Welp ive always been a big block and diesel man, never really messed with a small block, but recently i have bought a 85 F150 with a H.O 351w, its a mid atlantic crate motor not sure if its bored but it does have roller rocker arms so im guessing its got a cam and is not stock, and it has a 4bbl holley, so on that note i wanna build it. Most of buddies around here are Chevy guys and they talk alot of S**t so im looking on a blueprint or any kind of wisdom from yall on what to do to it. Im looking for a great street performer with gas mileage in the 8-11 range but i want it to run like a raped ape. so im open to suggestions on what to do. Thanks!

 

Do you have any sort of budget? My reccomendation would be a stroker if you're looking for awesome power. What's on it for cylinder heads?

 

yea a stroker build would be cool and could be done pretty cheap if you go the 393 route. get the motor balanced and a great pair of heads

 

The motor needs heads really.. that's it, mount some RHS 180cc irons on it and you got 350hp give or take.

 

shoot, all i really no is it a H.O. and is a mid atlantic motor i do know it has roller rocker arms and some means of a cam. but other than that i dunno. Im pretty satisfied with it personally performs great. just wanna put a little more *** in her.

 

If the motor runs smoothly and has good oil pressure you don't need to do anything to it besides let it breath, these Ford small blocks were assembled with better componants and to closer tolerances than the GM crap from the same era so the bottom end is solid, it just need heads and a full exhaust system to release it's potential.

 

That'd be my vote too. If the bottom end is all good, find a good set of heads that give good flow and compression ratio. Squeeze a set of headers and full exhaust on it, match that with a good intake carb setup maybe change out to a little bit more of a performance cam but still keep in mind it's a heavy truck so don't over-do it. You should have a nice torquey small block