cut up via my brother who has an affliction of the newer trucks.

It's even a galvanized one. So tomorrow I'll try to accomplish something.