Take the engine out of Fergus and put in ferdinand?
Take the engine out of Fergus and put in ferdinand?
In reply to sleepyhead :
The nature of writing in a forum format is that I don't necessarily know where I'm headed. Certainly from the first post to the last, but often even from the beginning of a post to the end. It's a bit like serialized novels way back in the day. Authors would often be scrambling to finish a chapter before the paper went to press, their ability to meet the word count this week could shape the direction of the story next week and beyond. Stopping and thinking and editing adds clarity, and probably leads to better writing, but on my end it removes emotion, and planning and working on projects is remarkably emotionally involving.
In reply to Pete Gossett :
I don't think a path is chosen. I'm in the middle of playing ennie meenie miney mo and am narrowing in on "you are not it".
In reply to Patrick :
Continued support at home often comes from the same "you could certainly be doing dumber things" school of thought that had me buying Land Rovers instead of flying to Patagonia to climb big pieces of granite. It's not about me making dumb decisions, it's about not making the dumbest ones.
In reply to wvumtnbkr :
I tossed that idea around in my head this morning. I don't want to move the cabover forward bad enough to move Fergus back.
It's not about me making dumb decisions, it's about not making the dumbest ones.
Should be on the next batch of Ferdinand T-shirts. I have always professed that if you dare to be stupid, your life will be more interesting.
Crossroads. 27 years ago, my wife bought me a Harley Dresser, that I lusted after. Her own money, bought for me as a gift of love. After 25 years, many miles, reincarnations, rebuilds, I sold it. She never rode on it. It was an emotional time, believe it or not, but it had to be done due to health reasons of my own. It was time to move on. Crossroads, I understand. Relationships too.
I could always be doing dumber things, but the cars keep me home. Except when i’m running around like an idiot pulling my trailer to go get that next car
edited to remove the spilled wine...
In reply to mazdeuce - Seth said:
Change is hard, and sometimes slow. You talked about change from being a lost father to one owning the role. In that same time you got lost amongst failed projects, while rubbing nickles together to make quarters. The past couple of years have brought many other changes, including moving into the role of “someone who completes projects” (grosh, OneLap, R63, etc)
You’ve moved beyond taking whatever picture your tablet landed on, to this:
I realize that this box we are all typing into doesn't lend itself well to editing. I realize that it currently doesn't lend itself well to pasting in something written in another app/program... especially when using a tablet. You won’t lose the magic being going back and considering what you’ve written, and being purposeful in your learning, in your changing is important for improvement.
Writing is different than many of tasks that you’ve undertaken before, and it’s a task I’m only beginning to come to terms with myself. But, one of the few lessons I’ve learned is that editing is as much a part of writing as pounding the words onto the papyrus.
You’ve hammered thousands of nails, and banged out thousands of words, and snapped untold number of pictures. Deliberation is what separates slapping something together, and building something that moves you through the space and expresses the emotions of the person who lives and breathes within it. Think twice, wrench once... with writing, the thinking is putting out the words... and the wrenching is in the editing of them, so they are as equally tight.
in case it wasn't obvious: thank you for giving me something beautiful to read this morning
In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
I've been trying to put myself in your shoes so that I can say something helpful, but I'm failing so I thought I'd share a little about my own drive to complete projects and trips and races. For me, things tend to fall into two categories: impossible or boring. They're, respectively, just huge exaggerations of "never done that" and "have done that" but they're how my mind naturally overreacts to experiences and desires so I go with them. When you have minimal tools, no real place to work and no experience everything is impossible. Then, maybe you do some wrenching, get more comfortable with your vehicle, and winning your class at an autocross is the new impossible thing to set your sights on; but once you've been autocrossing for a while, that's boring, so you build a car for something crazier, because that's your new impossible target. On and on, cycles of "that's impossible, I should see if I can do it!" become "this is boring, of course I can do it, why am I wasting my time?" until you have enough tools and experience that you're chasing things that you saw previously as "beyond impossible" and just hoping that you don't get bored with them before you have the means, be it budget, time, skill, whatever, to move on to the next impossible thing.
I have no idea if this is how it works for other people, or you in particular, but I hope sharing it helps you somehow.
In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :
That's a remarkably accurate description of learning to wrench in general.
I have a couple of dad phrases that my kids will no doubt talk to a therapist about when they're older. The most common is "I didn't ask you to like it, I asked you to eat it." but only slightly less common is "You can't do it, or you don't know how?"
To compound that, I have a terrible time creating a budget for these things. I'm fortunate that I theoretically have the money to spend, but historically I've had a terrible time putting it in my car budget. I think that's why it's easier to buy a new car than buy pieces for a project. Even if i'm making $500 payments once a month for years, it's only psychologically damaging once. Spending $6K a year on car parts would involve dozens of judgment calls where I convince myself that I need a car part worse than one of my kids needs college text books at a date in the future.
I've got feelers out on a 345 and a couple of other options located. I think I'm dedicated to the idea that this should remain true to what it was for this iteration.
We must be around the same age. I vividly remember browsing the web in college, in the late 1990's - early 2000's. Most notably eBaymotors during C++ programming class. We (fellow college buddies) looked for cheap but driving AMG's, Maserati's, M3's, Honda's, Audi's, keywords: V8, turbo, sport and anything else that could be fun for cheap, appearance be damned. We lacked space, tools, finances and experience but had plenty of desire and interest. We often dreamed of law enforcement closing local roads so we could drive our barely legal beaters on a closed course of twisties during a sunny afternoon.
Hat tip to you Mr. MazDuece. While our interest was real (and still is) our time and effort was redirected towards how to obtain our next keg so that next car conversations could flourish. Instead, you did the wrenching; succeeded and failed, but wrenched nonetheless while we just talked.
I'm not sure where the project goes from here, but I'm sure you'll be shifting gears in the coming months with a smile on your face knowing you made the correct decision.
Can the thread title be changed to Zen and the Art of removing Ferdinand from Pasture?
I fully understand what you are talking about on the money side of it. Spending money on a project car is almost always a loosing proposition. Spending money on a car payment is also almost always a loosing proposition. The difference, over and above your example of making the decision once rather than for each and every piece, is that society has programed us to accept a 'car payment' as 'normal' and part of being an adult. Even those who on here who eschew a car payment at least understand the social norms of having one. It's harder to defend spending $1,000 on a $2,000 car in one year than it is to spend $4,000 in payments on a car that's lost $6,000 value in a year. After the Saab I've come to terms with the fact I'm no longer a project guy. My projects are now limited to maintenance and upgrades covered within maintenance rather than a full on project. I keeping the dream of building a car from scratch alive as a retirement project, but in my heart of hearts I know that's a lie too.
From what I've read in this thread I think Ferdinand is living up to your original inspiration just fine. From here, if I were you (not that I'll ever live up to your standards) I'd go with the epoxy solution. First it keeps an LSx out of there which you don't seem to favor, also it keeps Fergus's heart intact. Second, it's the lowest cost solution, it's cheaper than a sleeve and prevents further scope creep of 'If I'm doing one I should do them all' or 'Let's get new slugs while I'm doing this'. Third and the most important I think it fits in perfectly with your original desire to grow and learn as a story teller and a writer. The epoxy repair is something I've only tangentially heard about before, but it's never something I've seen or read anything about. It will be, at least for this boards members, a new frontier that we will all love to learn about vicariously through you. The research, implementation, finger crossing expectation of success with trepidation and fear of failure will make, in my opinion, fascinating reading.
Should you ever bail on Ferdinand and put him back out to pasture you will need to pay penance. you will be required to create a tombstone iron on cut out with his birth and death dates on to mail to everyone you sent T shirts too, they can then be updated in his honor.
Long Live Ferdinand and his epoxy lung.
In reply to Adrian_Thompson :
If you can bring yourself to do it, I also favor the epoxy solution. I too think that it is in the spirit of your overall goals in writing about your wrenching adventures. It would be an interesting side trip for us all, would keep Ferd as stock as possible, and be a low cost, GRM appropriate solution.
So I'm here, sitting on this rock, contemplating the forks in front of me, and I just had a friend come tap me know the shoulder and say "there's a 345 in Dallas if you head down that path over there." And because IH built the 4-cyl Comanche turbo from 1965-1967, and because I can imagine an engineer or two wanting to bolt a pair of those to the V8 and blow all that air through a carb, I'm going to head to Dallas tomorrow way way way before the sun comes up.
Cadman5 said:In reply to Adrian_Thompson :
If you can bring yourself to do it, I also favor the epoxy solution. I too think that it is in the spirit of your overall goals in writing about your wrenching adventures. It would be an interesting side trip for us all, would keep Ferd as stock as possible, and be a low cost, GRM appropriate solution.
I do agree with both of you, except this is a 304. Even if it worked, it's still not the motor I want. That's a big part of what I've been hung up about. All the clever work in the world still yields a patched up version of the least desiresble V8. Time, energy, and money are better spent chasing the better answer.
In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
Good luck, buddy! Too bad we'll likely miss each other while you're up here as I have to be at work at 8, but maybe we can catch breakfast next time.
As fun as a Cummins swap or something of that ilk would be, I do think Ferdinand's heart belongs to IH, so the 345 is a solid vote from me.
Turbo 345 for the win!
Took some doing. All alone and lonely, in upstate NY. I think it's a GM
This is the truck I see a couple of times a week. That imugur stuff is a PIA, if you aren't computer savy.
I was going to say the epoxy solution would be the best way to go until I started looking at the cost of the material.
If you want to see how it's done here's the how to from the manufacturer Belzona.
It looks like the 1311 stuff that they reference for that industrial engine is about 600 dollars. That's pretty steep for something you ultimately are going to replace anyway considering you can get a LS motor with a wrecked junker for a little bit more.
Seth, prayers for safe travel on the 345 journey to big 'D' and there's a lot to be said for maintaining 'heritage' on the 'Bull'.......this too shall only add to the 'small adventure' as we all embrace it.
The picture I sent was of what I see that gives me some inspiration. Although not a Ferdie, it gives me a vision of a before and after. If you can muster the stamina and$$$, go for it. I'm all in on the 345. I had one in a 1977 Scout II. It was hooked up to a IH variation of the Torqueflite automatic. Pretty stout engine, with a lot of grunt. Owned that truck for many years. The suggestion for the epoxy was just from memory. I knew it was pricey way back then, but holy smokes.
In reply to The0retical :
I know the City had deep pockets, but I would I imagine it may have been cost effective at some point, on some of the big machinery they were operating at the time. They used this on dozers, cranes and other earth moving equipment.
Dirtydog said:
I'm 99% sure that's a later International. At some point they widened the cab and used the square headlight surrounds. Of course all of the cabovers from that era look about the same, so it's hard to say without bothering the guy, which I would totally do. They make great yard art.
So I'm excited about the trip tomorrow. I like little adventures like this. Should be about 10 hours door to door. I get to see a shop that is cool enough to get paid to yank out 345's and put in LS's. I get to talk to another car guy for at least a couple of minutes. Hopefully I get to drag home a motor that really is just gas and a battery away from starting.
As an aside, I had new tires put on the truck today. While there I was chatting with a guy about the downsides of not owning our own tire machines. He builds motors. He's been building motors since 1965. Lately he builds almost exclusively 502 based motors for offshore boats. He builds them as matched pairs and loves the fact that they're clean and he gets paid about twice what car guys are willing to pay. He said he's never had a motor blow up. Ever. He builds in shutoffs for oil, coolant, and revs that auto shut the motors down if they loose pressure, get hot, or over rev. He learned the basics of how to do things properly as a Seebee. 10 minutes chatting. The world is so full of people that know so much. It was a good time.
Thanks for keeping the IHC engine in it.
Too many bubbas swap a SBC or something else equally stupid into IH trucks and ruin what would have been a nice truck. If you want a Chevy, go buy one.
The 345 is a good, old-fashioned truck engine, it will run nearly forever on nothing more than gas, oil and water. There's no reason to swap in an overworked car engine that needs a beating to do it's job properly.
Dirtydog said:In reply to The0retical :
I know the City had deep pockets, but I would I imagine it may have been cost effective at some point, on some of the big machinery they were operating at the time. They used this on dozers, cranes and other earth moving equipment.
Oh for sure. I was just curious what it cost. The equipment and material I had access to working in aviation is way too expensive for me to get as a hobbyist now as well. I do spoil myself with Boelube though because it lasts forever and doesn't wear my drill bits out as fast.
The epoxy would make a lot of sense for industrial engines because of the cost to replace it. For a 300 dollar IH motor, well if you're into the numbers matching concourse thing yes otherwise I understand Mazdeuces hesitation. The material is cool as heck though.
In reply to Trans_Maro :
This is from later, and it's a diesel, but it's hard to look at this picture and not imagine racing DNA crossing to the big trucks. It's even harder to look at this picture, to get it crawling around in your head, and then decide to put something other than an international motor from the period in it.
So that's where I am, factory engineer, 1966, I'm mentally ill and want to go fast in a truck.
You'll need to log in to post.
