I picked up my father's truck today and, over the next year or so, I'll be "restifying" it. Not a true restoration, meaning it won't be exactly factory, or not factory as it was in '81, but it will be as I want it to be - or as I think I want it to be since this truck is going to stay in our family for many years. And, I'll be looking for help from y'all on what is possible and/or reasonable, so I hope you'll subscribe and comment.

Ok, for starters the truck is an '81 F150 Ranger XLT 4x4 with a 351Mmmm and a C6. Dad is the 2nd owner and he loves the truck. However, he's no longer able to drive it so I've "borrowed" it to work on it as he knows it has some problems. And what might those problems be?:

• Bed: The bed was backed into and crushed almost to the frame. It is a goner. So, I have an '82 bed in pretty good shape that'll go on.
• Cab: The corners are rusted and the lady that got the bed also got the corner just behind the passenger's door. I'm not sure whether or not I should fix the rusted corners and beat out the dent, or replace the cab with the '82 cab, which I conveniently have and which is in good shape.
• Paint: Obviously I'll need to paint the truck, or at least have it painted.
• Engine: I don't know if the engine is just tired or just never had any zest. But, getting out of the '82 w/a 351W that I sold today and into Dad's truck is ...... boring. So, something significant has to happen to the engine. As it happens, I recently bought another '81 w/a "built" 351M sporting an E'brock intake under a Holley 4 bbl and a mild cam. (Yep, Gary has a Holley, although I also have a 1406 that will probably take its place.) So, I may swap engines, although I'll pull compression and leak-down tests before doing so to ensure the new engine is solid.
• Tranny: Dad's truck has the C6 ahead of 3.50 gears, and I find the combo "busy". On the other hand, the other '81 has an NP435 so I could swap the transmissions and drop the RPM at 65 from 2900 to probably 2600. But, I'm not sure that's enough so I'm seriously considering installing a ZF5 in Dad's and placing the C6 in the other truck.

And, there are other issues like brakes that don't do much on the first application, carpet that has seen better days, and lots of odd "work-arounds" everywhere that Dad implemented instead of getting the right part. (He is a child of the Depression and learned to make-do.) Having said all that, this truck drives so much better than the one I sold today, after working on it for 18 months, that it feels almost new. And, I think I discovered another place the '81 rubber is better than some other years - the window gasketing. Dad's is still good while that on the '82 I just sold is about 1/3 gone and what's still there is as brittle as glass.

But, I suspect this is about enough for the first post in what will probably be a long thread. I welcome your thoughts, suggestions, and questions.

 

Subscribed! Looking forward to hearing what you do with the truck.

 

Subscribed.

 

Subscribed. Take plenty pics.

 

That's what I forgot to say! I got home after dark today so couldn't take pictures, but hope to do so tomorrow. Obviously y'all will need to truly see some of the issues in order to suggest an approach to resolving it, such as the rusted and dented cab corners. Thanks!

 

I would try to save the original cab, at some point in replacing major parts like the cab, bed, engine, etc, it seems like it's not really the same truck anymore.
I went through the same thing with my truck (was my grandfather's) and decided to fix the original bed and cab, if only for the sentimental value.

 

I bet you were wondering when I was gonna hop in here and put in a few questions.

-Are you going to be retaining the Ranger XLT trim on your dad's truck?
-When you take pics, can you get some of the engine and the interior?

And one sole statement,

-Concerning the slow nature of the 351M you describe, I'd be willing to bet the engine in your father's truck is still original, and therefore in need of some serious waking up. The 351M and 400, as well as the rest of the 70's-80's engines were severely dogged down by lower emissions efforts, and plenty of things can be done to wake them up and bring them up to spec with where your 351W was at. A trip down to the 335 section of this fine forum is a great step towards understanding these engines, especially since you have two of them now. I know it's been a great resource for me thus far in understanding the fundamentals and need to knows about the 351M/400.

 

Yes, Shaun, I knew when I typed "Ranger XLT" that I would hear from you. I'm glad you joined. Yes, I intend to retain the trim, but will need to replace some of it and I hear it can be hard to find.

And, I have read-the-mail from time to time on the 335 forum, and I realize that it isn't fair to compare the original 351M with 144k miles to a fresh 351W with a cam. But it is hard not to make comparisons when you hop out of one red cab and into another. I keep trying to come up with a way of testing the engine in the other truck to see how strong it is, but the clutch is out of it and that clutch won't be the right one if I go with the ZF5. Maybe I should just swap the engines, although that would be the time to swap transmissions as well. Anyone have a good idea?

 

Gary, if you need help replacing the trim, I have a few "ins" that could possibly help me in tracking down some of that hard to find trim for you. Just be glad you don't have a 1980 truck!

As far as that "rebuilt" 351M goes, the problem with swapping that into your dad's truck is that you have no real idea what was done to it. Not sure if you saw my recent saga with my old 300, but I found out through inspection of the parts that my 300 has been rebuilt before with chinese pistons and .010 bearings that were 3 different brands, and had already gotten down to the copper lining. A rebuild can be good, or it can be poor, but you just never know until you tear an engine down. Had I not have taken a closer look at those bearings, I would have never known that my 300 had previously been rebuilt. That 300 is definitely not something I would have wanted to put into a truck that has any kind of sentimental value to me.

 

Subbed.
My advice, pull apart an engine, and build it back as a 400. Won't cost much (if any) in MPG, but the gain in torque is rather nice.
Trans, either stick with the C6, or go ZF. Not enough gain to go to the 435. The effort involved with swapping to manual trans should at least include an OD gear.

 

With the engine, I would use parts from both to make the best engine possible! just like Shaun said, there could be suprises inside. Is the 351 in the truck the original? If so, if it were my truck, I would keep that engine in it, and put all the goodies from the other one in it!

 

IIRC the 351M has the same problems as the 460s where the exhaust ports are grossly undersized. That's why the 351W is such a nice engine. It's too bad that they didn't have a variant for the 460s. Oh well. If you can get the heads and intake from a 351W you'll notice a big improvement.

 

I am going to agree with newrider3, there comes a time when it is no longer the same truck if you replace the bed , cab, engine, & trans. well there is not much left of the original truck. with a little TLC, you could save most all of it & still have a nice unit. Well this is just my point of view as I am sure you will do what you must. I will follow your project and expect to see your usual excellent finished product.

 

Subscribing....

 

Shaun - I may take you up on the trim offer. I do want to make it "right" in that respect.

All - The recently rebuilt 351M has been bored .060" over. I reported that some time ago as I was worried it had been taken too far. I think it was Jim who said something like "If you were going to race it I would be worried, but for what you are going to use it for I would install it and not look back".

In addition, it is said to get 12 MPG regardless of how it is treated and it holds very good oil pressure. And the latter is something I worry about on Dad's as its pressure runs between 35 and 40 at 60 MPH and drops pretty low at idle when warm. Further, if I remember correctly that's been an issue with those engines for some time.

That being said, if I do use that engine it'll really be that block, but I might as well add the 400 crank for little additional cost - as RW points out. However, I doubt it would be worth it to pull the cam and intake off the other engine as I'd rather have a known cam for my engine, and a selling point for the other truck when it comes time will be the E'brock intake and Holley carb.

As for exhaust, I'd thought I might just swap on the new single exhaust pipe/dual tail pipe system with a Flowmaster 40 the other truck has. But after driving the truck I just sold with dual glass packs I'm not sure this grandpa really wants that much noise. So, I may go with headers and something like Magnaflow mufflers in a true dual arrangement. And, as I said someplace on this forum recently, I really get a kick out of hearing "stereo" from the rear of a vehicle, so will probably have the exits be behind both rear wheels. That's the way dual exhaust sounded when I was a kid, so is the way I think they should sound.

As for what can be replaced and still consider it Dad's truck, I know the opinions range from "don't replace even the instruments" to "replace what you need to replace". I'm kinda of the latter persuasion, but I am getting to that point slowly. Here's some of my thinking:

• Body: The bed has to be replaced due to the damage and rust. The cab may be able to be saved, but it really gets down to how much work is needed to repair the bent corner and how well can I do that. But, even if I replace the bed and the cab, if I go back with the original color and trim I'm confident Dad would recognize it as his truck.
• Engine: The engine is tired and something's got to be done. Does it matter that I keep the same block when at least the pistons, intake, carb, and probably crank will be different?
• Transmission: If I'm going to drive this thing much, and I plan to do so, then getting even 2 MPG better is well worth changing the transmission.

But, I say this not to suggest you quit telling me your opinion. Instead, it is just to tell you that I'm considering what you are saying and to let you know what I'm thinking. Maybe that'll spark even more discussion, and discussion now is much better than later after I'm done.