Why carburetors suck in the winter. /85 Ford Resto Thread

[slashfan7964]

Welp, in a pinch it would have sucked if it was still a daily driver, but this ting has sat for a few months at least. This was the first start we've done in a while and it was cold, cold colddd.

Still though, while fuel injection might combat this, I still prefer this because of the mechical feel. It doesn't feel like you're being used, you are the one doing the using. It's a bit of a challenge, and fun at that. Maybe I'm just insane but I sometimes enjoy a hard start. I feel like I'm diving a car not a rolling computer.

But she runs good, drives good. Once we got it in gear (lol, long story, cab is twisted so bad the linkage is messed up and won't go into gear) and moved it around there wasn't any hesitation other than one time it decided to diesel itself when it got shut off (first time that's happened, first time I've ever actually seen it happen on anything as well). Just trying to keep moving it and keep it fresh before we pull the body off it and finally do a real good resto...for the second full frame-off time. Nothing's leaking other than some old PS hoses and even that's not bad. So yay!

Figured I'd share. Motor is a pretty worked over 351W, C6, NP208, Dana 60 3.73s w/ posi. Just needs 33's thrown back on it hehe.

[coolpool]

I know that sound, lol. I agree with you about carbs, they can be a PITA but when they work.......they work. You plan to restore the old girl? How the heck can a cab get twisted, Dukes of Hazard jump? I'll even one up you and say that I put a manual choke on my old 79 K5 Blazer. It would allow me to set the fast idle while winching. Loved it.

[Samjp22]

79 K5 Blazer.

Should've never sold that!

[slashfan7964]

I know that sound, lol. I agree with you about carbs, they can be a PITA but when they work.......they work. You plan to restore the old girl?

Yeah, it's works great otherwise! In fact, before the winter really set in, it sat for over a year with untreated gas and fired right up in about 1/2 of a crank. We do plan to restore it. We have an entire front clip we had shipped up from down south for $400. It consisted of new headlights, headlight bezels, a complete 5 piece grille, radiator core support, 2 spare carbs (Road Demon 625 made by Holley and a 650 DP) bed patch panel, badges, 2 doors, interior pieces, several mirrors, chrome trim, inner and outer fenders, a hood and a few other things. I have new glass lights, reflectors, dimmer switches, wiring harnesses, engine bearings, starter solenoids, and a ton of other parts sitting in the garage. We pretty much have a complete body and parts in the garage; the only last few things we need are a tailgate (I have located one) and a cab, but we are unsure how to go about that yet. Due to my mothers battle with cancer, high gas prices, a mortgage and other things we just haven't been able to really build it like it was back in the 1990s. The plan is to put a completely new body on it, maybe just patch the bed and then think about putting another motor in it. We are undecided on a 390 big block or 460 SVO crate motor. He wants to ditch the carbs and go with mechanical injection.

How the heck can a cab get twisted, Dukes of Hazard jump? I'll even one up you and say that I put a manual choke on my old 79 K5 Blazer. It would allow me to set the fast idle while winching. Loved it.

The cab has completely rotted out from underneath. The floor on the passenger side was fixed once, the drivers side at least twice. After we put the front driveshaft through it due to a bad ujoint it was never the same. The corners have since rotted out, replaced, and rotted out again as have the rockers, and the entire length of the back rail behind the seat. The mounts and pillar posts are totally gone, enough you can physically rock the cab side to side on the frame. It's so far out of alignment that the passenger door crinkled the fender in. I'll spare you the pictures. It's not pretty.

There's two ways we have thought about combatting this. Either way, it has to come off. The first way, is finding a crushed cab, getting it cheap, chopping the bottom off and welding it on to the original cab. Doing this will allow us to keep the original VIN without recertification, a new VIN, and a bunch of other BS paperwork you have to go through. The other way is just plopping a completely different cab on it.

As far as the carb. The one on it right now is a 4160 Holley 600cfm 4 barrel w/ vacuum secondaries with a 1" spacer underneath. It's got an electric choke and the kickdown rod for Ford transmissions. I like this carb a lot, it seems to be the right one for the existing setup, never had much trouble with it. It always starts, provides good everything all the way around. The motor is about on par with a 2010+ GM 5.3L as far as power goes with the work that's been done. Nothing really special by comparison to the previous engine we had in it though.

[90nut]

Your,best bet to build that truck up again is to find one,from out west or down south and use Its body and your drive line if you are dead set on bringing it back from Its current condition. I have replaced every body panel etc on trucks over the years and Its just not worth it in the long run. Last truck I had shipped to my place in indiana was from Georgia and it only cost me 300$ to get it here. Crew cab 1 ton dually. Or you find one locally that someone has replaced everything on and has lost Intrest in. Time and money ahead IMO. None of that pretained to carbs but oh well.

[slashfan7964]

That exactly what we are doing. The body is being pulled from down south. The mechanical side is still in great shape. This is not the first time it's been torn to a rolling chassis and built up. In the end it's still cheaper than buying a brand new truck and we don't mind the work.

[yamaha225dr]

I had a 76 K5 Blazer with the 400, their is just a nostalgia those old rides bring that you just don't get from the newer vehicles. It wasn't a beauty but I done a little work to the engine & carburetor and it would fire right up no matter what the temperature was outside. I learned that two quick pumps on the accelerator would make it start right up almost every time. LOL

[slashfan7964]

Personally I can't stand modern vehicles. I try to avoid buying anything I can that is equipped as OBDII which means anything 96+ is automatically ruled out. While I like that my scanner can tell you what's wrong with a car, the actual process of replacing said part can prove to be a royal nightmare. I knew a guy that had a newer Powerstroke Super Duty. The engine was half buried under the cowl, and the turbo (which is what needed replacing) was all the way at the back. We had to remove the cowl, jack the cab and body up and have 3 people there just to change a damn turbo...Yeah, not for me. I like my simple wiring systems and carburetors. You won't find many guys my age with that attitude anymore. I like to preserve the old timers, even the ones everyone looks down on (looking at you, 79 Ranchero).

My dad has had this thing since the 80s, everyone knows him by it and the big sticker on the front that said "Animal" back in it's heyday. Matter of fact, I sent that video to my buddy who's dad went to school with mine and he said "they still have that thing? I remember it from high school!" I hear stuff like that all the time. Hell, I had a totally random stranger flag me down and ask who we was and were he remembered him from. I pointed out the big red 80s Ford with the rollbars and he was like ohhhhh yeahh! I remember that thing! I can't believe he still has it

I could tell you a million different stories when something like that^ has happened. Priceless.

I grew up in that truck. That truck means a world of things to me. Sounds kinda funny, but the sentimental value is very high for both of us. That was, to this day, the fastest machine I'd ever been in. I've been in Mustangs, I've been in highly modded Toyota Supra's, I've been in a 650-700+ Cummins. There was no comparison to any of them in the sheer brute acceleration and torque this sucker once had. Something like that sticks with you from a young age. No matter how bad this thing gets in condition, you can bet he'll either fix it or be buried in it.

Realistically it's not all to bad, and as it sits I can't see more than about $3k going into this, tops. Most of what we need we have and paid less than $800 for, the last of it will probably end up at around $2.5k including the rear suspension which needs an overhaul. Having the frame blasted, new body installed, aligned, blasted and painted will probably be done for either free or very cheap as it was once before because having friends in the industry is nice. That's actually how it was done last time. Torn to the frame, all that done and put back together in a weeked. Motors built and installed in a weekend. My dad busted his ass working 3-4 jobs back then, so he needed to do it quick.

Obviously times have changed. But he absolutely refuses to by another truck. The only one he even remotely considered was a new SVT Raptor, and passed on it because it's a half-ton. He wants 3/4 ton and bigger. He won't even buy used later model Fords. Hell, he won't even buy other trucks that aren't from 1985-86, regardless if they are 80, 81, 82, 83, 84 That style we have is his favorite

[slashfan7964]

Well I guess I might as well turn this into a bit of a resto-thread since there's a few good posts here and I'm too lazy to start a new one (and it's pointless). Hope you guys don't mind reading; I'm gonna upload a few pics as well. This could be a bit of a long post.





Dad and I had a long discussion about the 'ol Ford today. This time it was mostly about what needs to be done as opposed to what we'd like to do in the future. I think the start and moving of it the other day as it not wanting to go into gear due to the twisted cab making the floor hit the shifter linkgage give him a rude awakening of how bad the body is getting. Since it's sat (only being periodically moved) pretty much since 2007 and sitting over gravel, it's been getting worse. I noticed this morning he printed off some LMC paperwork and order guide with P/N's and diagrams.

Turns out he already had bought brand new polyurethane bushings for the body, so all we need to get for that is the special bolts and nuts which are pricey at $18/bolt. For any Ford guys here that want refering, the P/N is 40-2032, this holds for any Ford F-Series 1980-1996 and 1997 for 3/4 tons and up.

The easy way would be to lift the cab up and off the frame and totally replace it. The issue with that is dealing with the DMV as far as paperwork and registration go, and the insurance goes up in arms over it. That, and the fact that it's so far gone that there's literally no mounting points to lift it up. So he's saying he's going to try and rebuild the bottom of it. The top ain't too bad, only mild bubbling in the upper half of the door jambs. Easily fixable; not a concern. The cab lift support might as well be gone, there is no drivers side floor, the passengers side is starting to get rough again, the inner and outer corners are rough and the back support and back wall is starting to go. Fortunately, the rockers aren't too awful bad.

He wants to beef the hell out of it. Going all out with thick steel and whatnot; pretty much making sure this doesn't happen again for a long, long time. So as that happens, I'll update you guys. The goal is to move it enough to get the new mounts in, pivot it and get the other side in and then cut out the bad, weld in the good. It'll be a project but well worth it. Luckily the interior as a whole is in real good shape. Could use a headliner (or at least new glue) but the dash ain't bad, minor cracking by the speaker whole but that's common. Little wear but for 30 years old, solid. Definitely solid.

The ass end? Well that's not so bad. We are currently sourcing a southern bed but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. I found a cheap tailgate local that in decent shape but has no hardware; so he said he'd rather just buy a brand new one. The gate that's on it now is apparently aftermarket (as are the fenders, and doors) so that rusted out rather fast. I'm surprised the doors are as good as they are. We might not replace those, though we do have replacements if we need them. The entire front end is going to come off, nothing left untouched. That'll be the easy part; lift it up and off, drop new on. He is considering a full on, rotissary style restoration but we can't find anyone around here that has one. Paint will come in time; not a concern right now.

Ok, so the body is out of the way, let's jump to the mechanical side. What's it need? Nothing really. The back leaf spring tie plates are shot from sitting, those will be replaced. It needs leaf springs out back. Are we going to replace them? Hard saying, they are still usuable and don't sag, hell the passengers side has been busted for 25 years. Who knows. The front shocks could use replacement but they do the job. The motor has 50k on it since it was put together, the transmission around 35k, transfer case works great (new chain! ),the rear end is pretty fresh with new bearings, new rear brakes, the front brakes are also very new (under 1,000 miles).

How's the rust underneath you might ask. Nada. The worst is a bit of flaky crap on the bed crossmembers. Otherwise it is s.o.l.i.d. The shackles are great, no holes in the frame (I won't lie there's a lot of mild pitting all over the place but nothing deep, easily removed with a good sandblast), transmission and engine crossmembers look new (just dirty), tank is still gray, the exhaust is stainless (most of it), but hell there is still paint from the last frame off resto in certain spots.

But enough talking, let's see some underneath pics! I'll spare you the inside of the cab pics, at least the rust. By comparison to my buddies 96 GMC, this thing looks like it just rolled off the lot underneath

[sledcrazyinCT]

Good luck! I owned an 86 150 with the same motor. You guys are ambitious to say the least. LMC or Jeff's bronco graveyard are good for repop parts for the rusty fords.

[slashfan7964]

I think the sentimental value is high enough that it doesn't matter what shape it was in. Considering I've seen twisted and mangled wrecked cars comeback, I'd say it's not too bad.

I definitely know about those two sites, I also frequent Rock Auto for parts. They all seem to have good stuff.

[350for350]

Hey Slash, I can understand the feeling about those trucks. My daily driver is an 81 F150, two wheel drive, 302, carb old enough that it has a manual choke. Will start easy again after I fix the accelerator pump. My other two are an 85 F250 4x4 diesel and an 86 Bronco that I converted to diesel. In case you couldn't tell, I really like these old diesels. I was going to convert the F150 to efi using the parts from an 86 LTD, but decided that I just want to have a carb around.

[slashfan7964]

Hey Slash, I can understand the feeling about those trucks. My daily driver is an 81 F150, two wheel drive, 302, carb old enough that it has a manual choke. Will start easy again after I fix the accelerator pump. My other two are an 85 F250 4x4 diesel and an 86 Bronco that I converted to diesel. In case you couldn't tell, I really like these old diesels. I was going to convert the F150 to efi using the parts from an 86 LTD, but decided that I just want to have a carb around.

Yeah they are something special aren't they? Favorite body style Ford ever made by far. Dad feels the same.


Small update. Dad bought all new polyurethane bushings for the body and scored a set of 4 NOS retaining nuts for $17 and some change off Ebay. Aftermarket nut costs about that much per nut so that was nice (set of 4 costs like $80 new). Going to try and get lengths of the mount bolts for the core support and front/rear of the cab and buy some from like Home Depot for a few bucks or something. That'll save some money over paying $9.95 per freakin' bolt. Also been on the hunt for a drivers side wiper motor and arm since it's stripped. Got a guy willing to sell me everything for $30 off a '93 Texas truck.

[200xman]

Try Bolt Depot for any hardware you need. They have great prices and fast shipping. Good luck on the resto of one of the best body styles Ford ever made.

[slashfan7964]

Try Bolt Depot for any hardware you need. They have great prices and fast shipping. Good luck on the resto of one of the best body styles Ford ever made.

Yeah I was thinking about that. Most of the bolts and misc. parts we need we already have but there's the odd few like these that we need. Thanks though! I agree on the body style thing, probably that and the 70s ones are the best they made.