“It’s ’Mater like Tomater without the toe” 🍅

[ponykilr]

We needed a replacement for my old Super Duty that we knocked a grand slam selling and I looked for several weeks. I need a reliable but not necessarily nice truck. Plane Jane is good and it doesn’t need anything but AC.

We found ‘Mater down in Mooresville for a great price. He’s a 2001 Super Duty 250XL with a good running 5.4 auto with 175k. He’s 4x4 with 4.10s and rear LS (10.5 TracLock is worthless) and some ghetto Dick Cepek wheels with decent 285 MTs.

My wife without hesitation said ‘Mater when I asked her to name him

He’s from PA so the bed has some iron worms but it’s not horrible. The cab and frame are solid.

Mater has stainless headers but they leak a bit. I already ordered and received a set of soft copper gaskets to fix that. He has a leak between the trans and case but not pouring. He needs front brakes.

The PO put in a rather nice bench from a late model F150 that is reminiscent of OBS seats and is comfortable.

I plan to start with cleaning up the inside and fixing the above mechanical issues and go from there. I envision ’Mater with DRW and a flat bed eventually but we’ll see how that progresses. Regardless the wheels have to go and a rear TruTrac will probably be added so it won’t be dangerous in the snow but have good traction

“It’s ’Mater like Tomater without the toe”

 

[ponykilr]

I cleaned the inside up well, scrubbing the rubber mat and seat with Purple Power after a thorough vacuuming. I rinsed it all with the hose and left it in the shop with the big fan blowing in it on high all night.

This morning it was pretty dry and I cleaned all the glass inside and wiped all of the dash and doors and such down with cleaner. It looks REALLY good. Even vacuumed the headliner and it looks like new.

Checking it out some more, these trucks do not have a downstream O2 sensor. At first I thought it was some kind of mod but nope, no bung and no wiring. I verified online, only California trucks of this era had downstream O2 so no cat monitoring

Of course it has the bastardized Y-pipe that is crimped to death at the front driveshaft and the T where the 2 pipes join instead of an actual Y Boggles the mind, there’s plenty of room to not have done this

The cat is rattling, it lightly rattles while running and the bump test tells the tale…ceramic is loose in there. The tiny Flowmaster looking muffler and dual tailpipes will be removed. I am thinking a new Y-pipe to high flow cat to muffler to exit in front of rear wheel.

First things first, the trans is leaking between it and the Tcase and the right header gasket is leaking too. Yes, it has stainless shorty headers on it.

More later.

 

[doc]

Cab lights, 4x4, regular cab...nice score!!

 

[Croatan_Kid]

Well...sounds like that'll cost too much to fix. Might as well Cummins swap it, right?

But really, might as well throw some long tubes on it to squueze out some torque to go along with that super nice exhaust setup you're gunna do. A single 3" with a high flow cat and good flowing muffler would definitely let it give you all it has.

 

[Lucas Brown]

It seems like you will spend a lot of time fixing this truck. Good luck and make sure that you keep us posted with the progress.

 

[ponykilr]

Whelp…I’d forgotten how bad rusty exhaust bolts and shite can up your blood pressure.

Old tailpipes out. Y-pipe dropped. Old cat and muffler out. Tomorrow starts operation “header gaskets”.

They’re the soft thick copper kind so hopefully all goes well and I never need to do it again.

 

[obullfish]

Whelp…I’d forgotten how bad rusty exhaust bolts and shite can up your blood pressure.

Old tailpipes out. Y-pipe dropped. Old cat and muffler out. Tomorrow starts operation “header gaskets”.

They’re the soft thick copper kind so hopefully all goes well and I never need to do it again.

5.4 exhaust leaks are a pita and a never ending battle. Had my 150 for 17 years and put 6 manifolds on over the years due to leaks and have the passenger side leaking at the moment.

 

[Croatan_Kid]

Hopefully the headers have a pretty thick flange on them!

 

[ponykilr]

5.4 exhaust leaks are a pita and a never ending battle. Had my 150 for 17 years and put 6 manifolds on over the years due to leaks and have the passenger side leaking at the moment.

Hopefully the headers have a pretty thick flange on them!

Headers are nice thick stainless. I think they’ll last if I can get these copper gaskets on it.


…well thars ya problum…

The 2 rear nuts are a PITA and therefore why the gasket blew back there, they weren’t tight. Fortunately I’ve put enough headers on LS F bodies to know patience and doing it right win the day.

 

[CasterTroy]

Headers are nice thick stainless. I think they’ll last if I can get these copper gaskets on it.


…well thars ya problum…

View attachment 352499

The 2 rear nuts are a PITA and therefore why the gasket blew back there, they weren’t tight. Fortunately I’ve put enough headers on LS F bodies to know patience and doing it right win the day.

@BigClay @77GreenMachine I'd bet good money this is what we are hearing from big reds headers

 

[77GreenMachine]

@BigClay @77GreenMachine I'd bet good money this is what we are hearing from big reds headers

Yup, sure of it.

 

[ponykilr]

The answer

 

[doc]

Probably the prettiest gaskets I have ever seen!

 

[ponykilr]

Probably the prettiest gaskets I have ever seen!

Look even better covered up to me

One side down.

Left isn’t leaking but it’s getting the copper treatment too. Ain’t stoppin’ now. Smeared a bit of Permatex Ultra Copper on both surfaces, it always performs on manifolds as long as you give it 24hrs before blowing smoke.

Git er dun.

 

[ponykilr]

Boy, I had the drivers side header off in under 10 minutes, it is much easier to get to those nuts.

I noticed that the oil dip stick tube was almost broken in two about at its mid point. No worries, I look on the O’Reilly website and ordered one to be there tomorrow morning.

Here is where things turned ugly.

The dip stick tube did not want to come out of the block. I sprayed it, heated it, wiggled it, cussed it…no dice. Then, it happened.

The tube tore off at the block

I took a few minutes and did some deep breathing and relaxation exercises

I decided to attempt to drive the stub that was left into the block and drop it in the oil pan. I spent 2 hours doing this. To say it’s in a bad spot and angle doesn’t cover it. I used a 7/16 aircraft drill bit (about 12” long) to cut the remaining lip from the tube and prepare for driving it down. I couldn’t see it, I could only take pictures and look at them to understand what I was dealing with

I used a 10” piece of steel rod aprox 7/16” diameter to slowly drive the rest of the tube into the pan. I had to constantly back it out and wiggle it around to keep it from getting stuck. When it finally punched through, I think I wept, I don’t remember much for a few minutes so maybe it was hysterical laughter…I dunno

I didn’t want to put the header on til I was sure that the tube goes in ok. I cleaned the head with a finger style Roloc and cleaned the header.

I will hopefully button it all up tomorrow. The Y-pipe, Magnaflow muffler and 3” Magnaflow converter are on order so no rush I guess.

 

[Croatan_Kid]

I had the same thing happen to me when doing headers on my 99 Silverado. I pulled the drain plug and the rest of the dipstick tube was stuck to the magnet. I'd rather be lucky that good most of the time

It had to dodge all of the rods, crank, and pass through a windage tray. Somehow it fell straight in to the sump!

 

[ponykilr]

I had the same thing happen to me when doing headers on my 99 Silverado. I pulled the drain plug and the rest of the dipstick tube was stuck to the magnet. I'd rather be lucky that good most of the time

It had to dodge all of the rods, crank, and pass through a windage tray. Somehow it fell straight in to the sump!

I am hoping it just drops straight into the sump. I will drain it and use this magnet I have on a super flexible/bendable wand to fish around and hopefully drag it out.

It probably wouldn’t hurt a thing but I’d feel better If I could snag it.

 

[ponykilr]

Dip stick tube went in, header went on, not gonna start it for a day to allow the Ultra Copper to cure.

Rolled it into the driveway and out of the shop.

I looked closely at the Tcase to trans junction. It appears some genius used RTV with no gasket which is why it’s seeping.

Next installment will hopefully be Y-pipe, cat, muffler.

 

[ponykilr]

The Y-pipe arrived and the Fel-pro cat gasket. I was able to get the right length stainless bolts and flare nuts from Lowes.

First issue was that the Y-pipe was misaligned. With the outlet in the right place and passenger header flange bolted up the drivers side was inboard about an inch.

I took the torch and heated the pipe at the bend where it started up and moved it over to the correct place.

I bolted it all up and started on the cat pipe. I bolted it to the Y-pipe with more stainless hardware. It pointed a little inboard so I took a ratchet strap and put pressure in the right direction and put the heat to it at another bend. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

I test fitted the Magnaflow cat and it slides right on. I’m waiting for the stainless band clamps to put it and the Magnaflow muffler on permanently.

Will post pics when it’s done.

 

[ponykilr]

Exhaust is done

I had the exhaust shop down the road bend me a short “tail pipe” from the muffler. He eyeballed it and gave it to me for a few bucks and I came home and clamped it and welded on the hanger.

I used 2 factory rubber hangers I salvaged from the old stuff and made new brackets from 1/4” steel rod.

Sounds awesome like every Magnaflow I’ve had. Deep when your on it and silent at cruise.

I painted it all with 2000 degree paint to help it last, the pipe in between the cat and muffler as well as the tail pipe are mild aluminized steel so the paint will hopefully keep it from getting rusty.

Next will be dropping the Tcase ‍

 

[ponykilr]

We’ve been driving ‘Mater around. Took some stuff to the recycling place, went and got the 2 new race jugs full of fuel, went and found my wife a pink Yeti Roadie 24…

It has been running excellent and drives very well. The exhaust sounds great and other than the trans fluid leak and it needing front brakes soon I believe it is ready to be the beater it was bought to be.

The nagging thing to me was the AC being inop. PO had no idea why but said while it was parked a while back for a few months it stopped working.

I put my gauges on it fully expecting it to be empty and end up needing an evaporator or some shite…but it had plenty of gas in it

I did some checking of fuses and relays. All good. Checked the high and low pressure switches. Good. Slid under it with my test light and whatdayaknow, it has power and ground at the compressor.

So I did what any intelligent repair person would do, I smacked it with a dead blow hammer.

Went right to work

I switched it off and on a few times and it stuck once more and got a smack. It hasn’t failed to pull in since. I have drove it around and let it cycle. I’ve switched it off and on, it’s doing fine. I guess it just stuck after sitting

So I have good AC and it runs well. I ordered some LED bulbs for the cab lights as 3 are blown. I have front rotors and pads to install and pulling the Tcase

The little beater that could is coming along.

 

[77GreenMachine]

So my AC started doing that. I chased it around like you wouldn’t believe, testing pressures and more and taking apart wiring harnesses, jumping relays etc. I finally discovered the clutch shim needed adjusting. Basically it wears to the point that with 12v is applied and the magnet comes on to engage the clutch, it can’t grab. But a smack will make it work. Sometimes it works as normal and sometimes it don’t. It was so inconsistent and that’s why it was so hard to find.

So what I did was take the bolt out of the clutch, pull out the clutch and the shim (tiny washer) behind it, and carefully engineered it with a calculated eye ball and a grinder. I had a cut off wheel on my grinder and using a glove put the washer flat on the horizontal cut off wheel for a few seconds.
This promptly shot said washer across my garage and took 40 minutes to find. Other than that is was a simple 10 minute fix and hasn’t given a problem since!

 

[ponykilr]

Tcase is out suspicion confirmed. Whoever had it out last used RTV with no gasket.

Today I learned I still have the will but the body is weaker than I realized. Wrestling huge hunks of metal on my back is almost out of my purview these days.

 

[Chris_Keziah]

We’ve been driving ‘Mater around. Took some stuff to the recycling place, went and got the 2 new race jugs full of fuel, went and found my wife a pink Yeti Roadie 24…

It has been running excellent and drives very well. The exhaust sounds great and other than the trans fluid leak and it needing front brakes soon I believe it is ready to be the beater it was bought to be.

The nagging thing to me was the AC being inop. PO had no idea why but said while it was parked a while back for a few months it stopped working.

I put my gauges on it fully expecting it to be empty and end up needing an evaporator or some shite…but it had plenty of gas in it

I did some checking of fuses and relays. All good. Checked the high and low pressure switches. Good. Slid under it with my test light and whatdayaknow, it has power and ground at the compressor.

So I did what any intelligent repair person would do, I smacked it with a dead blow hammer.

Went right to work

I switched it off and on a few times and it stuck once more and got a smack. It hasn’t failed to pull in since. I have drove it around and let it cycle. I’ve switched it off and on, it’s doing fine. I guess it just stuck after sitting

So I have good AC and it runs well. I ordered some LED bulbs for the cab lights as 3 are blown. I have front rotors and pads to install and pulling the Tcase

The little beater that could is coming along.

Check the ac clutch clearance and see if you need to pull a shim. Not sure what the specs are but I had to do it before on my Super Duty.

 

[ponykilr]

Check the ac clutch clearance and see if you need to pull a shim. Not sure what the specs are but I had to do it before on my Super Duty.

I ain’t saying it isn’t worn, but knock on wood it has not failed since I got it working.

If it does start giving trouble I will check the clearance. It’s cold too


Transfer case is back in and everything put back like before. It all seems good and I will keep a check on it for a few weeks. Had to be lack of the gasket

“Dumbass” …. in my best Red Foreman impression….

Only thing left is front brakes but I ain’t got it in me today.