Slash's F150 Street Truck: V8 Swap Incoming

  • Thread starter Slash
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I'm thinking 2" spacers and 15x12s out back.

Can't decide I I wanna do a rear shackle flip and drop the back or lift the front an inch.


Tree two styles I can't decide between. Classic 70s, like this




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Or wide front and rear.

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A truck like this is one of the very, very few Ford vehicles that I would ever consider buying . A friend of mine had an 89 F250 with the 300 6 and a 5 speed and it was a tank- that was until his arrogant driving style finally killed the thing (still survived for thousands of miles after he bought it). Yours in particular was a steal cause one in that condition doesn't show up often in rust belt areas.

And definitely don't have the wheels poke through- around here in Southeast Michigan at least that is a sign of a douchewagon owned by a high school punk with parent's money and no brains. Besides, if a Windsor or a 385 appears later (which you'll probably consider doing at some point down the road), you'll already have the stance ready by going with option 1.
 
Custom878
First option. Having all of the wheels poking out makes it look like a bro truck.
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That's what I thought, but for a low-wide stance I thought it might be ok.

synchromesh
Be thankful he hasn't added camo dash and seat covers.
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Noooo. The seat itself is getting replaced with one from an 85 soon.

AnthonyD1993
A truck like this is one of the very, very few Ford vehicles that I would ever consider buying . A friend of mine had an 89 F250 with the 300 6 and a 5 speed and it was a tank- that was until his arrogant driving style finally killed the thing (still survived for thousands of miles after he bought it). Yours in particular was a steal cause one in that condition doesn't show up often in rust belt areas.

And definitely don't have the wheels poke through- around here in Southeast Michigan at least that is a sign of a douchewagon owned by a high school punk with parent's money and no brains. Besides, if a Windsor or a 385 appears later (which you'll probably consider doing at some point down the road), you'll already have the stance ready by going with option 1.
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Option 1 it is.

In all honesty, this truck needs some love. The frame is actually worse than I thought. Worse than my dads. My dads is clean by comparison, though it is also way heavier duty. Two spots need servicing in the spring with patches an plates on the same side. How i missed it, i dont know. I will probably do front shackles on it. Itrs saveable though. We caught it before major repair is required. The worst spot right now is brace up with bolts and steel plates to get me through winter.

I still have a lot of money to sink into it for rust prevention though.

Once spring rolls around I'm going to reevaluate everything.
 
I'm going to say no on the flares. I already have fender rust as it is.no need to promote it. My dads F250 has flares an it killed 2 sets of fenders. I quite like the wheels poking out.
 
Had my first seemingly major issue with her. My odometer, speedo, dome light and door buzzer all went out. Curiously the transmission started shifting extremely hard. Having gone dirt drifting a few days ago, I figured I broke something.

Not so fast. This all happened in the flip of a switch. I had shut it off to get some food. When I went to leave, initially I hadnt notice anything. As I drove, it bucked hard into second, nearly chirping the tires, and noticeablly enough that it was like a torque thrust like blipping the throttle on a high horsepower car. I could phsically see the hood move.

So I research a bit. Nothing. At this point I'm thinking it can be either of two things; the VSS (vehicle speed sensor) or the PSOM which is basically a module on the back of the instrument cluster that controls input from the VSS and displays it. That actually had a minor recall on it back in the 90s. Being a low mile truck, it was possible this had never been addressed. That would explain the dash being funky, but no the rest. Turns out the trans takes data from the PSOM and uses it to shift. With no input from it to read, it wouldn't shift correctly.

But that doesn't explain the buzzer and dome light.

So I pull the inside fuse panel. Turns out all of that runs on one 15 amp circuit. So I pulled the fuse, and swapped the one from my blinkers, and whaddaya know? It all works. I put a spare 25 amp in it and now it runs better than when I bought it.

Curiously though, the bad fuse was a 20A. I'm wondering if maybe this has happened before. It looked older, but if it is, there's something shorting it out. I'll cross that bridge if it comes to it.
 
Dennisch
This is your daily driver. You can't do stuff like that unless you're swimming in money.

/adulthoodsucks.
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I didn't really beat on it too hard, being completely honest with you. I had it sideways only a handful of times, basically for that reason. I was a bit more preoccupied with my Buddy's Cavalier :sly:


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There are parts out there to hop up the 6 if he wanted to retain it down the road. IIRC, there was a team that successfully campaigned a car with a 300 I6 in the NHRA for years, but it would probably be easier for him to build a Windsor or a 385 series big block for it.
 
homeforsummer
Have you got any plans for the engine? I know it's only a six at the moment, but whenever I see an F-150 of that age, my first thought for inspiration is always this:

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I'm not sure the direction I want right yet since I want to beef up the frame and suspension first before putting down any serious power. I was considering a shackle flip, F250 springs and full traction bars, bolted to the fram rails itself. I do get excessive wheel hop if I gun it coming out if a corner, so that should eliminate most of it.

I was initially thinking about converting to carb and ditching the, quite frankly, terribly limited speed density type EFI system, and running a 7.3L power stroke turbo with a blow through carb system. However 6 cyl go fast parts are very expensive and in the long run a V8 swap would be a more viable option. And considering I get the gas mileage of a small block V8 as it is, there's really no downside. I'd be much better off as far as aftermarket support goes.

However I am very seriously considering a 351W swap as it is a direct bolt in, having done it with Dads 85. We still have left over parts that would work. If I go V8 swap it will be all done up and N/A built on a stand before going in. This is all way down the road, providing I keep it. I just might, but if I do, expect a 80-86 body swap in the future as well.


AnthonyD1993
There are parts out there to hop up the 6 if he wanted to retain it down the road. IIRC, there was a team that successfully campaigned a car with a 300 I6 in the NHRA for years, but it would probably be easier for him to build a Windsor or a 385 series big block for it.
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Windsor would ulmately be easier. I wouldn't have to get anew trans, and the only major obstacle is motor mounts and a v8 radiator. Ignition would be considered an issue except you can get a complete system for under $500 to run standalone by killswitch. Its what dad did to his even wen he was running a Duraspark II system. Its now fully MSD with the exception of the shaft, cap and rotor. The shaft itself is the only stock part in it, and even that came out of a 1970 Mustang.


Custom878
This is an OBD-I truck, right?
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Yes, and I am emissions exempt.
 
Slash
expect a 80-86 body swap in the future as well.
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I'd embrace the 90-ness of it. Partly to separate it from your dad's truck, and partly because 90s cars and trucks are already in that phase where they're being overlooked, and one day we'll wonder where they all went. Having a really nice truck that shouts "90s" would be quite neat.
 
homeforsummer
I'd embrace the 90-ness of it. Partly to separate it from your dad's truck, and partly because 90s cars and trucks are already in that phase where they're being overlooked, and one day we'll wonder where they all went. Having a really nice truck that shouts "90s" would be quite neat.
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I agree to an extent.

See I'm really torn on it. I my prefer that body style for the classic look and its a releavely easy swap, but at the same time for what it would cost after paint etc, I'd be better off just buying one outright. More than likely it'll stay how it is, just cleaned up.

Speaking of which, I am making arrangements with my bosses husband for spring time work. I know him well...he works at the shop which I interned at in high school. He knows a guy who does great body work for releately cheap; he did the quarter panels on her blue 1976 Mustang I have talked about much over the past few years.

The initial plan is to have the worst parts of the frame fixed. Lighter duty Fords of this era are known to have frame rot issues. This usually leads to shackle rot problems. My two rearest have been replaced already and are fine. The closer one on drivers side is getting ready to go due to the frame. While I have it rigged for now its just a temporary fix. So I plan on having him cut it out a weld in stainless and replace the shackle too. Eventually I want to go through the whole frame and wire wheel it and see where its thin. But that can wait.

Once that's done I'm going to have the doors swapped, put a cab corner on it, fix the light rocker rust which isn't much, (if you couldn't tell by now, common areas of rust. Just between the two styles we have), then put bedsides on it,new fenders and a grille. I also need a new core support as the bottom of it is gone in spots.

Sounds like a lot o work, and it is but most of it is more of a bolt on kinda thing more so than cut and weld, fortunately.
 
Go full street truck on it. 15x10s and wide tires all around and boost the 300. Single HX40 should do nicely with a slightly looser converter, it's low enough compression that you could probably run 8psi on 87 octane with an intercooler if tuned properly.

Won't cause a reliability issue either, it's a Ford 300. :lol:
 
I think the compression went up a poinh in the 90s. Not sure how much boost I'd be able to make. But in order to do that I'd have to ditch the EFI.
 
After looking into it abit, I may be able to keep my speed density system. MAF conversions are rare and expensive. Best option I'm thinking is either a 7.3 PS turbo or one off a Chevy 6.5. I've been told it can handle up to 15psi after changing to Mustang 302 21lb injectors. It peaks at 9psi at 3500rpm with a custom built wastegate that tblows off after 15lbs. Horsepower will typically double. The build I'm reading went from 150 to 245 (estimated) with no other mods.


michrulejj
LS Swap it... :sly:
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Never!
 

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