I had a 300 6 in my 66 and it was a great motor. Though it was only 2wd and set up for baja it still did great, had 4.11 gears limited slip it was a great setup. Sadly i tossed the 2wd and the motor, its goin on a 4x4 76 frame and gettin a 351w now. I looked into the 300I for my motor origionally i thought it would be badass and origional since everyone else has v8's. So ive done some research. Dont let these guys sell you short on the capabilities of the I6 man, does anyone remember clifford performane (6=8)? the overly priced but sadly one of the only 300I6 aftermarked parts dealer. Well they opted that you can get 900hp and somewhere along the 1000-1100lbs of tourqe from one of these bad boys. Which i dont doubt if you have a crapload of moola. But as for building these up, the tourqe is already there, clifford as well as some other places now see upgraded intakes for these, you can even get a tunnel ram for a 4bbl carb for these (fuel injection may be another story i dont know too much on that end of things) and cams are out there. With about a grand you can probably beef up your hp and even your touqe slightly to have a badass I6, i had a 3 1bbl manifold for mine but it was hard finding those single holleys and the webers were outa my price range so i opted for the v8. Anyways to get to the point the 6 is a great engine, bullet proof, works great with a np435 4sp (with granny gear) and 4.11 gears your pretty much setup even with a decent lift on it. I did hear a rumor that clifford was going out of business which is kind of a bummer. Hope this brought some help to your thoughts...
Brian

 

I see this is an extremely old post, but I thought I would throw this up here anyway. My truck is in my sig. It's got the stock carburetor. I have been offroading a few times with it, and it seems to want to die constantly. Whether going up a hill, coming down a hill, getting jerked left and right. Is this just something that I need to get used to with the carb, or do I have some sort of problem with my fuel system(fuel pump, carb)? Anything I should be looking for? It runs fine for the most part on the road. It actually runs better on the road after wheeling it and it dieing a few times.

 

carbs generally have issues when ramping up, down, or on a sideways angle. there are tricks to rebuilding a carb to work better on angles and rough terrain. do a search on here or on google and you should be able to get some ideas as to what to do. holley truck avengers work pretty good offroad on angles, but i don't know if they make them in a small enough cfm to be useful on an I6.

 

bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahhaha!

Guess I need to swap engines between George and my red 79

 

i don't think george could handle the awesomeness that would be an 1,100ft.lbs. straight six, but it sure would **** off the cummins guys. too bad a straight six would blow it's head off before coming anywhere near that kind of power.

 

as a general rule of thumb a naturally aspirated engine will not make more than 2hp per ci. Once you step into the 2+ hp/ci realm things are super expensive and super hush hush. Boosted 2-3hp/ci is do-able with the right engine but Im pretty sure a 300 is not it.

IIRC 500hp/500ftlbs is like the holy grail for 300-6s with a turbo. Might check fordsix.com for more info A guy with the sn Frenchtownflyer had one of the baddest 300s over there but its been a good many years since Ive even signed in.

 

the big problem with them and turbos, from what i have read, is that even with arp head studs and other fancy parts, the head is just a bad set up as to how it bolts to the block. anything over 5psi and you will most likely make it go Ka-Boom!!!! i'm sure with some custom machine work and o-ringing the cylinders and such, you could safely go to a higher psi, but it would just be more sensible and cost efficient to go with a better motor for the application.

 

yeah the 6s can do some good crap. i have used mine alot havent gotten stuck that much. i would crawl through a deep mud hole in 2wd but the bed was loaded down with fire wood tho. i have gotten stuck a couple of times. one was when i hit the hole soo hard that i didnt push the clutch in in time and it died on me. starter was junk so wouldnt start. got pulled out by a dodge but i dont care i got pulled out at least. my friend had owned a gmc sonama truck 90s and he didnt do any thing with it, now he has a 2000 gmc jimmy and it is all setup for off roading and he still doesnt do anything. now he has a sticker on the window that says ford recovery team. so next time i go up and he gets stuck im going to tell him i cant pull him out. and i am the only person that did anything that was serious and he was the only one to pull me out so the sticker is pointless. i have crawled up a rock hill win 2wd 3.08 open gears. i will be converting to the 3.55 ls front and rear gears soon here.

 

A lot of guys use the smallest (I believe 470 cfm?) truck avenger on the 300 sixes with good results.

I have taken my 300 powered F250 places where a fullsize truck doesn't belong, through tight and steep yota trails, up loose dirt hillclimbs (where my all talk and no ***** buddy wouldn't take his 390 powered highboy), and through some decent mud and water puddles, and it keeps chugging through most all of it. And it is completely stock, open diffs, and street tires. Those 300's are pretty damn amazing motors. I would be unstoppable with swampers and a locker.

 

Lol I can't see that being all that exciting if your making it fine completely stock, open diff and street tires.

 

Oh it's exciting. I didn't say I was making it fine, I was saying how well the engine puts up with all the thrashing it takes to get through that stuff. But it always somehow does most of it.

 

Hahah. Get a 460. I guarantee that if your happy with a I6 you'd be happier with a 460. :P

 

Most of my 4 wheeling experience has been with a 300 six and a manual tranny. Both of my 300 powered 4wd F150s would take me up and over through and around anything I pointed em at, within reason of course. I love the strong off idle torque they make and they're pretty much bulletproof. I've never had one let me down on the road or in the woods. I admit they certainly aren't the fastest or most powerful creatures, but they won't let you down especially if you take care of them. Unfortunately there are stubborn bone headed V8 zombies out there who think they are junk... some people you just can't tell them anything.

 

Oh I know. If only the truck didn't also have to be a commuter. Though I would be just as happy with my truck with a few added goodies as I would with the same truck w/ a 460. Especcially if I can get like 15 mpg as opposed to 8. Plus up here in washington, there just aren't very many monster mud bogs that you'd want a big block for. That's part of the fun around here, seeing how far you can take your elephant fullsize up a mountain goat yota trail.

 

You were getting 15? That's pretty good for a 3/4 ton 4x4, I was getting around 17 with my 84 F150 4x4 when I was driving it daily. Sadly much better than the POS 95 GMC Jimmy 4.3 V6 I had that would get 12 going downhill with a tailwind!