1997 F350 3 Link Coilover Compound Turbo Fummins
- Thread starter jcarrick
- Start date
zilla68
New member
The steering? Yes. Reaming out the knuckles and pitman arm is not to difficult, you just have to go slow and check fitment regularly.
Time for a little update. The headgasket went out last month, 4 days before leaving for Mexico towing a big contractors trailer. I also had to work a 48 hour shift during those 4 days. Needless to say, I was hurting for time to get the gasket replaced. Everything went smoothly and I got a new OEM marine head gasket, my machinist said the head checked out ok, installed ARP 12mm head studs, put 50 miles of test drive on it, and headed to Mexico with fingers crossed. Luckily all went well and everything held together great!
Since I don't feel like spending 60k on a new truck, I have decided to make this one exactly what I want. It already has more power and a nicer riding front end than any new, 1-ton truck on the market. Now that I have the truck ALMOST to where I want it mechanically, I'm starting to direct my focus to the creature comforts and amenities. I recently pulled out the carpet, installed Roadkill sound deadener to the floor and rear of the cab, installed Roadkill MLV/CCF pads, and new carpet. This greatly reduced the road noise and vibrations. Then I had the windows tinted, 20% on all the sides and 4% on the rear.
Here's the current list of "creature comfort projects:
-AC (currently working on adapting the factory 460 AC compressor and lines to work with the cummins)
-EATC from a Super Duty
-Super Duty steering wheel with cruise, stereo, and EATC controls
-Keyless entry with keypad in door (no more taking my keys out of the ignition)
-Auto-down drivers and front passenger windows
-Sound deadener on doors, behind dash, and roof.
Heres a quick pic of the truck with the windows tinted and hooked up to the new trailer:
JCart
Member
Looks very nice indeed J Carrick, question wondering why not have a plate that bolts to the stock D60 spring pad with u-bolts, then the trailing arms are bolted via boxed in tabs aft at rear of plate. On top side of plate above stock spring pad are a set of vertical tabs the shock/coil bolts to. Then use the stock mounts for an adjustable pan hard bar. In this way a shade tree like me could roll a stock D60 under a 4x4 or 2x4 and bolter up. Rear trailing arms at frame end could be bolted on. Once everything was bolted up if shade tree wanted he could weld too. In this way you'd have a bolt on system....
Thanks,
jrc
Thanks,
jrc
Im doing the same thing but in a 2000. I did NOT do anything with the suspension other than put all new on but i dont really need anything in the way of improvement over the sd ride for my pavement pounder. It goes iffroad but not intentionally. I dont wheel a 7500lb truck or go "mudboggin". If i need to get somewhere in it it will be sufficient on 35s.
I too sound deadened my cab interior and am putting new leather in along side all re-dyed plastics. My tan interior seemed nice enough but after replacing the cup holder and a couple other tan pieces i realized it had uv damage and was all different shades.
I too sound deadened my cab interior and am putting new leather in along side all re-dyed plastics. My tan interior seemed nice enough but after replacing the cup holder and a couple other tan pieces i realized it had uv damage and was all different shades.
Initially this is the way I wanted to do it, but after going over it we decided we couldn't make it bolt on and be of the level of quality that I wanted it to be for a number of reasons.
As for an update, when I first put this truck together 4 years ago I never did the AC for one reason or another and decided I was not going to go another summer without it. So I started figuring out how I was going to make it work. I basically ruled out being able to use the dodge compressor in the factory location due to the twin turbos and over crowded area. I also didn't like the price of getting custom lines built to mate up to the ford stuff, so I decided to make the factory 460 compressor and lines work. I built a top mount for the compressor and then built a mount for an idler pulley (from a 7.3 powerstroke) to keep the belt routed properly. Since I still have the factory 2nd gen 12v intake horn I had to cut off the extra mount that goes to the front of of the intake plate and make a new tab for the dipstick. Everything fits nicely and is working properly. Since the 460 compressor has a 6 rib pulley I used a 6 rib belt, but I am going to swap out pulleys to an 8 rib from a powerstroke compressor once I find one. Here are some pics of the setup: (Don't mind the messy engine bay, I still have some wiring harness routing, looming, etc. to do)
-Jon
JCart
Member
Thank you for the response and for providing options for these old trucks. As time rolls along I can foresee guys doing this mod with 4x2 truck conversions to 4x4.
Thanks again,
jrc
Thanks again,
jrc
