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Back story - this truck was my Grandpa's so it has sentimental value to me. He passed away back in 92 and I finally got my hands on this truck after my uncle had it for years and years. This truck is a regular cab short bed 4x4 hooked up to a 4 speed tranny. My Granpda was a farmer and this truck fit his needs.
This Uncle of mine did not take very good care of it. It runs but not that great. This truck has the electronic carburetor feedback systems and I noticed a bunch of items unhooked and removed. See pictures attached.
Basically I want to get this truck going again but am thinking about converting it to EFI or dropping in a newer modern motor. I know this 300 is a strong dependable motor so an option is to rebuild it and drop it back in. Money is not necessarily an object although I'm not going overboard with it.
What would you experts recommend or advise? I want to make this truck a dependable daily driver. As this project goes along I will take pictures of progress and ask for a lot more help as I am sure I will need it.
I'm subscribing to this. I have an 86 4WD and your engine bay looks exactly like mine, and my feedback carb and emissions system is giving me fits. Good luck!
I have a 85 F150 with the 4.9L same setup as yours except mine is a long bed. The main thing is what you will be using it for. The 4.9 is a great engine but you won't be going anywhere fast with it. If you are using it as a work truck and don't need speed I would keep the 4.9. Ever think about just putting a different carb on? If you want I can take pictures under my hood so you can see how it's supposed to look like. I got it about a year ago and lucky enough that the PO only did normal maintenance to it. Still had factory shocks on it. Only thing I would trade it for is a extended cab version.
The best way to circumvent the feedback carb issue is to use a pre-feedback carb and use a single wire HEI distributor with vacuum advance. The Big I-6 is without a doubt the best workhorse engine that Ford ever put into the F-Series trucks. They were used up into the F700's. As stated, they were not fast but held darn near the same displacement as the Windsor 302 but had more reliability and better serviceability. A suggested upgrade would be to source 8th Gen split exhaust manifolds for flow. A minor carb upgrade (inexpensive) is not out of reach either. We did my nephew's 83 F100 TTB I-6 upgrades for less than $200 sourcing parts from local wrecking yards and a few new gaskets. His heavy half I-6 keeps up with my built 302 TTB...neck and neck.
Then get rid of the rest of the Emissions stuff and it will look super clean. It took me like 1.5 years to finally dial in my feedback carbs and ignition to the point where it will pass emissions and run correctly.
So for less than $1500 you can have a killer truck (if you do the work yourself) that sounds great will run cool and pull your house down.
The set-up you have now is fine, but to get that engine to run you will need the emissions stuff put back on. The FEEDBACK part will not work without it. There might be ways to bypass it, but it will be a band aid.
Start soaking the top bolt on your Power Steering pump housing and bracket with P.B. Blaster. Aluminum bracket and steel bolt. If they are not welded together now, they will be.
That way when you go to tighten the belt later in life it wont be an issue..
12-30-2016, 12:01 PM
85 F-150: 4.9L project
