1994 Ford F250

This is my truck. It's not much of a looker...more of a "50 footer," really. Maybe I should call it the Blue Beater.

It's a 1994 Ford F-250 XLT. It has the 7.3L IDI Turbo diesel. Nope, it's not a Powerstroke...they only made this engine for two years ('93 and '94). It wasn't a real powerhouse, rated at 190 hp and 388 lb-ft of torque. I'm hoping to wring as much out of it as I can. It's also a 5 speed, 4x4. When I bought it, it already had Superwinch manual hubs installed and a tick under 95K on the odometer (although you wouldn't know it by looking at the undercarriage...it was pretty scary. I'm working on it.)

Interior...not much to look at at the moment. Only changes so far are the addition of the Autometer full pillar pod with Autometer Sport Comp pyrometer & boost gauge. Hoping to eventually replace the bench with bucket seats & a center console.

Stock engine bay...not much to look at. I didn't care for the stock intake setup very much.

ATS UPGRADE KIT

This is the ATS Upgrade kit I bought for the truck right after I got it. It's not cheap ($550) but it comes with a new turbine housing, 3" exhaust elbow, and 3" downpipe. It's one of the few mods actually available for this truck. In retrospect, after finding a 5-bolt, 3" V-band adapter on ebay for $50-ish (which I never saw prior to buying this kit) I may have been inclined to just buy the 3" downpipe and adapt it to that, but on the same token I didn't even try removing the stock elbow from the factory turbine housing (honestly- whose idea was it to use 5/16" 12-point headed bolts there?)

FYI for anyone curious (and I looked all over for this info): The stock turbo is a T3/T04B hybrid. That is, it has an H-trim T04B wheel in a .70 AR compressor housing, and a Stage III T3 turbine wheel in a .82 wastegated housing. Now that I'm running about 10 psi, I'm seriously thinking about swapping in some kind of T04E. A 60 trim compressor wheel looks ideal for this engine, and I think a slightly bigger turbine, say an O trim, would be beneficial as well. I've also got plans in the works for a front mount intercooler this spring/summer.

Also- I looked into possibly adapting a Powerstroke turbo because you can get them so cheap, and I even bought one to check it out. For anyone considering it- forget it, at least for a factory turbo truck. I thought I might be able to make it work, with the right turbine housing and some ingenuity, but it just ain't happening. The main problem is that Powerstroke turbos are reverse rotation- in other words a mirror image of 99% of the turbos out there, which would make it very difficult to install.

Now, there's a chance you could adapt one on a truck where the turbo pointed toward the driver's side like a PSD, but you still run into the fact that a Powerstroke turbo is HUGE- and it's made to produce a lot more boost than an IDI can normally run.

Seemed like it could be an interesting project, but I have to put the kibosh to it before even starting because I'm pretty sure it physically will not fit.

F LIPPED FILTER MOUNT

Took this while I had the turbo off the truck. I decided to pull it off to do the upgrade, as the turbo also needed some new bearings. It was a complete pain in the ass. You may also notice my "flipped" fuel filter mount, as shown in these pictures:

To make room for the intake I wanted to run, I decided to flip the fuel filter to the outside of the engine. It was actually pretty easy- I made a new mount out of 1/8"x1" angle which bolts to the stock fuel filter mount holes and braces to one of the bolts on the alternator. Then, I cut the factory hardlines with a tubing cutter and extended them with rubber fuel line. Because these lines see low pressure (8-10 psi) it's easy to do.

Turbo back on the truck.

4" CUSTOM INTAKE

Starting fabrication of the 4" intake. Had to snake it around a little to clear an injector line and everything else in the way.

Intake done! And it fit even better than I originally thought it would.

Intake tube finished & painted. I welded a small bracket to it to anchor the intake to the fuel filter mount, due to the engine vibrations. I also put a coating of JB Weld around the welds just to make sure there were no pinhole leaks (which is why it looks a little weird). I made this whole intake out of one 4" aluminized 90 degree mandrel bend (however I needed a straight section on the end to connect to the filter, had a bit left over from doing the exhaust).

Intake installed & everything back together. Looks pretty good, but the rest of the engine bay is pretty grubby.

STACKS

Towards the end of the summer I suddenly got the urge to install stacks. I got a deal on a bunch of 4" mandrel bends so I decided I wanted to build most of it myself rather than buying a kit.

Here's my splitter pipe-

And the whole assembly completed-

I don't really have any other pics of the setup. It's pretty much like your standard stacks kit, except that my splitter pipe is 4". I capped it off with 5" chrome turnout stacks, which you can of course see in the first couple pics.

STACK BAFFLES

When I finished the stacks, they were really loud so I built these baffles to go inside them.

A friend of mine with a machine shop cut out the discs for me, then I just tacked them to some 3" perforated tubing and welded square 3/8" nuts to the bottom. I'm using allen bolts as "set screws" and they hold these baffles in place very nicely.

I wrapped the baffles with a lot more steel wool than is shown in the pictures, and then capped the end. These quieted the truck down a lot, but I'm still having a hard time getting the kind of sound I want from the stacks (too much big block gasser sound) and I'm debating pulling them off in the spring in favor of a 4" dual exhaust out the rear sides of the bed. Not sure yet.

edit: As of 2/26/09, I officially removed the stacks in favor of a dump off the muffler, under the bed. Funny thing is, it sounds way better than it ever did through the stacks. I think I will put the tailpipe back on at some point and probably finish the dual exhaust idea I was thinking about.

WHEELS & TIRES

The new wheels and tires. I got an amazing deal on both- The wheels, I got on closeout from Discount Tire Direct awhile ago, for $271 shipped. The tires are actually retreads. I got them from a company called Tread Wright. These tires were only $111 each for a 285/75R16, and they really look like first quality work. I have been very happy with them so far, they balanced out perfectly.

Couple other things I have done with the truck---

TOOLBOX LIGHTS

I found some really nice lights for the toolbox.

I found these at Big Lots while I was poking around looking for something else. They swivel and rotate, have four LED's, and run off AA batteries.  I paid $13 for three of them and only used two, but these things are pretty awesome. They throw lots of light and are great for lighting up the toolbox or the bed. Plus, you can mount them with velcro and if you need light somewhere else, you can just pull the light off and take it with you.

AUTODIMMING REARVIEW MIRROR

My stock mirror would not stay "flipped" at night, for whatever reason, and it was driving me nuts. I decided I wanted to fix that, but I also wanted an autodimming mirror, and one that had a temperature display. I bought a Gentex 251 out of a Chevy pickup, with pigtail, off ebay for about $40, and a temperature probe for $25.

When I first got the mirror, I was rather intimidated by the 13 wires coming off the pigtail, but after looking at a wiring diagram the installation was actually amazingly simple. In my truck, the only wires I needed from the pigtail were main power, ground, and the two wires that went to the temperature probe.

I tucked the temp probe under the corner of my sun visor and ran the wires in underneath the weatherstripping. Main power was simply tied into the 12V switched power for the radio. There was even a convenient opening in the trim along the top of the windshield for the wiring to go through.

This is the end result:

Works great and I love it!

NEXT...

I have several more things in the works right now, waiting for warmer weather. Still have to install those fender flares and do a little work...the poorly repaired fender arches on the truck are starting to look like hell. There's the aforementioned intercooler, and I'm also looking at upgrading to an electric fuel pump. And finally, I'd also like to try building my own front and rear bumpers for the truck this summer.

More dreams than money I suppose!