Betsy the B2300- Bluej's Build

Don’t know if you got with Michael on the possibility of dropping the C5 wheels in Charlotte. If it helps you only. 

I think I might have alread said this, but this is going to be awesome!

In reply to Stampie :

He had mentioned it, but this is probably easiest as a straight shot with no detours for me.

In reply to paranoid_android :

I sure hope so!

Charlotte is a fair bit off the route Chris is going to (I'm assuming) take.

Chris, what're the stars and bars about?

I'm going to drop some updates in here today on the backstory of Betsy. I need to organize those thoughts/pics for the build book, so might as well do it here. 

Thanks again for bringing down the i3 wheel for me!

In reply to bluej :

You've spotted my vintage 'murica folding chair!

In reply to dyintorace :

No problem!  At 20x5" it's one of the strangest automotive wheels I think I've ever seen.

So, what's in a name? In this case, a truck named Betsy? Well, that starts with my dad. He's a pretty awesome guy, in his signature low-key way. Instead of a dial that goes to 11, his tops out at about 8, and rarely goes above 6 anyway. That's just his speed. He's always there for everything for my brother and I, always involved in helping in the community we grew up in, and just a great husband and father. My brother and I know we're very lucky for that.

Here's Bluepop holding bluekid for the first time, his first grandchild. He's absolutely beside himself with joy in this pic (seriously).

When I was born my dad had an early 7th gen F150, an '80-'81 with the crap frame. It had to go when my brother came along in '88, and he needed more passenger space than a pickup. He missed having a truck that whole time, so the same year I graduated high school (2001), he bought an '01 ranger, complete base stripper (no AC!), which had been his first completely new vehicle since my brother and I entered the picture. It might have only been 4 figures before adding the taxes/title/bs, it was that basic. He drove it for over 15 years, commuting, homeowner hauls, and helping move my brother and I through an undergrad degree each, and lawschool for my brother.  He ended up selling it to a high school kid for $500 when our amazingly sympathetic family mechanic told him one October that he'd passed it for inspection for the last time.

Pics from the add selling the ranger:

By then they were about to sell the house we'd been in for 20 years, so that they could move to something smaller/cheaper/easier while they rode out the last few years before he retired. I had just gotten married, we were buying a house (GARAGE!), and I was thinking about his upcoming retirement. I kept feeling like he should have a truck again, and while I couldn't afford to buy something that made sense to just give him, I could start with something less, put some time and energy into it now that I had a decent space for it, and that it could end up a nice truck for him to just enjoy having. I made a thread about looking for the right vehicle: wtb-courierb-seriesluv5-720hilux 

The fact that I'd need to be starting with a challenge budget in mind for investment, made me obviously think of bringing whatever down for the challenge, and it's good to have a deadline. I ended up seeing a listing on CL for an '01 B2300 in a nice looking red with a nice cap I knew he'd like (bluepop's typical truck cargo is golfclubs..) for $500 all in with a blown motor. It also was a regular cab, short bed version, basically a slightly nicer version of Bluepop's old Ranger. What I could see from the pics were promising from a rest-of-truck-condition perspective, so the day after our big annual halloween party, I rented a uhaul dolley and went to get it from a retired firefighter in Frederick, MD.

This is one of the earliest pics I have of Betsy, early spring 2017 w/ sunny and the DC30 keeping her company:

That first year (2017), sometime not too long after that pic had been taken, I had to be honest with myself about the amount of work it would take to get a new engine in the truck, and get it to the challenge. I really wanted to do just a basic 4.8 or 5.3 swap. My dad knew I had bought Betsy, and eventually figured out the plan for giving it to him. He basically said to me that now that they were in an apartment for a while, with limited parking, and him already having a newer camry he got for a song from a family friend, that I should keep the truck, fix it up and use it for myself now that we have our own house. This made a lot of sense, and made me feel better when I pulled the plug on challenge plans for that year shortly after. After the push of organizing our wedding and buying a house the year before, I was hesitant to try and kick off a project that would require a big push the year after that. Bluewife is very supportive of my hobbies and pursuits, and while she would have carried on and dug in to help how she could, I just didn't want to put us both through that. She deserved a break, and taking some time to settle in a bit was good for us.

So why "Betsy"? Well, my dad always referred to whatever his vehicle at the time was as Betsy. You can hear it in your head: "C'mon, Betsy, lets just make it through this rain/snow/failing transmission/whatever.." I think the F150 was the original Betsy, and that's really who he thought of in his head when he said it. SO, obviously, my B2300 carries on the Betsy legacy.

Next post will start the early build goals and documentation.

In reply to bluej :

congrats!  Hope everyone's doing well.

Great story Josh, I never knew any of that!  Keep 'em coming!

By the time the sun comes up, Betsy and I will be on the road!

We wont be in until Thursday afternoon. So, look for me so you have a place. Unless you found better accommodation, in which case im happy for you!

I don't see rolling probable cause there.

Travel safe!

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

Picked up all the model rockets on the way for the rocket powered car. 

sleepyhead the buffalo said:

In reply to bluej :

congrats!  Hope everyone's doing well.

Thanks! We're a little stretched right now, but have help and everyone IS doing well. I'm ready for November when I'll only have a 2.5mo old and a time demanding job. Adding challenge prep and the over the top halloween house party we help throw every year, means I'm pooped.

bluej said:

sleepyhead the buffalo said:

In reply to bluej :

congrats!  Hope everyone's doing well.

Thanks! We're a little stretched right now, but have help and everyone IS doing well. I'm ready for November when I'll only have a 2.5mo old and a time demanding job. Adding challenge prep and the over the top halloween house party we help throw every year, means I'm pooped.

^^ he is even missing our rallycross doubleheader this weekend :(

Nowhere, VA.  Running well!

Made it to my destination for the night, a campground on Jekyll Island- no photos because it's too dark, I'll take some tomorrow.

Betsy seems to be doing just fine, although a little coolant did boil over a couple times when I stopped for fuel straight off the highway.  I think it's probably not a big deal but will definitely be keeping an eye on the cooling system.

I'm also pretty sure I passed a challenge team somewhere in the Carolinas, it was a minivan towing a Miata on a dolly.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

I'm also pretty sure I passed a challenge team somewhere in the Carolinas, it was a minivan towing a Miata on a dolly.

That’s us, as you determined in the other thread. Pretty sure my brother was driving at that point, his first time towing so not surprised that we were passed. Haha. See ya tomorrow!

Time to pack up, make a beach stop, then off to the hotel.

So why stay on a swampy Georgia island?

The aptly named Driftwood Beach:

I recognize that parking lot. 

Me, too. I have slight PTSD from a few sleepless nights wrenching there amidst the fire ants/rain in '08 and '13.

The previous build background post left us off at the end of 2017. I had acquired a donor silverado for a 4.8 motor and 4l60e from forum member Patrick, but ended up deciding  that wasn't the right direction, at least for now.  I was going to pull the motor/trans to put into something else, but after sitting for a while, I went to move it and heard a loud clang while attempting to start. Then there was a bunch of oil on the ground and it wouldn't turn over. I ended up just yanking a few parts off the motor (coils, cable throttle body, ecu) and scrapping as is.

Here’s everything sharing space while I was applying the coating to my garage floor:

At this point, the goals shifted to building something I could use sooner rather than later, and hopefully make fun to bang around in. I knew these were light as trucks go (low 3k lbs range), and remember enjoying that in my Dad’s old Ranger. I had also helped a friend install a Duratec 2.5 into his NC Miata not that long ago, so I was aware of that option. The more I looked into it, the more it made sense to start there as a base. There were low mile options all over the place for short money. So that’s what I did, pick up a 65k longblock out of a 2013 Fusion from an LKQ ebay listing for… $238. This was early in 2018. The goal became to get Betsy running, and keep it challenge eligible so that I could bring it down if schedule allowed. It ended up taking until early summer of 2019 to get the new motor in and running.

Here’s the new motor coming home:

Old motor coming out:

Hmm, that “access port” isn’t supposed to be there.

Might be able to repurpose that hole in the oil pan for a turbo drain (more on that later):

2.5 Duratec cleaned up ready to go in w/ all the Ranger accessories/bits on, or to come:

In!

So now it’s early summer 2019, and I’m starting to sort out some of the needs after attempting first start, like a new fuel pump. Bluewife and I had learned over the winter that we were expecting our first come August 16th. I knew that for me to have any chance at attending the challenge this year, I would need to be essentially done by then. Then the challenge dates changed to a weekend where I had a bunch of conflicts, so I pretty much wrote off attending this year. Sad face..

A week or two after that (June), my buddy Chris, better known as ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ around the GRM forums, was attending the same WDCR rallyx two-day event as I was. I first met Chris in 2014 over my first season of rallyx. That was the year he ran the gravel machinegun foxbody, and I was running the 325e e30, aka DC30, I had turbocharged as a last minute challenge build for 2013. After meeting Chris, and talking about the challenge and his other automotive interests, I basically insisted he needed to go down and check it out. Pretty sure he’s been every year since. So back to this June: I asked him if he was heading down this year, and if there was a PLB or other build he was planning to work on. He said no, and that he may just head down to hang out and have fun. Sometime over the evening, drinking beers with fiesty local female bartenders and dodging some serious thunderstoms, I got an idea. I’m sure you can see where this is heading.. I pitched to Chris that he could take Betsy down and back to compete with her in my place. He was into it, so we hashed out some basic details, and committed to connecting later in the summer.

I went home and committed to get Betsy up running, and passing DC emissions so it would be legal to drive for sorting and the trip down. This unfortunately ended up taking longer than hoped because the driveability of the truck sucked, despite tons of help from forum member Alfadriver (Eric), and his specific Ford knowledge to point me in the right direction. Eventually, I got it to pass emissions, and fully registered it.

We set a date for a build weekend in September for Chris to come down, crank on Saturday and Sunday AM with whomever could come help, and he’d head home to PA to sort for a month before heading down.  That's where this thread starts..