A Rebuilt And Refurbished F-350 With A Unique Mix Of Parts

Mel Brooks’ “Young Frankenstein” is hands-down one of the funniest movies of all time. Who hasn’t repeated lines like, “Walk this way—no, this way, this way.” Or, “Put the candle back!” And our personal favorite: “Yes. Yes. Yes!—He vas my boyfriend!”

It makes us smile just to think about all those whacked-out characters. But ask Wes Hansen about his “FrankenFord” (his description, not ours), though, and you won’t get quite the same reaction. He’s rightly proud of what he’s accomplished in “restifying” this ’96 F-350, but what he went through wasn’t all that funny.

It was more like a comedy of errors. Yet there’s a happy ending, even if a bit unexpected, just like the film’s finale. We’re not poking fun at him here, as Hansen is the first to admit that he ran into numerous problems after his chiropractor sold him this pain-in-the-neck pickup back in 2009. He persevered, and even improved on it in innovative ways.

“One thing led to another,” Hansen explained with a sigh, shaking his head. Hansen felt compelled partly because he’s always loved the old body style (OBS) Ford and 7.3-liter engine. The chiropractor had already done some doctoring to it, adding a winch bumper, cold-air intake, exhaust, suspension lift and custom rolling stock. While those mods make the rig even more appealing, little did Hansen know that it had some “Abbie Normal” parts (as the goggle-eyed Igor would eventually confess).

The truck came to Hansen much like the monster’s body that was dug up from the graveyard in the middle of a rainy night. “It was not particularly clean at the time,” Hansen admits. “But I didn’t care—I still wanted it.” There was no turning back.

After only a cursory look, Hansen cut a deal and drove it home, only to discover a puddle of fuel on the ground the next morning. Being new to diesels at that point, he took it to a local shop and after fixing the fuel pump, he was $900 lighter for his impulsive purchase. That was just the beginning of a string of repairs, as the timing cover was cracked, the dipstick seal faulty, the injector pressure regulator was bad, and the turbo up-pipes were leaking. You’d think he was stuck with a rotten corpse or something.

Rather than accepting his disappointment like the good doctor did with “quiet dignity” (yeah, right), Hansen realized he had to learn a whole lot more to bring this big brute back to life. Once the necessary repairs were done, he found out that the fuel pumps are a common problem on the 7.3L Power Stroke, and an electric pump conversion is the way to go. Bean’s Diesel Performance offers one for the OBS trucks. Even though it set him back another grand, he felt it was well worth the extra expense to delete the factory fuel bowl and pump in the valley, and relocate the fuel system to the frame rail. While he was at it, Hansen added a Donaldson filter and Banks intercooler.

When he started the truck, though, he noticed a slight miss, which turned into a really big miss. A Snap-on scanner’s buzz test revealed four bad injectors. Swamp’s Diesel Performance supplied a set of Baby Stage 1 injectors, and while he was installing them, he noticed that the turbo wheel was rubbing on the housing and was dusted. That led to replacing it with a Hypermax H2E turbo kit. For those not familiar with this puffer, this unit is commonly found on the L10 Cummins (typically seen on buses, fire trucks and motorhomes) and the rest of the package replaces the up-pipes, turbo mount and intake.

While he was at it, Hansen upgraded the intake plenum as well in order to take full advantage of the extra air from the H2E. He points out that the ’94.5 to ’97 Fords came equipped with 2-inch plenums, while the ’99 to ’03 models are fitted with 3-inchers. This enlargement would become a common theme. As with the monster in Young Frankenstein, everything would have to be bigger to simplify working on him (recall the scene at the breakfast table for some hilarious references to various body parts). Bigger isn’t always better, though, because as soon as he fired up the truck and got on the throttle, the “check engine” light came on. “Could anything else go wrong?” he asked himself. Well, yes. It turned out the high-pressure oil pump was leaking now. That chiropractor had unloaded a really chronic affliction.

Hansen contacted Cary Towery from CT Performance, who recommended a Stealth SRP1.1 high-pressure oil pump. Realizing he also needed a custom tune, he called Swamp’s Diesel again, this time for a computer chip to suit his application, along with the company’s modded Injector Driver Module. Thinking ahead, Hansen anticipated some potential issues with the transmission, so he threw in a BTS E40D slushbox as well.

At this point, Hansen was getting really familiar with his Ford, and noticed the seats were looking a bit worn. CT Performance provided a few tips about retrofitting newer seats into an older interior. Unable to find some good-quality gray Lariat seats to match the color of the cabin, he went with lavish leather instead… brown King Ranch seats from a wrecked 2005 F-350, all for just $850. They needed a bit of reconditioning, but Able Restoration in Carson City, Nevada, was able to take care of that, and he later found that the same treatment used on saddles and cowboy boots works great on leather upholstery. Fitting in the later-model seat mounts in the older cabin required several whacks with a sledge-hammer, along with bit of help from his friends. Since the color scheme clashed a bit, he painted the factory trim pieces King Ranch brown, and dyed the vinyl and carpet on the doors.

With mechanicals under control, the Ford seemed a bit out of step in the suspension department. Hansen found a reverse shackle kit for Super Duty springs from Sky Manufacturing. This conversion simply moves the heavy rear bracket to the front, and the shackle to rear. He came across a wrecked F-350 dually, and pulled the V-code springs off the front, and the C-code ones from the back. The latter are a bit stiffer than the factory B-code units for single rims, but Hansen tows a large fifth wheel, so that wasn’t an issue, and he found the ride improved dramatically, along with the load-carrying capacity.

That wasn’t the end of the story, though. Just as Dr. Frankenstein had to renew a few body parts, so too was the rear axle replaced with a newer, improved one from a 2001 F350. Hansen notes that the main advantage of using a Sterling 10.5 axle over the stock 10.25 is the addition of disc brakes, plus a quarter-inch larger ring gear. This rearend is also 3 inches wider so the truck now tracks better as well.

Note, though, that the bolt pattern differs between the two, so Hansen had the hubs machined so it was 8 x 6.5 instead of 8 x 170mm. The holes ended up being oblong to accept a different wheel stud, which was an 11/16 knurl with a 9/16 thread. To make this combination work, he had to use rotors from a Ford Econoline with Hawk pads for a Ford F-350. But everything bolts up as it should, including the speed sensor, sway bar and brake lines. Hansen gives full credit to his buddy Jerimiah Brouhard for figuring out this setup.

In addition, the factory brakes were vacuum assisted, but in ’99 Ford switched to a Hydroboost setup that draws fluid from the power steering pump. However, the ’99 model years are not direct bolt-ons, but Hansen found that the ’97 and older F-450 came with this system, which dramatically improves the stopping power. So he added a ’97 F-450 master cylinder and Powerstop rotors up front. The binders bring the factory Alcoa 16×7 rims, wrapped with Goodyear Duratrac rubber (LT315/75R16), to a clenching halt.

More recently, Hansen has added even more upgrades, such as a Mag-Hytec transmission pan, 3/8-inch transmission lines (instead of factory 5/16 inchers), and a plastic fan from a 2004 6.0 Power Stroke. Since he uses his muscular FrankenFord for towing a fifth wheel trailer, among other demanding duties, he replaced the steering box and installed a Reunel rear bumper that can handle heavier loads. Other exterior enhancements include Smittybilt running boards and a Protech polished tool box. And last but not least, in the cockpit he had a fiberglass one-piece windshield pillar custom-molded to accept ISSPRO gauges. And the “smart” rearview mirror is from a GMC Yukon.

All told, this troubled tale of bringing a dilapidated rig back to life proved to be a worthy endeavor, even if it had some surprising twists and turns along the way, just as in Young Frankenstein. Is that a happy ending or what? UDBG

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