The biggest autocross of the year was this last weekend about 3 hours away, so I spent all last week doing late nights getting the beater truck ready (mounting up the new custom sway bars, installing new KYBs, fabbing/mounting the panhard bar kit, fluids, alignment, yadayada). We're going hunting Corvettes and WRXs, not just Mustangs, Camaros, and the lowlier imports anymore. I get everything wrapped up late, LATE Thursday night so I can leave Friday after a full day at work, crash at my Grandma's house, and be there for the sign in at 8 a.m. Saturday morning. So, I go to leave town a little behind schedule Friday night, and instead of filling up at my usual gas station with non-eth 91, I hit a different one as I'm running behind that also has (supposedly) non-eth 91 and is on my way out of town. All good, I'm cruising down the interstate at 80, beautiful weather, windows down enjoying the drive. About 40 miles out of town, the old girl starts dropping rpm, then revving up, then dropping, just like a fuel pump. Fantastic. Luckily, one of my buddies lives out in the area. I give him a call and no answer, but I turn around and go to head to his place anyway. I figure at least it'll be in a secure yard if I have to ditch it for the night..... Luckily, he's out in the garage building on his twin-turbo 6.2 LS powered Ford Ranger mega sleeper truck and just didn't answer his phone. Cool, we're in the chips. We pull the fuel line, and sure enough, pump, pump, nothing, nothing, nothing......Call up my other buddy still in Missoula, have him run down to the only auto parts store still open at a little past 8 p.m., and they've got the pump. SWEET! Get the old pump pulled, and about an hour later he shows up. Uh-oh, the new pump has only one nipple and a threaded port, the other had two nipples molded in. Dig through all his miscellaneous fittings, and nothing. Well, he's got another car guy friend just a few miles down the gravel road........ Roll into this guy's off the grid establishment 10 miles up a goat trail, and first thing we see is a 67-70 Chevy with a flat bed, and a '70 Malibu beside it. Under another lean-to, I spot a '68 Camaro (later to find out has a 427 swapped in). Him and his wife are outside enjoying the evening, having a few too many beers it seems hahaha.....well we go into his work area, and this guy has every brass fitting you could ever think of. And a '70 Cougar XR-7 with a 351 C just happens to be in there. How all these cars got up the road, I'll never know, but there they are.....Anyway, in his mass stash of fittings, nothing. Nothing fits, and we surmise it looks like a brake line fitting. "Hey, I've got a chunk of that, let me go look"....Sure enough, brake line fits. We cut it off and flare the end with a phillips head screwdriver. Head back to the truck. Get the pump on, getting eaten by mosquitoes something terrible as this is one of the flooded areas from a month ago, and there's standing water everywhere. Say my thanks and goodbyes, and back down the road at about 10:30 p.m. Make it about 50 miles down the road, and same thing. Well, dang it, it's too late to do anything but head home. Got to be s*** fuel, I figure. Limp it back home, the truck is now making me go ever slower and slower the longer I drive it. Last 25 miles was done at 40 mph on the interstate at about 1 A.M. Figure I'll wake up at 5, check the carb, and flush the fuel out. 5 A.M. comes pretty early, go outside, pull the top off the carb. Dammit, that thing is full of crap. Off with the carb and into my basement. Clean it all out, pull the carb all down, and reassemble (it's an AFB so this takes about 1/2 hour). Fuel that was in it smelled funny, couldn't put my finger on it, but it was odd. Pull every single fuel line and blow them out, all clear. Pull the fuel tank vent and make sure it's good. We're down under 1/2 tank, so go to my usual station, top off with known good gas and away I go. Call the race organizers about 7 A.M. and let them know I'm on my way, might be an hour late. Cool, they're going to hold off and keep tech open until I get there. Make it about 80 miles this time, thinking everything is going great, and then....same flippin' thing. Call up my twin turbo Ranger buddy, and they're going on a side by side ride, but they have an extra seat for me. I say screw the races for the day, I'll go on the ride for the afternoon, flush the truck's fuel system that night, and hit it Sunday for the 2nd day's race. I turn around and head back, only this time the old girl isn't running quite as smoothly, and I think I might see smoke behind it every now and then...... Get into some beautiful country, having a great time, about 60 miles into the back country, and the rear diff on the side by side starts making the grumblies. Get out to check the fluid, and can't even touch the diff as it's so hot. Awesome, but we're about 30 miles from the nearest town, which is about 45 miles from where we started at my buddy's house as the crow flies. Takes 2 hours to get out and get a hold of someone to come get us and take me back to his house and the now running not-quite-right truck. Limp it home at 40 mph most the way to play it safe, and go to bed. Wake up early the next day, and instead of going right to wrenching, I figure I'll just go putz the truck around to burn all the fuel out and fill it with some AvGas/91 non-eth I've got mixed for the Mach 1. Fire it up, it's running on 7 cylinders. Get out the temp gun, find the offending cylinder, pull the plug, and it is fouled with a pink crust I've never seen before. It's pink pink like a shop rag pink (the pic doesn't do it justice). Just the one plug. Pressure test the still full cooling system, check the oil, and compression test that hole. 0 psi. Sweet. No signs of a blown headgasket or cracked head, everything checks normal except that one spark plug. Pull the head off and find the piston dome gone on the edges, and I can see the compression ring is starting to chip away with some chunks missing. Other cylinders are starting to show signs of detonation. Still don't know what the pink deposits are, but I guess I'm going to pull the pan, shove the pistons and rods out the top, run a berry hone through the block still mounted in the truck, put new pistons and rings in, and completely drain the fuel system. Probably do forged this time instead of hypereutectics and throw nitrous at it since I'm there...... 3 days of driving and didn't do anything but go backward.
That's my buddy's Ranger. And there's 2 of them hairdryers on that LS (look on the driver's side under the alternator). Truck is a total beater 4x4 with 700 hp. Looks completely stock, was a handful before the twin turbos when it was "just" 550 hp. Has a sticker that says "Built Ford Tough with Chevy Stuff" on the broken slider window. You'd never know ......We build 'em sneaky.
Typical for a FURD to let you down. You know all the sayings so I WON'T repeat except for one you probably never heard of because it's in my area. Found On Rubino's Driveway.
All good, Tom. I wouldn't post stuff like this on here if I didn't expect a little burning haha. Seriously, bad fuel killed it. Don't know what was in it, but it killed the fuel pump then pinged the engine to death in 200 miles. Truck never got over 160 degrees and the oil pressure never got under 40 psi the whole time. The 7 other cylinders are still over 135 on compression. The pink deposits are what baffles me, must have a ton of alcohol in it even though it isn't supposed to have any. I think I can pull the pan and shove the rods and pistons out the top. I'll find out tonight, but I really should be working on the Riv for a 3 day road trip this weekend with that. Or a good night's sleep might be the best thing. Think I've gotten 3 hours max the last 4 days.
If you start recording your days, you can have your own show on YouTube.. Could be named KillRoad perhaps? Houmark
That sucks. If you run forged pistons instead of hypers, you might want to double check the piston to wall clearance (and taper). And if it's been detonating, how are the rod bearings? Ugh, I feel for you man. Might it be easier to just pluck that thing out rather than working on it under the truck?
HOLY COW... sounds like a typical day around here! Are those plug deposits aluminum from the particle accelerator?? ws
It still had 60 psi oil pressure cold and no knocking when I fired it up yesterday for the last time, was just running on 7, but I'll be pulling the rods out anyway and I'll measure the crank then. Rods were newly refurbished and rebushed at the time. The cylinders were pretty tapered almost to max before the rebuild, but it was a super budget build so I berry honed it and reused the .030 pistons that were in it with new rings. It's a pretty healthy build, and has 30,000 miles of daily driving from -20 to 110 degree days, with drag racing and autocrossing mixed in, so I can't complain too much. It's been beat mercilessly. I'll know tonight if I can stay motivated if I'm going to pull it or if I can get them out from underneath. There's a ton of working room in it, just don't know if I can get the pan between the crossmember and block. The crankshaft and rods don't really stick out of an FE Ford very much like most engines, pretty much just have to get around my oil pump pickup and windage tray. My issue right now is no room to work on it, and it's my daily driver (not that I don't have other things, but this is the one I don't really care about getting wet/muddy/door dings, etc. The property management company sent out a "random" e-mail informing tenants not to perform major car repairs outside, which just happened to be while I was rebuilding the female's transmission in her '77 highboy, so I'm pretty sure it wasn't so random. The Mach 1 and Riviera are taking up both my garage stalls and I won't leave either one of those outside, and my friend's shop I usually use for bigger projects has his truck in it for the next month or two. If I can leave the block in it, pull the pan, and get them out that way, they'd have no idea something serious is happening. "Just a routine oil change, ma'am. Nothing to see here."
Yeah it was a full weekend of good intentions and poor executions......Well, they're the edges of pistons, which accelerate particles right on out the exhaust.......What the eff made them turn pink I've got no idea. Guess I'll never know.
Hahaha....yeah no kidding. A guy at work and I were talking about it today. All I really want to do is just go home and sit in front of the TV, but that usually gets to happen one night every two weeks or so. This is pretty much standard operating procedure.
Here's a pic of my current life. Apparently someone has filed a lawsuit for the poor fuel from this same gas station (blown up snowmobile or dirtbike is the rumor I heard). No receipt and I'm sure no surveillance footage from two weeks ago when nothing illegal happened means I'm S.O.L. New pistons/rings are here and I've got some aluminum heads on their way.
Hey Luke... Imagine having no life except taverns and bowling, then back to the cubicle in the morning to sell insurance. Guys like us are born into this world with some brains and wrenches; its the size of the episiotomy that matters LOL. ws
Getting everything cleaned up, painted, and ready for tomorrow's parts shipment.....pretty excited. If you like things with blue ovals, or if you just like engines in general, I think you'll enjoy what's coming.....
Well the block was tapered too far out and the valves had beat themselves into the heads, so I decided to just do a monster daily driver build. Spare block I had cleaned up at .030, and its getting some kb pistons. Call to the guy that did the custom cam describing that the truck has to start in -10 to 110 degree weather, drive from sea level to 7000 feet, drive every day, autocross, drag race, and tow every now and then wielded the custom cam specs posted. Emailed all the major aluminum head manufacturers with pics of racing and my results, and Promaxx stepped up and got me a set of assembled heads for less than a set of stock irons. Got an 850 dp, 750 Edelbrock, and a 750 3310 coming from Del (DEADMANSCURVE) to try. Headers and intake are leftover from the last engine (1 3/4" long tubes and a performer rpm). Hopefully be 450 hp and 500+ ft. Lbs. at this elevation. It was fun before, really excited now to see how it goes. Had to mock it up and see how it'd look today, will hopefully be breaking the cam in next weekend.
Carb showed up from DEADMANSCURVE today. It's a Holley 3310 750 cfm vacuum secondary, and is most likely what'll be run on the engine. If it works half as good as it looks, I'll be a happy camper. The finish he puts on them is very cool and unique, the carb looks tough. Nice work, Del! Thanks again.
Great looking and as you say, sneaky. You still have me wondering about what was wrong with the fuel. You said it smelled funny. I am wondering if it could have been mixed with diesel?
