So im looking for any advice or information anyone can give me. My truck is a 1989 f150 Lariat Xlt Custom. It`s a 5.0, 4x4 C-6 Long box Single cab. Now this was my first every truck and for 5 years its been sitting in my barn due to a blown tranmission. Im going to be rebuilding this truck from ground up (some rust here n there), building a stroker and upgrading my transmission as well as outher odds and ends. Before anyone sais throw the 302 out and buy a 351 its not a choice for me. This truck has sentimental value being my first truck and all. Okay so let me break down the build for you, over time i will update with progress pics. This will be a daily driver truck as well as off road mudding truck out in my swamp. Going to run 39`s maybe a little bit bigger tires unsure yet, aggresive but decent enough so i can still use them on the road. 3 inch body kit and a 9 inch suspension lift. Front and Rear locked with detroit lockers. Now transmission im going to be doing a mega monster in a box, which is an upgraded full rebuild kit the link will be posted below. Converter will either be a 1,900-2,300 (400 rpm over stock) or 2,300-2,500. What I need is a good Valve Body as I dont want to reuse mine due to tons of small peices of metal going threw my transmission when it blew. If anyone has a link of good one please let me know, if not how much is a stock one threw Ford? For the 5.0 I want to build a stroker it wont compare to the 351 but once properly done it will have more horse and torque then the stock 460 which im okay with. I plan to go .030 over on the pistons, Long Tube Headers with a 3inch outlet strait duals all the way back. The pistons/rods/crank I will probally get all at the same place so I know their compatible. What I need is a good cam/heads/rollers and an EFI intake to match. Was thinking of a roller cam setup but dont know much about them. Will be using E3 SparkPlugs and a better then stock dist/wires. Underdrive pulley conversion with eletric fans and a new super cooled tranny cooler from monstertrans.com. So give me all your advice, opinions, tips anything!!

Transmission:
C6 SS Mega Monster Transmission Complete Rebuild Kit: 1967-UP

Converters:
C6 Torque Converter 1900-2300 Stall Heavy Duty Torque Converter

C6 Torque Converter 2300-2500 Stall Heavy Duty Torque Converter

Cooler:
Monster Transmission Cooler, Fluid, Trans Flush, Decals, Super Cool Package, Keep Your Transmission Cool

One last thing, No idea what gears im going to run yet either.

 

your gonna have a $20,000 truck when you done

 

Yeah...I agree with Kemicalburns. I don't understand why you won't get a 5.8, it seems foolish not to just use the bigger motor, especially if you're just going to make the 5.0 a bigger motor. It has sentimental value, sure, but so does my truck, and I put a straight axle under it to mud, and if I was going to build a stroker and there was a bigger motor that bolted right in place like the 5.8 does with the 5.0 I'd be all over it. I would personally opt for a roller 5.8 with mass air. But that's just me if I were going to do it right...
Now you want to run tires over 33"? Your Dana 44 won't hold up. You're also going to run over 35"? A Dana 50 wouldn't hold up. But you're going to run over 38" tires, behind a 5.0 half ton truck? You need to do some research buddy. I wouldn't put anything bigger than 38" on my Dana 44 HD straight axle under my 3/4 ton truck. So you're going to need a Dana 60 front axle. With that said, do you think your rear axle is going to be a little strained? I don't know because I won't run anything bigger than 33" tires on half ton running gear, and I'm not going to find out. So let's just play a little scenario here. If I was going to run (for the sake of argument with a good round number) 40" tires under a truck, I would use a Dana 60 king pin front end, and a Sterling 10.25 rear end (the set up comes in a 1 ton truck if you didn't know). A one ton truck can also come with a big block 460, or a 7.3 diesel (several variations of the latter even). A big block won't have so much of an issue turning over those tires, even with a stock size gear such as 4.11s. And these trucks can come with the ZF5 speed which will put up with quite a thrashing. You can pick up a 97 1 ton truck with said options for less than half of what your build is going to cost you. And you will need to put much less work into the motor to push out whatever number you think that 302 is going to put out.
Truthfully, that's my thought on this build. By all means, repair the rust on the truck, and fix the tranny, but I don't think a 302 is worth building up in a truck, partly because the 302 isn't a good truck motor, and because money can be much better spent on parts for a motor that is already pushing better numbers to start with.
Now, with all that said, Kieth Black makes good pistons, Comp Cams and Lunati make good camshafts, Holley might have some kind of fuel injection set up, and Hooker makes good headers.

 

The money isnt an issue to me, using the 302 like I said. It`s going to be a daily driver truck, is why im sticking with the 302 and the 39`s wont be an issue. Rear end im using is out of a chevy dump truck. Total cost for me for all the motor parts will be under 6,000$. Don`t see where you get 20,000$ from... I have a 87 Ranger on 44`s with 15 inches of lift with a 460 stuck in it using 8.8 rear end. Thats also a daily driver for me but to much on gas. If i was to buy a 351 and swap it, I whould need the wiring harness and bunch of outher odds and ends. The 302 currently has 35`s and Ive ran that with stock gears, motor, tranny for 7 years. For the fuel injection why whould do you prfer Holly over Edelbrock? Headers I will be making myself, lots of places have different lengths in the pipes. My pulling truck I built the headers myself using all the same length pipes with a 3inch outlet dropped down. If i wanted a 460 I whould throw that motor in my 89 but think that whould cost more from all the loud exhaust tickets I whould get. Pulling truck is an open mod.


Also is their really any difference between the f150 and the f250 chassis outher then the f150 being spring coils up front and the f250 being leafs? If I did buy a f250 with a 351 the motor+tranny should bolt right up. But if i wanted extra replacement parts incase something breaks on the f150 like a rad support or bumper or cab... Is the f250 chassis any stronger?

 

Yes the F250 and F350 have the same frame thickness, which is thicker than the F150. They also use leaf springs all the way around if they are 4x4 and they use a sterling 10.25 rear end. The F250 uses the twin traction beam Dana 50, which is a tougher variation of the Dana 44 Twin traction beam. The F350 uses a Dana 60 straight axle. I did a straight axle swap on my 89 F250 using a Dana 44 HD from a 77 highboy. I think you should seriously consider putting money into a different truck. Edelbrock does make good parts too. I like them both about the same I suppose. If you can make your own headers go for it.
You come up with 6000 for motor parts. Now factor in drivetrain parts that you're going to need to upgrade if you use the half ton. Then factor in tires, lift, axle parts, getting closer to 20k yet?
Can you not feel how much power is sucked out of a 302 with those tires behind it? A 302 doesn't make low end torque. What do you mean the tires won't be an issue? What gear ratio is in the chevy dump truck rear end? Does it match your current ratio? Is it a ratio that you can get for your front end or a front end that you can use that will hold up to 39" tires? Why would you replace the rear end and not the front end? My 351 in my truck has a different feel with my 35" super swampers under it compared to my stock size tires. If you use a 351 you just need the wiring. The tranny bolts right up, your exhaust wouldn't mate up I suppose, but the motor mounts are the same. I just think you're going about this wrong.

 

Well the chevy dump truck rear end is currently in my pulling truck, its a 73 rear end and a 76 or 77 dana 60 in the front. Dont remember what gears I put in it, but that truck has 800+ hp on 33`s and never broke anything pulling a sled. The 302 is completely stock and on 35`s for past 7 years and had no problem moving the tires or doing burn outs. Was a good running truck untill I blew the front seal in the transmission and drove it 30 miles without tranny fluid. If the f250 frame is thicker then I might as well bring my f150 to the scrap yard and find an f250 with a 351 for sale. Only thing with them is I welded the splines because its for my pulling truck. Honestly I whould prefer to keep the f150, dont see how the 302 is a bad motor for 39`s... With a 1,000-1,500 rpm stall torque converter over stock and gearing with the new hp+torque it whould move pretty easy....

 

You didn't break anything on your pulling truck because it had the Dana 60 in the front. The Dana 44<Dana 50<Dana 60 and so on. The 302 is a bad motor for a truck. You can only get that motor to do so much to begin with, why not start with a motor that already has a larger displacement?
The other thing is, why would you make a daily driver with 39" tires on it?

 

Because jacked up and big tires is me... My four wheeler has 33 inch tires on it But like I said my Ranger is my current daily driver thats on 44`s, yes its a modified 460 but still.
</dana>

 

you killed the tranny in your current f150 because of the tire/gear combo you had been running and your driving habits.

the 5.8 is a drop in swap literally. get a complete efi 5.8 and you reuse your 5.0 harness and could even run the 5.0 computer if you wanted but would be best to run the 5.8 computer. you didnt say what tranny you have if its an AOD or E4OD so that would make a difference in regards to the proper computer. Run a mustang mass air harness and A9P/A9L for under $200 bucks if you have the non computer controlled tranny, this would allow you to keep efi and run which ever cam, injectors (tuned of course) and intake you wish. a .40 bore with 9.5-1 compression, aluminum afr 185 heads, trickflow efi upper/lower intake proper cam or custom ground cam, long tube headers and that 5.8 would make some serious power and be cheaper then a stroker 5.0 build.

 

I blew the tranny by driving 30 miles without tranny fluid in it, if it wasn`t for that it whould still be runnning strong. Drove 7 years with that combo. -30F below 0 in a bad snowstorm, plowing a customers farm burnt the seal up behind the torque converter. Tranny is a C-6 3 speed, no OD in c6`s. I prefer C-6 over any outher tranny ford makes. Pulling truck still uses a C-6 3 speed with an Open Mod 460.

 

having the C6 makes this swap easy. given your ranger setup i feel you have all the knowledge you need to make this happen. take lots of pics and keep us posted on your progress.

 

Thank you! Glad to see I'm not completely insane.

The big tires with the tall gears behind a 302 is what killed your tranny. Sure you ran it without tranny fluid, but the wrecked transmission was a long time coming at that rate. And you mean to say that you plowed a farm with your truck, which had 35" tires on it, tall gears, a c6, and a 302? You blew the seal because you OVERWORKED it. All you did was put it over the tipping point which I'm sure it's been sitting on for a while.
I have a jacked up truck too, but I have a 351w with a NP435 4 speed tranny with 3.55 gears. The difference is that my tranny is geared really low for 1st gear to get rolling and it doesn't have OD either. I also don't lug around 35" tires on the road everyday, I have the stock size (about 32") tires for the road because I don't want to wreck too much stuff for no good reason. I only put on my 35s when I take it wheeling.

 

No that is not how i ruined the seal, the seal got ruined FROM plowing and abusing the truck to move tons of snow that we had with low tranny fluid to begin with from the pan being rusted. When the seal went it whouldnt hold tranny fluid longer then 2mins. So i drove it home that way. Truck still drives fine in reverse without tranny fluid but cant really drive backwords to work everyday. 7 years I drove that truck with that setup/tires. 100 miles a day, in town and highway and uphills. Never once changed the tranny fluid either. So no that is not the reason the tranny blew. You do not need a big motor and gears to run big tires. Come here and you can see my neighbors 98 Ranger v-6 4x4 riding on 42`s. Stock gears. Hes been running that for 10 years now. You opinion on what you need to run big tires is completely retarded. Get a small V-8, Get big tires, Go test it out. Dont give advice if you`ve never done it and clearly you havent. You sound like an MIT idiot or Garage Mechanic Moron. Every weekend down here is mudd boggs, mudd races etc... You can see 100`s of trucks using small v-6`s, v-8`s. Stock gearing 39-46 inch tires. Lots of them being daily drivers. Guess I should be over to the mudding forums, nothing but idiots here who have never built a real mudd rigg/daily driver. All you guys know how to do is swap. When it comes to building something big out of something small you know nothing.

 

+1

Sometimes we have to make our own mistakes. Not wanting to change to a superior short block because of sentimental reasons but still being willing to swap in a GMC dump truck axle, run 39s and poke and stroke--sentiment be damned, running 44s with a 8.8 and waiting until now to figure out there is a difference between a 1/2 ton and 3/4 ton truck looks like just the tip of the iceberg

Snipe, I wish you luck not only in this but all of your life's endeavors. Please, when you start this post a bunch of pics here for us all to see. Let us know what worked and what didn't and show us just how retarded we really are.

 

I have the knowledge to do it myself, but I want to know what you guys are using on your 302`s. Feedback on the parts, how long you`ve had them and how they are.