I have a 1996 F150 XL Single cab Longbed, and I'm about to start ordering parts for a completely custom turbo setup running e85 and 91 with 50/50 water/meth on 15 psi. I will start a build thread, soon as i actually start tearing into the motor. But, i need to know a few things beforehand. The goal on the build is a 49 state smog legal (because screw cali and their overly tight laws on my idea of fun) daily driver/tow rig/occasional strip use. The goal is a reliable 600lb-ft of torque to the wheels, but i'm not sure how i should go about strengthening the frame for that kind of power. it won't ever being towing more than one car on a trailer, but i really don't want to have to keep changing frames because the engines power destroys them. Also, if anyone can actually point me to the correct subforum this goes to, i would actually really appreciate it.

 

Based on your plans it sounds like money is not really a factor - so if I were you I would be looking at an OBS F350 frame to build on.

 

I was actually slightly wanting to keep it all matching numbers, but I'm not totally against swapping the engine into an F350 body and frame, especially if it has dual tanks already which I was planning on doing to mine, which frees up the engine bay for an ecotec or a coyote engine which was an idea I had for a build as well, or a 460 half ton would be pretty cool too. No, money's not at all that tight, although I am broke right now because of a serious lack of management. No kids and no girlfriend. Would the engine mounts bolt right in or do I have to fabricate?

 

You've never really mentioned what engine you are going to be using for this project - but if you want to use an F350 frame you will need to use an engine that came with the F350 (460 or a 351) with the appropriate cross-member and then it would be bolt in.

 

I'm actually going to try to do this with a 4.9L. Because the engine is special to me for one, but also because I really want to try to open more people up to what these can do, and a lot of people want to do a turbo 4.9 but have no idea what to do or where to start because they're afraid of not knowing what to do or how to go about it or which turbo to use etc. Maybe if we can get more people tuning this engine, we can get some aftermarket support. Even if it's just a head, or a stroker kit or forced induction. One part leads to another leads to another. It's like the Mopar 400, people just kind of tossed them to the side until a few years ago when someone figured out big bore + increased stroke = big displacement.

 

I'm actually going to try to do this with a 4.9L. Because the engine is special to me for one, but also because I really want to try to open more people up to what these can do, and a lot of people want to do a turbo 4.9 but have no idea what to do or where to start because they're afraid of not knowing what to do or how to go about it or which turbo to use etc. And if I'm going to do it, I'm sorting it the way I want if done. Reliably and huge power numbers.

 

People have thrown the kind of horsepower you're talking about into fox body mustangs just by adding frame connectors.
You would think a full frame truck would handle it.

 

But aren't foxbody mustangs unibody? I always thought unibodys would be a lot more stiffer than a truck frame and wouldn't be as easy to twist. I mean worst comes to worst find a new shell and drop it in.

 

It has a bit of frame at the front attached to the unibody with 4 bolts.
Point is just that plenty of 600 horse cars were built using a car frame of one kind or another. A full frame truck should be able to handle the torque.

 

I guess you're right that they should, but with a goal of 400% power increase to the ground over what the stock engine makes at the crank just seems like in any vehicle should require some extra bracing. But if I'm going to go through all that trouble to take the cab and bed off, I may as well do a resto-mod all the way through and I don't have a shop I can use for that amount of time. And then I'd have to have the frame dipped, especially if I decided to add trusses and box them in, for rust prevention, because I do plan on taking her for a long ways down the road.