Picking up new family member today.....:)

[5.0Flareside]

Just make sure to run valvoline synthetic or else ill never think of you the same..

But a motorcraft filter..


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[SuperCab]

Curious, is the Valvoline a group 3 or group 4 synthetic? Many "synthetics" are only a group 3 base... Mobil1 and Amsoil are both group 4 base full synthetics...

 

[fatherdoug]

You see quite a few of them on e-bay, although I wonder if it will get the 37's all the way off the ground....

 

[5.0Flareside]

It's a mixture of group 3 and group 4


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[460Trucker]

Hey Ken! Real nice dentside you picked up! Absolutely beautiful and I love that grey and black two tone. Huge congrats on the buy!

 

[80f150]

Awesome looking truck

 

[fatherdoug]

Ken, I am curious about what kind of tires you have on the truck, and how noisy they were on the trip home.

 

[LEB Ben]

Congrats Ken...saw pics that Austin posted...can't wait to hear your feedback.

On the truck...not Austin.

 

[taxreliever]

Just make sure to run valvoline synthetic or else ill never think of you the same..

But a motorcraft filter..


Sent from my iPhone 4 using Ford Power

Hey Ken! Real nice dentside you picked up! Absolutely beautiful and I love that grey and black two tone. Huge congrats on the buy!

Mike thanks!!! The two tone got my wife and I also...we absolutely love it and it's different where our 77 is just a solid red all over.

Awesome looking truck

Thanks.

 

[taxreliever]

Ken, I am curious about what kind of tires you have on the truck, and how noisy they were on the trip home.

They're 37's and the noise wasn't bad at all....it sits high enough off the ground where the noise wasn't bad.

I'll check the brand name today and post.

Congrats Ken...saw pics that Austin posted...can't wait to hear your feedback.

On the truck...not Austin.

Will do...working on it now Ben.

 

[taxreliever]

Plane couldn't land because of weather. ....rerouted us to Birmingham then eventually back to Atlanta and I literally just got here......nightmare.

Good news....Austin is picking me up to take me the rest of the way!

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Wednesday, the airplane Gods would not allow us to get a plane into Columbia SC!!!

Unbelievable....after being rerouted, delayed umpteen times, Atlanta being grounded by the FAA twice while we were on the tarmac getting ready to take off.......we were finally able to leave Birmingham (the airport where we were rerouted to in the first place) to Atlanta.....got to Atlanta late afternoon around 4ish and the only way they could have gotten me to Columbia was to send me to Charlotte, then back down to Columbia, but guess what, the Charlotte flight was delayed and that meant missing my late night flight to Columbia.

I had 3 options:

1) try to stick with the airplanes and eventually get to Columbia (estimated time would have been Thursday night, which meant I would not have been able to pick up the truck till Friday morning)

2) rent a car in Atlanta for a one-way trip to Columbia and spend huge money transferring a rental car from state to state, but would have gotten me to Columbia Thursday morning in time to do the deal

3) get Austin to hook me up which he did......he drove 3 hours out of his way to pick me up at the airport, then another 8 hours out of his way to drop me off in front of this rig....literally! This was the way to go....I actually got some decent sleep.....had a great sit down meal and conversation at a local restaurant (Bison Burger...Mmmmmmm!), and was able to have great company driving 4 hours to Columbia in the Mark - very nice ride!

 

[LEB Ben]

Meh...Austin is ok...I guess. I just get weirded out every time we meet, because he starts off playing footsies at dinner with me, then starts rubbing my shoulders and breathing heavy.

 

[Austin]

Meh...Austin is ok...I guess. I just get weirded out every time we meet, because he starts off playing footsies at dinner with me, then starts rubbing my shoulders and breathing heavy.

Just remember, every time we've gone out somewhere Bailee has been with us.

 

[taxreliever]

Was finally on the road late Thursday morning....I was so itching to just start heading north, I did not keep track of MPG's until I was well on my way....I literally gassed up and took off north.

My first business was to find a Wallyworld to pick up some supplies.....fruits, nuts, tools, oil, stepladder, etc.

I found one on route and was stocked up and ready to roll on.

Issues I had with the truck on the drive:

-Rear view mirror fell off..... So, I made the rest of the trip with just my 2 door mirrors, which wasn't too bad. Need Austin's help on how to put this back on.....the couple over the counter I've tried at local auto parts stores with the bump was a pain in the ARS!!! Or if anyone else has some experience on this.

-this scared me: about every 20-30 miles or so, a good sized puff of gray smoke would trail the rig. I wasn't even sure where it was coming from and at first I thought it was the brakes or tires.....but after the second time, it didn't smell like tire burning.....it kept happening until I went through an entire tank of gas and then boom.....nothing for 1500 miles to home.....the first 300+ miles, it went through about 5 quarts of oil and 1 quart of tranny fluid. Austin and I surmised that the engine was breaking itself in from the rebuild 2 years ago and getting rid of gunk from not being used.....maybe some old gas.....maybe some build up in the carb.....things like that.....according to the PO, the rebuild was completed 2 years ago and it hardly ran after and basically sat in a garage. Because it ran as good I'd seen any vehicle I've own ran for the rest of the trip, regardless of whether, hills, etc.....what a freakin beast.

-brakes seem a little less than what I'm used to in my 77....had to really push a decent amount to stop this baby....I checked the fluids and it's full, so not sure what's up there....nothing bad, just would've like better stopping power. Maybe some of you fellas can chyme in on this one for me.

-the middle aftermarket guage for the voltage would intermittently work, then not work.....while the two guages around it never faulted....thinking a losse wire.

-AC worked fine....nice to have....needs a recharge. I did notice a decent voltage drop when using the AC....it wasn't much different then when I use the AC in my 77....I'm guessing the motor blowers take up a lot of juice.

-Transmission shifted perfect every time.

-Never started hard.....always cranked right up. Idle was always around 900+/-.

-Power and acceleration impressed me the most....it rivals the horses (from feel anyways) in my 77 and blew me away 1) when entering the interstate from an on-ramp and 2) climbing the mountains.....I know it's geared low, but never downshifted and the beast just climbed those mountains without hesitation and even accelerated on command if I wanted to increase speed while climbing.

I noticed during the day (it was 90 degrees or so) and driving through the mountains, the temp increased about 20 degrees or so, but I think that's normal, right?

-Not a single drop of fluid anywhere as I looked at each fill up......no sprays or any type of wetness of any fluid anywhere on this rig at all....that also amazed me.

-The MPG's surprised me also.....going cross country in my 77, we averaged around 9 and then on our final stretch, it climbed to about 12-13 as we put the much larger tires on the last few states we drove in whereas, I drove the entire route with the 37's on this 79. My last 4 fill ups averaged over 11 MPG's....which really made me smile.....felt like I was driving a hybrid!

-The new bench seats were extremely comfortable even with the stiff suspension.....was only a tad uncomfortable in some stretches in PA where the roads were horrible, but for the most part, the entire trip was comfortable.

-That tool box in the back is awesome...they didn't go cheap on that baby and was great for all my tools, ladder, storage, etc.

 

[taxreliever]

We had literally just finished the paperwork, temp tags, and went to the nearest gas station not even a mile away from where the PO kept this rig at his shop.

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Nice!!! Is it everything you were hoping for so far?

Yes, and then some! As I've stated before, the pictures did not do the exterior of this rig justice.......and certainly could not speak for the mechanical soundness of it.

 

[taxreliever]

There's the 3 aftermarket guages I was talking about....the voltage one in the middle was going in and out.....but the one in the original instrument panel is still reliable, right?

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[taxreliever]

This picture was taken after crossing into VA and hitting 81, which 77 had been pretty flat up until this point......moutains were awesome and where I started to really gain respect for this rebuilt 400!

The step ladder was necessary to regularly check fluids without me having to climb up into the engine bay and risk burning myself or falling over

She's going through some oil.....going thr VA mtns....all I can say is WOW. Pretty wild.

Temp increased about 20 degrees which may be why she went thr more oil.

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[taxreliever]

Cannot wait to get some shots of those two rigs sitting side by side!

That fawker is going to look tits sitting next to your other one!! Congrats on the truck and it is about time you put up some pics.

Your giving me the damn itch to get back to work on the supercab!!

 

[taxreliever]

Still in VA at this point....that one long haul through the mountains on 81 never seemed to end...was pretty driving through it though.

That cam locker was awesome...had a lock and key to boot.....was not cheap and worked awesome. Gave me more room in the cab for sure.

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[taxreliever]

As you can see, I just crossed over into WVA which is only a few hours from Randy and the MD and PA boarders.....had to pull over and stretch my legs a little.....it was getting dark and this is still Thursday night, so making good time on the road......I saw tons of fireworks displays this night as I was driving...pretty wild.

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