Project 1977 F100 - New radiator + electric fan!

[bobo333]

Hey guys,

Almost finished my guage cluster today, hooked up the water temp and oil press guages via the factory loom, just need to replace the senders with the new ones now. I also added in the turn signal lights, just need a blue LED for the high beam light and its all done .



i also moved my fuse block up into the dash so now i can fit 10" midbass speaker in my kick panels... i like loud music :P



ive also started planning an interstate road trip mid September so thats now my deadline to get some aero and other efficiency mods done, i think flat floor, new gearing and possibly an aero bed cover will be in the works by then.

thanks for looking

[Flakbadger]

Lookin' good man, nice to see your MPG numbers have improved a bit.

[bobo333]

Thanks,

it makes it really difficult to judge different techniques with such long intervals between mileage calculations but i think ive got about as much as i practically can out of using better technique now, the rest of my improvements with have to come for aero and mechanical upgrades.

ive been planning a flat floor for a while now and i think il use the method i saw someone else i here use (cant remember who) with an aluminium frame suspended from the chassis then coated with coroplast.

also on the shortlist are a bigger front air dam (down to the height of the front suspension) and an aero bed cover (this will require the most work), time and money are holding up my progress at the moment though as per usual.

[HydroJim]

If you're going to be using a belly pan, there is no need for an airdam. That would defeat the purpose of having a smooth underside.

[bobo333]

the bellypan needs to be lower than the current front bumper to cover the front suspension, sump and a few other things at the rear, so the air dam will only go low enough to fill the gap between the current bumper and where the bellypan will start, also i will probably do the air dam first so it will give me some benefits before i add in the rest of the bellypan

[bobo333]

Hi guys,

Did another fill today, 7.36mpg, a 0.04 drop on my last tank, this one was with a couple of longer trips than the last and carrying 300+kg of MDF for about 1/4 of the tank, i could barely notice the weight in the back as far as acceleration and handling goes but surely that much weight would have made some sort of difference.

I was also accelerating a bit harder than usual to keep up with peak hour traffic (i dont normally drive peak hour) for probably half of this tank which doesn't seem to have made much of a difference.

i really need to start getting the aero sorted as well as bring the gearing down asap, but a new gearbox or diff gears are out of my budget at the moment

thanks for looking

[Flakbadger]

Originally Posted by bobo333

Hi guys,carrying 300+kg of MDF for about 1/4 of the tank [...] I was also accelerating a bit harder than usual to keep up with traffic

You've read about DWL, driving with load, right? The higher the load on your engine during acceleration (up to a point, obviously flooring it every time is out of the question), the more efficient your engine.
It's difficult without being able to hook up a scangauge to your vehicle to tell your instantaneous MPG's but I think it's possible that the extra weight in your vehicle was counterbalanced by the extra inertia you get during coasting, and the extra efficiency of driving with load.
I get better MPG's when I keep my instantaneous load around 75-80% than I do when keeping it at 50% (EDIT: During acceleration I mean).
Just a thought.
Also have you changed your motor oil to synthetic yet? Made a huge difference in my car, runs wa-a-a-ay smoother.

[bobo333]

Thanks for the tips, i tried accelerating faster on a previous tank but it didnt seem to help, i think the best acceleration seems to be around 10 on the vacuum guage and shifting up gears as soon as possible (around 2000-2500rpm probably), this tank ive been trying to keep the vacuum down as much as i can and keeping it steady while cruising and steady at 10 when accelerating, ive also done a couple of short engine off coasts to see how i like it, will see how it turns out in the next couple of days when i need to refill

I've also started planning an aero bed cover as i have a long road trip coming up in September, ive collected the materials, 3 sheets of 16mm chipboard and some pine.

Not the optimal materials as far as weight goes but i think the aero benefits will far outweigh the penalty from added mass, having said that i can put 250+kgs in the back and not really notice a difference in driving as far as acceleration and steering goes so i dont think it will matter.

I will make the sides straight along the edges of the bed and angled in at the top to match the profile of the cab and the top will be as close as i can get to the "template".

(sorry about the bad pic, il get a better one tommorow)


any tips or suggestions?

[bobo333]

Hi guys,

Here's a better overlay of the "template" onto my truck:


i will be taking the rails off the sides of the bed and using its anchor points to hold either steel or pine beams that i will attach the side panels to, the i will have more pine beams running across the car between the side that i will attach the top to, im not sure yet how to make a hinged section in the middle to allow access to the bed

thanks for looking

[bobo333]

This is coming together far quicker than i imagined, i blew pic in the above post up to the biggest i could fit on my screen then measured key points to translate onto the truck

Then i pulled off the side rails on the truck and started the pine frame for the front wall of the aerocap:


It is angled in to the same angle as the sides of the cab and will be angled to the front at the top for the minimum gap between the cab and the aerocap.

then i translated the dimentions of key points i measured off the computer onto my sheet of chipboard, before bending a piece of MDF to the shape to get a nice smooth curve:


before cutting it out with a jigsaw and holding it up on the truck to redo the template overlay and make sure my measurements worked out ok:


looks pretty good to me