Intro and my trucks story

[Lukes_86]

Hey everybody!

I finally made an account after using the site for a year or so.

Firstly, I wanted to tell you all how great this site is! Its been a massive help, and my go to source for restoring my truck. Its been an amazing resource and i'm so happy to have come across it. It's great to be a part of a community that loves bullnose Fords. This leads me into my next part,

I think you of all people would appreciate the history of my truck, so here goes.

My name is Lucas and this is my 1986 F150 302 C6 2WD XLT Lariat, but it hasn't always been mine.


The truck started it's life in Saskatchewan, Canada. My wife's granddad bought the truck new in 86 from Tisdale Ford in Kindersley, SK. It was a good old farm truck that my wife rode around in when she was a kid (she was born in 86) anytime she was out at the farm in Hoosier. 1999 rolls around and my wife's dad buys it off of granddad, brings and switches it over to Alberta. My wife rode in the truck growing up in the early 2000s as well, with fond memories. Fast forward to 2018, wife an I had been together since 2011 and married since 2015 by that point. The truck had been sitting next to their shop for 10-12 years without being used. Her dad was selling for Ford for 500$ (Its a long story but her mom and dad don't know squat about vehicles or their value, sentimental or otherwise) so naturally, with its history, I couldn't not buy it. Especially after eyeing it up for years.

I initially wanted to do a full restoration on the truck, but limited time and funds snubbed that plan for a few years. We had just bought a house and were thinking of having kids. I had torn the truck down a bit and put it back together a few times but hadn't done anything substantial until this last October.


That's when it became a necessity to have more than one vehicle for daily driving. So I went to work tearing the engine down and replacing/cleaning/fixing everything that I could to get it running reliably enough for me to use daily. Obviously I could go on and on about all the things i've done so far. If youre interested, let me know and I can make another post with more pictures. I threw a new set on of General tires on and away I went. This is the first photo the night I thought the truck was ready.


This has been my largest project with any vehicle. I have always worked on my own vehicles but it has always been regular preventative maintenance, and not this old, late 90s/ early 2000s. I haven't stopped improving this and fiddling with that since October, and I can say that I know my truck inside and out at this point. I have an ongoing list of things I want to work on or tweak, it never ends but I enjoy that fact.

One of the best parts and the part i'm the proudest of is that I get to drive my 3.5yr old in this truck daily, to and from daycare. It works because of me, the history builds more and more because of a simple decision.

As part of the trucks history, which makes it more than just a truck for me, isn't just that it's been in the family from when it was new, but that it has nearly untouched documentation and paperwork. It has every registration and insurance form from both granddad and dad (which is crazy to me knowing these 2 guys).
It has the original dealership red bifold with the different booklets. The original keys and Leather Tisdale keychain which I use. Here's a photo:



To add to this, that dealership is still in business. So I contacted them and the man I contacted was thoroughly interested. He is the GM/Owner of the dealership who, in 86, was a new salesman who worked beside the original trucks salesman. He knew the man well, he has since passed but had some fond memories of him. My wifes granddad frequented Kindersley often and the GM knew who he was when I told him his name. He mentioned that he most likely saw the truck on the lot before granddad bought it.

I have a feeling a few of you may find the history just as interesting as me!

I think that might be the end of the story for now, Im always doing something on the truck, its in a great place right now but I like to fiddle. I want to replace a few suspension components but need to wait for some money.

Any questions, let me know! I love this truck and love talking about Fords ha ha.

Cheers,

Lucas

PS. Im new to forums so hopefully the pics load, might have done something wrong, I dont know.

[Gary Lewis]

Welcome!  Glad you joined.  

Before we get to the truck, you may have missed a small step in the process - reading the guidelines.  They are housed in the New Members Start Here folder, which is why we ask people to go their, read the guidelines, and then post their intro their.  So if you haven't read them please do and confirm that you have.

And now for the truck.  It is really wonderful that you are saving your wife's grandfather/father's truck.  Such a wonderful story!  And it is really well documented.  Super!

The truck looks really good, and if you are driving it daily you've done a good job in preparing it.  Sometimes that takes a long time and a lot of patience - and money.

And the pics loaded fine.  You did well.  

[Lukes_86]

Im sorry, I thought I did post into the new member/introduction section. Is it possible to move it there or should I delete this and post new?

[Gary Lewis]

No problem, leaving it here is fine.  Or I can move it if you'd like.  Your call.

But the key is for you to have had a chance to read the guidelines.  We hold everyone to them so need for you to know what they are.

[Lukes_86]

If you dont mind moving it there, that would be great, thats where i meant to post. I could have swore I posted in there. I did read the guidelines when I made my account a few weeks ago, but I will peruse them again.

[Gary Lewis]

Moved.  And all is well.  

[Lukes_86]

Thanks!

To add on to what you said earlier. It has been a journey to get it to run as smoothly as it is now, even with it being an EFI.

[Gary Lewis]

The EFI system on your truck is rudimentary.  It works well when everything is working properly, but it isn't very informative when something goes wrong.  So I applaud your efforts to get it working properly.  

[Lukes_86]

Uninformative is an understatement
Ha ha, thank you though. I have learned quite a bit a long the way.

[Gary Lewis]

From roughly 1986 to 1996 Ford made major strides in EFI.  The early systems were called "speed density", which means that the computer uses the RPM of the engine and the density of the air to determine how much air was just ingested and, therefore, how much fuel needs to be injected.  So if you changed out the cam, the intake, the exhaust, or basically anything the system was lost.  Plus the interface at the diagnostic port wasn't very informative.

But by '96 the mass airflow (MAF) systems had come along and those systems took a lot more into account.  You could change things and the system would still know how much air had been ingested.  And the interface was a federally-mandated OBD-II port with a whole lot more information.

So keep your system stock and learn what it is trying to tell you and you can have a truck that runs very well.  

[Lukes_86]

Thanks for that info!

In my quest to research as much as possible about my truck and this Era of ford, I've come across a lot of info. Naturally with them introducing EFI in 85/86, there seems to be less info on forums about 302s with efi. Even the parts guy at the napa counter in one of my local towns thought I was nuts when I was explaining the intake and what not. He thought they were still only carbed at that point.

I digress. In my search, I've read alot about egr deletes and removing the thermactor, etc etc. Some people see better performance, some see worse, some are carbed some are EFI. The only one I tried was removing the belt from the Alt to the Thermactor to see if it had any affect. After driving for a few weeks, I can say that it idled and drove worse. So I hooked it back up and voila, back to normal. Why do all that work getting everything up to snuff to just hamstring myself?

I've always planned on keeping it stock but that definitely made me not want to try and "hacks" or whatever.

Don't fix it, unless it's broke.

[Gary Lewis]

The EEC-IV system is pretty much all or nothing.  If you take something away it gets its knickers in a twist and can even put you in limp-home mode if it gets mad enough.  And in that mode you have no ignition advance so the power and MPG both go away.

The EEC-V system can be programmed and is a lot more flexible.  But if you have a stock system then the EEC-IV will do just about as good of a job supplying the fuel and a change would not be worth it.

We have some info on the system in several different places:

Documentation/Fuel & Air Systems/Carburetors, Chokes, & EFI/EFI and then the Instructions tab

Documentation/Electrical/ELECTRONIC ENGINE CONTROL (EEC)

Documentation/Electrical/EVTM/1986 EVTM and then the ELECTRONIC ENGINE CONTROL (EEC) section

There are more but that will get you started.

[grumpin]

Welcome!