So, I drove this thing 260 miles yesterday. Out to CMP to hang at a Lemons race. We rolled in last night about 11pm. I needed to move the bus this morning to get it cleaned out and put up and found it had no power steering or brakes.
That might be a problem. 
It's going to be a bit of a PITA to change as well.
Unbelievable - the only better places for that to break would have been in your driveway or a napa parking lot. So glad it wasn't on your way there or as you were headed home!
In reply to jfryjfry :
260 miles was round trip. It busted in the driveway at home.
Well, I was right. Changing that belt SUCKS!!!.
Step one. Remove, radiator, exterior fan shroud, intercooler, interior fan shroud, then you may be able to see the belt. Naturally the busted belt is the inside belt, so remove outside belt, which looks new.
The belt has a Carrier part number, which means no one stocks it. Even a cross referenced belt isn't stocked. And it was rather expensive at $60.
The good news is, if the engine was in SanFord, it would be a fairly easy job. I'm looking forward to getting this thing moved.
So we made a rallycross run today towing the Polaris. Things didn't start off too well. We rolled up to the gate for the track 50 miles from home, and the f'ing belt broke again. In the exact same place. A little studying determined it broke on the compressor pulley for the front AC both times. A close look at the belt showed it to look a little melted. Particularly the inner core.
I checked all those pulleys when we changed it last time and everything turned smoothly, but for some reason the compressor pulley is heating up. ???
The good news is, the second time changing the belt is much easier than the first. We even managed it without removing the radiator and intercooler.
The Polaris did come in handy today.
When we rolled back into the yard this afternoon, I turned the hose on the pulley while idling. That cooled things down and kept the next belt from failing.
sounds like a bearing in the compressor is starting to fail, as in locking up once in a while, causing the belt to melt.
This is getting to be way too common around here.
Good news though, I think I found the source of the belt failures.
I checked this clutch the first time we changed the belt and didn't notice anything major. I'm now wondering if the compressor seized up the first go around, causing the clutch to slip and heat up the pulley, causing the belt to fail. The second go around then caused by the bearing having been cooked by the clutch failure. I tried to find a bypass pulley for it to no avail, so it's getting a compressor for now, just to carry the belt.
Is there an echo in here?
This happened this weekend. It should solve the belt problems.
Uh oh. Is that a rod knock? 
In reply to ClemSparks :
A lot of what I found lists that as injector knock. Commonly off the #8 injector because it's the last in the line. True or not, I'm not going to worry about it until I pull the engine. While it's on the stand it's going to get all kinds of TLC.
Edit: It's not that noticeable in person. That must be a frequency the microphone in the my phone likes. It also goes away just off idle.
Yeah...I was just guessing at what had "happened" in the video. I can't imagine trying to get an accurate audio recording of that monster.
So now I'm guessing what "happened" over the weekend was that you got it put back together and running. My bad... and...cool!
It ate the front A/C compressor last week. It's a fairly major undertaking to replace it, but it's done.
Found this from SanFord.
Let me get this right, you paid $1,500 for this from a government auction? What's the wheelbase and what's the interior length. Something like this look like the perfect basis for an RV conversion, not for you obviously. But damn, it looks like the perfect start.
Wait, there's a rallycross site near you?
since when? Last I looked there was NOTHING until alabama, virginia, florida...
Adrian,
$1500 was a steal. The only reason I can see that it was that cheap is people are scared of the 6.0L Powerstroke. Other than some accessories failing, it's been pretty reliable and gets 12 mpg towing my trailer. It will be dragging the Abomination to a autocross at the Michelin Proving Grounds the end of the month, about 6 hours round trip. I'm hoping I have worked all the bugs out of it.
Mad,
SCR-SCCA started a rallycross program this year. We have hosted 4 events so far, with another coming up in November. Our first event had 53 drivers, but the average turnout has been around 20-25 drivers per event. We are a little short on cars at the moment so we end up with some cars with 4-7 drivers on them, but we still get the runs done fairly quickly. We also have a lot of new drivers. I'm currently leading MR for the season with a stock P71 on Mustang wheels and snow tires. The schedule can be found here. http://scsportscar.com/ The events are at Midway Motorsports Park in Greeleyville SC. That's about a 3 hour drive for you. First car out is about 10am and we are usually done by 3, with 8-10 runs each, plus time for fun runs.
A little more information about this. Wheelbase is 156". LOA is right at 23'. The space behind the driver is 15X7 and if I didn't already have SanFord the RV conversion would have already started. It would work well for two people.
You'll be at MPG? hmm. I need to show up.
If i'd known about the rallycross I'd probably have changed my mind on buying the thunderbird. I just cannot take the idea of thrashing it offroad. (at least not yet)
Barring some cat-ass-trophy, I'll be there. Big bus looking thing towing a little white car.
Round trip to the Proving Grounds complete. Total mileage was right at 390. 90% interstate running 68-72. It will be interesting to see how the fuel economy turns out. I'll be filling it up in the morning to make a family run to a family reunion. Should be another fun day.
The trip included some fairly decent hills. I'm impressed with the torque this engine has. You can roll into the throttle at the bottom of a hill and either maintain speed or accelerate to the top.
I still really like this thing, I can't believe how cheap you got it.
Forgive me if it's already been asked, but are you doing any of the "bulletproofing" mods when it comes time to live under SanFord's hood?
In reply to Run_Away :
Oh yes. It will be bulletproofed when it is moved.
Any tuner progammers or power adders?
In reply to RossD :
Maybe. The 6.0 is a lot more reliable at E series power levels than it is when boosted. I think I would rather have the reliability.
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