1973 F-250 - Turbo BBF - It's off to a new home!

[fatguyzinc]

i know, i know. its running and driving....

id still do a NASTY 460/C6 swap.

but im kinda mental like that.

[mopar57]

EXCELLENT

[BBR]

Gosh, after reading a HUGE thread on theturboforums.com about these GT45's, I think twins will be total overkill. Plenty of guys making 5-600 rwhp on a single. That's more than this thing would EVER need to make on a SBE 460. lol. That just cut my required $$$ pretty much in half. Sweet.

[Russell]

What does SBE stand for?

[cstmwgn]

What does SBE stand for?

Stock Block Engine ?????

[cstmwgn]

I have been following this build with great interest. I know you were building a sport truck but how heavy of loads do you think the CV front end could hold? I am getting ready to freshen (frame off) my 66 F250 but don't want to ruin it's load carrying capabilities too much.

[hauen]

I think a CV front end is plenty beefy for most truck duties, it's definitely heavier than the old wobblydobbler strut rod deal IFS Dodge pickups had for the longest time and is at least as stout as the 67-87 Chevy IFS front ends. It goes without saying that though it may not be as heavy duty, it's light years ahead in the handling compared to twin I-beams and has much better brakes.

[BBR]

SBE = Stock Bottom End

The CV front ends seem to be very solid and the PI springs are stiffer than the garden variety CV's. But, you are stuck with a 5 on 4.5" bolt pattern for the wheels and 15" wheels are a no-go.

[cstmwgn]

It goes without saying that though it may not be as heavy duty, it's light years ahead in the handling compared to twin I-beams and has much better brakes.

The brakes are what interest me the most. I upgraded the front suspension to 75 F250HD stuff to get disk brakes and dual piston calipers about 30 years ago. At that time I also had the king pins replaced and an alignment (including bending the beams) done at an actual 18 wheeler shop and the truck drives pretty darn good (excellent for a twin I-Beam in my opinion).

[BBR]

The weather totally sucked here so on Saturday I finally took time to swap in the Punisher valvebody. I took my time and surprisingly didn't make much of a mess. When I got the pan off, I noticed that 2 nuts were missing and all the other nuts were loose. Yikes. All the bolts were tight, but NONE of the nuts were! The nuts are 10mm and the bolts are 8mm so I guess the rebuilder just forgot to torque them down. The two missing nuts were stuck to the magnet in the pan. There was a little material stuck to the magnet, but it wasn't bad.

The VB swap itself was super easy. Unbolt the old one and bolt the new one in it's place. I put it all back together and it is dripping from one of the pan bolts that holds the shifter cable on, of all the odd places. The bolt holes in the gasket were pretty big so I guess the gasket is a little bit shifted and allowing fluid to leak around the bolt.

I have not driven it yet. The weather is supposed to be nice today so I hope to drag it out and see how it does.


Starting. These transmission pans are huge.

Pan off. Notice studs with no nuts!

All ready to put the pan back on.



Just got back from a drive. Shifts are waaaaaay better. They used to be crazy slow at WOT. They are now firm without slamming. Truthfully, I'd like them to be even harder, but this seems good for now.

[BBR]

I was all set to take the Mustang to the track Friday night. The Mustang had a different plan. Cranked it up and it started having weird ecm resets. So, we put it back in the shop and took the truck to the track.

On the way to the track, Judd (Jake had plans and could not go) and I took guesses at what it would run.

Judd: 16.0
Me: 16.50

I told him if it ran in the 15's I'd be super happy.

We got there and spotted a Gen1 Ford Lightning making passes. 16.1's. I told Judd my goal for the night was to beat that guy. We got teched in (had to add a water bottle as a coolant overflow) and made my way to the lanes. First pass, I brake torqued it just a hair and it boiled the rear tire off the line. Ran 16.59. I knew I could do better so after a quick check for leaks, I went back up. This time I decided to let the trans shift for itself. That was a mistake. lol. It shifts on mph so it shifted at about 3500 rpm each time. Ok, back to manually shifting!

I decided to just swing back in the lanes and lo and behold there was my great white whale! The Gen1 Lightning was sitting there in the lanes so I slid right up into the empty space next to him. It was on! I did a small burnout and staged. Tree comes down, and I drill him. Truck hooks and I manually shift at 4500 rpm (fuel cut is 4800, ask me how I know haha). I never look over, but I beat him. A 16.01 to a 16.12. Yeeeeeeeeessssss!!!!! Goal met!


But wow, a 16.01! My mouth was dripping with saliva for that elusive 15 second slip! I went back to the pits and celebrated with everyone for a few minutes and then went back up.

I did a little longer burnout this time, hit my shift points and was rewarded with a 15.87! Yeeeeeeeesssss x2!!!


We are having fun now! Goal #2 met! Whoo hoo!!

Made another pass after that and slammed the fuel cut in 1st gear. That's like hitting the brakes lol. Cuts at 4800 and then comes back on at 4300. Meh.

Last pass of the night was next to a Hemi powered Dodge Ram. Oh yeah, let's whoop up on a Hemi truck! Cha-Ching! I win! Hit the Dixie horn just after the finish line just to celebrate. The guys at the time slip booth loved it. Haha.

Overall, a fantastic night making passes with friends and getting this thing sorta figured out. It ain't fast, but 15.80's ain't bad for a dead stock motor with open 3.25's and 30" tall street tires. I was shifting to 3rd just before the traps. With a limited slip and some better gears and tires, this thing might run pretty decently!

[74NovaMan]

Very cool! Congrats on the timeslips!

[BBR]

I guess it's about time to start getting this thing ready for Rocky Mountain Race Week!

I mounted an aluminum toolbox down in the bed, so we would have a place to lock things up. I did it a little unconventionally though. The tailgate is super hard to open and close, so I mounted the box at the back of the bed. It is setup so you can stand behind the pickup and get what you need out. I chose not to put it right behind the cab because the down-bars will eventually be in the way. The added benefit is that the box is right next to to fuel filler hose. This will allow me to change the filler tube location and hopefully attach it to the back of the box where the nozzle will be pointed down. Why? Because this thing is RIDICULOUSLY hard to fill with fuel. It burps and farts and pukes fuel out particularly if it is near empty. You have to dribble it in and it takes forever. The '73 I had in high school did not seem to have this problem. Maybe they have changed the pump nozzle since then, because it will fall out if you let go and I don't remember that being the case back in 1987.

Because this thing seriously needs a limited slip diff or something, so I looked at mini-spools on Summit's site, they are cheap enough, but really wasn't super keen on running one. I ended up finding a full spool on eBay with bearings for $50 which is not much more than a mini-spool!

I also ordered a set of should belts so we will have more than just a lap belt holding us in.

May have to do something about the chambered mufflers too..... the drone at 1600-1800 rpm is pretty brutal!

[Beagle]

x pipe?

[BBR]

Maybe. I may put some turndowns on it to see if it helps.