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Project F-Bomb

101K views 2K replies 53 participants last post by  nfamus10 
#1 ·
I never thought this day would come, but I finally found something worth selling my s10 to buy. One of my all time favorite trucks. I’ve been wanting one for years, and finally found one.

















1986 F-150 in-line 6, 2wd auto. 96k miles. If I’m to believe the previous owner, it was a one owner farm truck when he bought it 4 years ago. I don’t see any evidence to the contrary.
Body is 100% original and unrestored. There’s a decent dent in the left fender and some scrapes along the bed, but other than that the body is damage free. Body rot is minimal, especially for the year. Lower fenders, left cab corner, rear wheel arches and rear lower bed sides are starting to go, but floors, doors and frame are mint! And that patina...:)
Interior is decent. A couple cracks in the dash, missing headlight switch, driver side armrest falling off, hole drilled in the instrument panel bezel, and one big rip in the seat. Nothing that can’t be fixed or at least improved.
Mechanically, it’s in fantastic shape. Runs, drives and shifts beautifully. It’s got a ton of new parts. New shocks, front trailing arm bushings and brackets. New fuel tank and pump. New radiator. Newer aftermarket distributor and carb. Really nice wheels with virtually brand new tires.
It has some issues though. The ebrake cable sticks bad. None of the gauges except the voltmeter works. (But it does have full gauges, not just idiot lights, so that’s nice.) Exhaust leaks at the manifold donut gasket. You have to slam the doors to get them to latch. Has a pretty good coolant leak at the thermostat housing. All relatively small problems, but they add up.
The kid wasn’t willing to negotiate much, so I ended up paying a bit more than I wanted, and probably more than I should have. But I’ve only seen one other short bed this style for sale, and I didn’t want to miss an opportunity that probably won’t come along again. But, I’m planning to sell the toolbox, and he has the stock steel wheels that he’s gonna throw in, so I can sell the wheels that are on it and make some of my money back.
Plans are to fix it up and just cruise it all summer. Then tear it down and bag it over the winter. I’ll be bringing it home Monday night, so Tuesday I should have a lot more pictures. I can’t wait! Let me know what you think.
 
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#1,556 ·
I'm so lost on turbos but it's gonna go fast and I like that.
 
#1,563 ·
It lives!!!!!


No leaks, no unusual noises. Scavenge pump works like it should.



First time on the ground since May. Need to button up a bunch of small stuff, change the oil, etc., and it’ll be ready to drive! Hopefully it makes boost under load, because just sitting in the driveway, revving it, it does not.

20 inches of vacuum at idle. Revving it to 3-4K for 10-15 seconds, it doesn’t move from there…
 
#1,567 ·
Cobbled together a quick post turbo exhaust setup today with some leftover pipe and the old race muffler that was on it.




Yes, my welds look like crap. No, I don’t care. They’re gonna get smoothed out a little, and the whole thing is getting cleaned, painted and wrapped.

Quieter, but still a bit louder and raspier than before boost.
 
#1,568 ·
Just got back from my first real test drive. No boost. Well, it’s making enough pressure to activate the BOV when I shift at higher rpm’s, but not enough to make any power or even register on the gauge. Good thing I bought a stiffer wastegate spring and a boost controller.
The other problem, as you could probably hear in the videos, is the scavenge pump is incredibly loud. And it’s already leaking. I’m gonna try to get in contact with the company and see if they’ll replace it, or maybe just find a replacement locally.
 
#1,573 ·
It.
Is.
Done.
Got the exhaust back on the truck and wrapped.

Got the wiring cleaned up and tucked away, new throttle cable bracket made, replaced some hoses, and replaced the broken hood release cable.







If it wasn’t raining, I would be taking it for a nice long cruise right now. There’s a big show next Sunday, about an hour and a half away, that I want to make sure I’m 100% ready to go to.
 
#1,574 ·
It.
Is.
Done.
Got the exhaust back on the truck and wrapped.

Got the wiring cleaned up and tucked away, new throttle cable bracket made, replaced some hoses, and replaced the broken hood release cable.







If it wasn’t raining, I would be taking it for a nice long cruise right now. There’s a big show next Sunday, about an hour and a half away, that I want to make sure I’m 100% ready to go to.
Clever Packaging
It.
Is.
Done.
Got the exhaust back on the truck and wrapped.

Got the wiring cleaned up and tucked away, new throttle cable bracket made, replaced some hoses, and replaced the broken hood release cable.







If it wasn’t raining, I would be taking it for a nice long cruise right now. There’s a big show next Sunday, about an hour and a half away, that I want to make sure I’m 100% ready to go to.
 
#1,576 ·
First test drive went great…


For a while. Luckily it was just out of gas. Meaning it’s getting about 4 mpg. I think I’ll give it a little time to learn the new setup before determining I actually have a problem. Everything seems to be working well, though. When I really get on it, I’m getting almost 5lb on the gauge. So I’m only losing 3lb through all that tubing. Not terrible, I guess. I’ll drive it like this for a while to make sure everything is happy, then either install the boost controller and play around with that, or just swap in the 12lb spring.
 
#1,578 · (Edited)
It’s been a hell of a week with this thing. Monday morning, I leave for work and I hear the scavenge pump running. Could’ve been running all night, I have no idea. Only way to get it to stop was to disconnect the battery. I was lazy when I wired it, and instead of running an ignition switched power source to the pressure switch, I just tapped into the battery feed that I already ran to the relay. My guess is the switch shorted out and powered up the pump. It rained all Monday and Tuesday, but Wednesday I was able to replace and properly wire the switch. I also pulled the pump apart, expecting to find at least some damage from running dry for god knows how long. It was fine.
Next, I fixed an oil leak for the second time. The fitting for the feed line to the turbo leaked initially. I took it apart and loaded it up with sealant. Stopped leaking for a little, but eventually got worse than before. Took it apart again, cleaned it really well with brake clean this time and wrapped it in about 5 layers of Teflon tape. Fixed.
Finished up just as it was getting dark, but I figured I’d get a quick test drive in. Didn’t even make it past the neighbors house or into third before I discovered the throttle was sticking. Bad. Only thing I could think was I somehow disturbed the cable when messing around with the oil fitting.
Fast forward to today, when I finally had time to mess with it again. Cable didn’t seem like it was binding or hanging up, but I bent the bracket a bit to give it as much slack as I could. Took it for a couple drives and it seems ok.
I also swapped wastegate springs. No real difference. Maybe I just have to rev the piss out of it to get the boost, but it’s still only seeing around 5 pounds at the engine. I do have quite a few pinhole leaks in the exhaust before the turbo, which I’m sure isn’t helping. I guess I gotta pull the pipe and do some more welding. Again.
I’m gonna try to take it to work tomorrow, so I’ll get some new pics of it out and about.

Forgot to mention the new, unidentified leak. Based on how hard it’s been to shift lately, I’m guessing it’s trans fluid. I should check.
And I also curbed the RF wheel and tire pretty bad today. So I need a new one of each. Great.
 
#1,580 ·
Yeah, but when I’m doing that, I wish I was working on the truck. It’s a lose/lose sometimes. But I guess it could be a lot worse. I’ll figure the boost issue out. I’ve known the trans was leaking for a while now. It’s just getting worse. The rim and tire aren’t really that bad. Not worth spending the money to replace right now, anyway. All of it just kinda happening at once just put me in a bad mood.
 
#1,582 ·
I'm wondering if your turbo is sized right for your application. I would think that with it so far from the engine it might need to be smaller on the exhaust side to help it spool up faster. The turbo on my S4 is in the V on top of the engine and makes instant boost as soon as you put your foot into it. I hope you have an air cleaner on the turbo now that you are driving it. In that one video, I saw puffs of dark smoke coming out of the exhaust so it is definitely running rich.

For some reason, I haven't been getting alerts for this thread so I had to catch up with about 2 months worth of posts.
 
#1,583 ·
According to the minimal research I did, the turbo is appropriately sized for the engine. But I think you’re right about needing a smaller compressor since it’s so far back.
No air filter on it yet. The one I bought when I bought the turbo doesn’t fit.
I need to pull a spark plug and see how bad they are. Maybe put a fresh set in.
 
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