1990 F-150 XLT Lariat

[tikitiki65]

You can also do a big brake upgrade on these like you can do to our panthers.
I believe you swap the spindles/rotors/calipers from an 04-07 Econoline E150. Details over on nloc:

http://www.nloc.net/vbforum/showthread.php/210296-Factory-Big-Brake-Kit

[His Royal Ghostliness]

The presence of fade knob on the radio does indeed suggest the unit came from a passenger car. In that case just run your wires to wherever you wanna put the speakers and you should be good.

The headlights dimmer switch on the floor can be replaced as a precautionary measure, they are cheap enough. I also strongly dislike the factory location of it, so by all means relocate it to where it fits you best. Do keep track of harness length tho, IIRC it allows to move it over a few inches forward and over inboard but that's about it.

Another switch that will give you trouble is the turn signal one, it's a quite stupid design that is rather annoying to replace, especially in a tilt-wheel steering column. Which by the way you probably do have, and its' the turn signal switch lever what actuates it - with the lever in its neutral position push it forward (it's got a rather uncomfortable feel to it, you'll think you're about to break it and that's actually not too far from the truth) and the springs should lift the wheel all the way up.

The coolant gurgling noises from the dash suggest you're low on coolant and thus you got air trapped in the core. Do a drain/vacuum/refill if the coolant looks questionable, or just lift the nose of the truck as high in the air as you reasonably can and top the radiator off, then run it till it thermostat opens, fill the overflow reservoir to the max level, then let the engine cool off and such the overflow tank almost dry and finally top off the radiator again and refill the overflow tank to its minimum level.

Switching tanks with ignition on also runs pumps so you'll have fuel to the engine. If you're not cranking the injectors won't let any of it into the cylinders tho, so you won't flood the cylinders, it will just flow thru the fuel rail and back to the tank.

The rust above the rear fender wells, yeah you gotta be concerned about it, that's a weak spot for these trucks (Superduties are even worse actually). If it gets too bad the whole sections will need to be cut off and new panels welded in, luckily those are cheap enough tho the work isn't.

[DerekTheGreat]

I love these trucks. Couldn't find one out west for cheap though. Dunno what happened to the prices. 8 Months ago things looked fine. We do our roadtrip, nothing.

[His Royal Ghostliness]

8 months ago was summer. Now it's winter, and plenty of the West gets snow as well. In the areas that don't get snow, older trucks in good condition that were cheap got bought up and taken south of the border. Hell be glad you're not looking for a non-electronic DT466, there's like maybe only 1000 of those left in the entire country, everything else got bought up and shipped off to other parts of the world where reliability and simplicity matter a whole lot more that high power output and supposedly lower emissions.

[DerekTheGreat]

Simplicity trumps for me. You don't need to go 80mph if your only concern is getting the job done. Plenty of gasser straight 6's did the job decades ago with lower power output. Gearing. Sure, may only be able to go 45 mph and it may take awhile to get there but that's still faster than your farm tractor So yeah, I think a DT466 is a diesel of sorts and if it's simple like ya say, it's got my approval

Yeah, I suppose that's what happened. But the prices are what really shocked us. What we once saw for $1,200-2,500 was now double or more. Looked in Oregon to plan next year's trip and that seems to be the ticket. Same types of trucks for the non shit your pants price.

[MattDoscher]

Anyway, Dave (my mechanic) mentioned something about the old early EFI 5.0 PCV valve causing a hole to be blown in one of the rear pistons or something, and the fix is relocating the PCV feed location on the intake to somewhere near the center. Does anyone know anything about this, should I be concerned?

Here is the PCV re-route recommendation from Jasper Engines that was done on my '91 Grand Marquis.

Matt

[His Royal Ghostliness]

DT466 is a 6-inline rattle box, yes, think of it as the 12-valve Cummins every bro and Ram fanboi loves but bigger and more powerful - it's typically used in medium-duty applications, which is a huge market in South America and Africa (trucks are big enough to haul a lot of shit, yet small enough to not get stuck too easy due to size and weight).

OR and WA is where you should be looking anyways for light trucks, CO too. Cali is hit or miss typically, AZ cooks paint and interiors, NM can be okay but avoid TX cause them people are nuts and tend to run their trucks hard and put them away wet. Avoid any and all farm trucks regardless of where they come from and how rust-free they may be unless you plan on an engine and possibly suspension rebuild - pre-OBD stuff doesn't keep track of its run time so low miles mean nothing, plus higher chance of the thing being overloaded on regular basis.

[His Royal Ghostliness]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]49317[/ATTACH]

Here is the PCV re-route recommendation from Jasper Engines that was done on my '91 Grand Marquis.

Hope you didn't drill and tap your upper manifold. The passenger-car manifold has a 3/8" port right in the main runner, after the EGR spacer and before the plenum opens up and splits in individual runners - meaning that from the factory the oil mist is distributed fairly even among the cylinders. Additionally the PCV valve itself is in the rear of the lower intake, and while there is a baffle under it there as well it is of a design that doesn't allow oil to simply pool in there.

So basically this is a truck/van-only issue, the box Panther-chassis cars don't suffer from it.

[DerekTheGreat]

DT466 is a 6-inline rattle box, yes, think of it as the 12-valve Cummins every bro and Ram fanboi loves but bigger and more powerful - it's typically used in medium-duty applications, which is a huge market in South America and Africa (trucks are big enough to haul a lot of shit, yet small enough to not get stuck too easy due to size and weight).

OR and WA is where you should be looking anyways for light trucks, CO too. Cali is hit or miss typically, AZ cooks paint and interiors, NM can be okay but avoid TX cause them people are nuts and tend to run their trucks hard and put them away wet. Avoid any and all farm trucks regardless of where they come from and how rust-free they may be unless you plan on an engine and possibly suspension rebuild - pre-OBD stuff doesn't keep track of its run time so low miles mean nothing, plus higher chance of the thing being overloaded on regular basis.

Bros and Ram fanbois..

Thanks for the tips on locales. Going to keep our eyes peeled. We'd really like another F250 with a straight six, preferably a 90 or 91 and with 4x4 & a full floater. When we had both the '92 and our K1500 together, Ash really liked the pep of the 350 compared to the straight six so she might take a 302 over the six but not sure if the truck motors chug oil like the panther ones. Every straight six Ford we've had (minus the one I bought that had blew a headgasket courtesy of the PO) has used 0 oil and I really like that about them. Plus I just like the sixes. Slow but good enough for what it's for in our case.

[sly]

+1 Texas runs trucks into the ground... HARD. Very rare to find a nice one for a decent price.