The 81 had a 300 inline 6 in it sad to say but it has crapped out. The 72 360 with tranny is recently rebuilt. I thought why not swap them out. Am I getting into trouble here? Will I need to make the motor mounts? Will the radiator from the 81 be good enough for the 360? I know the hoses are opposite.

 

well, 3 things: First, welcome to FTE, Second, the 70's f150's shared the same motor towers between 300's and FE's, but this is an 81, so.... And Third, emissions won't allow it. That said, You can use your 300 6's motor towers, move them back and either rebolt them, or weld them in, but I'm not positive about it. They were never offered in the 80's but, it shouldn't be too hard. Try the search feature in this forum, for the same swaps. I remember one about a 390 going into an 86. Good luck.

 

Thanks for the help. I'm sure I will have a lot more questions once I get the project started.

 

I'm in the process of piecing together a 390 swap into my '85. One issue that i'm noting is that the frame holes need to move backwards almost 6", and there's no crossmember back there to bolt to. You'll need to come up with either V-8 mounts to push the engine back that far or make up a pair of perches.

The other issue that i've noted is the 390 I have has a front sump pan, and the sump is going to wind up sitting right over the crossmember. I don't know if there's going to be enough vertical clearance in there to get the sump over the crossmember.

Third issue i've come up with is the stock oil filter adapter. The oil filter is going to sit right where the crossmember currently is, so unless the filter will fall into the filter well in the crossmember (which is covered by the drivers side engine frame perch on I-6 trucks), you'll have to run a remote filter mount.

All small enough tasks, but for now enough to keep the 300 right where it is.

Justin

 

a 302 front sump won't clear the crossmember either. That's how I bought my 83 F250...it had a 77 302 in it. They said it was siezed up, but here it was the oil pan pushed up into the crankshaft. I think it ran until they hit the first good bump. Anyway, if the 302 pan hits, most certainly the FE will too.

 

you know there was at least 2 styles of fe oil filter adaptors one went straight down and one was at an angle also the 4x4 truck pans were rear sump

 

the straight out one will possibly work if it angles forward. Otherwise it would hit the frame directly. If so, you would need to use the car adaptor (if it works) or notch the frame to accept the horizontal filter.

I'd rather run a remote filter than notch the front crossmember on a Twin I-beam truck. Besides, a remote adaptor is only about $10 which is cheaper than i've ever been able to find a stock FE filter mount for.
http://store.summitracing.com/partde...5&autoview=sku
OR
http://store.summitracing.com/partde...5&autoview=sku

As for the rear sump pans, try to find one in decent shape that people don't think are made of gold. I'm to the point where I'm just going to cut the stock front sump pan apart and turn it into a rear sump.

BUT, if you really want a nice piece and don't mind spending some money Mildon makes a really nice rear deep sump pan for the FE's (IIRC it's around $250)

EDIT: more like $275 http://store.summitracing.com/partde...5&autoview=sku

Justin

 

I have already decided on the remote oil filter. My oil filter is right in line with the steering shaft. It comes out at the steering box. I used the straight six frame mounts and cut and welded the 72 frame mounts to them. Now all I need to find is a drive shaft to fit. Probably, going to have to find a longer one and cut it to fit.

 

If you have enough clearance, you can use a shorter filter, Wix part number for the short ford filter is 51069, for the slightly longer Dodge filter (same thread) is 51085.

Rear sump pans show up on Ebay occasionally, but they go for about $80.

 

hoxiii,
I've got a rear sump pan,new oil pump pickup and new dipstick and tube that I would make you a good deal on. E-mail or PM me if your still needing one.