'95 F-150 track ready street beast

[Sbeck09]

Speaking of making noise....it finally happened!

I jumped all over this thing Friday after work and I barely slept at all because I was so determined to make it run this weekend.

Everything started off smooth. I was running wires, making hoses, and prepping the dash. By the time I went to bed Friday I had the dash setup sitting there waiting for connections.



While I realize the digital dash could handle the RPM and speedo duties, I just really like analog style gauges for those two. The big bummer here is that I discovered the digital dash can't integrate the fuel gauge without an adapter harness (big surprise there) which is more expensive than adding a matching fuel gauge. So it looks like I need another hole in the dash.

From there I started getting into the programming of the Racepak Smartwire and the Dominator. That's where things went sideways and slowed way down. I found out that the built-in configuration for my Smartwire was never loaded before they shipped it to me. So then I expected to find everything I needed to know online....nope! 4 hours of fumbling through the Datalink program resulted in finally starting to figure out how to configure the system myself. I'll say that the product itself is awesome, but they have a very long way to go on documentation and tech support.

The Dominator was so easy to program as we all know. Building a base map went really smooth and was headache free. I had to set the dual sync distributor which ended up being not bad at all.

Finally on Sunday afternoon I said screw it and hit the starter button. A few pops and stutters, but no vroom....hmmm. After looking at everything and finding a couple leaks I got convinced that I set the timing 180 degrees out. So instead of pulling the intake apart again I just rotated the wires on the cap. Hit the button and boom...we have a running SBF!



I did make a video, but it's not on YouTube so you'll have to click the link to Instagram below and check that out. I promise real videos will come soon and I will share them here.

Now I'm buttoning up wiring and plumbing so I can get ready for the first drive later this week. The biggest focus for me now is getting some help with initial tuning as I break-in this motor.