'71 F-250 Diesel conversion and more 01/10 starting back in

[Ranchero50]

Ok, here we go, been gathering bits and peices for the last six months since I had this truck given to me in exchange for a lot of labor on a '95 F-350 4x4 diesel. It's a well worn Bahama Blue '71 F250 longbed with power drum brakes, a 360 / 4sp setup with 4.10 rear gears. The truck runs great, but sucks fuel and is a bear to turn and barely stops with a load. In ten days, the 16th of August, I'm off for seven days straight and hope to have the truck in much better shape. In the shed I have a complete power steering and power disc brake setup and a 6.9l international diesel out of a '84 F-250 4x4 and a ZF 5 speed to swap out for the 360 / 4sp.

The current plan is to pop the bed and gut the cab to fix the heavy floor rust as well as get it out of the way for the motor swap / motor mount fab work. The 6.9 is painted Ford bright red with chromed valve covers. Pics will be forthcoming (once I find that dang USB cable...)

I just opened a photobucket account and hope to get the pics in the threads instead of links.



Jamie

[Ranchero50]

The link works and I found the USB cable down in the garage. Some pics of the 6.9 IDI motor. It's the little brother of the 7.3 and I'm aiming more towards economy at 75mph unloaded so the smaller displacement shouldn't hurt it.









The exhaust manifolds are hanging up getting painted high temp black. I'm really leaning toward making a set of longtubes for this thing because the manifolds are crap... 2" primaries about 42" long with a merge collector into 3" stainless should sound pretty righteous without mufflers. Maybe I'll just get it running first...

[theskytoucher]

Thats alot of red!!! But it looks good!!!!!

[rjewkes]

what'd you dip it in a vat of blood?

[Manny]

That is awesome i've thought of doing a id swap for the bumpside maybe i will wathc this one first.

[customcrewcab]

you need a banks kit

[Ranchero50]

Nah, Did a ATS on the '95 F350 and I don't like the way they route the exhaust much less put the turbo on top of the motor. I'm thinking hand fabricated long tube headers and long runner intake, something to get a torque peak down arond 2500rpm. I almost brought one of the exhaust manifolds in today to make a flange template, almost. The '84 F240 my buddy is running will smoke the tires in second rolling with a stock 6.9 with a new injector pump thats not turned up.

Jamie

[cghstrojan08]

So, how hard is it to do something like this? What do you do with all of the electrical stuff? I would love to put a diesel in my truck. Make your own mounts?

[Manny]

Nah, Did a ATS on the '95 F350 and I don't like the way they route the exhaust much less put the turbo on top of the motor. I'm thinking hand fabricated long tube headers and long runner intake, something to get a torque peak down arond 2500rpm. I almost brought one of the exhaust manifolds in today to make a flange template, almost. The '84 F240 my buddy is running will smoke the tires in second rolling with a stock 6.9 with a new injector pump thats not turned up.

Jamie

Yeah he's got it right ats is the way to go for those old engines. Pull two flyweight out of the governer in the injection pump then, tweak it just a little and time it up a nudge. She'll get er done.

[averagef250]

What does the 6.9 like for turbos? Can you run the abundant cummins HX35 or HX40? Seams to me a turbo'd be way easier than building diesel headers for way more power and economy.

I see blown up 6.9's with turbo kits for peanuts on craigslist regularly. A few hundred bucks will score a whole truck now and then.

Looks pretty cool and sounds like you've got a great plan!

[Ranchero50]

Yeah, the 6.9 uses 7/16 head bolts and they aren't the greatest for holding boost. Suggested limit is 10psi. The Ford 7.3 IDI turbo setup is a rebadged ATS setup and the manifold routing just plain sucks. I pulled the '95 7.3 IDI turbo setup out and put a '84 6.9 ATS motor in. Then installed the 7.3 turbo on the '89 F450 wrecker, had to lift the body 2" for exhaust pipe clearance. I'd rather avoid having the exhaust running right against the firewall. Figured I'd just make it as efficient as I can without boost.

I got the bed off last night, hope to flip it this evening and start on the sheetmetal, no pics, it was dark.

Jamie

[averagef250]

with a 10 PSI limit a turbo's pretty much pointless then.

That's a far cry from the cummins train of thought: put as much pressure to it as possible!

Although intercooled, 10 psi is alot more air and might make a good difference.

[MadMaxetc]

Can't wait for pictures!

[Ranchero50]

Woot Woot, got some pics tonight. Actually everything went pretty well. Last night I popped the bed off with some rigging line and the cherry picker. Did well until I realised my trailer wiring plug went through the bumper and had the wires soldered to the bed side wiring. Had to snip that. Once it was up and the truck was gone I slid the three wheeled dolly I rebuilt my ferguson on under it and set it down. Rolls nice but it's too flimsy to work on. Worked ten hours of overtime today, came home and popped the front clip off. Only broke two bolts (one core support and the passenger side fender door bolt). The bumper bolts even came out. FYI, Justice brothers JB80 is the snot for rusted bolts. Removed the radiator and slid the clip off. Plus it rained really hard so tomorow morning I'm going up in the mountains for the floor panel from the dentside in the junkyard with the torches and maybe an AC setup (won't catch the woods on fire). In the afternoon I plan on pulling the motor and bellhousing and sliding the diesel in to check for cab fitment issues before pulling it for floor and cab corner repairs. The camera has fresh batteries so I'll try to get some better pics in the daylight.

Naked rear, dummy at the muffler shop welded a bracket to the bed...


Front clip gone


Motor mount pics. The tape measure says the FE mounts are about three inches too far back. Didn't check the width with the motor in but I'm hoping to move the mounts to the front holes before sitting the 6.9



Oh yeah, here's the idea for the intake. The 6.9 uses a belly pan for an oil seal so I can fab a tunnel ram style intake. Saw this handbuilt upper on a early stang with a GT40 lower intake (EFI setup). Mine will be simliar just a whole lot longer like the old Max Wedge 413's Chrysler had

[averagef250]

That's a pretty cool intake. For a diesel it could get even wilder with no need to worry about a throttle. Maybe two KN cone filters right on the front of the plenums?

Keep up the good work!