Re: 1973 F-250 - Workhorse Revival -> Sport Truck -> Turbo Truck (Well Over $5k Now)

[BBR]

It is tempting to clean it up a bit, but my give-a-flipper is running low on fuel.

[BBR]

Front dress will be the late model stuff. It's ugly, but it works. The DIS coil mount will need to be reconfigured to work with the mechanical water pump and accessory drive brackets though.

I played with the idea of running the electric water pump and using a Volvo electric power steering pump, but, these are here and they will work. for what I am doing. I still need to get an AC delete idler pulley to make the belt work right.

[BBR]

Mocked up the intake on the motor to see if everything is fitting as planned. Man I like how this is looking. The coil pack bracket needs to be shortened about 1" and I think it will be fine.

[BBR]

Monkeyed with the brake booster brackets yesterday and gained some room by the valve cover.

[BBR]

Started thinking about the mount for the turbo. The cardboard is just a rough idea, but I think I have a pretty good idea of what I want to do. The flange needs to be at an angle to give the exhaust a straighter shot and to leave spark plug access, but if you put too much on there, that causes the turbo to sit waaaay out there. It will bolt in two places on the front for the majority of the load carrying and be stabilized by the back bracket tying into the engine side of the motor mount.

[BBR]

And here it is in steel.

[BBR]

Changed the mount to rotate the turbo up closer to the engine and to also separate the turbo flange from the.mounting brackets. The brackets are going to need some reinforcing because this turbo is a hoss.

Overall, it is coming together very nicely.

[BBR]

Picked up an AC delete pulley for $8. I installed it and the intake manifold yesterday.

[BBR]

I added a bracket that goes from the rear bracket and spans 2 exhaust studs. This really solidified the mount. I could probably stand on it now.

I also formed the pipe to fit in the rectangle turbo flange to transition to round pipe. I started welding it to the flange yesterday, but not surprisingly ran out of gas.

Fuel lines are also mocked up. looks like I will need about 3 more feet of hose to complete the fuel system.

[STINEY]

[QUOTE=BBR;n1231616]I added a bracket that goes from the rear bracket and spans 2 exhaust studs. This really solidified the mount. I could probably stand on it now.[/QUOTE

That should be just about perfectly overbuilt. ]

[BBR]

Overbuilt is good seeing that this is a street truck. I don't want that thing flopping around and cracking my exhaust tubing!

[BBR]

Worked on the turbo flange today. Basically took a piece of 4" exhaust tubing, split it and the formed it into the flange with a ballpeen hammer and a 1/2" socket extension. Then I welded it in place.

Next, I formed the other end to an oval and inserted the other tubing and welded it. Took some hammering and squishing, but it turned out pretty nice.

[BBR]

I made more hoses yesterday. I only have one more to make and the fuel system is plumbed!

[BBR]

Fuel system is fully plumbed now. Just need to secure the lines to the frame in a few places.

Exhaust manifolds are soaking in Purple Power so they will be cleaner.

The oil supply line to the turbo is in place now too.

The "plan" (we know how well those turn out sometimes) is to finish the hot side to the turbo, install the Dominator and my 1 wire HEI distributor in order to break in the cam, because I *know* they work. Then go live with the efi.

Today's project was drilling 2 more holes in the intake that I should have done before I put it in the engine.... These holes are for a water temp sensor and mechanical water temp gauge.

[BBR]

Holes tapped and chips vacuumed up. I just screwed that blue fitting in to make sure the threads were ok. I also secured the fuel lines to the frame.