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Jumbo - 97 F350 Project Truck

Thanks Charlie... so I have to ask is it Charlie or Charles?
 

dustybumpers

don't play well w others
Charlie.

And dustybumpers was a cat years ago. as a kitten he went under the couch in the house we got him from and came out as a dusty mess. My wife ask if he was a boy or girl. I turned him backside toward her, and she said BUMPERS. Yeah, he was a boy
Was a cool cat. blue eyes, mancoon. huge.
 
I'm Charles. And unfortunately allergic to cats.
 
Hmm.. just one problem with version 1, I can only get partial release of the clutch. Not even close to enough movement to get close to the clutch brake. After some head scratching, I found that Ford does not use the complete travel of the master clutch cylinder (about 1.6 inches), instead the system only uses about 1.20 inches of travel. This translated into a slave movement of about 0.5 inches where I was expecting about 0.75 inches of movement. For reference the master cylinder bore is 0.875 inches in diameter and the slave cylinder bore diameter is 1.25 inches. At this point I had two options. One – move the slave cylinder linkage closer to the pivot (costing mechanical efficiency and it puts lot of stress on the pivot). Two – find a different slave with a smaller bore for a longer travel. After a bit of looking around I settled on the slave cylinder out of a 2002 F350 with the 7.3. The new slave has a bore of 21 mm or about 0.827 inches which gives a stroke of 1.36 inches with the original master cylinder. So still not enough stroke for a direct push, but the longer stroke of the new slave did allow me to move it connection point farther from the pivot and still get the needed 2.2 inch push distance.
Rto6610 new slave 1.jpgRto6610 new slave 2.jpgRto6610 new slave 3.jpg
 
With all the cutting I did to fit the clutch linkage, I had to come up with a new cover to fit over the hole in the side of the transmission tunnel. Lots of pounding, a bunch of cutting, a bit of welding and here is the new hump. I tried to give it as much clearance from the gas petal as possible.
Rto6610 cover R.jpg
As there is no air compressor on board I found someone locally selling a Viair compressor setup and I was able to get a tank and twin compressors for a Ben Franklin. Unfortunately, a year later both compressors gave up the ghost. One scored the piston walls and would now longer compress air which the other decided on a fiery death by burning up the rotor coils. Right now I just have a big air tank in the truck bed that I fill up once a week or so.
Rto6610 compressor R.jpg
There were several holes in the bed from the previous owner through which I ran the power and air lines. The transmission does leak some air. At some point when I come up with a more permanent solution to the air compressor that mounts the tank under the bed I'll add a 12v solenoid valve between the tank and transmission to help reduce the losses.

At this point I have been driving on this setup for 2 years. I have now driven 20k miles with the RTO-6610. 2 years later and I still need to finish the linkage to the transfer case. Yep which means right now I have 2 wheel high or 4 wheel low as the only 2 stable options. I'd like to get the 2 wheel and 4 wheel drive positions working (and then later I’ll figure out how to manage the transfer case neutral and 4 wheel low shift points). As for fuel mileage.. During the summers I have averaged around 19.5 to 20 MPG. For reference, I was averaging 20.5 or so before the swap. And here's the beast just after I got it all (mostly) put back together (Pic was taken mid January 2019..... and yes the swap was done outside).
Rto6610 first move R.jpg
The first time driving the truck after the swap was baptism by fire :). I'm sure I had more than a few drivers behind me wondering what in $%& was up with the old ford in front of them. So here I am 2 years and 2 months later. In August 2019 I purchased a 8k rated forklift that weighed in at 13000#, add the trailer's 6200# and my gross weight was 27400#. Sure was slick pulling the forklift home with the 10 speed - never had to hunt for a gear. Engine power was still stock and I hadn't yet installed an intercooler.
AC Forklift.jpg
 
Thanks Doc! Now that I have the hang of driving it again... it is a lot of fun to drive. Clutch is heavy, but I have recently become aware of the existence of an air over hydraulic clutch slave cylinder. If there are any heavy duty diesel mechanics out there that have information on the air over hydraulic slave I'd love to hear it.

Cj
 

dustybumpers

don't play well w others
Having driven an air assist clutch i probably wouldn't go that way. It feels like your pushing in a marshmallow
When you let it out on semi cold to real cold days sometimes is an adventure
Only thing worse was the air starter.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
 
Interesting Charlie... Can the air pressure be adjusted for a firmer feel? I'll keep that in mind.
 

dustybumpers

don't play well w others
This was hardwired in. Probably a non adjustable regulator in there some where. Was a old crane with a 2 stick transmission
I bet if you could adjust it would maybe be better

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
 
What?? No one has any ideas on the assisted slave? Oh well.. I'll have to get friendly with the local semi pick and save yards I guess.

Well now that I have a serious transmission, it is time to upgrade the power. 420 ftlbs of torque just seems a bit lame with a transmission rated for 660 ftlbs (although the clutch is only rated to 650 ftlbs). It may be hearsay, but I have read that International had a HO tune on their version of the 7.3 (the mighty t444e) that put out 620 ftlbs of torque. If they can do it why can't I? Fortunately, the early 99s used the same turbo and intake manifolds. After finishing the transmission swap I started slowly gathering the parts to add an intercooler to the truck. And well last summer (2020) the water pump provided a perfect excuse (not that I needed one) to "upgrade" the truck some more. Water everywhere.
Air filter housing.jpg
Whats left of the old water pump. It appears that the bearing pack slipped forward over time. This caused the truck to chew up up the engine side rib on the serpentine belt. Also caused the pump to grind itself up.
Dead water pump.jpg
The movement of the bearing pack stretched the internal seal until it finally failed. I bent the pump impeller while pulling it apart.
Coolant pump 4.jpg
 
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heavydoc

Instigator
Staff member
1,994
70
WNC
Chewed up the inner belt rib??? Mine did that after a new cheapo tensioner. Replaced it with an actual dual pivoting tensioner and no more problem yet. But I would have never guessed a bearing problem, good find

The Southern President
 
Yes - as the pulley moved forward the edge of the belt would ride up on the side of the pulley which then tore it up. I'm now watching the placement of the belt on the pulley. If I start to see it move again I'll put a new pump in (after I come up with a way to keep the bearing pack from moving). Does the dual action tensioner require a different belt?
 

heavydoc

Instigator
Staff member
1,994
70
WNC
It would use the SD belt. Just a little modification to the tensioner mounting bracket too.

The Southern President
 

dustybumpers

don't play well w others
Check your balancer too. If it is coming apart it will ride crooked. Had that problem on 1 of my gas motors
Ate the rib off cheap belts, threw good belts off shortly after starting

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
 
When I got the truck the previous owner mentioned that it would shred belts. I took a close look at the belt path, but at the time didn't see anything obvious. And as the truck ran well and was in overall good shape i bought it. Balancer ran true.

Well back to the sordid tale of the leaking water pump. As I had to pull everything out to replace the water pump (I even pulled the radiator to give me more clearance and to avoid any fin bending), I thought I might as well get on with adding the intercooler. School was out and the wife didn't need the van to take kids anywhere so hi-ho-silver. After removing the entire front end of the truck.
No Grill.jpgNo lights.jpgNo anything.jpg
About the only part that stayed was the condenser coil (and that was because I didn't want the hassle of refreshing the A/C system). After looking around the local classifieds i found the complete setup.
Intercooler.jpg
And yes that is the spyder for a late 99, I previously found and purchased the spyder for an early 99.
 
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Hey FatherDoug,

Does a big hole saw get you excited like the sawzall? To fit the intercooler on the OBS a pair of cutouts are needed in the radiator support structure. First to get the rough location of the intercooler I placed it in front and leveled it about where I thought it would fit best.
Test fit.jpg
Now for the hole saw part... The 3.5 inch one isn't too bad. The board is a cute trick I learned from my old man who does fine wood working. Helps guide the saw when cutting on an edge.
3p5 inch hole.jpg3p5 inch hole1.jpg
However, the hole ended up being too small to allow the adjustment I needed to get the intercooler into the correct position. Hmmm... it looks like there is plenty of clearance - time to bust out the big guns errrrr saw. Lets try 4.25 inches... I have to say - it sure sucks when the 4.25 inch hole saw catches an edge and winds the drill up. OUCH hard on the wrists!
4p25 inch hole.jpg
Final test fit. So far it fits perfectly. Lots of wiggle room.
First fit.jpg
 
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