Ford trucks anyone????

[bnolte]

Matt,

I've had a couple of mid '90s F-series, a 93 2wd XL I brought new, and a '94 4x4 XL I replaced it with last year. Both had the 300 cid 6, and on the '93 it was about the only thing that I didn't have issues with in the truck's lifetime. I had 182,000 on it when I replaced it last year, it started right up, and used little oil. Unfortunately, pretty much everything else was pretty well shot on it, the suspension and frame were rusting to an alarming degree, the air conditioning didn't work anymore, the radiator was starting to seep, and the automatic transmission was starting to behave erratically.

With all these problems, you would think I would buy a Chevy or Dodge, rather than another Ford, but I brought one anyway. I guess one way to look at it is that I knew where to look for trouble, and when I saw a flyer for a '94 F-150 4x4 posted at the local Post Office here in Boring, MD, I decided to check it out. She had receipts and documentation for every bit of work she had ever done to it since it was new.

Surprising, the '94 was actually in pretty good shape, despite having more miles on it than my '93. Some of the problem areas, such as the brake lines, radiator, and gas tanks the previous owner had already dealt with, and the chassis looked better rust-wise than my '93 did when it was only 4 or 5 years old. It ran well, and the only issues I found were a bit of warped rotor syndrome, and a noisy serpentine belt. Everything else worked and sounded like it was supposed to, and it had recently had gotten a real nice paint job to repair some storm damage from a couple of years earlier. She was asking $2200 for it, with a fresh MD State Inspection, and I gave her the asking price without hesitation.

Here is a shot of my '94:

And my '93 when it was new:

 

[stritle]

I just sold my 55 F100. I needed room in the garage so I could wrench on old cubs with my three boys. Somehow, I have not yet missed it......

 

[bnolte]

Until a truck gets at least 40 years old, I tend to look at it as a tool. A '73 might as well be a '94 in my eyes, but I do like the looks of many of the '50s models, and wouldn't mind having one before I pass on to the next level of existence. I don't plan on running my '94 too hard, so barring a mishap of some kind, I hope to keep it around for many years.

 

[bnolte]

Matt,

I've never done a 300 to 302 upgrade, but in that era, you will need to worry about the different engine control systems. I did do an engine swap in a '91 Honda Civic though, replacing a D15B1 with a D15B2 motor, so some basic principles will probably still apply. '89 was about the time that Ford made the switch between carburetors and fuel injection, and you may need a different ECU and sensor package for the 302 than the 300. Also, particularly if you are mixing/matching years with the replacement engine, you will have to deal with all the different emission control plumbing and wiring as well. Best strategy here is to have a donor truck that has all the little goodies that you may need to make it work.

I drove a '96 with a fuel injected 302 while my truck was in the shop, and yeah it sure gets up and goes a lot better than the old 300 six. From the experience of friends and acquaintences who have had 302's in their trucks, you will have a minimal fuel mileage penalty if you have one at all if you go for the V-8. Still, you can't beat the old 300 six for reliability and durability.

 

[jegstad]

Matthew,

A 300 to 302 conversion for an 89 should not be too hard. A lot depends on what engine control scheme you go for. Most of the time in those years the injectors were fired in pairs and there was no mass air flow sensor. If you stick with the old style like that you should not have too many issues. If you go for sequential injectors and mass air flow you will have more parts to round up and Bruce's advice about a donor truck is right on.

BTDT - I converted an 86 F150 from 351 4 barrel carb to 94 Mustang 302 with SEFI and mass air flow control. I actually ran it all the first winter with the injectors wired in pairs and used a 4 cyl Ranger computer. Ran just fine that way and I made many trips to Minnesota with that setup. I got a lot of jibes about losing towing power with the stang engine but actually I could pull hills towing a 2-horse rig faster than before. The hardest part of that conversion was gas tanks and the pressure pumps needed for EFI.

After I was done I found a good book that would have taken a lot of the pain out of the work. I will try to find it and let you know the name, author, etc

JimE

 

[dfrisk]

Son has a '93 F-150 Lightning We're working on now....everything that moves in the front end is being replaced. Steering gearbox, tie rods, ball joints. It's got about 175,000 miles on it, engine is getting a little tired but the E4OD transmission is original except for the shift kit installed about 5 yrs ago. The 8.8" rear axle was too light for the weight & HP of this truck and Son's lunched a few gears in the rearend....We can remove, repair & replace the diff. in about 1 to 2 hours depending on what breaks.
I've got a '96 F-250 PowerStroke diesel 4X4 reg. cab. It has almost 293,000 miles on it. The factory alternator died last week but I kept the factory fan belt on.....I've carried a spare belt behind the seat for four years....but the factory belt has No cracks on it. I've averaged about 18-1/2 mpg with this truck since I drove it off the lot after waiting 13 weeks for it to be built. 5-speed manuals are hard to come by so I ordered out exactly what I wanted. It still looks like brand new! Bright red paint looks factory fresh!

I had a '78 & an '87 F-150 reg. cab SWB 4X4 F-150's, creeper low 4-speeds. I traded the '87 off on the '96 with 120,000 miles and it still had the factory front brake pads in it. Kinda made up for the front brakes on the '78 that I had to replace every 15,000-20,000 miles due to stuck caliper pistons.

Truck I'd like to find is a '56 F-350 SRW step-side pickup. Dad had one when I was a Kid. First truck I ever drove. The box was NINE feet long...odd-ball 17" dia. tires, 292-Y Block V-8. With the long wheelbase and not 4WD it was TOTALLY helpless in wet muddy conditions unless You had a ton of feed in the back. Dad used to race the 6-cyl. Chevy pickups home from town....He'd have 500# of sacked feed in the truck plus towing another 5000# of feed in the auger wagon...and still pass those little Chevy's. But by the time He'd pass them the exh. cross over pipe would heat up the fuel pump, fuel line, & carb so bad it would vapor lock and they'd pass Us back!

 

[mschwartz]

I guess I can fill you guys n with some more detail. I am Going carbuerated sp? and am searching for a vaccum advance distributor with a points setup, anyone know where to find a new one of those let me know, also need some help with the fuel tank situation, bringing the pressure down to about 6 psi. Jim I could definately use your help in that fuel area.

 

[jegstad]

Matthew,

On the 86 EFI systems, Ford put a low pressure pump in the tank, or tanks, and the fuel went from there to a single high pressure one on the frame rail nearly under the driver's seat. By 89 I think there was just one high pressure pump in each tank, or tanks. In both cases there then was a return line that needed to dump excess fuel from the engine fuel rail back to the correct tank.

My original 86 carbureted system had just one fuel pump on the engine and a switching valve in the case of dual tanks. There was no return line.

When I did the conversion I built the low pressure pump units for my tanks because the EFI tank units I could salvage would not fit my tank openings and, more importantly, the salvage units had the wrong guage sender to match the dash guage. The sender init was the real problem because these change from year to year and the dash unit and sender must match as far as resistance values, which way is empty, etc. So, I used the original tank's guage sender unit and added the salvaged low pressure pumps inside the tanks. It worked just fine but was a nighmare to round-up all the parts need to switch pipes back and forth, etc.

On your 89 I would just go to a single low pressure external pump, on the engine or, better yet, an electric low pressure one made for carbureted applications, mounted on the frame rail. Your existing return line can be eliminated.

Take the tank unit(s) out, remove the pump(s) and substitute a straight thru gas-resistant hose and a filter screen pickup at the low point. You will need to have the filter screen on the pickup end to keep out the large bits and then an in-line filter downstream that you can change on a regular schedule.

If you have dual tanks you may need to add a switching valve because I think that by 89 they had gotten rid of supply switch valves and there was a check valve in the pump to take care of backflow.

If you have two tanks, the easiest way to start is to just do the large one and then do the other one later when everything else is sorted out. If I had it to do over I would throw away the auxillary tank and just put a bigger main tank in from a Broncho. If you do that you need to find another place for the spare tire.

I took a couple of picts of an old tank unit I have kept and you can see the stock pump, internal filter screen, and the guage sender unit. This is from a tank similar to yours and is a high pressure unit. Just take off the pump, clamp a hose and pickup screen in place using hose clamps and you are good to go.

Good Luck,

JimE

 

[mschwartz]

Jim, I was at Summit racing the other day and they were telling me that having those return lines on there I can probably get away with an inline regulator and just leave everything alone. Does this sound feasible or like a load of crap? Let me know.

 

[jegstad]

Matthew,

It probably would, but not as well as a single low pressure pump. You would be knocking the pressure down from about 45 psi to about 4.5. FWIW, I went through the tradeoffs of converting the Mustang engine to carburetion and a conventional distributor before I decided to bite the bullet and convert the truck to EFI.

If I had it to do over again I still would go to EFI. It was such a better, trouble-free machine when I was done that I never regretted it. I've had my share of 70 and 80's carbureted Fords and can tell you there is a world of difference. Winter and summer - just turn the key and go with no warmup stalls, goofy choke settings, exhaust heat stoves, pollution hoses all over the place, etc. Just miles of smiles.

Since your truck is already set up for EFI I wouldn't even think about carburetion if it were mine. I worked in a tuneup shop to help pay for college and we made a lot of money off rebulding carburetors and their associated junk. Been there, done that, never again.

 

[mschwartz]

Will an EFI box from a 302 ford truck plug in in place of the inline six box thats on my truck now?? By box I mean the computer and the harness's, is it a simple swap??

 

[jegstad]

Matt,

It will plug in but you need to have a 302 engine harness and may need one or more wires for the injectors added to the computor plug, depending on whether you go to full SEFI or just plain 89 truck (2-at-a-time triggering). You probably can adapt the existing engine harness by adding lengths where required.

I did my conversion by detailed tracing of the wiring schematics for the 86 truck, for some later trucks, and several Mustang years. Then I made a detailed drawing of what the modified wiring would be. In a manual for your 89, look at the differences betweeb a 6 cyl and an 8 cyl and figure out what needs to be done.

You can make the engine wiring easier if you have the cash to get a prewired setup from one of the hot rod wire houses (Painless ??). It would have all the plugs for the engine, the computer and an installation diagram for putting a Ford EFI in any vehicle. When I did mine none of that stuff was available.

 

[mschwartz]

Jim, Can you put me in touch with one of the hot rod wiring houses???

 

[kide]

Matthew:
If I may help....
http://www.painlesswiring.com/aboutus.php
or
http://www.wiring-harness-ron-francis.com/

Both are old line, reputable companies.. I've got a mixed bag '54 effie (Pontiac engine, Volare front suspension, Chevette steering column.) These are the guys that can supply plug in wiring solutions for mixes like that..

 

[bnolte]

Tire Question:

When I got my stock '94 F-150 4x4, I put on a set of 235-75R-15 Uniroyal Liberators, mainly because they were inexpensive, and about the only even semi-aggressive tread tire that Wal-Mart had available for my truck. I inquired about some 31's, which would be about equivalent to a 265-75R-15, but they refused to put anything but stock sizes on it. Suffering a little buyer's remorse now, and would like to know your experiences.

I don't want to go hog wild - body/suspension lift kits are out, but I would like to shoe it someday with something that will give me a little more bite in the snow than the Liberators, but still be reasonably civilized on the road. The 31's look like they'll fit and give me a bit more ground clearance, but it would be a close shave with the lower valence and front bumper.

Yeah I know if I go with oversize tires it will lug worse in 5th gear than it already does, and it will throw off the speedo too, but it reads fast anyway.

 

[eford]

This is an engine Q. My engine ticks. 93 f-150
I-6, auto-overdrive, 2wd. It's definitly coming from the top of engine, head/valves, and my mechanic says it's just from low oil pressure and age/miles only has 104,000mi. I've gone thru 2 o2 sensors since I've had it. Any connection? The tick is almost a knock but not in right area, definitly from top of engine. The oil pressure is only a pound or 2 lower from my buddies 96 F-150 same setup 190,000 mi. he has no probs.

 

[kmcconaughey]

Earl, one thing to check is the exhaust manifold. Check that all the manifold bolts/studs are intact and that there are no cracks in the manifold. A missing or cracked bolt/stud can cause a ticking noise.

 

[kweaver]

Sounds more like a lifter or small exhaust leak can make an almost click sound too.

HEY Earl - here's ya one ... A Ford driving a Ford , is that like the blind leading the blind ?

 

[eford]

Yes it's the blind leading the blind! I have a small exhaust leak but the tick is metal on metal. the mechanic and 2 other good sources confirmed that,my old high school shop teachers, one was a ford mechanic for years, he's too busy and has to look cause he lives 50mi from school. The other just confirmed it and told me to leave it with the kids. Yeah right, It wasn't that long ago that I beat the adults cars that came in for free maitenance. The Ford teach said it could be anything in the valve train most likely a lifter/ slack somewhere. Am gonna break into her soon, am savin up for a new-to-me F-250 or 350 preffer diesel and I'll keep her cause I like her.

 

[kweaver]

found this on a toyota 4x4 site