Project Super Duty

[Blown F-150]

I had an ambitious plan to get the STC fitting swapped out today, but with the snow and the temp is meant to be dropping again today, I didn't want to chance it.

I ended up shoveling our walkway all the way out to the road (solid 100 ft) and then clean the vehicles off. Heather went off to Walmart for some last minute X-Mas shopping so I decided to cruise around the neighborhood to help some people shovel their driveways and push some stuck cars out of the snow.

I pooped myself out and then figured I could get my ScanGauge II "Blend mount" installed. Pretty straight forward, only took about 10 minutes.



I like it, I was messing around with the gauge a bit. It sure has a lot of features. 

[Blown F-150]

I'm up at my dad's today and since it's meant to be crazy cold tomorrow (currently -25f, meant to hit -40 with the Windchill), we rolled the truck into my buddie's welding shop and plan to tackle the STC fitting in the morning.

I'll post up pics and hopefully positive results. At the very least, I will be happy to know it's the updated piece.

Brrrrr

http://www.weather.com/weather/today/CAXX1561:1

Happy New Year everyone!

[Kitzy]

I don't get out of bed when it drops below 0.  Have fun with that.

[sscully]

You could always wait until THUR, it is going to get all the way up to 0 

Not like you have much sympathy for me, but we are heading back into single digits this week with snow.  Only good part of it is the snow is light and fluffy and the 48" shovel works great in it.

[Kitzy]

48" shovel?  I could use one of those.

[sscully]

48" shovel?  I could use one of those.

http://www.jmenterprises.com/48-THE-SNOWPLOW_p_16.html

Worth every penny.  He had them from 48" down to 12" in a few increments.

[Too Stroked]

48" shovel?  I could use one of those.

http://www.jmenterprises.com/48-THE-SNOWPLOW_p_16.html

Worth every penny.  He had them from 48" down to 12" in a few increments.

Man, that just gets me all fluffy. I may just have to get one of those bad boys. Thanks Steve!

[sscully]

Man, that just gets me all fluffy. I may just have to get one of those bad boys. Thanks Steve!

I got the 48" and after using it once I ordered 2 28" to replace the junk pushers that I had for the past 2 seasons from ACE.

I have done everything with it that they show in the youtube videos.
- pushing off deep snow, turning it over for a scraper and mashing straight down with it, like a slap chop,  to break up ice

After using them a few times I got dad & my sister a pair of 36" and 28" for XMAS. 
My sister loves hers, she got home on the 26th and they had 4.5" of snow since she left on the 24th.  Lucky she had them in the car, pulled them out got the snow pushed off to one side and got the car in the garage.  Went back and used the snow blower on the wind row she made clearing half the drive.

[Blown F-150]

48" shovel?  I could use one of those.

http://www.jmenterprises.com/48-THE-SNOWPLOW_p_16.html

Worth every penny.  He had them from 48" down to 12" in a few increments.

That looks sweet, I might have to pick up a 28" one.

[Blown F-150]

I am happy to say that the truck is up and running after the STC fitting swap. Thankfully it wasn't all for not as the truck did have the old-style STC fitting.

Overall it took me about 7 hours to get it all done. I didn't rush anything and only had a couple of things that slowed me up. I had a tough time getting the HPOP cover out and a couple of the bolts that hold it in place are very tight to access. But it wasn't too bad overall.

The original fitting did have some play in it, but not bad. It was good to see that the fitting wasn't beating up against the rear plate. The only downside is that based on it's condition, I doubt that it is the source of my long crank issue. Only time will tell.

Now, onto the Proof.

Old fitting


Some bit's in the box


HPOP back in place after new fitting installed


Why I was very thankful to be able to use a big heated shop to work in. This was on the drive home



I'll be taking a short trip (300 miles round trip) tomorrow, so we will see how it fires up once all the air is out of the system.

[Too Stroked]

Ryan,

I really do hope you find the gremlin under your hood - soon!

[Blown F-150]

Well, I am sorry to report that there hasn't been any improvement in my cold starts. I think the issue will have to stick around for a while. I will probably round up the adapter to air pressure test the HPO system sometime this summer. If the issue gets worse, then I should be able to pin-point easier. Not sure what I could have missed as I have touched pretty much all aspects of the HPO system, maybe a weak HPOP.

Although there is still an issue, I am very glad that I know for sure that the truck has the updated piece.

[Blown F-150]

If anyone is interested, here was our journey. Obviously there was some additional driving around while at each location.

http://goo.gl/maps/zng2H

[Kitzy]

That is a ton of driving.  And bad weather just makes it drag.  I may have missed it a while back but what is the reasoning for all of the driving you've been doing?

[Blown F-150]

My Pops bought a couple of sleds on a trailer just outside of Chicago, so I hauled them up for him. My wife and I have family that we wanted to see this holiday season as we may not be able to next year. It all added up to a ton of driving.

Due to the rural locations, it didn't make a ton of sense to fly up.