When Ford Racing's Electrical Engineer Steve Bandy and their National Sales Rep and now good friend Jesse Kershaw flew in from Detroit to help with the Bumpside, I felt like the luckiest guy out there! We still had lots of work to do in a short amount of time, but they wanted to make sure the engine would fire with their new 4.6/5.4L harness I went over last month.
What a long strange trip it has been indeed! Something happened this month that seemed far fetched some time ago--the Bumpside ran. I know, I can't believe it either. It was by no accident and required a fair amount of hard work and head scratching. You know by now that the late-model 4.6L 3-valve Ford engine in the '68 is a first and actually forced Ford Racing to make a harness to bring life to the all-aluminum V-8.
It has now worked out well for all parties involved and actually got Ford Racing more involved with what the aftermarket needs to keep a Ford-in-a-Ford--a state-of-the-art Ford at that! Carburetors aren't going away any time soon, but electronic fuel injection is here to stay--because it works really well. These new fangled computer companies/engineers today have made it possible to design superior engines that require equally superior means of controlling them to make the optimal power and be the most efficient they can be. I know these robot-like powerplants don't have the same soul that an old pushrod or even L-head engine might, but for a daily or regularly driven truck, you can't beat 'em!
We introduced Ford Racing's standalone engine harness for the '05-10 4.6/5.4L 3-valve engines that was conceived with here in the pages of CLASSIC TRUCKS last month and now we'll show you how to cut it all up. Yep, that's right--cut it up. I didn't do this on my own, however--I had adult supervision in the form of two Ford Racing employees. Actually, I just watched. Steve Bandy is the electrical engineer at Ford Racing in Detroit, and he and the face of Ford Racing on TV, Jesse Kershaw, flew out to sunny Southern California to get a firsthand look at the '68 F-100 and what had to be done to fire the engine.
We (or at least I) knew we wouldn't be driving it yet, as I still have a bunch of stuff to finish on it, but I knew the fuel system could be operational and there was power plumbed in the truck, so we proceeded to prep it sans a cooling system and some accessories for simplicity's sake. The goal was to make sure the engine would start and run on its own with the new harness.
But none of us could leave well enough alone, and once Steve was out here and had observed the scope of a vintage project, we all agreed on some changes to the appearance of the harness. Steve and Jesse cut open the brand-new stock harness and began looking for more length to get the harness off the passenger side valve cover and keep it behind the engine for a more sleek, stealthy appearance. Once the length was found, Jesse took it a step further, and with a few modifications to the intake, almost completely hid the bulk of the engine harness on a spare engine we had at the shop. This was cool and I proceeded to do it to my engine afterward.
It was a busy couple of days with the guys, but with two and a half years of emails, phone calls, and meetings that led up to this point--and it was a success. Whew. Now, take advantage of all our hard work!
