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ac started to feel like it wasnt all there, so i pulled the system down and recharged it. we recovered .88 kg's out of it and its supposed to hold 1.02, so i probably have small leak somewhere. ford tech buddy said common problem is the compressor seal around the main shaft, so that means new compressor is in my future. oh well. 135k and still going strong i cant complain. so with the correct amount of refrigerant in there i added a ball valve to the heater core
and now the ac is freezing. havent found my ac thermometer but its very cold. for those wanting better ac performace i suggest this mod very much. your blocking water from going to the heatercore which keeps heat out of the dash and away from the other ac components which yields colder ac output. only drawback is no heat while you have the valve shut. shouldnt be a big deal if you time it right, youd only be changing it twice a year, opening it when it gets cold out, and closing it when it gets hot. its a 3/4 inch hose, and you put it in the one that comes off the front of the manifold and runs back to the heater core. 3/4 inch OD barb fitting valve is what you need. i bought a 3/4 inch ball valve from lowes and the od of the fittings was 5/8ths, so i dont know what was going on there, i ended up getting a valve and two thread in barb fittings at a brass fitting/hydraulic line place, but at any rate the barb fittings need to measure 3/4 inches outside diamater.
now if you wanted to get technical, this does not hurt the heater core. lots of ford products have this feature, its called a heater control valve
that is one off a superduty/excursion. it comes that way factory, a vacuum line off the recirculate button activates it (correct me if im wrong, this is how ford technicians explained it to me) and it shuts down coolant flow to the heater core. if ford didnt think it would corrode your heater core, then you dont need to worry about it. not to mention there isnt anywhere for the coolant on the back side of the valve to go. it should just be hanging out in your heater core, i.e. i dont think it drains out and leaves the heater core empty.
that valve is pretty cheap, but i have auto climate control and im not sure if it goes into recirc mode on its own, so i didnt go that route because i didnt want it killing my heat on me in the winter time. those of you with non auto climate can probably find the vac line for the recirculate and tee in another line to feed said valve i posted.
and tinted the windows darker. this is 5% on the front doors (meters at 4) and 20% over the back privacy glass (meters at 4) and then the windshield is untinted but has a 5% strip across the top. im very happy with it, i may go to 50% over the whole winshield and no strip but we'll see.
Last edited by fivespeedsteed; May 24, 2015 at 04:22 PM.
Looks good! How did you peep the textured plastic? I my upper bumper is that same textured stuff and I'm curious how it'll hold paint in the long run.
thanks a lot! and I didn't lol. scuffed a little dirt off and just sprayed numerous light coats. I won't be driving that truck come September and i'm mostly having fun with her at this point, it looks good for now and if it peels it peels. if you want a proper job as I'm sure you do for yours, if just using plastidip, i'd clean and spray since its easily touched up, peels off and is a fully single stage product. now if you're using paint, I'm no pro especially for plastic, but I imagine sanding off the texture first, leaving it smooth of that texture but sanded, and then following normal proper automotive primer, paint, clearcoat procedure is the way to go. that's how I'd try it anyhow. not sure of a better way, if one does exist
Did you put an AAL back there? Or you just not on level ground? The stance looks better than before!
must be the ground. i have nothing done to the rear, factory leaf pack and block.
the quicklifts brought the front down about a half inch from my 2 inch autospring spacer, which somehow gave me 2.5 inches. quicklifts gave me 2 even.
it sits right now, on flat ground it measures within a quarter inch from front to rear. still squats a bunch when pulling a car so airbags may be in my future
Last edited by fivespeedsteed; May 25, 2015 at 11:26 PM.
must be the ground. i have nothing done to the rear, factory leaf pack and block.
the quicklifts brought the front down about a half inch from my 2 inch autospring spacer, which somehow gave me 2.5 inches. quicklifts gave me 2 even.
it sits right now, on flat ground it measures within a quarter inch from front to rear. still squats a bunch when pulling a car so airbags may be in my future
Gotcha. Either way, the truck looks good! Question for you, you said in another thread that the quicklifts put the geometry back to less severe angles on your suspension. Do you think it was the 1/2 difference or something to do with the quicklifts? I'm just curious because they do state those shocks will keep the agnles decent, but wouldn't a 2" lift from a spacer and a 2" lift from the quicklifts have the same angles since they're just doing the same thing.
Not doubting you, mainly asking because I have longer shocks that raised me 2" and am thinking about getting regular 2wd shocks and adding a 1" spacer. I want to lower my front end 1/2" and I've seen the spacers usually seem to lift our trucks 1/2" higher than stated.
Gotcha. Either way, the truck looks good! Question for you, you said in another thread that the quicklifts put the geometry back to less severe angles on your suspension. Do you think it was the 1/2 difference or something to do with the quicklifts? I'm just curious because they do state those shocks will keep the agnles decent, but wouldn't a 2" lift from a spacer and a 2" lift from the quicklifts have the same angles since they're just doing the same thing.
Not doubting you, mainly asking because I have longer shocks that raised me 2" and am thinking about getting regular 2wd shocks and adding a 1" spacer. I want to lower my front end 1/2" and I've seen the spacers usually seem to lift our trucks 1/2" higher than stated.
the quicklifts are only a quarter inch or so longer than the factory 4wd coilover, with no spacer. the spacer you bang on top of the factory coilover setup just overextends everything. its basically like putting a jack under your truck and lifting it 2 inches or whatever size you get. what that equates to is overextended downtravel. when i hit a pothole or was offroad sometimes the upper balljoint would hit the coil.
the quicklifts (as do the 5100 bilsteins) lift the truck by preloading the spring. which technically makes the truck ride better, because the springs are progressive (get harder the more they compress) so when you preload the coil, your already into the firmer part, which actually works better with stiffer load range e tire (which you will probably put on your truck if you level it)
Did my rims today and used the chrome caps off my blue truck! They turned out good I like it! Also but off the exhaust right after the axel so I can't see it anymore!
Did my rims today and used the chrome caps off my blue truck! They turned out good I like it! Also but off the exhaust right after the axel so I can't see it anymore!
one of the very few lowered trucks I like - maybe cause its not extreme. I like where this is going....I think you'll have quite a unique truck there if you keep it up
I didn't really take any progress pics but over the course of last night and today I installed a Homelink unit in my truck. It took a little doing but it was worth it and I'll never have to move our garage door opener from car to car again.
I also received a set of Weathertech floor mats as a gift about a week ago and I finally got around to installing those. They aren't the digital fit ones but I don't like the look of those anyway. These are pretty nice and the fronts fit perfectly.
The rear mats are another story and I'm pretty disappointed with them. They are too big and don't fit my "hump" on the floor. For how expensive these things are my expectations were much higher. I'll be contacting Weathertech about a return.
Even after trimming them they were still too large.
Next project is going to be installing my LED cube fog lights. I'm still trying to track down a OEM headlight switch that isn't overpriced.
I didn't really take any progress pics but over the course of last night and today I installed a Homelink unit in my truck. It took a little doing but it was worth it and I'll never have to move our garage door opener from car to car again.
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