JJJELLO

The hot-rod grand-momma in me thinks every 0% credit card offer in the mail is really an invitation to upgrade my 302 V-8 to something with more waaaah-waaaah attitude at idle, at a red light, or just cruising.
This ego-inspired and spiritually confirmed decision comes with years of living with the soothing rumble of muscle cars while living southern California in the 60s.
At age 66, it is time to match my inner child's joy of going “vvrooom-vvroom..” again with me at the wheel - not my brother!! Maybe I should go to a corvette driving school in Pahrump or the reknowned school (Bob Bondurant?) in Phoenix, closer to home.
For whatever reason I want to add more pizzaz to my Ford F-150 (single cab 2x2 short bed XLT with its 99,000 mile 302 V-8, 5.0) that runs great back and forth over the 2 miles of unimproved roads in Chino Valley, AZ. Exploring an upgrade to the 351 Windsor with a tranny to match its potential power plus most of the bells and whistles of a transformation of this magnitude to compliment my personality out on the country roads with spacious freeway cloverleafs and tricky merging roundabouts to enjoy (HA).

SO MY QUESTION IS: If money is not really a problem to get the attitude I want from my “Plum Tuckered Out” (Tucker) truck should I do it? Probably will anyway but value your input on these subjects. Give me brand names and what you would do with this build. I really want an LS-3 but Iron Resurection or Kount Kustoms cable shows have not answered my query. LOL

I do not need a big block and I don’t want to put a Cummins diesel in it.
Goal is to go to cruising car show-off events and soothe my reformed healthy ego who dislikes sitting next to your truck at static car shows. Cruising Pacific Coast highway in the 60s and all the heavy equipment I operated (all dozers, loaders, dump trucks etc) in the 80s in the U.S. Air Force with the grumbling of engines is more enjoyable to me than sounds of kids playing. Gotta get that sexy grumble back in my life.

Tucker is reborn because of a serious accident we had in Aug when chicky-pooh did a U-turn right in front of me across a double yellow line on a 2 lane country road. I chose NOT to broadside her and kill us both instantly so I forcefully swerved to the left and missed her car but ate up 40 feet of rangeland barbed wire fence. This avoidance turn threw me violently to the left - centrifical force dislodged my right hearing aide and squashed my whole body into the driver’s door. I blacked out and opened my eyes to a purple truck idling steady in a huge mass of prickly pear cactus. EMT had to extricate me from the truck by chopping the cactus glob away so they could open the door. With a 35 year history of controllable atrial fibrillation, my pulse shot up to 187in tachycardia. I knew I was in shock.

Since the accident my heart never converted to normal sinus rhythm and stayed in rapid heartbeat pulse averaging 155 per minute. Even on blood thinners, I was a stroke-waiting-to-happen. Had to have a cardiac ablation on 13 Nov where the surgeon zaps the impulses that are misfiring in the heart using radio frequency.

Now that my spark plugs fire in the right sequence in normal sinus rhythm, a Lifetime of stressors coupled with fear, anxiety, life’s cummulative traumas and familial dysfunctional dynamics, the operation felt like my body, mind, soul, spirit and sense of being was squeezed thru a toothpaste tube leaving the other stressors in the tube and bursting forth exuding fresh freedom and bathed in the radiant light of God’s unlimited cosmic energy.
Thanks for listening.
Proud Woman Vet Driving

BLDTruth

Welcome to my world! I find myself in the same current dilemma - do I empty the checkbook just to play? Or continue to operate under the lousy rules of reason and logic that tell me I don't NEED it.

https://www.f150forum.com/f10/351w-roller-build-398827/

If you are really serious about setting the wallet on fire, I would point you to this - a good starting point for any small block build that is getting serious about power.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/FORD-408-ST...xW5YLo&vxp=mtr

SaltEater

Lol, LS3 is definitely some drop in power, but would be pretty pricey by the time you got the crate engine and a tranny with all the fixins all swapped in.

If your goal is to roll up to car shows in a muscle truck and roast the tires now and again there are cheaper ways to do it.

302/351 crate engines are all over the place, you'd have to check that they make enough power down low to not act like a turd in a 4000lb(?) truck. Bonus with those is they'd bolt up to your existing trans. For transmissions, BTS or John Wood have quite a name on the google-net for building e4od's, not sure what you'd look for in an aod(e) or manual though.

There are LS based engines that came in Chevy trucks (around the 2000's) that make decent power at stock, lots of people pull them from junkyards and freshen them up for big numbers. If you had one pulled from the junkyard, you'd want the computer & trans to go with it, and would still need a custom driveshaft.

Boost; 15 psi of forced induction is basically one atmosphere, double the air, double your power. Turbo-charging can be much cheaper to set up, the pricey issue is getting an aftermarket computer system to run it, unless you're real good with carbeurators. Supercharger whine is cool, but could be a pricey part.

Where do you want to make the power? A high revving buzzsaw with all the induction noises? Or low and lopey rumble machine? Is it just the noise you're after? A simple camshaft swap and custom intake/exhaust might be all that's need for 'attitude' if you're not overly concerned with numbers.

If I were building a 2wd flareside truck like yours (nice truck btw), I'd probably focus on making everything lighter (rotating assembly, valvetrain, chassis), and shoot for making over 6k rpm (as cheaply as possible, lol).

77Ranger460

Save money, time, and frustration....Buy a truck that's already built. Let that guy take the loss of both money and hair that comes with building a truck.

JJJELLO

I knew you guys would give me the answers I am looking for. My alter-ego loves the truck but my finances subtly scream fence your 2 acres first; build a screen porch first; hire landscaper to fix neglected front yard. Alternative is to get a Subaru Outback with AWD to handle the mud bogging adventures on muddy dirt road to and from town. Will hold onto this dream and see what happens once ego lets go of this idea. I am learning how to put the horse before the cart and this is one time I caught myself of putting the cart before the horse. I will mull this and decide with the first rain storm of winter when the muddy roads dictate my driving choices. Consumer reports says the Outback is best SUV for snow, mud, and rain traction. 4x4 Ford SUV with not too many bells and whistles another possibility. Keep talking to me as Christmas bonus time nears. Have budgeted $10k but also see that funding other more pertinent safety and aesthetic projects.

David Young

JJJELLO, did your wreck happen recently? If so, did you get you a Lawyer? Just wondering

JJJELLO

Thanks for your help with my ego-driven dilemma. The Subaru OUTBACK won the debate and truck will be rebuilt in time when debts cleared and lawsuit settled. I want the rumble of the truck so will pursue that avenue when I fulfill the American dream - getting out of debt. Then resisting the American habit of being debt free so you can get into debt again. At 66 I deserve the former not the latter.
USAA has a great program for car buying. They have reps at select dealers who work with you to get the best deal and financing through the dealer. So have appt soon with Jeff at Prescott Subaru and Justin at Prescott Honda. Benefits of 23 years of service in the US Air Force.
In traffic I saw a purple Subaru Forester the color of my truck (thanks for the compliment on truck). I will pay extra if I can get that color or go with a wrap of that color. Have applied for non-profit status with IRS for my Flying Flamingo Refuge that helps the community wade through paperwork for various application like a 32-page application for my friend Barbara to get a service dog for her seizures. She is a fellow veteran and I am as darn good writer so I can help her submit the application at no cost to her and a joy to me to help others. My non-profit’s other goal is to beautify the community and preserve the environment by accepting donations of sun-bleached pink flamingos and other unwanted and outdated tacky yard art. I have ½ acre set up for displaying these creatures (gnomes, lizards, turtles, mingos, etc) in a retirement resort-like setting in my front yard. Even have a “pond” so they can practice take offs and landings.
My USAF job was an air traffic controller so why not offer these amenities. My colonel used to say my writing skills were so good that I could get you promoted or court-martialed…which did you want? I wrote awards and decorations for him in 1988 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia when the USA was reflagging Kuwaiti tankers in the Persian Gulf. And the USS Vincenes shot down the Iranian airliner.
My web site not yet set up will be FlyingFlamingoRefuge.com
Will post Outback photo when I get a good financing deal from USAA and Jeff. Thanks again for your support and help. And YES I will look for a truck that is already built out the way I want it. Always perusing the Ford gene pool locally and on line. Althougha Case 580K backhoe with a 6ft box blade might win out over a truck. LOL.