1962 Ford Falcon Ranchero Duratec 2.5 Econoboost

mjlogan said:

03Panther said:

I, like Dirtydog, have been a fan of old school Falcons and Comets since before they were old school! I diggin' the "Ford engine swap for a Ford" plan as well. I love a SBC, and understand why they went in EVERYTHING for many years (and now the LS - I get it. I really do) But this is so much cooler!

I'll be honest it was really close to having an LS in it due to a massive LS knowledge base between friends and family. In reality a nearly stock 5.3 would have bern easier, quicker, and made the car faster in a straight line. My first car was a Merkur XR4ti so I guess I've got a thing for obscure turbo 4 cyl fords that I couldn't shake 

Current turbo ls owner here have it for sale as we speak to fund more unique lower power builds. 
 

Just because the ls ticks all the boxes doesn't mean it's always the right choice. You're going to have something really cool and fun here. Can't wait to see the final result. 

I really appreciate all the kind words. I'll do my best to keep you all along for the ride.

Got totally sidetracked today and finished up the exhaust. Well until I get annoyed with how loud it is. 

Originally the only muffler I had was an oem GM resonator. That didn't muffle much, go figure. So I swapped it out for a summit special which is probably just as useless.

my off road background taught me to overkill hangers. It has 5 hangers with a flex pipe after the down pipe. I like to wrap my hangers like the OE's do. Too many loud weekends in the desert after hangers broke off.

made this funky bracket to support the turbo and take some forces off the header

Great car--love the creativity and motivation here.  I built a '63 a few years ago with the hen's tooth 1997 distributorless 5.0 and 4r70.  Still have a '63 Falcon with an LS . . .  Keep up the good work!

rustomatic said:

Great car--love the creativity and motivation here.  I built a '63 a few years ago with the hen's tooth 1997 distributorless 5.0 and 4r70.  Still have a '63 Falcon with an LS . . .  Keep up the good work!

Love it! The brown makes it, great color. I considered a 5.0 like you did. Does your ls swapped 63 have anything left of the shock towers?

Got a couple hours in this morning. My event planner has activities planned for us so I hit the garage at 530 am and finished the cluster.

wired

and installed. Didn't realize it was white painted AL sheet, thought about running the DA sander over it but it's growing on me. You'll notice I added some character with the 3" holesaw. Oh well, fits the quality of the rest of the build.

mjlogan said:

Got a couple hours in this morning. My event planner has activities planned for us so I hit the garage at 530 am and finished the cluster.

wired

 

and installed. Didn't realize it was white painted AL sheet, thought about running the DA sander over it but it's growing on me. You'll notice I added some character with the 3" holesaw. Oh well, fits the quality of the rest of the build.

Love it. I don't see a fuel gauge - what's the plan? Or does that air:fuel gauge do more than one function?

In reply to mjlogan :

My '63 Falcon has nothing whatsoever that is Ford-derived anymore, so the shock towers hit the road many years ago. I've had it for 11 years, so in that time, it has become a Chevy, primarily based on a perfectly good 1992 Corvette . . .  No brand loyalty going on here.

The Ranchero had the awful GT 40 heads (weird exhaust placement) though, so I actually had to notch the hell out of the shock towers just to access the spark plugs. LS would have been easier in that car.  I think it's white and in Tennessee now . . .

Hats off to you rust belt guys, I don't know how you deal with this crap. 
 

Anyone have recommendations for sound deadening or insulation to go under carpet? I've used kilmat before but that would get expensive for a whole floor.. Peel n seal maybe? 
 

I thought I was doing cool stuff with my old Ford. You sir are on another level. 
 

Interested to see how you like the oil pressure gauge. I have the same one.

Ooo! I love it!

So, megasquirt related, which one did you get? For the iac and vvt, you should be able to run them both at ~150hz. That matters depending on the MS you're using, as some can only do one pwm frequency at a time, but you should be able to use that frequency across multiple outputs (Matt, or someone else with more experience please correct if I'm wrong!). You probably want to get the vvt up and running sooner than later. There are a few duratec/mzr groups on faceyspace that have some good info, like the stock vvt maps (run it closed loop). 

Not sure why the text got smaller, this board interface is a little weird from a phone. 

mjlogan said:

That looks like an ms3 to me, so I think that means you can have two pwm frequencies, but you'll need to verify which outputs (which pin/wire) the non iac/fidle ones (for vvt) are as options.

Norma66-Brent said:

Interested to see how you like the oil pressure gauge. I have the same one.

So far I love it, it has had nothing but good news for me.  I thought I was getting a great deal when I bought it from summit, until it showed up without a sender.

bluej (Forum Supporter) said:

Ooo! I love it!

So, megasquirt related, which one did you get? For the iac and vvt, you should be able to run them both at ~150hz. That matters depending on the MS you're using, as some can only do one pwm frequency at a time, but you should be able to use that frequency across multiple outputs (Matt, or someone else with more experience please correct if I'm wrong!). You probably want to get the vvt up and running sooner than later. There are a few duratec/mzr groups on faceyspace that have some good info, like the stock vvt maps (run it closed loop). 

Not sure why the text got smaller, this board interface is a little weird from a phone. 

 

 

 

Its an MS2.  Knowing what I know now I wish I would have got off my wallet and ordered and MS3.  Oh well.  

I'll try changing the IAC to 150hz, thanks for the tip.  Have you or anyone you know ran one of these 2.5's without vvt for any length of time?  I'm curious as to how much I'm giving up by not hooking it up.  My initial (and probably flawed) thought was to set it up on/off with a programmable output based on rpm/load. 

Part of me wants to just throw a fixed intake cam in there to simplify things.  

mjlogan said:

Anyone have recommendations for sound deadening or insulation to go under carpet? I've used kilmat before but that would get expensive for a whole floor.. Peel n seal maybe?

Don't do PeelNSeal that close to exhaust, it'll melt. I did a strip of PnS on every panel in my XJ and didn't notice much of a difference. It's a panel vibration damper, not a sound blocker and even then, not great.

There's some decent (haven't checked since covid, so maybe not) Russian stuff (like Dynamat) available on eBay; I think I used it in three different cars.  For sound, there's some pretty good 1/2" high-density foam stuff at Summit that comes in pretty large slabs; one side has stickum on it.  That said, even if you live in a low-rain area, expect your cowl vents to cover your carpet in water if it rains.  Yay old Ferd . . .

buzzboy said:

mjlogan said:

Anyone have recommendations for sound deadening or insulation to go under carpet? I've used kilmat before but that would get expensive for a whole floor.. Peel n seal maybe?

Don't do PeelNSeal that close to exhaust, it'll melt. I did a strip of PnS on every panel in my XJ and didn't notice much of a difference. It's a panel vibration damper, not a sound blocker and even then, not great.

Copy that, I priced out some Kilmat and around $65 would do the floor and back of the cab.  I'm not expecting it to be quiet by any means, mainly just to quell the "man i wish i did that while I was in there."

mjlogan said:

I think I have some IAC settings wrong.  The thing sounds like a bumble bee when it is being pulsed.  I've had plenty of '90s ford trucks and I never remember being able to hear the IAC like that.  Maybe it is just reverberating through my aluminum intake manifold?  I think i have the frequency set at 52hz right now

Ford typically runs them at 300 Hz, although they don't need to hit an exact number. A good rule of thumb is to run the IAC at the lowest frequency that doesn't cause too much noise.

MadScientistMatt said:

Ford typically runs them at 300 Hz, although they don't need to hit an exact number. A good rule of thumb is to run the IAC at the lowest frequency that doesn't cause too much noise.

Thank you sir, I need to spend an evening with my laptop before I set out to actually drive this thing.  I'll add that to the list.  

I also need to come up with an ignition and AFR table so I can let autotune do its thing.  So far I just have the pre-loaded one that MS comes with.  I need to scale it for boost, obviously, but I ran across a few tables from similar builds that I will try to conservitavely mimic.  Maybe I'll post what I come up with so the megasquirt veterans can have a laugh.

Interior as done as I care to get it. $60 worth of carpet and insulation from Home Depot topped off with some junkyard 80s Camry seats

And I finally took it around the block!! Bucks and coughs off idle due to it being way rich but dang does it feel good to drive it after this last push! Tuning time finally!

In reply to mjlogan :

So cool! Do you have corner weights for this magnificent beast? 

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to mjlogan :

So cool! Do you have corner weights for this magnificent beast? 

The internet claims they weigh 2500-2700 lb stock. I would be terrified to put it on a 4 corner scale, this thing got whacked hard at some point in its life and is less than straight/square 

maybe I'll roll it across the scales at work sometime 

That interior turned out great!

Was this real time? Because if it is I feel like a major slacker

Norma66-Brent said:

Was this real time? Because if it is I feel like a major slacker

You and me both bud!

Do you have any tips on the home depot carpet job? I probably need to do that soon