In reply to GhiaMonster :
your friend with the Ram sounds like one of us, buying rims and tires for a vehicle he doesnt yet possess.
In reply to GhiaMonster :
your friend with the Ram sounds like one of us, buying rims and tires for a vehicle he doesnt yet possess.
In for the road trip.
I'd never heard of the 351M so I went to the googles and wiki. It looks like it's basically a Cleveland 400 with a short stroke crank (Not from the 351C), 400 rods and super tall pistons to work with the taller deck height. If that's the case does that mean a 400 is just a crank and piston change away?
In reply to Adrian_Thompson :
I think it is, but it's been a while since I read up on 351M/400 stuff.
I know there's some oddball people out there building really rad high-horsepower stuff with a combination of 400 and 351C parts along with custom parts. I think it would be fun to do one of those to be different from the norm.
Easiest day of flying got us into town at 10:30 am. Got to meet the truck for the first time and was impressed. So clean for a couple of guys from NY.
We kept finding parts that would be completely gone on our trucks. The brake lines are original and in great shape! Did find a very soft rubber fuel line that started leaking when poked so a few feet of new hose is in order.
Got to mounting the giant tires for the other truck and had good luck , even getting beads seated without ether.
Made a Harbor Freight/ Orileys/ farm store run for various needs such as zip ties, duct tape, breaker bar, fire extinguisher, fuel line and gas can. This is in addition to the 30 lbs of tool in my checked bag. New wipers also made an amazing transformation to driveability.
The greatest find was during the drive when my dad said press that button on the stereo it does something weird. Out popped a screen and who would have guessed, this truck has a DVD player! That should make the midwest better.
New voltage regulator ordered for tomorrow since we have engine speed sensitive wipers and the charging gauge jumping around. Also going to see about hooking up an aux cable and trying to get the HVAC levers responding as they should. Luckily it is stuck on defrost.
To offset some costs of the trip, why not shop around and buy something rust free and flippable; tow it home?
That cup holder that plugs into the ash tray spot is legit.
Although the DVD player is cool in a late 90s kind of way, I sort of hate they cut the hole for a single DIN instead of leaving it with a vintage twin knob. At least it looks well done.
I love old Fords, great truck.
Love that truck. Smooth trip home or stories from the road, either way you win!
If you have any problems in Iowa let me know. I’m local to Iowa City
I was kinda sad about the dash cut. Would have loved to get something vintage looking with bluetooth. It it is what it is at this point. Cupholder absolutely and completely rocks.
We were able to get some new fuel lines on it with no gas spilled in the driveway and only a minor gasoline fight between the two of us. Pulled some sketchy wiring and got an aux cable installed to the rear input. No luck on the DVD player, it has a safety to prevent you from watching while driving that should be hooked to the ebrake light but is instead hooked to another input that we can't figure out.
Bought a diamond plate toolbox to give us a bit more room in the cab and while I'm usually against shiny diamond plate it so works on this truck.
Went to cars and coffee this morning with Dads 65 Comet Caliente and had a great time. Cruised in the Comet a bit and bow back to MT things like hiking and looking at mountains.
20 hours or so until departure.
I had one of those DVD players in a car once; they had it hooked up to a toggle switch to bypass the safety mechanism. 
(I think I used the DVD functionality maybe once...mostly a novelty. Eventually the screen quit working and then the radio functionality quit working too.)
East bound and down, loaded up and all that. 
First 170 miles gave us a fuel economy number of very bad. 7.8. no more top speed runs (84) for the next stage. Luckily it looks like both tanks are working since we sucked the rear one dry. To Sturgis
7.8mpg. LOL, makes me feel better about searching for an LR4 Land Rover. Keep this abysmal mileage up please, just to make me feel better.
needs moar front splitter
Made it to Sturgis, second fill up gave much better economy at 12mpg. Never have I been so happy for 12. The previous owner said he never used the rear tank so it may not have been real flammable gas anymore. Fuel filter certainly picked up some junk, have a spare if needed
In reply to GhiaMonster :
50% improvement!
Hypermiling!
Nice improvement in MPG! I used to check what my 351 Cleveland Cougar got but stopped worrying about it and now just enjoy the drive.
We don't have a functioning fuel gauge for either tank so unfortunately fuel economy is getting tracked more than we would like. The hope is for 10mpg in the V10 Dodge tomorrow if that makes anyone feel better about their junk
In reply to GhiaMonster :
You can get a repro dash bezel that will hide the cut dash. That’s what I did on my 77, then installed a vintage look two knob radio with Bluetooth and an aux cable. You can see the new bezel and a bit of the radio in the pic below.
GhiaMonster said:Made it to Sturgis, second fill up gave much better economy at 12mpg. Never have I been so happy for 12. The previous owner said he never used the rear tank so it may not have been real flammable gas anymore. Fuel filter certainly picked up some junk, have a spare if needed
Welcome to the world of old 70's 4x4's! My Power Wagon is getting a similarly bad 8-10mpg consistently no matter what.
That thing looks great! Good luck on the trip home!
Cotton, glad to hear about that option. Finished the night in Chamberland, SD after checking out Mt. Rushmore and the loop through the Badlands. Cool stuff. Up early to get to Iowa and rendezvous with the next truck.
Headlights actually worked pretty well until bugs conspired to block out everything
Nice pics.
Glad that the trip is going smoothly for you.
SD is an awesome place. Hard to move to and you never really move out.
Pete
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