HoneyBadger
Newbie
Love the thread. Its like a horror story with moral: “no matter how bad you think you have it, you dont have it as bad as erik the awful and the stepside.”
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Umm... thanks?
The more I hear and see about later model Ford stuff, the more I wonder: do they do anything the simpler way, or is it all needlessly complicated? More reason to put money into my Chevy LOL!I'm still taking a break from the truck. I replaced the motor controller on my electric trike today, and managed to shoot a short video before my camera barfed.
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Today I plastigauged half the rod caps on the budget engine before my mother-in-law called with a minor emergency. Last week she took her Honda minivan to the dealer for three recalls, two of which required them digging into the engine, and an oil change. Saturday my wife and I borrowed the van and drove to Tulsa to buy a Bernina so she can sew leather purses. Today my son (who lives with grandma) used the van to go to work because his Crown Vic isn't finished yet - there's a rant below about that. He got to work today and mom went into the garage to find a puddle of oil where the van was parked. She called him and he checked the oil in the van. The dipstick was dry and there was oil all over the front of the motor. I drove 45 minutes to his work and checked the filter, thinking the filter was probably double-gasketed. Nope. Whomever did the recall dorked it up. I'm just glad it didn't strand us on the turnpike. We dumped some oil into it and it's going back to the dealer tomorrow.
The Crown Vic fought us quite a bit on the engine reinstallation. Instead of bolts that go through the flexplate into the torque converter, Ford put studs in the torque converter and nuts on the engine side of the flexplate. You have to line the torque converter up with the flexplate as you install the engine to get everything to fit. It took three tries to get that figured out and the engine in place. We went to install the nuts and the originals are all slightly rounded. They're cheap, thin M10x1.25 locknuts. We went to the ACE hardware store down the road, and they were sold out of M10x1.25. We drove to Tractor Supply, Autozone, and O'Reillys and didn't find the nuts. That evening my wife and I were in town and went to Lowe's with no success. The next day I went to Home Depot and finally the ACE in town. If you need hard-to-find hardware, skip the big box stores. Skip the auto parts stores. ACE is the place for sure. NOBODY stocks M10x1.25 locknuts except ACE.
I got a couple more carbide bits for porting, and the second head for the budget motor looks great. Some time this week I'll hit up P-A-P for another 193 head. I'd love to buy a set of Summit's heads, but with three auto insurance bills coming due this month, the $50 head beats the $500 heads.
For ford I think its a revenue from parts and labor thing. Im just amazed at how many people are ford loyal. That 04-14 5.4 3v cam phaser catastrophy was it for me.The more I hear and see about later model Ford stuff, the more I wonder: do they do anything the simpler way, or is it all needlessly complicated? More reason to put money into my Chevy LOL!