At the end of the last post, the replacement engine was running, which was huge milestone, but it still needed tuning and there were a few things left to install. As it turned out, there were a few teething problems to solve as well.
The first issue was a coolant leak or leaks. I noticed drops of coolant in the engine bay, but there was no obvious source, and the leak was only active when the engine was running, and water was circulating. I added some florescence emitting dye to the cooling system and then let the engine idle for a few minutes while shining a UV lamp on the radiator and all the connections. I found two (2) very small leaks this way, one at the intake manifold hose and one at the water pump. I had to drain the coolant before I could fix the leaks, but otherwise it was straightforward.
The next problem was an oil leak. I could see that oil was vaporizing or burning on contact with the exhaust header at the passenger side, and after running the engine for a few minutes I was able to detect a drip at the front of the header:
Oil was actually leaking from the valve cover. Cleanup and re-installation of the valve cover was the remedy for now. I'll be keeping an eye on this area moving forward.
This is after final routing of all the wiring and installation of shrouds, cable clamps etc. I went with the neatest approach rather than copying all the factory locations.
The last thing I re-installed was the after-market power steering pump and hoses and I added new fluid which was clear instead of brown:
The next little bit is a vanity project really, but whatever. Almost all of the original 1967 control knobs are present, which include the head lights and windshield wiper controls at the left side of the dash, and the heater, fan and defrost controls below the modern radio/CD player. And, thanks to my
re-wiring project, all of these controls are functional.
There were a couple of issues with the controls to the right of the steering wheel - the left control was missing, and the original cigar lighter has been replaced with an 8 ball. The choke control works again after I reconnected it to the carburetor.
Getting a repro lighter was easy since
Dennis Carpenter sells them. I did actually like the "8 ball," in the right place it would be cool, but in this truck it looks weird.
Dealing with the absent control knob was more of a challenge, since I wasn't sure what was missing. I was also unable, at least initially, to find the answer on the internet. After a couple of weeks of searching, I acquired a reproduction operators manual:
Here I discovered I was missing the "Pickup Box Lamp Switch (Optional)." For the uninitiated, this means a bulb that illuminates when the truck bed is raised. It's not something I need to replace, since the bed on this truck doesn't have a lift.
I imagine that the hole in the dash was filled with some sort of plug when the truck left the factory, and I dare say I could have made something to fill or cover the hole. But I had a better idea.
When I was rewiring the Mustang, I made a master "kill switch" which I hid below the dash. You have to feel around behind the dashboard to locate the switch through, which can be a bit annoying. I wanted to do something similar with the F250, just in case someone wants to have a bash at stealing it. The spare opening in the dash would be a great place to put the kill switch - hidden in plain sight, so to speak.
I bought a basic push/pull switch from some place on the
internet, and I acquired a suitable reproduction control knob and a trim ring from Dennis Carpenter.

The opening in the dash consists of a large hole to accommodate the switch or control cable, and a small hole which is for alignment of the "prong" on the back of the trim ring. The first issue with my plan was that the prong was at the top of the reproduction trim ring, and the alignment hole is at the bottom. I didn't really want to install the trim ring upside down, so I made a cardboard template to help me drill a new 7/64" hole in the right place:
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Preparation stage #1 |
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Preparation stage #2 |
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Implementation complete
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After that, I installed the new switch behind the dash. You may remember from
this post, that the truck does not have a Neutral Safety Switch (NSS). To run the engine without one is a simple matter of connecting the incoming and outgoing NSS wires together, which is what I did. This time I decoupled the two NSS wires and re-connected them with the switch in between. This is the overall look after the reproduction trim ring and control knob have been installed. For the ignition to work, even if you have the key, the control knob must be switched to the "auxiliary" fuel tank.
Most of the above was completed towards the end of the long weekend. The final things I did were to re-install the shifter boot and the instrument cluster and then I reconnected the speedometer cable to the transmission. It is next to impossible to remove the instrument cluster when the latter cable is connected, so I left the re-install right to the end. I also set the idle timing to between 12 and 15 degrees before Top Dead Center (BTDC). I was on my own, so I could not make the adjustments to the timing that required revving the engine. The timing is pretty close for now.
I thought about taking the F250 out for a quick test drive, but in the end, I just backed it up to the top of the driveway and then coasted back down a few times. This was enough to test the power steering, and it was operating, as far as I can tell, without leaking. Below is how the engine bay looks (and sounds!) at the time of writing. There is a distinct lack of oil splurging out of the tail pipe, so I am going to call the engine swap a success!