Project Wicked Willys

Today

on trucks. We'll start a total frame up. Restoration of a classic 55 Willy's wagon. We'll show you how to prep the frame before dropping in a Mopar

small block into Project Wicked Willy.

After that, we'll take you for a ride in the latest creation from Ford's special vehicles. Team.

How does a production truck with a blower and 360 horses sound. Let's just say Ford has struck lightning once again,

it's back to the shop to reprogram the computer on your late model pickup.

That's all today on trucks.

Hello, everybody and welcome to this week's show. If you were with us last week, then you saw us hunt down our classic 55 Willie's wagon.

This week, we're gonna get started on project Wicked Willies by showing you how to pull the body off the frame and yanking the motor for a complete drive train. Sw.

Now, what this is gonna allow us to do is run the highway at speed

and just about any trail with the best of them. Now, remember there's some people out there that like to restore these old classics to original. So if you're careful with your disassembly, you can sell the old parts you're not gonna use and put some money back in your pocket.

Remember whenever you work on an old vehicle like this, make sure you have plenty of penetrating lube on hand to help knock loose those old rusty bolts. Let's go ahead and get started with the hood. Stace. Sounds good.

Now that your hood's out of the way you can take off your horns and your voltage regulator or anything else that might be bolted to the inner fender.

Now, remember if you're going to reuse your wires, make sure you mark them with some masking tape and a pen that way you won't forget where they go.

Now, since we're gonna rewire this whole thing, we don't need to do that

while Stacey is ripping things out of the engine compartment, I'll get started with the front bumper and shrub.

It also be a good idea while you're down here to go ahead and drain your radiator.

Now, we can remove the whole front grill assembly with the radiator still attached.

Oh, make sure that you haven't forgotten to unhook any wires

with the front grill assembly out of the way. Now, we can go ahead and get the fenders off

and there's a few more things we need to do before we can lift the body off. I'm gonna get started

unbolting the steering box from the frame.

Mhm.

Once you're done with the steering box down on the frame

unbolt the column from the dash,

then take off your steering wheel.

A puller will make that a lot easier.

Then just slide your column down to the floor

and out the bottom.

I'm also gonna remove the access panel from around the shifter levers. That way I can remove the levers from the transfer case and the transmission.

That way we won't get hung up when we pull the body off.

No, a Met's goofing around inside.

I'm gonna go ahead and pull this gas tank.

It's a good idea to drain it first. It makes it a lot easier to handle, not to mention a lot safer.

Now, even though this old tank wasn't leaking, it's a good idea to take them down to a radiator shop. Have them boiled out and sealed that way. It'll get rid of any corrosion that might be in there.

Last thing we need to do is pull the body mount bolts, make sure to use a lot of penetrating lube here and don't be surprised if you break a few of them off. Now, if you do have to cut any off, we recommend you use a cut off tool as opposed to a torch because all the old grease and oil could turn your rig into an open flame.

Now, we come to the most important part of doing a motor swap and that's taking your measurements

and remember you've got six points that could give you possible clearance problems the firewall, the hood radiator, both frame rails and the front cross member,

the forward line of the firewall on the frame rail,

then take measurements for your hood and radiator clearance.

One last thing before you ever lift the body off of a frame, make sure that the floor and the rocker panels aren't rusted through.

If they are, the body could buckle through here when you lift it. Believe me, that's a bigger mess than you ever want to have to deal with.

We're plenty strong here.

I've made one final check for any wires or lines and we're finally ready to pull the body off this thing. Hey, Stace, give me a hand, pushing this under the lift. You got it.

Now, for those of you guys who don't have a lift, a floor jack will do the same thing.

Now, when you're using a floor jack, you need to lift the body and slide a four by four between the body and the frame itself, then you can support it at both ends with saw horses,

then you can roll the frame out from under the body. Now, we have great access to the drive train and we can lay that old Hurricane six to rest. However, there are a few things we need to disconnect before we can hook up the engine hoist.

Yeah, the stock exhaust needs to come off

and you'll also need to remove both drive shafts.

Now, here's a common mistake that's worth pointing out. You can see that somebody added some extended shackles here in the rear to get some lift. Now, what that did was kick up the pinion angle and no doubt, cause some nasty vibration.

We're gonna show you how to avoid that later on in the project.

Now, we can hook up to a couple solid mounting points and pour our flathead six out, double check all your lines and wires to make sure everything's freed up.

Now, all we need to do is roll this frame to a pressure washer and clean everything up.

Don't go away. We'll unveil the motor we're gonna drop in project Wicked Willies. When trucks returns,

we think Ford has struck lightning with this production truck. We'll tell you why later in the show. But up first, we're going to drop that Mopar freight motor into Project Wicked Willy.

Welcome back. Everybody. After cleaning up the frame, Stace was able to cut off the old motor mount and is in the process of boxing the frame while he's taking care of that. I'm gonna go ahead and show you what we're gonna use to motivate project Wicked Willies. How does 300 plus horsepower straight from the crate sound? That's exactly what we're gonna get with Mo

Par's magnum 360.

Now, we're not gonna bolt just any clutch and tranny behind that motor. So

we're gonna go with a hay street and strip 11 inch clutch and pressure plate assembly to eliminate slippage off road.

Then we're gonna bolt in advance adapters, huge NV, 4505 speed followed by their legendary Atlas two transfer case for the ultimate off road set up.

As you can see, they don't build them any better than this. It's got a one piece aluminum case and it's gear driven so you don't have to worry about snapping any chains. It's also available in ultra low range for even the most serious of off roaders. But the best part is you can get it for any application

while Mel was filling in on the transfer case, I went ahead and bolted the transmission to the motor so we can mock it into place and get some measurements.

Now, remember there's no kit available for this particular swap, but that's good

because that gives us a chance to show you a few basic steps that you can apply to any motor swap into any kind of vehicle.

The first thing you wanna do is set the back of your valve cover about two inches forward of the firewall line.

This will keep the motor from hitting the firewall.

While Mel lowers the motor, I'll use the measurements we made earlier to make sure it sits low enough in the frame

right there. Mel, so we have clearance in the transmission tunnel.

Finally, you need to set the angle of the motor roughly 2 to 3 degrees down in the rear. Now, remember these measurements can be different depending on your application.

Now that we have our Mopar mocked into place, we need to build a drop cross member for the transmission because the motor is gonna be mounted low into the frame rails for firewall and drive shaft clearance, make sure you don't go too low. You could have clearance problems with your oil pan and exhaust on our application. We need to drop it two inches

and I'm gonna use this one by two thick walled square tubing for extra strength,

make wed shade cuts about an inch wide. And don't worry, you can do this with a hacksaw or cut off wheel,

then bend the tubing and we'll weld up the seams.

I've already drilled the holes for the transmission mount so states can bolt up the cross members. There you go, man. All right.

Now, once it's in place, then we can start building the motor mouse

to make each mount will make a cardboard template to get the right size.

Then we'll trace it and cut it out of plate steel

and weld them on.

Now, you can tack your motor mounts in place, then make sure you check your six points in clearance one last time. And if they check out

weld them in place,

the last thing we need to do is bolt on the Atlas two transfer case

on the same

station.

It's a heavy dog man. It is

one of the coolest features on this piece is, it has four different mounting options to give you ground and frame clearance on just about any vehicle.

It also comes with shifter extensions. So we don't have to shift from the back seat. Unfortunately, we need to shift to a break. But in the weeks to come project, wicked Willies will get new axles and a lift, not to mention a complete frame up restoration and then we can tear it up.

It's a lot of work to just take this thing out and tear it. What it's for though, man. Well, how about I tear it up and you fix it

now I tear it up and

I think it, yeah, exactly

up next on trucks will unleash the latest creation from Ford special vehicles team that's packing 360 horsepower.

Well, after a three year absence, Ford is struck again with the 1999 lightning and if the numbers from our dyno run are any indication Ford has struck a cord with the design of this Ford truck that will even impress the Siri Hot rodders 320 horse at the rear wheels. And Ford's numbers are 360 at the motor.

Now, I suppose you're wondering how Ford does that with her 5.4 L V8.

Well, all you have to do is pop the hood to see the answer.

They started with a steel crank connected to forged pistons, topped that with aluminum heads

and then finished everything off with an eating super charger that kicks out eight pounds of boost.

Of course, all that intake won't do you any good if it can't escape.

So they added tuned exhaust manifolds blowing out through a dual exhaust system.

I'll tell you what Stacey, it sounds pretty impressive, but I think we should take it over to Music City raceway and see what it really feels

way

ahead here.

All the lightning's power is channeled through a four speed automatic tranny that easily handles the torque. A 355 limited slip rear end keeps the 18 inch Goodyear radials glued to the pavement for a 0 to 60 time of just over six seconds. The lightning also attacks the quarter in the mid 14 s

pretty impressive for a truck that has a 5000 pound towing capacity as well.

Any time you drop the hammer, you eventually have to consider dropping the anchor.

The lightning's taken a page from the f 250 super duty catalog with four wheel disc brakes and huge vented rotors

that pulls in the range from 60 miles an hour at 137 ft.

That's only 10 ft more than its famous stablemate. The Mustang cobra don't get the wrong impression though. The light needs more than just get up and go. Unlike the muscle cars in the sixties that scared you through the corners. This ride is more than just straight away speed thanks to a five leaf spring system in the rear that replaces the standard three leaf set up in the f 150 special coil springs in the front gas shocks and thicker stabilizer bars in the front and rear, get you through the corners as well as any sports car.

Now, granted most sports cars have the advantage when it comes to aerodynamics,

but Ford has evened up the score with the front facia and ground effects that reduces turbulence under the body.

Of course, it's hard to enjoy performance without comfort and the lightning strikes up the best of both worlds with gray leather and black cloth seats and to keep tabs on the performance end is a white face cluster that includes a gauge for your super charger, right where you need it.

Now, if you think the lightning is out of your league, you're probably wrong. You can turn the key and stomp the gas on one of these for under 30 grand. Don't go away. We got more trucks for you right after the break.

Welcome back to trucks. One of the biggest questions we get is how do I get more horsepower out of a computer controlled vehicle?

Well, you can always bolt on a set of heads, change your pulleys or upgrade your exhaust.

But the easiest way to get performance gains without voiding your warranty is with hypertext power programmer three. It allows you to change your shift points, rev limiter and pick up some extra ponies in the process. But before we can plug it in, we need to get the baseline numbers on our 99 Silverado.

The old Silverado is showing 100 and 90 horsepower and 230 ft pounds of torque at the rear tires. That's not bad for a stock truck, but we can improve on that.

The only modification we're gonna make to the motor is install hypertext, power stat, which goes for about 20 bucks and replaces your stock thermostat.

Oh, yeah. Make sure that your motor is cool before you drain the radiator.

Now we're ready to reprogram the computer, which is really easy.

All you have to do is plug into the computer input,

turn the key without starting the motor to power up, hit the button and hypertech takes care of the rest.

All right, states, let's do another run.

As you can see, we picked up over 20 horse and foot pounds of torque using hypertext setting, which is perfect for our stock. Silverado.

Another neat features. You can custom program your vehicle based on your tire size axle ratio where you want your shift points and even the octane you're running in your fuel. The bottom line is for about 450 bucks. You can pick up some nice gains for the street or the strip

when you use a pair of wire cutters. There's a good chance that the small piece of wire that you cut will go flying and not only is that extremely dangerous, it's pretty annoying.

A good way to prevent this is to close your cutters and fill this gap with some silicone. Now, once the silicone's dry, slice it down the center with a razor blade, this will allow the cutters to open. So the next time you go to cut a piece of wire,

the silicone will grip the small cut piece and keep it from flying anywhere.

Don't worry, these things will work exactly like they're supposed to.

Most people think the 59 El Camino was the first vehicle that combined truck and car, but it was actually the Ford Ranchero in 1957 that successfully pulled off the combination

and now truck gear, parts, tools and equipment for pickups and sport utilities.

Our first item today is gonna make climbing in and out of the business into your pickup a whole lot easier. It's called the tailgate step from Steel horse. It's made of high strength aluminum alloy, so it won't rust. And since it flips inside the tailgate, it won't reduce your cargo space either. There's no assembly required so anyone can install it.

And for about 50 bucks, it gives everybody a safe and handy way to enter

and exit the better your pick up

if you're gonna paint your truck de

vs has come out with their finish line series HV LP gun that's worth taking a look at.

Now, it's available in standard or gravity feed and it's lightweight and well balanced, which makes it easy to handle.

But the real benefit using this type of gun is that it reduces overspray by up to 50%.

That means less paint usage by you and a lot easier cleanups,

shoot your projects with the

VBA for about 100 and 75 bucks.

Now, when it comes to wiring, most people consider it a huge pain.

but that was before painless wiring came out with this complete kit that we're eventually gonna use on project Wicked Willies. It includes all the hook ups for the engine, headlights, dash and rear lights, and the color coding makes installation a no brainer for even the novice electrician.

Make upgrading your electrical painless with this kit for about $300. That's gonna do it for this week's truck gear. Here's a preview of next week's show

me and Stacy get the suspension on Wicked Willies ready for the trail in the rear. It'll be a high pinion nine inch board while a Dana 44 leads the way in the front. After that, they'll take a look at a rare bow tie, the 57 cameo.

Then it's time to show you how to build a sturdy set of sawhorses for your shot.

That's all next week on trucks.

Well, that's gonna do it for this week's show. We look forward to trucking with you again next week,

Stacy. What are you doing?

I'm testing this thing out. For what? Oh, this is great.

You got to get the bugs out of it.

That's a seat out of a minivan. Where'd you get the seat, minivan, minivan seat. Listen, I got one for you here. Oh, yeah. The ever famous.

Perfect.

All right.

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