Federal Signal Q-siren relocation
Well I finally took the plunge and made some radical modifications to the truck. The changes should provide a huge increase in airflow over the grille and overall performance. The Q-siren, while impressive, turned out to be a huge problem with engine cooling because it blocked too much air flow to the radiator at speeds over 20-30mph. Coupled with the grille speakers and Ocilasers, the truck just was not getting enough air through the grille. I contacted Federal Signal and they were kind enough to supply me with a Q-siren bumper installation kit and thus began the transformation.
I started by removing the Oscilasers from the grille since that was the easiest part of the job. Once they were removed, I focused on the Q-siren. Removing all four mounting bolts from the pedestal and cutting the cable98 and wiring with which they were connected was only slightly more work. The siren lifted right off and I set it off to the side on my workbench where I could remove the pedestal and the bullet housing. Using a paper template printed from the installation manual, I was able to drill the mounting holes and then cut out the bumper with a jigsaw. After cleaning up the edges with a grinder and then sanding them, I applied some rustoleum paint to the bare metal to keep oxidation at bay. The Federal bumper mount bolted into place and the Q-siren easily slid into position where I was able to secure it with the existing mounting bolts.
Now, with the Q-siren out of the way, I was able to remove the grille and start on the speakers. Fortunately when I put these in place, I had the foresight to use waterproof quick connectors for the speaker wires as well as the oscilaser wiring. So once the bolts were removed, I un-snapped the connectors and set the speakers aside. Now I was able to remove the custom brackets which were made to support the E350 bracket. With everything out of the way, I moved the Ford logo from the old grille to the new grille and it just snapped into place. The entire job only took about five hours and it was actually quite painless, not counting rasping my knuckles on one of the stubborn bolts.
The truck looks completely different and now. At the tie, I re-installed the off road lights just because it looked so naked. As you’ll see later when I reconfigured the front bumper’s equipment, I had the mounting holes on top filled in to make it look ‘clean’ again.
Thanks to Federal Signal, the Q-siren is still on the truck, but no longer in the way.