B3R Garage: Getting the F100 up and Running with Down Pipes

Grandpa Go Fast's 1970 Ford F100 has taken much more time to get to where it is as than any of our other two projects. However, the Mad Scientist and I were able to get the massive monster over to the finishing garage to better prepare it for paint and the road.

The first order of business once the truck made it to the garage was to simply find room to put the massive tank. After parking the F100 next to the Capri in the garage, there was standing room only. Thats right, we actually had to push the truck into the garage because there simply was not enough room to open the doors after we pulled in. Check it out.

All we have to do is climb in the back window or hatch to pull them out !

Talk about making the Capri look small !

A few days later the Mad Scientist and I decided to pull the truck out and prepare the exhaust a little more so that we could actually start the engine without having the exhaust blow back into the engine compartment and start a carburetor fire—again. As usual, the Mad Scientist showed up with a few pieces of 2” pipe, a grinding wheel, the welder, and an idea. Unfortunately, the budget for Grandpa's truck is a bit lower and allocated differently than the other cars. However, using what we had on hand we were able to make a really good pair of down pipes for the truck that dumped out near the rear of the cab.

 '70 F100 Custom Downpipes 

After a few mock-ups, a couple welds, a little hammering, and some weld cleaning, Grandpa Go Fast's 1970 Ford F100 was fitted with the first of his planned three-stage exhaust system. Once the headers were installed again, we went ahead and attempted to fire the engine again without warming our knuckles or eyebrows! After a few tries and hearing that the engine either backfired up through carburetor or down through the new exhaust, I convinced the Mad Scientist to pop the cap on the distributor and rotate it 180 degrees. Sure enough, once the cap was back down and the under-hood ignition button was pressed, the truck roared to life as all others before it have. It was awesome. I whipped out the timing light hooked it up and set the timing to approximately 9 degrees-ish before killing the engine. Every time we hit the ignition afterwards, the engine fired right up as if it was ready for the road regardless off missing parts, pieces, and paint.

Eventually we called it a day and pushed the truck back into the garage until next time.