Howdy from the QC

[Lonesome Trail]

My name's Ben, I own Lonesome Trail Off-Road and Fabrication, as well as three other small businesses (glutton for punishment), and while my background is most making cars go faster or 4x4s go places that they shouldn't be able to, I've always had an interest in the relationships between increased power bringing increased efficiency, sort of having your cake and eating it too. That interest sat on the back burner during my time as a software engineer at Intel, and now that I'm working for myself and always looking for ways to diversify I've started tinkering with mild aero mods and such for trucks to try and add some economy where there really isn't any, especially the older rigs.

In any case, I've been wrenching professionally for more than a decade, own my own shop, and do a bunch of other fun stuff like the homestead my wife and I are building.

Time to go feed the chickens, have a good morning everyone!

[mcrews]

welcome!

[Daox]

Welcome to the site. We'd love to see some of the mods you've done with your vehicles.

[MetroMPG]

I thought I was going to meet a new member from Quebec!

Welcome.

[elhigh]

I thought Jeph Jacques had signed up!

(Jeph if you're reading I'm a big fan!)

LT, I'd be fascinated to hear what you have to say about the old Ford 300 straight six. It's one of my favorite engines of all time as a dogged and relentless workhorse, but I never considered it to be especially thrifty.

[Lonesome Trail]

It's funny you mention that elhigh, one of my personal projects this summer (glutton for punishment, lol) is throwing a 300 into my wife's '93 F250 that was the first vehicle she bought on her own when she was 18 (sentimental value) after the loyal 351W finally gave up the ghost.

Why are we 'giving up' the 351W for a lowly inline 6? First off, I'm getting lazy in my old age and you can stand next to a 300 in the engine bay, lol. Second, I've not built one before. Third, I've definitely never put twin turbos on one before, and all the 'informed' interwebz folks poo-poo the idea, which naturally means it's absolutely the thing to do.

Besides, 400+lbsft is easy to do with a 351W, but I want to do it at 2,000RPM with a non-diesel inline 6. Will probably scrap the EEC IV or V all together and run a Megasquirt setup, which is totally legal here being a '93 that only has to pass the rollers and a quicky visual, and as dirty as the SD 351W was that shouldn't be a problem to do better.

So yeah, I'm twisted, but that's why I guess I have a slowly increasing customer base (FINALLY!!!).

Anywho, thanks for the welcome, and I'm looking forward to this new arena to play in. I've been reading through projects here and am truly impressed with the ingenuity and hutzpah that folks here have demonstrated, and I hope that someday someone can say the same of me.