I just bought another 79 F350 today making it No.7 in the fleet amongst other 2wd and 4wd, 350s, 250s and a lone F150 LoL. These are amazing old trucks!
An amazing beautiful truck. Love to have that here in Virginia. Would definitely surprise ppl in my area not often you seen a black guy interested in owning and driving a lifted 70s ford lol
I'm right there with you, Brother!! I'm a 55yr old Black Man who got into the off road lifestyle, after I bought my '75 F250 Highboy. Almost the same color as Harry's truck, and looking to do a similar build, but not quite as serious because I still want to use her for a work truck.
I love this truck. Every detail adds to the look and/or function. A neighbor has a 2wd Ranger XLT of a similar vintage and I always slow down to look at it as I'm walking my dog.
Harry, I went through the same trouble as you with the bronze distributor gear. It's what all the magazines said to run with a roller cam so...that's what I did. Then, while I was driving to UNR for school one day, it just quit. I coasted off the exit at Mill St. and ended up towing it home ('69 Bronco). Pulled the distributor and found the gear worn down to nothing. I put a hardened steel gear in and have been running that ever since. That would have been the late 90's and I'm still running the same gear. Some said that the hardened gear would wear out the gear on the cam. Well, I'm on my second cam just trying to find one that's friendly to the fuel injection and the distributor drive gear was pristine on the takeout cam.
You must check: 1. Thrust surface on distributor gear to distributor base (where it mounts to the block) distance. 2. Shaft end play. How far can the shaft travel up/down in the distributor housing. 3. Cam installation, rear cam plug installation, and cam end play. 4. Material compatibility (gear to cam). 5. Condition of cam gear (did any of these gears damage the cam gear?) 6. Condition of block thrust surface. What does the thrust surface in the block (where the distributor gear rides) look like? Is it flat and polished or damaged in some way? 7. Condition of hole in block that mates to distributor shaft. Check diameter and make sure it's in spec. If it isn't, the distributor shaft will deflect and vibrate and wear the gear. Has many 460’s love them they’re strong & reliable
I bet the guy who sold you this truck loves seeing it's evolution. I prefer the look with the 40's, it just seemed perfect. Thanks for the great content Harry!
I watched this originally on the cheap truck challenge. As soon as you guys started making them into video. I also followed ttc every year( I read about them in the magazine, and then was thrilled when I found the videos in early days of RU-vid. Can't believe it's still the same truck. So awesome
Love the truck, only change id make is an upgrade to a 79 grille and headlights, that way you can upgrade to the led big square’s fo a bit more light. She’s a mean green machine!
Nice rig try adding zinc additive to your oil change it helped me , my 429 was eating cam shafts. They take the zinc and phosphates out of the oils for the newer unleaded engines
The question as to why they would need to put a bronze gear on is simple. Roller cams are hardened more than a flat tappet. Going through bronze gears is typical. Zinc is needed for flat tappets because it is a sacrificial layer a roller doesn't need that. Zinc is needed for a whole list of things besides flat tappet cams. Original flat tappet gears were cast and the hard rollers would eat them faster.
By the way the 1/10 rc crawler scene is running 1.9inch wheels, there are 4.1 and 4.75 inch tires,(the stance of most 4.3 looks exactly like your truck) . An rc replica of this truck might be pretty easy to do. Trx4 79 bronco body modified into a truck, I know I've seen similar wheels, somebody probably makes the nitto in a scale tire.... I think.
harry i run herbert cams roller cams in every engine i build for one reason, for $30 they put a cast distributor gear on the shaft and it is well worth the money!! i have never had anything but good things to say about this cam company, they have great pricing too almoast every cam i have bought,{including custom grinds} has been around $300 the boat cam was $360 {$30 for dist gear and i got a 4-7 swap for $30 too} you should check them out! i put one in my gmc and never have to sweat bronze gear wear! not to mention all the extra metal passing thru your engine as a result!
I see the 79 with the 400 I had a 79 back in 1980 with a 400 3/4 ton and I put on a high-rise Edelbrock anyhow was a pretty powerful truck, and the other thing is it's the only model that had the square headlights in the 70s
Nah, most 78’s had square headlights as well, the 78 Custom was the only trim level that had round lights, all the rest were square as were All 79’s…. And alot of guys claim to have a 400 when most aren’t 400’s, they’re 351M engines.
These Fords Have always represented the ultimate TRUCK to me..friend had one just like that but Sittin on Big Military Axels wth I want to say 50 somethin tires? practically it was a step down from a real monster truck in other words an I took my HS Gf over there for a ride as we listend to a ragen custom Stereo he had of Allen Jackson song Ford truck mounted to the top of his cab She later admitted she was quite hotbotherd bye the Ride thru the woods I tell ya it was the Baddest truck ever Rode in!! P.s Did not take Gf back over there again lol....BUT RITE BESIDE THESE FORDS ILL TAKE ME A 67--72 CHEVY 4X ANY DAY OF THE WEEK TOO...LOVE THEM FORDS THO..
I bought my first new truck in 77 and it was a Ford F-150 4x4 ranger with the explorer package. 400 ci and automatic. Brand new out the door with taxes right $6700. Love that truck but couldn’t handle the 9 mpg. Traded for a new 79 special ordered shitty Chevy that got 17 mpg and we hated. Live
@@warrenmcelroy4718 positive my brother bought a new truck the same year and his had the 351 M and 4 speed but mine had the 400. Good god I loved that truck but I couldn’t afford to drive it.
Love this one, have the same truck and would love seeing these built as something other than mud trucks. The green one that was on the fullsize invasion this year is also bad ass, y'all should get together and do a green Ford rock crawl
A HiBoy doesn’t have Dana 44’s, they have one 44 and one 60….. giant tires an a dana 44 is very ballsy, hell it’s ballsy enough on a Dana 60 rear, especially if you’re making any decent amount of power
@@danieldavis5242 so it’s been pieced together? We used to run 14 Bolt rear ends in our sled pulling truck because GM axle shafts were so much cheaper than the Dana 60 axles that it came with,but a ten bolt is a GM axle too and someone would have had to have put it in themselves. I don’t know much about them but I’d think they were either the same strength or less than a Dana 60. Also unless someone swapped the 390 in then it would have a 360. I know exactly what you’re saying though, unless the 360/390 engines are somewhat freshly rebuilt then they can be pretty gutless, I’ve had a lot of them through the years in old HiBoy’s and every one of them was wore slap out “still loved every single one of them though”. My brother has a 66 F250 4x4 that he put a Turbo Charged 6.9 International diesel into and it was definitely worth it, it had a 428 in it but it’s much more badass now. I have a 97 model 12 valve Cummins just waiting for a 76-79 Crew Cab F250 4x4, if I could ever find one in decent shape that is… so I’m with you 100% on the diesel swap, don’t even really matter what Diesel engine you decide to go with it’s definitely gonna be Badass
As long I bought the truck the 390 that's in it from the previous owner told me I all can say its gutless it smokes burns oil and I bleave needs new piston rings or something I would like to diesel swap it for torque then hp like to be able to reliable for mud blogging and rock crawling
What happens to all the distributor gearing filings since you're needing to replace every oil change there must be a lot of distributor gear junk in your pan or somewhere do you worry about that
