OttawaFFRer
06-12-2011, 07:34 PM
I'd love to show you all amazing pics of my progress since coming home but it's simply pathetic...
First the good:
1. My front suspension is almost installed, I finished grinding my front spindles to fit the adapter and hit them with a fresh coat of glossy black tonight, I should get those on tomorrow once I track down some new fasteners.
I had painted the spindles before realizing they weren't going to fit the adapter. That might have been in the donor portion of the manual but I'm not sure, other than spindles I'm not really doing a donor build.
--things I've learned: FFR spacers are nice but should be delivered in 1 foot lengths so we can cut to required. I wasn't happy with the result of grinding them down to fit so I purchased spacer washers.
2. Polishing Aluminum and sharkhide: LOL Oh my God what fun I had today! I decided I'd polish an F panel for the hell of it. Started with a polish/buff kit sold at Canuck Tire (I'm sure sears has the same one) in both an 18v dewalt and an air drill-->result-->not enough power or I'm not doing it right.
I had seen a video online of a guy polishing aluminum with an angle grinder, which I have a few of, so off I went to get the polish pad for that-->result, less work, quick, looked good-->picked up 2 different compounds also, a cut and a buff.
At the end of that I looked like a coal miner!
Finished it to be great on one side and good on the other, scratches.
Hit it with sharkhide-->cotton diaper around, NO. grabbed a dish cloth and away I went-->scratched the hell out of it.
Back to square one on that.
<<--------------------------------------->>
The BAD.
On my way back from picking up good old 7502 from Mass I noticed a loss of power and misfire in the old f150 4.6 mod powered. Normal enough to me, misfires in 4.6 on a rainy day is par for the course. It did get a bit worse once I hit a few hills, 4500 rpm for 5 minutes at a time. Seemed like I was down to firing on 6 cylinders for a bit there, which again, is normal for a 4.6 in a rainstorm (you should see how much performance can drop in slush), but we made it home.
The truck was running really bad ever since, swapped out 3 coil overs (didn't pull plugs at first because the engine was hot and pulling plugs on a hot 4.6 is begging for trouble), but not better. I could feel that the intake tube on number 3 was running hot, pulled the plug...melted. burnt through #3 intake valve and piston damage. 35lbs compression.
Guess who gets to do an engine swap this week in his spare time. I'd dump the truck but who would pick up all my neighbors stuff without it?
Advice required: aluminum polish, sharkhide application...and everything else!
If you want a bunch of pics of a terrible polish job, spacer washers, or just random photos of my front lawn, just ask...
Cheers,
Vic
First the good:
1. My front suspension is almost installed, I finished grinding my front spindles to fit the adapter and hit them with a fresh coat of glossy black tonight, I should get those on tomorrow once I track down some new fasteners.
I had painted the spindles before realizing they weren't going to fit the adapter. That might have been in the donor portion of the manual but I'm not sure, other than spindles I'm not really doing a donor build.
--things I've learned: FFR spacers are nice but should be delivered in 1 foot lengths so we can cut to required. I wasn't happy with the result of grinding them down to fit so I purchased spacer washers.
2. Polishing Aluminum and sharkhide: LOL Oh my God what fun I had today! I decided I'd polish an F panel for the hell of it. Started with a polish/buff kit sold at Canuck Tire (I'm sure sears has the same one) in both an 18v dewalt and an air drill-->result-->not enough power or I'm not doing it right.
I had seen a video online of a guy polishing aluminum with an angle grinder, which I have a few of, so off I went to get the polish pad for that-->result, less work, quick, looked good-->picked up 2 different compounds also, a cut and a buff.
At the end of that I looked like a coal miner!
Finished it to be great on one side and good on the other, scratches.
Hit it with sharkhide-->cotton diaper around, NO. grabbed a dish cloth and away I went-->scratched the hell out of it.
Back to square one on that.
<<--------------------------------------->>
The BAD.
On my way back from picking up good old 7502 from Mass I noticed a loss of power and misfire in the old f150 4.6 mod powered. Normal enough to me, misfires in 4.6 on a rainy day is par for the course. It did get a bit worse once I hit a few hills, 4500 rpm for 5 minutes at a time. Seemed like I was down to firing on 6 cylinders for a bit there, which again, is normal for a 4.6 in a rainstorm (you should see how much performance can drop in slush), but we made it home.
The truck was running really bad ever since, swapped out 3 coil overs (didn't pull plugs at first because the engine was hot and pulling plugs on a hot 4.6 is begging for trouble), but not better. I could feel that the intake tube on number 3 was running hot, pulled the plug...melted. burnt through #3 intake valve and piston damage. 35lbs compression.
Guess who gets to do an engine swap this week in his spare time. I'd dump the truck but who would pick up all my neighbors stuff without it?
Advice required: aluminum polish, sharkhide application...and everything else!
If you want a bunch of pics of a terrible polish job, spacer washers, or just random photos of my front lawn, just ask...
Cheers,
Vic