Hello all, I recently got ahold of a 1993 F150 XL pickup in a trade for an old dune buggy I had sitting around collecting dust(got tired of fixing it constantly).The truck only has a tad over 90k miles on it and is in surprisingly good shape(it was previously a fleet work truck). Only a little rust around the rear wheelwells. It has the I-6 motor and the Borg-Warner 4speed w/OD standard, pretty bare bones. I have a decent amount of experience with motors/trannys and the like, but not so much with street worthy cars, all in off-road machines where everything is easy to get at. Anyway, I have a few questions here:

1: It doesn't have a factory tach, and I would like to install an aftermarket one. Nothing fancy, just a basic $50 Sunpro one I have. I've poked around and found that you can just splice the sender wire off an existing one in the box, and run power/backlight off the headlight ****. But how does the dashboard come loose so I can get the wires through? That seems like the toughest part. There aren't any obvious screws, but I guess there never are. Or is it possible to get the wires through without moving it? I don't really care if I have to drill a small hole in the dashboard, this truck is going to be my "old beater" so-to-speak car to haul stuff around.

2: The engine runs fine, it always starts right up and has a smooth idle. But there's a "lag" when you step on the gas unless you really baby it up slowly. It never stalls, but can be a little annoying espically since it's a standard in "stop and go" driving. I've heard the injectors in this motor are prone to problems, something there perhaps? I put a bottle of FI cleaner in the gas and it seemed to help a little, but there is still a noticable lag. I know no "mechanic in a bottle" will completely fix it, but I don't want to spend big $$$ to fix a minor problem. I've used K-100 additive in lots of things before and it's worked wonders, too bad it's so hard to find.

3: Is there a difference between the two fuel tanks? The guy I got it from said he thought the front was larger but wasn't really sure. He also said that the rear tank was almost never used(he'd had it a year and never used it) but the gauge reads about 1/8 back there. What worries me a little is that filling up the real and using it could be bad since there could be sediment and crap all collected back there that would go into the motor. Any advice on this?

Thanks in advance for the help, this is actually the first Ford and first pickup I've ever owned.

 

Howdy and welcome!

1. Where do you want to put the tach? Also, be aware a junkyard cluster with a tach is plug and play if you can find one.

2. Id reccomend a fuel filter (need a line tool to change it), Motorcraft wires and plugs, and anybrand cap/rotor as a basic tuneup. Hows the air filter look?

3. I believe the tanks are a different capacity, but if the rear wasn't used in a long time, I'd pull the bed (easier than dropping the tank) and check out whats goin on in there.

Oh also it is the Mazda M5OD-R2 five speed tranny

Adrianspeeder

 

Thanks for the tips. I could have sworn it was the Borg-Warner, but I'm sure you know more about Ford trucks than I do.

I was planning to mount the tach in a little indentation area in the dash, just to the right of the "bump" for the gauge cluster, using the included bracket. I called the local junkyard and he said he didn't have any 93 F150's there at the time. Were the gauge clusters identical in multiple years? Maybe the yard has a different year truck that has a compatible cluster with the factory tach. So my truck has a hookup for the OEM tach behind the cluster? I'll try to get a picture of where I plan to put it tomorrow

I actually haven't had a chance to pop open the airbox and take a look at the filter yet(I've only had this truck for a little over a week). I'll take a look at it tomorrow.

For the rear tank, could I just pull the line off it and let the tank drain out, maybe pour a little gas through it to wash any sediment out? Or does the line go in the top? If it's a big hassle I guess I will just keep using the front, it seems to have a pretty big capacity, 10 gallons only got it just past half.

 

Well, I don't know everyting, but take note of the sticky at the top of the tranny page.

If your 4x4, the transfer case is a Borg Warner 1356

Any '92 F-series/Bronco, and '93 F-series cluster is plug and play. '93 Broncos and '94s F-series/Bronco's have airbag and all wheel ABS to worry about.

You don't think ford would let you get off that easy do ya?

Adrianspeeder

 

Brought it into the shop yesterday to get it inspected, didn't pass. The local shop that I brought it to said the mounting brackets for the rear leaf springs were rusted out and needed to be replaced before it could pass. A good $300 job, I'm sure as hell not going to do it myself. Oh well. Considering that I got the truck at no financial cost, I can't really complain that it needs a little work. The earliest I'll get it back is tomorrow, but more likely the day after.