93 F250 351 5speed, my "new" non-project DD for truck stuff

It's a typical story.  I was looking for parts trucks for my van project on craigslist recently and found an ad.  The wife thought I should get one when I found one instead of waiting for engine time on the van, that way i'd have a truck to drive and I won't have to keep using her car and leaving big, heavy, greasy things in the back.  That reminds me, i need to get a bucket full of steel out of her car...

Found a few that fit the bill, mostly cheap and really rusty.  This is WI after all, and these trucks are 20+ years old.  Finally found one 351, 5 speed ZF tranny, 2wd, the combination i want.  No picture, far away, but it only shows 115k miles.  Sounds like a healthy drivetrain donor.  Since the seller was going to be in my neighborhood this weekend, we agreed on a price so he would bring it with, i'll meet him at blackhawk farms, and buy it.  It was raining and a bit dark, difficult get a good look at this truck i already agreed to buy, etc...  It drove all the way there, i figured, probably good enough to go a little farther to my place, right?  Engine ran great on the way home, shifted perfect, clutch didn't slip, radio worked.  Bit noisy, the seller said (before buying it) that it sounded like an exhaust leak somewhere when you get on the gas. he never bothered to fix it.  It's not bad, my van has a hole the size of a golf ball in the exhaust so this is practically silent.

So I drive it home, go to bed, and wait for the dry morning.  then I finally got looking it over and realized it's waaaaaaay too nice for an old rust belt truck.

Not saying it's like new, but most trucks here turn into swiss cheese in 10 years.  This one ain't half bad.

lots of rock chips in the hood, and rust in the typical places

Both fuel doors rusted right here.  Both fuel doors on my e150 rusted there, too.  Must be a common thing, 4 out of 4 fuel doors rusty like that.  Consistency, I like it.

Looks like it never got the tar undercoating my van did, but nothing critical underneath looked bad

Except the exhaust. The rear most exhaust hanger is broken, this bit here is strapped together, and there is potentially a manifold crack or gasket leaking.  sounds fine at idle but under acceleration it makes a bit of noise.  

The engine runs exactly like you'd expect a 115k mile windsor engine to run.  zero issues. No nocking, no missing, starts right up, fair power but nothing great.  Coolant looks great, oil looks like it needs to be changed.

I'm going to assume the oil is from the owner before this guy had it.  He said he ended up securing sponsorship and transport for his bike racing thing and ended up not using this truck, so it sat.  That's why he's selling it.  

On a related note, he gave me this with the truck:

supposedly it's an unopened ready ramp.  It's like a tailgate extender thing that also doubles as a ramp to get bikes and stuff into the back.

The interior is in good shape:

You'll see a brake controller there through the steering wheel.  Looks exactly like the one on my van.

Chipped windshield.  He said the guy before him had it stabilized and decided not to replace the windshield.  He then proceeded to not replace the windshield.  I probably won't either unless I end up having issues.

Oh yeah, and one side of the front bumper is a little twisted:

So here's the plan:  This thing is very close to looking really good.  I want to push it just that little bit farther into looking nice, fix a couple minor issues, and then keep it decent as I DD it for what i expect will be the next couple years.  So far the only rust repairs i have done are on the van, and they have involved fitting patches and butt welding them on, then attempting to smooth the weld seam down so it looks as perfect as possible in steel.  That's not going to happen on this truck.  I'm thinking of experimenting with the typical methods, like por-15 and white paint. I may not even patch the holes with new steel, just stop the rust from spreading. 

I want the exhaust to not be hanging off, and if possible, not leaking.  Pretty sure this thing could use a good cleaning inside and out, maybe test out my buffer that has been sitting in a box for 3 years.  Also the rear tank supposedly has very old gas in it.  I'll want to siphon that empty for mower/wifes car fuel and then clean it.  2 usable tanks are better than 1.  Also the fuel gauge doesn't work.  He didn't know why.  i'm interested to find out because i'm pretty sure my van has the same 2 tank set up and the fuel gauge doesn't work on that either...

I want to do a couple visual mods.  Not the typical truck stuff, no ride height or mudding tires or anything.  For some reason I want to go full old-man on this.  Mud flaps, white wall tires, (the tires are mis matched and could stand to be replaced before winter), blanket covering the bench seat, one of these wind deflector things on the hood:

That whole deal.  Not the topper, though, i want minimum $$ invested.  I have a kid across the street with a jacked up diesel truck and big, yet low profile knobby tires.  I'd like to add a visual counterpoint to this neighborhood   If any of you old guys have suggestions for prime old-man truck features, let me know.  I'm very interested.  

My first observation driving this thing is that every truck should have a crawler gear.  The reason I wanted this set up is because the ZF tranny is supposed to be pretty tough, but 1st gear is a crawler.  I figure it would help getting moving in the future while towing a car trailer or something.  It's basically too low to use as first gear.  12mph and the engine screams.  Don't know why, but I like it.  I also take off in 2nd, the engine doesn't seem to have any issues with that in a totally empty truck.  

Not going to do any engine mods until the future when it's going into the van, but the 351 block is supposedly MUCH beefier than the 302 block in my van.  Well, it's not like it's invincible, more like the 302 block is basically made of glass.  I don't know if this 351 is speed density or MAF, dont' know if its roller rocker (found some sources saying 93, others 94 for roller rocker), but I don't care.  It runs great and it'll be fine for truck stuff.

And the brakes seem good but the bedal pumps a bit.  Something is warped somewhere, but it stops good and stops straight, no brake noises.

On the engine.   I think you mean "roller cam" and not roller rocker.  The mid 90's blocks were updated for roller cams and the late 5.8's did get roller cams.

I don't believe that your year got the cam but the block could be.  You should have to check the part number to be sure.

I had a 5.8 in a van (E250) and I have a few parts I can send you. E-mail me direct if interested.

The engine needs first a cam, (Flat tapper or roller depending on the block)  roller rockers, headers, and last, better heads!

The cast iron GT40 or GT40P's will do nicely. Don't cam for high HP but for torque. The intake is the main restriction and if you intend to put this motor in your van the only FI intake that is listed as fitting is  the the stock OEM. No aftermarket FI intake will fit without mods to the vehicle.

I've heard the heads, Intake manifold, exhaust manifold, exhaust, cam, and airbox all suck on these.  Replacing any of them releases gobs of power.  Who knew changing the whole engine out for speed parts would make it faster? 

I'm not changing any of them at the moment, but when it makes it's way to the van I'll do all the things to it. The only thing I might do before then is convert it to megasquirt in preparation of the swap, and to get accustomed to tuning it before then.  I might also take the headers from the van and put them on the truck.  I think they are ford racing shorty headers, maybe some other company.  The van certainly isnt using them, not as it sits sans front end, and one of the manifolds on the truck is leaking anyway.  Did a decent amount to the truck today between paint coats on my little jeep, pics incoming.

Did some stuff yesterday.  First off, the bumper hanging off.  Looks like the bracket underneath is slightly bent, but i can fix that easy.

Not as bad, though i'll need 2 jacks to really get it bent back up where it should be.  Crank one side up seems to lower the other, but this is better on average than before.

Next up, the exhaust tip hanging off.

Looks like the hangers are rotten.  I don't quite have the right kind of steel for this, but I have these:

Washing machine struts.  I'll use the shaft out of the middle.  These are junk ones i took off a customers washing machine, they just haven't made it from the work truck to the trash can yet.

Good enough for a short term fix.  I couldn't get the old hanger out of the rubber thing, so i left it there to locate the exhaust while i bent these up.  No more hanging exhaust for me.  For now.  Not sure how long these will last, but better than nothing.

Next up, cleaning the bed:

Well look at that, a hitch!  pretty neat, it folds into the bed.  Now all the towing company stickers make sense.  Also the brake controller

once the leaves and junk were hosed out, i saw the bed is beat up and has surface rust, but no rot that I could find.  Pretty awesome.  Here's the worst part:

Still not bad at all.

Next up, fuel door removed:

Hosed out:

I'll deal with this later:

Stickers removed:

I don't have anything against the illinois sheriffs association, the NRA, or KTowing, but i'm not a member of any of those organizations.  I slapped this magnet on the back, however:

Then i took it off.  I need that magnet for my fridge, it's semi-load bearing.

For the fuel door, its about the only huge rust spot here with serious rust-through.  both doors are like that, so i'm going to tackle them differently and see what happens over the winter.  This one won't be much different from how I do the van patches, just quicker and dirtier.  

cut out the rust, did some cleanup

Patch that doesn't quite fill the gap, welded in slightly below surface level

inside and outside ground down and sealed

gave it a while to dry, put some filler over the hole which is now curing, then i'll sand it flat and paint it white.  I hope by removing all the rust, the filler and paint (rustoleum) will be enough to keep it from rusting again.  The filler won't be more than 1/8" thick at the worst spot.  Doing it this way felt like nothing, the van patches are WAY more time consuming.  Not just because they are bigger, but because i'm trying to fit the patch perfectly and butt weld it together level, etc...  Taking my time with that, not this.  This is mostly experimenting with faster methods.  Don't know how i'll approach the rear gas door, but i want to try something different.  Most of the body rust on this will just get ground down to steel, primered, and painted, not going to mess with patches and filler and grinding, etc... just rust removal and rust stopping.  

Speaking of rust, climbing around underneath I saw some more rusty, rusty spots, but nothing visible and nothing that will kill the truck prematurely.  If i saw that on my van, i would fix it, but i'm just leaving it as is.  Anyone have tips for stopping that spreading?  wire brush and drench in rustoleum?  Someone on this board said they buy a can of rustoleum, not the spray, then cut it 50/50 with acetone or something, then let it run down into all the rust to seal it off.  Still a good idea? run motor oil into the rust? dont' need to fix it, just want it to stop or slow the spreading.  

OK lengthy dry times and all that, i think it's done.  Filler applied, left to cure for a long time, sanded:

Paint and primer, multiple coats (still not dry enough to put on the truck)

Happy with how that turned out, though now it's easily the shiniest part of the whole truck.  Any attempt to sand it would make it even shinier, but i'm happy leaving it this way.  Maybe wait a while and wax it and leave it at that.  No idea how i'm going to attempt the rear gas door fix, would like to try a different approach.  Do some science, check it over after the winter and see whats better.

I like this vintage of F series truck. The 351 Windsor is a good foundation for a build.

not a ton happened recently.  I finished welding the floor patch on the van, painted my little jeep, realized i'll have to redo that, did some autocross, and fixed the other gas door:

I didn't do the patch differently, but i used different paint.  One is rustoleum enamel, the other is duplicolor lacquer.  I'm definitely going to use lacquer in the future, it came out with a much better surface finish.  We'll see how they do for rust prevention over winter, but there's no giant hole in them now, so that'll help.