Well, it's happening... I'm taking delivery of an ex-St Johns Ambulance (www.ambulance.net.au) F250 Mk IV Ambulance on Wednesday...

Here's some specs from St Johns

Quote::

Mark IV Ambulance The Mark IV Ambulance is the main vehicle used within our service. It is designed to transport two stretcher patients, or one stretcher and two sitting patients. Specifications Chassis : Ford F250 Length : 5600 mm Height : 2440 mm Width : 2100 mm Turning Circle : 16.3 m Engine : 7.3L Turbo Charged Diesel or 5.8L Petrol Transmission : 4 Speed Automatic Body Construction : Framework is built of tubular metal which is securely welded to the floor frame assembly. The floor frame assembly is bolted to the chassis through rubber mountings to reduce vibration. The interior and exterior panelling is constructed of quality fibreglass.

Mine is the 5.8 litre petrol... aka 351 Windsor, EFI, with a C6 auto... It was known as "number 54" I beleive, was was based in Norseman... It has approximately 250,000km's on the clock, whereas it's Perth based counterparts have clocked up over 400,000km's in the same amount of time.

Here's the closest thing to a photo I have atm.. the bit of the plate thats there looks to be the same as the rego on the one I'm getting, but without the whole pic, it's impossible to tell.

By the way, if anyone has any ideas on mods, I'm listening... Tho first task on the list is to basically cover up some of the places where the ambulance gear has been removed.. for instance the lights from the front grille and the central control panel are retained by St Johns...

They'll also have de-stickered it before I see it next, so I won't have a chance to get any photos of it until afterwards... So if anyones reading this, and has some photos of the F250 ambo's, then feel free to post up whatever you've got...

hrm... ok.. well, i've just started pricing up some of the gear I want to kit out the back of the Ambo with...

The sheer size of this thing means that I'm looking at speakers and amps and going "I'll take 4 of those"

However, I'm keen to do this properly... So for now it'll start out with a simple setup that'll keep me occupied for a while, and then once I've got that sorted, I'll start to buy up stocks of car stereo gear for the big fit out

Quick update time... I've taken the glass sign that says 'AMBULANCE' out from above the windscreen, scraped all the paint off the glass and put it back in... there's 4x 5w bulbs behind it... and I'm trying to decide what I want to put on the glass in place of the writing that was on there before...

Suggestions are most welcome... Of course, there's always the easy way out of just putting one of the website logos on it... or I could put a bit more effort into it and come up with something really different...

time for another update... as i've been a little slack lately.. i've been working on the supra (alternator and power steering issues), and looking at bronco and f-truck sites to see just what can be done about the fuel economy... turns out i'm not the best or the worst off when it comes to fuel consumption in an F-series... Mine gets about 8.75 miles per gallon, the worst I've seen was a Bronco who was claiming 6 mpg, with a similar setup to mine... and the best with a similar setup to mine was getting about 15mpg... there's also a bronco out there rumoured to be getting 17mpg, with a few undisclosed engine mods..

Anyway, one of the first things people talk about is the fan... in my case, doubly so, as the stocker is a clutched fan, and the clutch is seized, so the motor is always working away, spinning those blades, even when they're not needed.. Claims here are around 17hp and 2mpg gains with an electric fan...

I've just ripped the stock fan off (The drive to work and back is pretty short, not much chance of the car overheating in traffic) and ordered one of these...



It's a Flex-a-Lite kit designed for a 27.5" radiator core, which happens to be quite common in large american vehicles from the early 80's to the mid 90's... For example, F-trucks from about 1980 to 1996, including mine...

I know it's not shiny and ally, and it's not home built, but it pretty much bolts right in, does the job, and even comes with those nifty flaps you can see there that may or may not do what they're claimed to do.. and that is to open up at speed and let extra air through the shroud when the fans are no longer the primary source of airflow for the radiator...

It also comes with a variable speed controller, which turns the fans on at the temperature you select, runs them at 60% of full speed, and then increases the speed as the temperature climbs over the next 10 degrees, by which time they're at full speed..

Another side effect of taking the stock fan off, is that it actually sounds like a V8 now The noise of the stock fan working away had actually drowned out some of the normal engine noises... But they're back now, and I'm happy

Next up on the mpg list, is either an exhaust system or a new induction system... given that I'd like to try an aftermarket intake manifold as well, I think the exhaust will be happening first...

update time... the twin fans have been in for a while now, and i'm quite happy with the way they're going... I did have to melt and shape the cold air intake plumbing, which is the only downside... however, long term plans see that plumbing getting redesigned as part of a subtle bonnet scoop (or just a more efficient version of the stock cold air setup)

next up, i need to sort out an exhaust sytem, and i'm not sure if i'll be able to get extractors, or if i'll be restricted to playing with secondary pipe sizes while leaving the primaries stock... basically, there's not a lot of room left by the conversion to right hand drive.. so the exhaust pipework pretty much needs to follow the factory lines for the first few inches..

another upcoming change is the k&n filter i have on order, it's a panel to fit the stock box, which appears to be the best solution at the moment, as it retains the cold air intake from the factory...

then, after that, it's time to do the cosmetic stuff.. fairly important cosmetic stuff too, because it's time for some new paint... which means i need to find a friendly paint shop... mainly because i have 2 cars i need painted in the next few months... so i'll be struggling for time and money on those...

and the other important cosmetic bit is the centre console.. the setup i have for switches at the moment is working fine, but it's butt ugly.. i need to do something about that, which shoudn't be too hard... just a better way of attaching the current switch panel would be a huge improvement...

and then after that, i have the other major change... the back... which involves me finding someone to custom build me a seat... which hopefully won't be as hard as it's looking at the moment...

anyway... it's bathurst tomorrow, and i want to be up to see the start.. so i'm off to sleep...

ps. if anyone has any suggestions, or knows anyone who'd like to sponsor the ambo or the supra, let me know...

Photo taken at Mt Omaney in Northam on the weekend, showing the new grille lights

The grill lights look great

still....................... too bad it's still a ford thou...........