66 F100 project - 351 Cleveland EFI 4x4

[rubydist]

I picked up a non-running 1966 F100 a while back. It was pretty straight and not a lot of rust, but the engine was sitting in the bed. Supposedly, it had previously had a Cleveland in it, and this one had been rebuilt not too long ago so it was supposed to be a simple drop-in project.

[rubydist]

The engine was sitting on the dolly in such a way as I could not turn it over. As life tends to go for me, it was stuck. Even though the prior owner had it under a tarp, water had gotten in the exhaust ports (likely as snow) and rusted the bores enough that I could not turn it over. I was able to get it apart, only to discover that the block was already .040" over, so it was junk. The pistons also were junk but I was able to save the rods and crank.

The engine had previously been rebuilt shortly before its demise, but I found that whoever had done that had done a poor job - the heads had new valve guides, but they had not been sized properly, so the valves tended to stick open. One stuck open far enough to get bent... So I reamed the guides, bought a new valve and did a little lap job to clean everything back up. There was just a little carbon on some of the seats from the valves not wanting to shut properly.

I found a good stock bore block with virtually no ridge. So I reamed that about .001" and bought some forged pistons to make about 9.25:1 cr. New bearings, gaskets, lifters, cam (rv style), etc.

[rubydist]

The body was in pretty good shape for how these trucks tend to age - not much rust and pretty straight all together.

The right cab mount needed a little reinforcing on the bottom:



The left cab mount needed to be replaced, along with part of the driver's floor:
I used a cab mount from LMC (not real impressed with it, but it worked) and a piece of sheet steel for the inside floor.

[rubydist]

I originally bought the truck cheap enough that I thought I would drop in the engine and just sell it.

By now, I have enough time and money in the thing that I am starting to seriously consider keeping it. However, I if I keep it, I want it to be a 4x4 - a driver that I can drive in the snow if I want to.

So I started to research how to convert to 4x4. I looked at dropping the body onto a later model 4x4 frame (which has numerous advantages but the disadvantage of having to deal with the wheelbase difference issue) as well as other conversion options.

I discovered that the frame width at the front suspension cross-member is virtually identical on the 90s era F150 and Bronco, so that it would be possible to cut out the suspension cross-member from one of those frames and drop in the TTB front suspension.

So, I was looking for a 70s frame, or a later frame that I could either use or steal parts from. I found a 92 Bronco frame with axles and engine (no trans or t-case) that I got for almost nothing. In fact, I got more $$ from the parts I sold off it than what I spent for it, so it was my kind of opportunity!

I cut the front suspension cross-member out of it. Here is the first mark on the driver's side frame for where I would cut:



Here you can see the marks on both sides where I would cut:



Here is the Bronco cross-member after I got it removed:



This shot shows the Bronco part laying on the 66 frame to eyeball how I did at measuring and cutting:





You have likely all already seen a 66 frame with the cross-member removed:
Note that there are 2 holes in the top and 2 in the bottom of the frame on each side where the cross-member is bolted, as well as being welded in place.

[rubydist]

Here is the first shot of the Bronco cross-member sitting in the right location on the 66 frame:



Starting to get it locked in the exact location:





Welded and bolted in place:





The Bronco spring/shock support piece bolted right on just like it was made for it:



I needed to drop the height of the radius arm down to get the caster right. Rather than spend a bunch of $$ on the "lift" bracket, I made one of the same design:

[rubydist]

It turns out that the engine bay in the 90s era trucks is a few inches longer than in the 66, so I had to move the engine forward a inch or so compared to how it sat in the Bronco. I made some custom motor mounts to do that. I used the pan from a late 70s 351M/400 truck, with the rear sump, but moving it forward put the front of the pan too close for comfort to the cross-member. So, I cut out a piece of the radius and flipped it over and welded it back in - that provided enough clearance to ensure the pan would never encounter the cross-member.







The "new" truck was going to have power steering and quite possibly air conditioning, and I didn't like the idea of having 3 or more V-belts to make all that stuff run, so I decided to see if I could make a serpentine belt arrangement work. This requires the waterpump to run reverse rotation... I did some research and found others who said that it would work just fine that way, so I started experimenting with front brackets. Here is how it ended up:



I am using the alternator bracket from a Ranger and the power steering / a/c compressor bracket from the Bronco.

[rubydist]

By this time, I had decided that I have been pretty happy for the past 20+ years not having to screw with carbs, so I was researching how to put fuel injection on the Cleveland.

There are several choices. The simplest would be to utilize the efi from the Bronco 302, since I had nearly all of the wiring from the frame I had picked up. However, all of the obd1 truck systems used bank fuel injection (all 4 injectors on one bank fire at once) rather than sequential injection (one injector at a time fires, in time with the firing order of the engine), so the efi trucks have about the same economy as the carb'ed trucks. Plus, it is a little harder to tune the obd1, since you need to program and insert a chip, rather than just re-programming the pcm like you can on obd2.

There are several off-the-shelf kits to efi a Cleveland, but these are crazy expensive ($3k+) and they are more race-oriented anyway. Clearly out of my budget for this truck.

The other pretty simple choice is to utilize a late obd1 Mustang pcm or a Explorer 5.0 obd2 pcm. I set to searching for one of these. I found that the Mustang stuff is twice as expensive since Mustang guys are wanting it to upgrade their speed density pcm's on earlier Mustangs. I found an Explorer pcm and wiring for a good price before I found the Mustang one, so I am using the Explorer setup.

The Explorer pcm expects to see a 4R70W transmission, and that was fine with me, and I was able to get that from the same guy where I found the pcm and wiring. The Explorer has all wheel drive, so I substituted a manual-shift transfer case from a slightly older F150.

I used the stock transmission mount on this custom cross-member:



The t-case is pretty cozy in the frame, but it fits...

[rubydist]

The easiest way to get the fuel injected intake on the Cleveland is to use the Explorer GT40 intake with adapters to make it wide enough to fit the Cleveland. Price Motorsports makes a nice adapter setup, with a cast valley pan and a pair of machined and polished blocks that attach to the heads and to which the intake bolts:





Here it is with the intake on, belt on, and starting wiring: (you can see I found some shiny valve covers too)





I put the inner fenders and radiator support on so I could finish wiring:



I used a brake booster from a 70s era truck with some spacers on the front of the firewall to get the attachment point for the brake pedal in the right spot. I put a 92 Bronco master cylinder on there, since I had the Bronco front suspension and I used the Bronco proportioning valve between the mc and the rear brakes.

[rubydist]

Wiring a obd2 system into a vehicle that it was not intended for is a challenge... I spent about as many hours on the wiring as I did on the mechanical stuff, so that gives you an idea of the complexity of it. The obd2 pcm has a 104-pin connector, and all those wires need to go to the right place. (Fortunately, I have access to the Ford schematics, otherwise it likely would have been impossible.) About half of those wires go straight from the pcm to the engine, but that leaves about 50 wires that have to go to fuel pump, gauges, solenoids, etc. etc.

Here are just a couple shots of the wiring mess: This is the harness from the under-hood fuse box to the engine and to the cab.



This is the beginning of the inside-the-cab harness. I used a Focus interior fuse box that I found at the jy.



Another shot of the fuse box to engine and cab harness after it was partly cleaned up:



I decided I wanted a full set of gauges. I used VDO for this project, with an electric speedo that works off the vss from the trans. I used a piece of textured 3/16" black abs and cut it to fit in the stock bezel, and then made the cutouts for the gauges. I used some LEDs that I found on ebay for the various 'idiot' lights. They work fine except the 'alternator' light wants to glow all the time, as the LED will illuminate at a much lower voltage than the factory incandescent bulb - I need to play with the bias resistors on that a little to make it work like it should. There are 44 wires just to the gauges...

[rubydist]

Since the factory seat was junk, and since I like the high-back seats, I put a seat from a late 80s truck in it:





After much research and thought, I made a headliner out of textured frp and put that in. I didn't want to cut a hole in the dash for the stereo, so I made a housing that would fit overhead. I thought it would be too difficult to do the stereo and headliner all together in one piece, so I mounted the stereo housing to a couple of pieces of strap that I screwed to the cab brace. Then I cut a notch around it in the headliner piece and installed it. The light is from a Saab and it has map lights and a door light. It was in the front of the cab in the Saab, so the light is directed just about right.





Since my original sun visors were trash, I needed to replace them. I didn't like the idea of spending a ton of $$ for the tiny factory ones, so I looked around and found these from a Mark8 in the jy. They are modern, so they have the universal garage door opener and lighted mirrors in them. I made a little angled spacer so they sit at the right angle to function properly, and wired them up.

[rubydist]

I tuned it with SCT Pro Racer (which I have used before). The 351C likes a lot of spark advance, so the biggest thing I had to do was add a whole bunch of timing.

The Explorer pcm uses the 36-1 toothed wheel on the crank damper. The Cleveland is a 28 in-oz imbalance engine, while the Explorer 5.0 is a 50 in-oz imbalance, so one cannot just use the Explorer damper. I pulled the ring off an Explorer damper and made it fit on the Cleveland damper. Then I fabricated a mounting bracket for the crank sensor.

It runs good, has a ton of torque and the pcm is doing a pretty good job of controlling everything. I still have some fine-tuning to do on the tune, but its 90% done.


Here is how it looks today:





Aside from the obvious paint, it needs some rust repair yet in the tailgate, passenger door, and general straightening before its ready for paint. It also needs a couple of nasty rattles fixed and even more noise reduction. I plan to put a tonneau cover on it, paint the bed with bed protector paint, and eventually add air conditioning.

[65_Slick]

Cool build! Like the headliner idea, did you have any problems getting the curves in it without snapping?

[bruceandersson]

Great job! You obviously have a lot of patience to work through the wiring as well as the extensive fab work.

[rubydist]

Cool build! Like the headliner idea, did you have any problems getting the curves in it without snapping?

I didn't break any pieces of the frp, but was worried about it, so I only worked on it when it was above 80F outside, so it was hot in the cab and I was always soaked in sweat when I was done playing with it. The stuff is noticeably more flexible when warm, and I have no doubt that on a cooler day it would have snapped.

I haven't decided if I like it yet, frankly. It is too stark of white, and I am not confident of painting it due to potential adhesion issues. And, there is a nasty rattle overhead; I don't know if its from the plastic headliner or if the roof reinforcing brace is not tight to the roof skin and it bangs there. I am going to put some insulation up there and maybe shoot some Liquid Nails in the area were the skin and brace meet to try to ensure that is not moving...

I plan to put 3-point harnesses in it, but since that means removing the corner pieces, and they have the most bend in them, I think I will have to wait until next year to do that to make sure I don't break the plastic parts. (Even with it being hot, I had to pretty much push as hard as I could on the frp to get it flexed enough in the middle to get it in place.) The frp is a thermoset, which means that one cannot heat it up and have it hold a new shape, it always wants to go back to flat.

btw, the stereo enclosure is fiberglass that I made over a balsa wood form. I started out thinking I could form acrylic over the form, but the corners were too tight and it just wanted to buckle. So, I gave up on that and fiberglassed it. Then I painted that part with textured paint so it looked at least a little like the headliner.

[rubydist]

Great job! You obviously have a lot of patience to work through the wiring as well as the extensive fab work.

Thanks. The wiring of a obd2 system is not for the faint of heart. I am sure I have at least 150 hours into studying schematics and running wires.

Then, when I wired the instrument cluster, I used 3 connectors. And, I wired one of the connectors upside down on one side, so when I hooked it all up, only half of the dash stuff worked. That took another several hours of gnashing of teeth to get figured out and fixed... But its pretty close now. The biggest issue I have now is that the pcm does not see the vss signal, so the cruise control won't work. I need to sort through the harness again, as I likely have a bad crimp somewhere in there...

[Jarrod]

The front suspension is something I have kicked around in my head but never saw done.. I don't have the expertise to experiment. How is the ride? Is it a fairly straight forward swap?

[rubydist]

Since I am still on shakedown with the truck, I have not done any off-road stuff. Mostly just driving around town. It rides pretty similar to a F150 from the 90s, better than my 96 F250. The ttb suspension does not have a lot of travel, so if you want to do serious off-road stuff, its not the way to go.

There are only 2 areas of concern that I am going to watch carefully - first is that I did a good weld job on the cross-member and that the welds don't crack. I really don't expect any problem there, but its always smart to watch that. Of course, its bolted in as well, so its not going to fall apart.

The second is that I needed to trim back the top leg of the driver's side frame channel for the steering box to fit. That means the frame is somewhat less strong/stiff in that area, and potentially will flex when attempting to steer. That weakening is offset by the fact that the cross-member has that piece welded to the open side of the frame channel, which makes it stiffer. This is an area that I will watch closely, and if I feel its necessary I will add a cross-member in front of the steering box to tie the two frame rails together - that will certainly add any stiffness that may be needed.

I would say that it is fairly straightforward, about the same level of complexity as any other weld-in suspension swap. The hardest part is that the Bronco frame widens in front of the cross-member and the slick frame does not, so careful measuring and trimming of the cross-member is required to make it fit properly, especially the steering box part.