Projects 1965 F100 father and sons project

A freeze plug? May need a sealent?

 

Oh ya, think that might do it. The injectors had an O ring and the fuel rail had 3 shoulder bolts holding it in place. The sealant will be the extra grab it needs. Damn what was that, less than 10 min for an answer! Thanks.

 

Enough playing around with cool engine parts, back to the salt mines. At the risk of boring everyone with rust repair, this is partly for me and my kids to look back on. When something is bad on this truck you know there is another layer. Rusted original metal with rusted crap scabbed over it so removal and cleanup is more challenging. So, floor comes off and the sill support was so toast with 1/8" steel strapping scabbed over it, I had to look up what it should even look like. You can buy the supports but, another $100 in parts plus shipping and lead time, we'll just make them. Ran out of wire or I'd have more to show for the day. Roll #4.

 

Yesterday, kids were working, they both do cash at a local grocery store. Went to pick them up and I brought up completion schedule for the parade and one of them said something to the effect, that I need to get the truck done so I can flex. Given the main parenting tool in our house is sarcasm I'd say they are both pretty good at that. And yes, I need to flex!

 

About to order materials to make the intake plenum. Schedule 40 2-3/4" 6061 aluminum tube and .375" aluminum flat bar for the flange and ends. I don't have access to a milling machine so thinking I can drill, grind and work aluminum with typical hand tools. Watching @MRW1994 make emblems this might look a bit caveman comparatively. Oh well, will give it a go.

 

From all the stuff you've fabricated for this truck I know that intake is going to come out looking awesome!

 

Ha, ha. Well, my take on it is it'll have to look good because you and others on this site raise the bar. I tell young carpenters all the time, You're not building for Homeowners, you build for other carpenters. Thanks for giving me something to shoot for.

 

I’ve really enjoyed following along on your project. I’m looking forward to seeing your intake build. You can work aluminum with woodworking tools - just be sure to use carbide cutters and go slow.

 

Your timing couldn't be better with this comment as I was teetering. A fellow from work offered up the services of his neighbour, a machinist who does side work in his garage. I started thinking it would be a mistake to miss out on a major opportunity and also we would be veering off the plan to do a complete home build. We're going for it. Will get it welded by someone else though as material was $120 today and I'm struggling with welding right now for some reason. I'm going to make a gasket template then drill and tap the 3/8 plate and mount to the lower intake runner. I'll do all the machining to the plate including port matching before the tube gets welded to the plate. Once everything is welded I'll contour the mounting plate to match the intake for a more aesthetic look. Looking forward to building it.

 

Awesome! Looking forward to the pics of progress. Just remember to take it slow. Just like wood can kick back if you feed too quickly, the alum can too. Sounds like you know your way around woodworking so you can handle this, too.

 

Good tips and thanks for the reminder. I've had a few rounds with Aluminum in the past but, all flat stock or mitered cuts - nothing quite like the manifold. Funny story, I have a SawStop saw which I gave a clinic on to a couple of carpenters. We put an aluminum blade in it and made all the covers you need to protect yourself from the million missiles a table saw fires at you when cutting aluminum. I did the first cut with no gloves, removed 50 daggers from hands, then handed it off. I rose up to cult hero status with that cut alone.

 

Intake manifold layout. Have several designs emerging in my head for the mounting plate but, think the best plan is a 4" wide plate with thick wall pipe welded on. Cut a flat portion of the pipe to weld to the plate after. The end caps will be round so the end won't look like a flat tire when you look at it from the front of the truck.

 

Help please. Because of all the funky previous work I have lost reference bends and the patch panel floor is pretty vague with a curious curved edge. I'll put carpet in eventually but, it would be nice to get the bends in the right place so the carpet fits. Can someone look at their floor and tell me which line I should hit. The one I made at the panel edge or the one at the inner bend? A photo would work. Should it be straight with the raised seat floor profile or should it hit the corner of the raised seat then vector forward to the front.

 

The journey to the last post. Welds are looking more like dookey then previous. Changed cord, new wire which I think is the issue, Hobart 030 flux core. Used 3 rolls of Air Liquid 030 flux core and it was much better, semi acceptable. It could truly be me or this stuff is garbage, I hooked up jumper cables to get an extra ground, small improvement. Lots of poppin', shittin' and bangin' - Ghastly!

 

So, different brand of wire - different setup. Just did about 35 spot welds with different settings. Previous wire speed was 3-1/2, Hobart wire likes it better at 5 with same amperage setting. Different sound too. Frustrating spending so much time to do fab work to get marginal welds. Better though - not going backwards anymore. Need to get our quality up to hit the fenders or anything not covered up by carpet or go back to the brand I was using before.

 

Got the bend info for the floor. Thanks to Mike Lawless!

 

At the risk of slow playing this manifold I took a few minutes today and layed out the tube cut. Marked the centre line to avoid Barber poling the line using tried and trued carpenter methods then realized (hockey anology) I'm on a breakaway and I left my wingers behind. Will wait for them then dig into how I will make the cuts using a pinch jig etc. Gotta show my dudes how to do this. Photo with tube standing upright. The cut line is the outer shorter line. I'll sand to the 2nd line to get it flat and sized correctly.

 

There was a guy over on the FordSix forum that built an intake using the EFI bottom.
He put a divider in the middle to separate 1-3 from 4-6. (I would do do the same if I were building one based on past experience. But opinions on this vary). Much would depend on the carb orientation. The split design would require the carb be mounted with the throttle shaft in line with the engine.
Also, it would be a good idear to mock it up in the truck before finish welding. I think he had to modify his a bit because it hit the firewall. After all was said and done, he seems pretty happy with the result.

But Will, this is hot rodding at it's finest! Can't buy it? (Or like myself, too much of a tightwad to buy it?)
You are teaching your Wingers right! Build it!

 

Gotta love this site. When you start doubting yourself a bit you get a little pat on the head and you're all charged up to run hard again. Thanks!

Mike, I layed the intake down in the engine bay and saw the possible real estate conflict. I'll take your advise on the mockup and I like the idea of splitting the banks. I have a cool idea for how to do it too. You know, you now have to build one too ya tightwad! What will the experts at the local show say about it, early prototype piece or some hacker running amuck? Damn hotrodders!

 

Happy Friday!
Calculated the intake volume of our intake design using 2-7/8" O.D. pipe and got 235 ci. for the intake plenum volume including the lower efi volume (loose numbers). 300 ci eng x 0.75 = 225 ci. target ratio for normally aspirated motors. If I have the 240ci motor I would be at 0.979. If one were to push some atmosphere at one of these motors I've read you could go up to 1.5 for intake volume ratio over engine displacement. Think the volume I'm at should be fine. If I want more or less volume I can make another upper intake - very flexy.

 

Carpenters milling machine/pinch jig with adjustable guide, and yes, I amuse myself sometimes.

 

More errands today so didn't quite get the tube done. Little more fine tuning needed as it has an ever so slight amount of barber poling in it. Deliberately working a longer piece so I can cut it to length after mockup based on best fit. I like how it's coming together. I'll wait until it's mounted on the engine to cut and fit the carb mounting plate. Note the holding cleats for the belt sander, mounted to my holding jig. Normally when you scribe something you clamp your sander on it's back and a minute later you're up and running - no need for the exotic holder. Guess I've done that too many times because first squeeze of the trigger clamp I broke the handle off the sander. Makita belt sanders by comparison are dead flat on the back so they are tailer made for this but, of course that one is on a site. Not so much this sander - not sure why I would have even bought it but, it's working now. Free wood working advise!

 

Looks like you're on your way! Fun stuff

 

Looks like that cut came out really nice and is going to match up with your flat plate really good!

 

Thanks, cut came out acceptable. A milling machine would have been so much quicker and precision would have been better but, I can live with it.

Moratorium on rust repair today. Gets a bit old so to keep it fresh I spent the day on the intake. If I miss the deadline by a day I'll know where it was spent. Kind of blew port #3. Was getting tired and I missed my mark on the centre line, like a slow motion mistake. Will evaluate after blending and if I need a weld bead to fill back in I can get that done. I needed 7 stainless steel bolts, the supplier had 6. I'll use washers so bolts will essentially be flush to the plate. I can grind them flat if I need to.

 

Did you take the tube down with only the belt sander? That seems like a lot of work! I have used tablesaws and routers with carbide blades/bits with great success. I recently heard that if you soap the sandpaper (with bar soap) it helps reduce clogging. I haven’t tested this yet.

Intake looks like it is coming out great!

 

Thanks @brEad. I cut the tube first with an AL disk on a grinder using my hi-tech plywood milling machine with the adjustable guide. I touched up a bump with a flapper on a grinder then belted it to flat. Wasn't much sanding, maybe 40 minutes with 60 grit and that was more tuning to get it flat - no clogging. Hand drilled and tapped bolt holes. I spent more time waiting for batteries to charge than actual drilling. Clearanced three holes in the lower intake to allow bolt holes to line up but, otherwise fairly smooth. I used an 1 1/2 hole saw for the ports to allow for some misalignment then will die grind to port match. Plan is to tack together, mount, then cut for carb mount. Will bolt it to the lower intake for finish welding to avoid warping. For anyone considering a similar project, Aluminum makes it easy, I give it 2 out of 3 wrenches on the difficulty scale. Nothing hard just precision.

 

Just finished reading on another thread to always post full sized photos. Will go back through the thread and full size. Just a shot showing what we started with.

 

My eyes thank you, intake is cool.

 

X2 on the intake. Thanks for continuing to share your progress!