Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Stacks!!


Finally installed my stack pipes today. It took my about 2-3 hours. Everything went pretty well except the front channel on my truck is closed in on all sides and there was no way to install the clamps. I created another way to fix the problem as seen in the video.

Another problem was the clamps which didn't seem to clamp. When I got home from my first drive I noticed the flex tube popped off underneath. I went ahead and welded the pipes in place instead of the clamps.

With all the problems out of the way the results are beautiful. It is really really loud when you hammer it, the vibrations shake everything. On the interstate when you hammer it at around 60mph, it sounds louder than a lot of semi trucks.

Love it!!

Monday, March 22, 2010

Spring Break

I had grand plans of installing my new stack pipes over spring break. Well, things did not quite go as planned. The stacks I ordered have been out of stock for about a month and only just yesterday was the money charged so I'm assuming they are finally on their way. I don't really have a lot of time since school is going to be insane for this last month and since I'm going to be doing a mower restoration because I'm mowerless and grass cutting season is rapidly approaching. However, I'm sure I'll find time to squeeze in the installation during my 1.5 free days per week, after all, it should only take a few hours.

I have been thoroughly enjoying the new air dog on my truck but I have yet to get a fuel economy number as I haven't used up a full tank since the installation. I need to go over the installation here on the blog for those seeking to know more info, maybe I'll do a youtube video or something.

The mower restoration project will be posted on my other blog.

Friday, March 5, 2010

beautiful 7.3L

The 7.3L Ford is a legend. I think there will be an eternal following of this wonderful motor.

The other day I was pondering the possibilities of 7.3L swapping and I ran across something very interesting. This is from the horsepower shop, it is called the Black Mamba 7.3L. They sell several built up versions, including one of the '94-'98's and two of the '99-'02 motors. This motor here is the most powerful one they sell which comes in at 500HP and 900Ft-Lbs. They've completely rebuilt this thing to make honest horsepower, not chipped horsepower. You could theoretically get another 100hp with a chip. After having a bone stock 7.3 which probably made under 200HP, I can imagine this would be one sweet ride. Check the link out to see what they've done to this motor. I'm really impressed with the solid upgrades they've put on this thing; not only would it be insanely powerful, it would last forever!



This is a 1970 I found on ebay this week. Buy it now was under $5k. This would be a perfect candidate for a black Mamba Powerstroke. if I had the money this beauty would be mine. This brings up another point... For $5k you could buy this truck, another $10k would get you a donor truck and the black mamba. So for $15-$20k you're getting an epic one of a kind ride... or you could spend $40,000 on a base model new truck. I'd go for the vintage muscle any day of the week.