Hackster's Autocross Track Day Truck (Garage Build)

[hackster]

Originally Posted by Jay Hilliard

I just went through the whole build and you did an awesome job on this truck. Sorry about the engine issues, but I love your perseverance.

Did you figure out your vibration issues?

Thanks Jay. Its a bummer about the engine, but not much I can do really. Pretty sure I had 2 vibrations, one in the engine and one in the driveline. Hoping I only have one in a few days and non next week =)

Well, motor showed up at Ford around 2 so I headed down there and picked it up. I was pleasantly surprised for once, Not only were all the parts there, on time and they loaded it up for me. They gave me a $300 in store credit after the purchase I was not expecting..

Not to mention the engine came with more parts than expected!! New intake, water pump, idler pulley, motor picking eyes that made our job so much easier. Also came with all the sensors on the engine proper.

Got it home and got it all unloaded....did I mention how nice those picking points were?



We then worked on transfering all of the parts onto the new engine, accessories, alternator, injectors, new Pilot bearing, transmission spacer plate, exhaust manifolds, flywheel, clutch and pressure plate. I also pulled the oil pressure switch and ran three quarts of fluid through my pre oiler setup. You could hear the oil making its way back to the oil pan, and pulling the fill cap you could see it running out of the timing gears and the cam. It was pretty neat actually. Rotated the crank shaft while pre oiling as well.



Might just make it to T Hill after all....if I don't it will not be from a lack of effort :woohoo:



Its about ready for the front clip to go back on. I need to swap on a couple of pigtails on the harness for a change in connector at the Cam Solenoid.



I should be pretty close to firing it up tomorrow night.

Sean

[SSLance]

[MSTSFabbed]

Saweeeeeet! Nicely Done! Just when all hope looked lost. Too bad I'm on the Right Coast and can't see this little miracle in action.

[Chad-1stGen]

Way to persevere. Hope to see you at Thunderhill.

Looks like it will be raining based on current forecast.

[Che70velle]

Woot Woot!!!!!!

Show that turd who's boss!!!!!

[hackster]

Originally Posted by Chad-1stGen

Way to persevere. Hope to see you at Thunderhill.

Looks like it will be raining based on current forecast.

I am so sick of the rain and I was really thinking that we would get out of it for a few days.

Originally Posted by Che70velle

Woot Woot!!!!!!

Show that turd who's boss!!!!!

Working on it!!

Made some good progress tonight. Have everything back together ready to start......Not too sure how I overlooked it but apparently this thing comes with a pan full of oil? Well, I did not check it first and added oil and ended up with a ton of oil in there. So I had to drain it all out and start over, guess I need to get more oil tomorrow and fire it up





You kind of have to laugh at this...at least its all I could do. That is a lot of oil.



Hope the weather stays dry and I can make it to cars and coffee or something saturday, maybe get the driveline vibration ironed out and get a few miles on it.

Sean

[Che70velle]

Yeah, the website says that engine comes with an 8 quart capacity pan...that's a lot of oil!
I'm really excited for you about this build!

[SSLance]

lol... That's a helluva lot better than starting it up with no oil in it!!

Does Ford break their crate engine in on a dyno before shipping them? Seems strange to me that it shipped with oil in it.

[grendel]

Nice.

Do I hear of a stroker out of the other motor in your future?

[hackster]

Probably not a stroker motor but maybe a built bottom end =)

Thanks everyone for the kind words and encouragement.

I was cautiosly optimistic last night. Made sure that this big girl had the right amount of oil in her.



Got the oil in and fired it up. First turn of the key. Lifters pumped up and I had oil pressure right away. Then my oil pressure sender on the dash went to 0 and EE which means error or no signal :-X16

Shut it off and checked the wiring and sender again, all good fired it up and same thing.

So I ran to the parts house and picked up a mechanical oil pressure guage, removed the factory sender and got this one in its place. Fired it up again and no issues with oil pressure, its a sender or Dakota Digital thing. Ill iron that out this week.

Got it up to temp and got the coolant all topped off and checked everything else out. All looks good.

First trip around the block and its nice and quiet.

Got inside the house about midnight and the shop was a pile of a mess. Weather was supposed to be ok and dry for the first time in what seems like months.

Got up at 5 and got back to work.

Worked on getting the new shifter extension built and installed and the new shift boot and ring glued up and installed. Turned out really good I think



Buttoned up a few things, got the new plates on, cleaned the windows and hit the road for the first real time ever.

Drove south of town a ways and hit the cars and coffee.



Was really interesting to hear people's thoughts an opinions on the truck. People would walk right past it, stop, come back, walk around it and then smile. Lots of people wanted to talk with me about about it. Made me feel good.

Found that 5th gear has an issue with the synchros, Ill have to deal with that but its going to have to wait till I get back. Ill have to deal with it, its not stopping me now.

Had a little noise in the frontend, came home and found that there is a lower balljoint that is pretty trashed so I need to swap that out as well.

Other than that, the truck is pretty awesome, the manual and three pedals is just so refreshing and very, very fun to drive.

Got almost 75 miles on it today without a hiccup from the engine.

Order more parts today.

Sean