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Jumbo - 97 F350 Project Truck

dustybumpers

don't play well w others
Ooooooo. And I like those clamps!!!!!

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Charlie - the clamps are made by Kant Twist. They are available in a few different sizes up to 6 inch. You can get them at travers.com or the ripoff site - mscdirect.com. I use them to hold material while machining.

Cj
 

dustybumpers

don't play well w others
I'm going to buy a couple for trial purposes. I have the old skool antique wooden ones, and the c clamps. Also long snout vice grips. I'm betting those hold like nothing else.
 
So the intercooler piping from the 99+ trucks doesn't exact fit... so back to the old cut and weld trick. Cool side:
Cut 2 cool side.jpg
Hot side cuts. Had to add some sections of pipe.
Cuts Hot side.jpg
The core support had some existing holes that lined up nicely with with the intercooler so I machined some brackets for the upper support.
Top brackets.jpg
And made mounts for the lower support as well.
Lower mounts.jpg
These required drilling holes in the lower core support to mount.
 
Another day another post. Sorry - I was in the thick of the install and didn't take as many pictures as I should have. I was putting the intercooler in as the city was adding curb, gutter and sidewalk to the front of the house. I was under a bit a of a dead line to get the intercooler in and the truck moved before the construction crews poured the entry apron. The water pump was still not installed yet either. So with the mounts made installed the intercooler for the final time.
Intercooler installed.jpg
Piping installed.
Intercooler piping done.jpg
Grill mostly put back together.
Almost back together.jpg
While I was at it I figured it was time to put new battery cables in. The thicker wire is 4/0 and goes down to the starter, the slightly thinner stuff is 2/0 and is the cable that goes between the 2 batteries.
Wiring.jpg
The new wiring all hooked up.
Battery cables.jpg
By the time I had all the wiring done I only had the evening to get the truck moved or it would have been stuck for a week while the concrete hardened. I filled it up with distilled water and drove it out. Ran two more flushes through it before pouring in coolant. I think it was around 11:30 pm when I finally finished that night. Whewwww!
 
Thanks Jasperrc and 68F100,

It was a scramble that last day. And there are still a few loose ends. I need to upgrade the negative/ground wires to the batteries. I'd also like to upsize and reroute the positive wire coming off the alternator to the other battery. Now that warmer weather is mostly here I can get started. I'm looking at a KC turbo DIY balanced turbine/compresser wheel upgrade this summer as well. I'm thinking I'll go with a 1.00 A/R turbine housing.

As a side note: I'll have 250k miles on the truck on my drive home from work today.
 
Seems it has been a while without any updates... So EGTS. I not a fan of the Edge readers so I created my own. As a reminder I installed 2 K type thermo couples in the up pipes of my exhaust system when I put the transmission in. So here it is in the wire frying, bug smoking, and of course the "why in the &%&$&# isn't my code working???" phase. The blue squares in the left upper section on the proto board are K type thermocouple readers.
Thermocouple test1.jpgThermo test2.jpg
Well hard to have a bunch of loose wires in the cab and I really dislike point to point bread-boarding so I tried my hand at creating my own circuit boards. Sure looks nice in purple (the only color offered by the prototyping company).
Thermo Circuit.jpg
Adding parts:
Thermo Assem.jpg
All assembled:
Thermo Inside box.jpg
 
I really wish you could add more pictures at once...

Drat!! Made a wiring mistake in the board after all. And then realized I cut the wrong wire while trying to fix double drat!! But hey for a first try...
Thermo rework.jpg
I upgraded the display when I moved over to the finished board. I got one with a backlight so I can see it at night driving around. It also give me the ability to display up to 8 temperatures. I have the capacity to expand the reader to handle four thermocouples and four temperature sensitive resistors (white connectors on the front of the board).
Thermo Display.jpgThermo LCD.jpg
And here it is all boxed up with a pair of thermocouples plugged in.
Thermo Box.jpg
It has been really nice being able to see what the exhaust temps are. Especially towing the forklift to help a friend/coworker out when his kids bought some used metal working machinery from work. It was 107* the day I towed the forklift up to his place to drop it off. EGTs were steady around 1150* at 60 mph in 9th gear (direct drive) on the RTO6610. I still need to get a temperature sensor installed the transmission and another in the rear axle. The following morning I picked up the machinery (a bridgeport style mill and 2 maunal lathes - around 10k Lbs) and after work drove it all up to his place where we unloaded it (it was 105* that day).

Cj
 

dustybumpers

don't play well w others
Wow. Beautiful work. I like how that turned out

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Blue-Truck-Nut97

crank polisher
551
18
ALRIGHT!!!
WHICH ONE OF YOU TURNED ALL MY NOTIFICATIONS OFF?!?!?

Ha! Found you CJ. All this time I thought you were tired of starting new threads. Nice job, both on the truck and thread. I'm excited to see how your new temp monitor preforms, and where you stashed it in the truck.

Air assist clutch? Personal opinion is no thanks. Especially with the ceramic clutch disc. Every one I've ever driven was like stepping on a peach, little control, no feel. But again, haven't driven one made in recent decades.

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Hey Blue,

I'm wearing the in-cab pivots out (I replaced them with oil filled brass). Forces are a little too much. As such I can't grab the flywheel brake anymore which makes getting it in gear a grinding experience. My thought on the air assist slave is to install it with a pressure regulator. Then dial the regulator down to where it takes some of the load off the pivots.

Cj
 

dustybumpers

don't play well w others
What would happen if you machined the bushings out of hardened steel and put a grease zero in there?

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Charlie,

I plan on welding in some steel tubing on each end so that the bearings have more support. I hadn't thought of using zerks though, I'll have to keep that on in mind. I have noticed that the frame the supports the petals is flexing a bit as well. The hydraulic setup with the commercial clutch is definitely much stiffer than the stock setup. I twould be nice to reduce the amount of leg work...
 

dustybumpers

don't play well w others
Watch the firewall. Early trucks used to crack and break from clutch. They made a plate for them. I have it on 2 of my trucks

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Blue-Truck-Nut97

crank polisher
551
18
Charlie made a good suggestion there, or you could take a page out of KW's book and use a solid shaft with pillow block bearings. I'll get pics if you want for ideas, I think I have one here with the dash out you can see.

How about hydraulic assist? I'd think the power steering pump would handle it. I'd have no idea how to design such a system, but I believe it would be more controllable.

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Charlie - Based on my observations.... I don't think my firewall is a issue, but thanks for the reminder.

Jake - I have an air assist slave out of a Volvo semi that has been sitting on my desk for the last couple of months. I have dismantled it to figure out how it works.. Looks like the hydraulic clutch fluid pushes against a valve when it gets up to a certain pressure. Once the valve opens air is allowed to pressurize the "servo" side which then helps to reduce the petal effort. From what I can tell the servo slave does not have a minimum required air pressure to operate. It will run on zero pressure.

Cj
 

Blue-Truck-Nut97

crank polisher
551
18
Volvo parts make me nervous. They actually had problems with slave/master cylinders some years back as I recall, seems like I towed several that the clutch wouldn't release. Make sure you didn't get one of those somehow, and might make sure replacements are available before you make it fit.
I'm not saying don't do it, just thoughts on the matter.
Do they offer an EZ pedal clutch in your size?

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dustybumpers

don't play well w others
Like jake said, careful with Volvo parts. There is a reason most Volvo's and Mack's are now automatics.
My son has a fairly new tractor deadline because some clutch parts are unavailable
Same with his other truck. Front end parts are ordered, nonexistent

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