300,000

Last Friday, Young turned 300,000 miles.

Kinda been dreading it... Not sure why, its a hell of a milestone for a truck. Young certainly has done his job well too. Mr Reliable, runs even when he probably shouldn't be able too (I'm thinking back to a blown fuel line and the truck kept hauling at 70 mph... Mechanic couldnt figure out how it was still running) and always a pleasure to drive.

Young's version of limp mode is to keep going and make noises of distress to let you know there is an issue... Though I think 7.3l s tend to do that in general.

I remember when Young had 5 miles on him. I remember my first ride in him, and being seriously pissed at my dad for trading Mr. Blue off... But I wouldn't trade Young for anything.

Happy 300,000 to the truck that always gets the job done. Thanks for the miles and the memories, and here is to the next hundred thousand miles.

The BioDiesel Problem...

I know everyone is hyped about BioDiesel... at least... the people who A) Actually know what it is, and B) Don't actually drive anything that has to burn it.

I'm not complaining, I swear... I only loose about 3-8 mpg in my '97 7.3l Powerstroke (that has been known to run 22+ mpg on straight diesel, and has even made a phenomenal 27 mpg highway cursing), and quite a bit of engine throttle response, depending on the percent of Bio blend I have to buy. My 'Strokes don't like the algae fuel.

For those of you who don't know, and think I'm batty, yes, I did just say 'algae fuel'. Here in West Texas its been kind of on the down-low, however, since the first of the year I've said "Change the fuel filter and see what happens." so many times I feel like I'm on repeat. Biodiesel is made from a variety of things: virgin oil, algae, sewage... just to name a few, and not even going into the experimental sources. Don't even ask me to pretend that I understand the complected chemistry behind it all: I don't... yet.

I have run across claims of fuel efficiency increases... I would like to see the data to back that up, rather than just claims, as well as someone detail the systems on the engines with increases. I'm watching my fuel economy drop, so you can see my skepticism. I am aware that there are several engines in R&D right now that will run on 100% biodiesel and they are shooting for 40+ mpg with them. I sincerely support this! I would love to see biodiesel bring the price of diesel per gallon back down to under $2 (I would really love to see it about .89 again, but I doubt that will ever happen).

The biggest issue I have with biodiesel is the bacteria. Diesel is prone to doing all kinds of strange things if you leave it alone in a tank long enough, but biodiesel seems to be even more prone to that than petrodiesel. For one thing, biodiesel is capable (and does it a lot) of absorbing water on a molecular level. Which you can imagine isn't exactly great for trying to inject it at 20,000 psi through an orifice generally too small to see with your bare eye, and then try to explode it in the cylinder. Older diesel engines don't much care for that, even ones with much lower injection pressures, and larger orifices in the injector nozzles. (Sadface for my 1990 Indirect Injection 7.3l Diesel F-250.)

Right now, I'm advising all diesel owners to carry at least one spare fuel filter in their truck, the tools to change it with, and praying you all know how to change it in the dark. So if you aren't familiar with the procedures, you might want to go over that owner's manual that has never been out of the glove box.

Filter out of '96 Powerstroke with DieselSite's OBS CPR system. This filter came out when I drained almost 2 gallons of water out of the 26 Gal tank on the truck, after getting two bad tanks of Biodiesel in a row (from two different places, in two different towns).

I believe most of the new medium-duty diesels are coming off the lot prepared to deal with up to 20% (B20), but the older engines don't much care for it. Atlas, the '96 my mother just bought in November, happily came to us with DieselSite's OBS CPR system, which includes a great water separator on the rail, and filters with 2 micron filters. What a life saver! It kept Atlas out of the weeds when he got some nasty fuel just like my blue truck did. Sadly for my blue truck, it is still running the stock fuel system, and it gladly went into a dramatic, screaming limp-mode when it got bad fuel and barely rolled into an O'Reilly's for me to get a fuel filter. (Because I don't take my own advice...)

CPR waiting for me to install in on Beastin.

Since the older trucks often use filters that only catch rocks and chickens, you might think about shopping for better filters, and looking into a water separator more efficient than the OEM one. I can defiantly tell you that while the CPR has a price tag that makes all the do-it-yourselfer's suck in a gasp of air, I have one sitting in my parts room/office/study/specialty tool room that is going on my white truck because A) Its a great system, B) I just spent a bunch of money on new injectors for Beastin, and I don't want to blow the tips off on my first tank of B20 with too much trash in it.

Lastly, I want to talk about treating your fuel. There are LOTS of fuel treatments out there ladies and gentlemen, and I don't dislike any of them... I just only buy Power Services products. I've been treating my diesel for a couple of years now with their Diesel Kleen cetane boost, and just recently became a huge fan of the Clear Diesel and Bio Kleen... Clear Diesel now lives in my tool box next to the cetane (white arctic formula for winter and gray HP for summer).

Power Service's products can be picked up pretty much anywhere you get auto or diesel supplies, from O'Reilly's to Tractor Supply, so next time you're out, pick up a gallon - it treats about 250 gallons of fuel, and usually runs about $20.

Recommended Websites:
http://www.powerservice.com 
~Lots of cool info on fuel. Check out their Distributor website for even more cool stuff: http://powerservicextremediesel.com

http://www.baldwinfilter.com
~Plenty of replacement filters for all kinds of trucks

http://www.dieselsite.com
~Great products, they do their R&D right, and couldn't ask for better customer service. Also, they have lots of things in the works for the near future.


In the meantime, take care of those diesels, and instead of changing your fuel filter every-other oil change, start doing it every oil change. Filters, no matter how expensive, are still MUCH cheaper than injectors. Soon, hopefully as the demand for diesel increases, the quality of biodiesel will improve, and the truck stops will get on board with treating their tanks. I'm all for improvements, especially if it makes it cheaper at the pump.

I will leave you with a photo to ponder... Do you think that parking this rig on a pallet will help this gentleman with the fact that he is buying fuel from a the very Stripes that created the black fuel filer in the photo above?

BioDiesel issue solved! Park truck on pallets before filling up... ;-)

Gauges for Beastin

I embarked on installing gauges in my white '97 7.3l Powerstroke 5 speed... part of an ongoing project to rebuild the top end. It had injector issues when I bought it a little over two years ago, the product of half-assed repairs. Which is no surprise considering that at some point in Beastin's life it was hit square in the face and was never properly repaired.

Any ways, guages. I got the Isspro Ford Factory Match Green and Red (Which, is really kinda orange) 0-2000* Pyrometer and the 0-60 PSI Boost gauge, along with the Areomotive 2 pod pillar, which I painted with some interior paint from O'Reilly's. Not a PERFECT match (the O'Reilly's doesn't seem to have a blue base like the gray OEM does. Its alright though, its not off enough to bother me.

Per the instructions I aquired a Letter R Drill Bit (wow, talk about a fiasco), and if you've never heard of Letter drill bits... well as I understand it there are Fraction Bits (1/2", 3/16" ect), then between those sises are Number Bits (5, 6, 7, ect) and then finally, between all those sizes are Letter Bits. Good luck finding just one! I ended up buying a 115 pc set from Harbor Freight. No big deal, it was like $50, though they had sets that were almost $200. Quality wasn't an issue like I thought it would be, but that was just for using good sense.

I also had to have a 3/8 NTP Pipe tap. No prob, I had been planning on getting a small tap set from Sears (Whoot lifetime warranty!) so I went ahead and did that.

Okay, down to the dirty work. I used the letter R bit to drill a lovely hole in the driver's side exhaust manifold for the Pyrometer. Don't drill this with out oil! I dipped the bit in some clean Delo (why buy drill oil when motor oil is sitting on the shelf?) and got started. I did not drill very much before dipping it in the oil again. It did not take long to burn the oil off! This defiantly saved my drill bit, and I'm pleased to tell you that bit wasn't dulled in the least. In fact, after I was done, I cleaned it up, re-oiled it and returned it to its box. Looks just like new. Another pro of using the oil is it helped capture the metal shavings so I could keep them from falling in the manifold. I don't know if any body else worries about shit like that, but... I guess I do.

After that I tapped it, which was easy, though I had to hit it with the drill once more to take a burr off that was catching the tap.

Final Result:

Then... I had to take my sister home, because she brought me her Pontiac G6 that needed a water pump, so I left it. And we had a sandstorm.

Finally, two days later I returned to my project. Holy cow.

Spliced my boost sensor into my MAP line, since I'm going to make big changes to my turbo configuration at some point.

I got some high-heat wiring wrap to protect my wiring lines, in blue of course, and fed everything through the factory port behind the clutch.


A fused hotline from passenger battery runs though there too, to my relay that I hid behind the trim panel around the hood release. I added it to the two factory relays already hidden there, and wired into my fuse box for key-on power. I grounded to a factory ground bolt also behind that trim panel. Everything is zip-tied up and tucked away with the factory wiring.

Relay:

Finished product as no wires visible. Which makes me happy!

Once the pillar was mounted (which I hid all the christmas-tree grommets on the windshield side of the pillar, so you can't see them), and everything wired in, I reassembled my dash, and turned it on. I was mildly concerned I would blow a fuse, just because I'm a pessimist, but no issues at all.

Also, I hooked the backlight power source into the factory backlight fuse and... amazingly it dims.

Final Product:

I also installed a new light knob while I had it apart, as Beastin's original one was broken from being jerked off, rather than removed properly.

I'm fixing to embark on a huge project with this truck, which I shall document and publish with photos. I'll try to be better about the pics, I kind of get carried away working and forget to take them.

Diesel's never die, they just get reborn.