I've had this truck since '07. I rebuilt the 400 pretty much right away and was laid off shortly there after so the truck sat and collected dust at my dad's house.

I headed out to his house with the intention of getting it started and DRIVING it onto my trailer ( I refused to winch it up ).

About a year ago my Jeep was broken into and the keys to my Ford were in the console so needless to say the first thing to do was replace the ignition lock cylinder.

After that I tossed a battery in it and craaaaaaaaaaannnnnkkkk. The starter rotated the engine over VERY slowly as if the battery was dead. Two things were wrong:

First, the positive battery cable that connects the battery to the solenoid was damn near catching on fire. When I parked the truck I knew that it was junk so I ran up to Auto Zone and picked up one of their pre-made cables.

After that I tried again and was rewarded with yet another long, slow craaaaaaaannnnnkkk. I decided to pull the starter. When I dropped it down, the snout of the starter fell to the ground. Sooooo off to Auto Zone again. Oh and for the record I am an O'Reilly's fan but the Auto Zone was close to my dad's house.

Oh, something else is that I left it with a 1/4 tank of gas which was now foul. I added 10 gallons of 93 octane via a few gas cans I brought with me.

So now I had some keys to crank it over, new starter, new cable and some new gas. Time to try again. I primed the carb with some fuel and it started instantly. I ran it up to 2k and it slowly died off. I re-primed the carb several times until I was able to get it to start and stay running. It ran really poorly but it would idle. I kicked into 4 low and loaded it onto the trailer.

Once home I decided I would go through each system and ensure that they were all good to go. I'm turning 30 this May and my plan is to drive it down to the beach for my birthday party so I have to make sure that it is capable of making the 400 mile roundtrip.

Tonight was the first night I was able to do anything. The idle was really rough. I hooked my vacuum gauge to it and the needle bounced all over and was between 10 and 15. Very unacceptable. The engine has a small cam ( Edelbrock Performer ) but not nearly enough to cause this.

I did everything I could think of. Checked leaks everywhere, checked all components of the ignition system and was just about to give up when I had an idea. The wiring harness that connected the ignition box to the distributor was junk. It had been allowed to lay across the exhaust manifold and all of the wiring was somewhat brittle. I spliced in some new wire and soldered the joints and started it up. Ran much, much smoother. I played with the idle and timing and the vacuum gauge now read 20 in of hg.

My "fix" is only temporary. I ordered up some Delphi Weatherpack connectors and the appropriate crimping tool to make a new harness between the ignition box and distributor.

It still has a little ways to go before it is ready to hit the streets but I'm really looking forward to it. My best friend has a dyno and tuning shop near me ( LONE STAR DYNO ) so I plan to take it there and tune it up on his dyno. I need to order a jet kit for the Edelbrock carb, too.

List of things to do:

Fuel leak above gas tank

Wheel cylinders leaking

Power steering leak

Battery box needs replaced

Oil change

New fuel line

Coil bracket

Tires

There's tons more but that's what it needs before it can be considered roadworthy.

Here's a pic of it before it got parked at my old house. I didn't take any pics tonight since I was soo busy but I'll snap some later.

 

Clean motor and nice truck.

 

Thanks.

I have some NOS hubcaps for it that I'd like to install soon. I love the stock look. I need to pick up some stock wheels.

Hopefully today I can get some more stuff done.

 

I saw a post recently where someone provided a link to some brand new stock ford wheels in several widths. Does anyone have that link?

 

Found them...

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/wv...5504/overview/

 

Had some interesting things happen recently.

When I rebuilt the engine a few years ago I didn't replace the timing chain. No reason other than I am just cheap and figured it was still good. Didn't really even check the slack in it, just stuck it on and went with it.

It's always had a bit of a rough idle that I could never pinpoint. I tried different carbs, different dizzys, pretty much played with everything but just came to accept it.

After getting it started recently I decided that I couldn't live with it and was determined to locate the source of the rough idle. I started checking all the various systems trying to see what could be the culprit.

I got it running somewhat OK pulling 17" of vacuum on the gauge but it was very erratic. It momentarily crossed my mind that it could be a sloppy timing chain but I still wasn't completely convinced. I went to bed and decided to mess with it more in the morning. I woke up and went back outside to fire it up and upon warming up it began running really rough and finally died after backfiring through the carb a few times. I spun it over attempting to start it back up and it sounded as if it didn't have compression in several cylinders, as well as, continuing to backfire through the carb.

I started wondering what the Hell could be going on. My initial thought was that the timing chain jumped and somehow a piston hit an intake valve, bending it, and causing it to stay open. I popped the valve covers and rotated it by hand and everything moved as it should until something caught my eye.

Three pushrods were out of place. I pulled all the accessories off and finally got to the timing chain to discover that it was out of time and very loose. From the looks of it, it had jumped time over and over again.

I went to O'Reilly's and picked up a new chain and gasket set and swapped everything out. Re-installed the pushrods and was able to fire it up this evening. Man, what a difference!

I still have to finish assembling the front accessories because I wanted to get it fired up just to make sure that the timing chain wasn't the only issue. At least I know what I'll be doing this weekend.

As soon as I finish it up I'm heading to my buddy's shop to strap it to a chassis dyno to finish tuning it to perfection and making a run. I don't expect big numbers on the dyno since it's not radical at all but I'd like to see at least 200rwhp.

 

So this truck has been neglected...a lot. I pulled the 400M a few years back and intended on putting it back in but never got around to it. Fast forward to a few months back and I started staring at it again and thinking that I needed to get it back on the road...but with a different motor.

I have always been a huge fan of the 351W platform and always thought it would be superior to a M engine. Granted, I've never disliked the M series engines or had a bad experience with them, I just prefer the Windsors.

I started researching it and there's not a ton of info out there. It doesn't appear to be a super complicated swap, but it also doesn't seem to the most well documented of swaps out there. It also doesn't seem to have the biggest following in terms of swap choices. Everyone goes big for the 460 or just keeps there M engine, which is fine but it's not what I wanted. I guess if I had a 460 AND a 351W sitting in my garage I might have gone with the 460 but then again, I might not have.

Anyways, the engine I had didn't have a ton of run time on it. It had been rebuilt before I got it but .I didn't want to throw it in without looking at its guts and I'm glad I did that. I pulled the heads and noticed some scarring on one of the cylinders. Apparently water had gotten into a cylinder and caused some pretty substantial rust in one of the cylinders. I pulled it apart and brought it to my machinist. He sleeved that cylinder and reassembled with new bearings and rings. I also had him do a valve job on the heads and install 3/8" screw in studs. Overkill, yes, but I was there and it really wasn't much money so I did it. Oh, we swapped cams too. I don't recall the info on it off the top of my head but I have it on my receipt so I'll try and remember to post it later. It is small though. More like an RV cam.

I made a mistake by leaving the stock 2wd pan with my machinist and not realizing that I needed a rear sump so he assembled with the front sump pan. Whoops. I ordered a Spectra rear sump pan for a 80-86 F-150/Bronco 4x4 that has the provision for a threaded dipstick in the pan, a Mellings oil pick up and Moroso main stud to support the pick up. I ended up ordered a universal threaded dip stick so we will see how that goes. I wasn't a fan of the fancy braided line dip sticks so I ordered this. It will need to be bent in a few places but I think it will be fine...hopefully. That all went on tonight.

I did end up ordered some roller rockers for it. I almost went with the Harland Sharp ones since they are tried and true but was having a hard time justifying 400 bucks on them so I ordered the Jegs brand stainless steel full roller rockers for about 230 shipped to my door. They had great reviews unlike some of the other lesser priced ones so I went with them. They haven't arrived yet but I'll get them installed and double check push rod length before ordered hardened push rods to go along with the guide plates,

The truck is behind my house right now and will need to be moved around front soon so I can start prepping the engine compartment for the new engine. I'm not sure how extensive I will go. I'm tempted to clean it really well and do some painting but I might just do a quick degrease and pressure wash and install it. This is far from a show truck so it's not all that big of a deal. I just want something I can hop in and drive anywhere.

I am currently looking for front accessory kits and can't find too many options for serpentine set ups but have found a few high quality v-belt set ups. I have no issue with that so that's what I'll probably go with.

I need to order the Vintage Air kit soon and I'm debating on a full harness replacement but that might wait. I want to get the truck running and then I'll mess with that. The harness isn't butchered and seems to be in decent shape so it will be fine for now. I'm seriously considering the Dakota Digital dash because this truck has an idiot light dash but once again, I might just finish the engine swap and get it running and then work on the electrical side of things.

Here's a few pics of the engine.

 

Of course there's always little issue. Screw in studs are a tad short. The machinist is ordering some longer ones. Probably 2".

With the roller rocker installed I was only engaging 3 threads at zero lash.

Oh well. Also still waiting to install engine in truck until i get the right bellhousing.

 

Off the top of my head, the 351W is the same as a 302 which these came with so you just need to get the appropriate mounts for that engine, the 351M/400 mounts are different and the tranny pattern is different between the 302/351w and the 351M/400. So either a different bellhousing, an adapter, or a new trans. Other than that it's a pretty straightforward swap.

 

Any progress is good progress. Brought my bellhousing to work and blasted it and shot some black paint on it. Came home and my fork and boot arrived. Small details in the big picture but I don't mind the little stuff. Flywheel should be arriving this wknd. Won't have the clutch until end of Feb unfortunately so this engine won't have a home until that arrives. Ill continue nipping away at the small things. I did get some longer rocker arm studs so I'll get those installed this wknd and get the rockers installed and adjusted. A few small things left to do but if I had a clutch I could at least get the engine in the truck.

 

Got the last parts in that I needed to get the engine in the truck. ARP bolts are a little overkill but I can think of worse ways to spend my money.

Still a few things to do before dropping it in. Need to dig out the mounts and get them bolted on. Install the intake and valve covers and then I'll at least power wash the engine compartment. Not gonna do much more than that. Once I get it in there is still a lot of little things to do but nothing hard. Just time consuming.

 

Ordered those 15x8 stock wheels I have linked above. Also ordered some Wimbledon White paint. Gonna wrap them in 31" ATs of some type

Oh and for the guys that like stock hub caps, here's mine. I bought these on Ebay 15 or more years ago in anticipation of this build.




So the question is, white or black walls?

 

Wheels came in.

Ill get them painted as soon as the paint comes in and haul them to Discount to get wrapped in rubber. Leaning towards Falken ATs.

 

Set the engine in to make sure I had the right mounts and check a few other things and something popped up that I wasn't expecting. I should have caught it but on this bellhousing the bolts that hold the clutch fork pivot dealio are carriage bolts whereas on my other Ford bellhousings they are a countersunk bolts. Anyways, I'm assuming they were changed out but maybe this bellhousing is just goofy. Who knows. Anyways I wasn't able to get the bellhousing flush with the tranny and noticed those bolt heads interfering. So when I have the engine out I will pull the bellhousing and address that.

 

Went ahead and pulled the engine this morning and drilled those carriage bolts out.




I had these bolts on hand but they were 1. Metric and 2. Too short so I need to get the right ones today from my local hardware store or go to a legit bolt store this week and get them.