Quote:
Originally Posted by Undrstm8ed
My first car was a 86 Ford Escort... (stop laughing fuckers, it was better than the shoe-leather express.. lol)
When I got it, I picked it up at 5:30PM left the dealership at 6:10 came home at 3am with 425 miles on it the first night !
Anyway long story short. The previous owner, she raod the clutch all the way from basically Southgate Michigan all the dam way to Eastern University in Ypsilanti, Michigan. I don't recall how far that is but its at least a 40-55 minute drive on the E-way at 65mph.
3 months in I had to do a clutch. 8 mos later, the head gasket went, (I know, I know its an Escort...!).
Lets not get into all of what I had planned for the car. I think the car sat in the garage for almost a year before I got motivated to fix the head. In that time I think I did a pretty good sized Audio system with at least 4 revisions in that time. But in time I got a new head and gasket.
The new head didnt have a hole for the shaft for the mechanical fuel pump despite the provisions for such a thing in the casting. Take the head off, down to a shop that milled a hole in the head for me, reinstalled NEW gasket, NEW head bolts (cast block aluminum heads) only to find out that there was not even a lobe on the cam for the mechanical fuel pump.. more problems..
I wanted to set the car on fire and roll it down the hill... those who live in Michigan are laughing because there ARE NO HILLS in Michigan..!
Anyway.. long story short. My skills of trouble shooting problems and solving them in my ways, my attention to detail, actually my whole passion for cars and appreciation for the automotive industry as a whole, let alone most of my working life in that industry is because I learned to fix shit on my own..
WELCOME to the automotive industry (early life-bug surprise).. lol
As for the engine swap.. What do you plan on doing with the truck overall? Just to have a truck? Offroading/camping stuff? It may be options for other things like 5.0L or maybe even a 4.6 swap. I mean if your gonna do it go bigger in one step not multiples.
Its a car engine, you're not training yourself how to ride dirt bikes starting at an 80 2-stroke and working your way up to a 450 4-stroke.
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And you have a good community here to help as long as you're willing to keep yourself around the group as well as Google search, rockauto.. etc
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I want an engine that I can drive every day and not worry. I want to get reasonable gas mileage, and I want to be able to tow my 17' bass boat with it as well as my utility trailer. I don't need a ridiculous high powered machine as this will be my daily. I just want what I have, but a bit more power. If the 3.0 wasn't so gutless id be okay with it. My dream is to go out to California with my buddy, out dirt bikes under a cap in the bed of the truck, and road trip out there. I have friends out there that live in the desert and its awesome out there. But I don't think my 3.0 can handle that much weight for that long.