Heirlooms '68 F250 - 2500 miles later.....

[Heirloom]

Hi all. I thought I would start a thread and let anyone else ride along on my project adventure.

Subject: 1968 F250

Originally equipped with a 360, auto and 3:73 gears. It has power brakes and manual steering. Currently (at the time of purchase and this writing) it has a mystery FE since it has been swapped and all I can do is measure stroke....so I am just going with saying it's a 360 since it's not a 390. It's topped with a 2100/2150 Motorcraft 2v (1.14). It does run really well and the tranny is tight. Someone converted it to a 4 spd (NP435) sometime in the past. The rear end is original. The bed had been swapped to a later model with the body line side markers. The saddle tank is gone. Sure it's 'one color' (primer), but that color need all come off because I am sure it's holding moisture, oils etc. So it will require a full sanding when I refinish it. Something was fishy with the turn signals and parking lights, the signals weren't working on the passenger side....it was suffering from 'deferred maintenance' and poor mechanic work but it had good 'bones'.

Here are the pictures shortly after getting it home. There were PLENTY of neglected issues, rattles, drive line noise, a lifter tick and lots of other stuff for me to get to work on....







In the last picture, from the rear, look at the trailer hitch. Instead of buying and installing a regular draw tight or hidden hitch, someone fabricated their own and welded it to the bumper. Years of abuse on a poorly designed hitch system caused the center bumper 'step' to pull down and away slightly from the rest of the bumper. Since this is primarily a work truck, and I do have trailers, that hitch will be dealt with. Unfortunately it is welded to the bumper, then has a cobbled together support system behind and above it that is bolted to the rear two cross members. Welds are cracking and so is the C channel they used as a support backbone. Anyone can weld, not everyone can successfully design and fabricate.

So there is the start, the baseline if you will. Plans call for a 400, C6, rear gearing to 3.54, 32" BFG tires and a paint job. This is not intended to be a super nice show truck or a hanger queen. It's my work truck, but I do want it fair looking as well as crisp and strong on the throttle.

Did I mention I will be doing all the work myself? From suspension to engine to tranny to body work. All of it done by me and shared right here on FORDification!

[Heirloom]

This project will be what you can call 'budget'. I'm not rich, in fact I am quite poor. Again, this is a work truck, not a mantle piece.

I originally was not going to do a project thread, so the work I have already done was not well documented. However I will give you a run down and a few pictures to get up to speed.

The truck was a loose, noisy mess. First things first though. The brake booster was shot, the PCV system was half hooked up and the radiator had no overflow tank.







With those issues fixed and an oil change I moved on to other stuff. The lights were not functioning correctly. So I embarked on a clean up and fix of the 40 plus years of other peoples poor electrical work. Two days later I had rebuilt the turn signal switch, ripped out worthless wiring, fixed grounds, wrong wiring and a host of issues. In the end I had fully functioning lights all the way around. My Uncle donated headlight bezels, and I found a usable pair of front marker/turn signal lenses at the junk yard. For the time being I painted the bezels black just to keep the look consistent.

[Heirloom]

With the brake safety issue handled, the PCV hooked up, an oil change and the lights now functioning it was time to start chasing down noises.

When I inspected the truck prior to purchase, I crawled under and saw that the radius arm bushing were blown out. Well that will make a clunk and affect handling!!

Sorry for the fuzzy pic....


New radius arm bushings certainly help hold the front straight...

Looking around more I discovered that the rear shock bushings were non existent! Holy Crap! That will make some noise and cause some funny feelings on the road! So I replaced the rear shock bushings. The fronts were OK, but my first real 'splurge' was on dual shocking the front. I used to work at a local Off Road shop that specializes in Twin-I Fords. It's called AUTOFAB....http://autofab.com/. Worth a look, they have lots of cool stuff and tons of knowledge. Anyhow, I took it to my former co-workers and had them weld on the tabs. My little Harbor Freight 110 wire feed welder is not enough, and using my TIG rig would be tedious and over kill.



Something else that will make a hell of a racket......



Above is the forward U-joint on the long driveshaft. One cap had no bearings left in it at all. Fortunately, once again, my Uncle happened to have a complete driveshaft on hand in his Ford junk yard. I swapped it out and lost that noise AND vibration.



Now all of the rattles are gone and it handles AWESOME!Seriously, there are no rattles, not even the tailgate unless I am hauling butt over rough dirt road.

[Heirloom]

Speaking of hauling butt on dirt roads.....my butt had been bottoming out because the seat was badly deteriorated. Thanks to info found here on FORDification, I went down to the junkyards again and found a good seat, a 50/50 split with head rests from a 92 F250. $40 and some gas later I had a seat that wouldn't pinch, bottom or make me curse. A parts store cover makes the color more attractive and a closer match to the current 'theme'.



The old hitch has been cut out and a spare hidden hitch has been fitted. It's not 100% done in this picture, just test fitting. It's tight and tucked up under there, but works well!!




Since I plan on painting it, it makes sense to have on hand the rubber pieces that will be needed for body reassembly. I ordered (and received) weatherstripping, door felts, fuel neck boots etc. from LMC. Ouch. Not so budget

[Heirloom]

Originally I thought about building a 'Clevor' for this truck. Sounded good, a bullet proof Windsor bottom end and the venerable 'Cleveland' top end. But with custom pistons and other custom parts and machining it quickly flew out of the budget realm. While considering what to build for it, I had been going to the junk yards. In a 73 F100 sat a complete M motor, a 400 to be exact. It had been built by a decent local shop years ago call Ed Hale's. At first I only grabbed the heads, Edelbrock intake, valve covers and headers. After deciding against the Clevor, I went back for the bottom end. Even though it was .030 over already, the bores were still good. The same day I met a guy who supposedly had a D7T 351m short block on it's original bore that had great oil pressure and could go in as is.

Let this story be a lesson to you all. I let my guard down on this one and got burned. I met the guy at his house and looked at the short block. It was clean and in good condition. I brought my calipers with me, but never measured it. He stated it was original bore, said he measured it himself. Since I had no feeling that there was any (intentional) deception (and still don't think it was intentional), plus I was at his house (who would bring someone to their house to deceive them???) I went ahead and bought it, and paid WAY more than I would have if it had been bored. Bad idea. The block is .030 over, the crank 20/20. Plus the crank need to be turned. The 030 stamping on the pistons is not very visible. In fact I can only see it on one or two piston tops, barely.

I asked him what it was he measured. He measured the bore at the top, with carbon. It happened to come out a 4.004, exactly the diameter of the piston top, NOT the body of the piston or clean bore its self. So he thought it was original. Didn't know that the carbon made that much difference. I opted to keep the block and he started throwing in all sorts of other parts, as well as new engine hardware I need so it sort of balanced out.

Check, measure, double check and pull a rod and main cap if need be. What ever you do, just be wiser than I was.



I have decided to build both motors. Actually one complete motor, one long block for storage or use elsewhere. The bores in each block can be run as is with a lite hone. The 400 crank was already 10 main/20 rod....but the journals were in excellent shape! So the 400 is a re-ring and re-bearing. About as budget as you can get away with! The 351m needs to have the crank turned it's final time, that adds $135 to that motors build.


Here are some pics of tear down of the two motors...
First the 351M








Hey Dad....do those calipers look familiar? I'm still using them after....IDK...15 or 16 years since you gave me them!

Since pistons that are advertised as being "x.x/1 CR" means absolutely squat to me I am CCing a piston from each motor. I prefer to measure and CC everything so I KNOW what my static CR will be.

[Heirloom]

The 400 tear down...




The 400 was running a fairly mild Isky cam and a Cloyes (I think) double roller set

[Heirloom]

Here are more pics. Just some various stuff to look at....

351M left, 400 right



2V open chamber heads, shelf space, 351c/m/400 truck headers, and some decent visors. In the silver bag behind the heads is the 351m crank. One of these things is not like the others.....



An army of pistons waiting to do my bidding ....



More parts collecting.....



Here is the Edelbrock Performer 400 EGR manifold I bought at the junk yard. $40 bucks...thank you. It is soaking in cleaner and slowly being returned to a natural aluminum finish. I think the previous owner was confused and thought it need to be covered in grease,oil and dirt so it didn't rust!! Silly PO, it's aluminum!

[Heirloom]

After dis-assembly and checking it all out I am going to build the 400 first and for my truck. I plan on using the D7T block and the 400 rotating assembly, the best from both short blocks. With the rotating assembly and block decided on I moved on to other items....

After looking at and simming several cam profiles I made my decision and turned to Summit Racing for some parts.



This is a Crane grind packaged by Summit.


In keeping with my DIY/budget theme I found a Holley 4160 600cfm carb on Ebay that is a good rebuiladable unit. Cost $45 shipped. I plan on rebuilding and converting it to a secondary metering block rather than the plate, installing a power valve blow out preventer and converting to a manual choke. I may also do center hung bowls. Not sure yet. Also I will be adding the vacuum secondary quick change lid.



Here are a couple old Holley's that were in my Uncles parts stash. Ugly, but they did give up some valuable parts, like a secondary metering block, one center hung bowl and a complete manual choke assembly. That saves me some bucks!!

[Heirloom]

Well that brings this up to date. One thing I did not picture or mention was that I added a cheap parts store tachometer (column mounted) to give me some sort of idea what my speed is since the speedo doesn't work. Also, I bought a full gasket set, that's on it's way too.

Right now I am waiting on the carb, gaskets and Summit order to arrive. I expect them this coming Monday or Tuesday. Then I can take the block and cam bearings to my machinist and have him clean it, check the decks and install cam bearings and plugs.

[Fordnatic]

Do you like the 400 better than the FE? I built a really nice 400 for my Dad's 78 F150 with 10-1 pistons, ported heads, RV cam, Edlebrock manifold and Carter AFB carb. That thing ran terriffic and pulled down 17mpg, towed really well and everything, but I still think I like the FE's better. Maybe partially because they bolt right in to bumpsides.

You'll end up with a terrific work/tow rig.

[Heirloom]

I do like the FE for a straight tow rig. But, the power locked inside the 335 series heads calls to me. I'm still young enough to want some top end power (on the cheap) Plus, just about every FE I have come in contact with has top end issues, mine included. Just about all I can say for them is they are torquie as hell and will NEVER rust But I have not built one from the pan up, so who knows how doing one to my specs would change my mind

I'm not so much a Summit catalog racer. I have never bought an aftermarket head in my life. I take pleasure in putting together decent power packages with what's on hand or at the salvage yards. I make it work, and usually pretty darn well.

[KRob]

Very cool waiting to see more.

[sargentrs]

Great work, can't wait to see how it all comes out.

[Heirloom]

KRob and sargentrs! Thank you!

[vicp21]

Great thread Heirloom, I too have a 68 F250 (260/300?, 4sp). I was wondering, how difficult was it to put the bench in? Mine is also dilapidated and a 90's bench would be great. Keep up the posts and good luck.

Vic