I know I'll probably get some wise comments for thinking of doing this. I've been a Ford guy forever. F100's, Mustangs etc. I have a limited budget now and have been piecing the parts together for a '56 F100. I have a friend who had an accident in his 2000 Chevy Van. He'd taken pretty good care of it. No extreme use and all the good stuff. It has a 350 engine that ran real good but has about 120 thousand on it. In my '56 I decided to install an 81 Camero clip and found a good deal. What I really want to know, and I know I've probably already made some enemies by mixing Ford and Chevey, but what I want to know is what to offer. It will come with everything, transmission, computer etc. If it's in good condition, whats it worth? Thanks

Jerry

 

Start as low as you think you can without getting beatup, you can always go up. If you change your mind later you can always sell for a profit and go with a Ford power train.
There is some dark siders here and we manage to leave them alone for the most part, it`s all about Ford trucks.

 

J2 - There are plenty of folks here who run Chevy drivelines in their Ford trucks. Not to worry.

I, personally, would not buy a tired engine from a friend. But, to answer the question, $200-400 sounds about right for the whole shebang. His insurance has probably already totalled it out, so this is gravy money and the carcass is hard to sell.

The 350 is a great engine with lots of aftermarket goodies available. But 120,000 miles is pretty long in the tooth, even though it was running smoothly. Figure you'll have to rebuild it sometime in the next 25,000 miles.

 

What tranny? where was it hit, is there any possibility or damage to any of the driveline? A 2000 would be an OBD2 computer I believe, which will complicate the swap unless someone is making a stand alone engine management harness setup. The OBD2 software looks at a lot of sensors before deciding to let you drive the vehicle which may be hard to bypass or spoof. 120K miles is not nearly as bad in a EFI engine than in an older non computer controlled engine. Will you get the entire vehicle or just the engine and tranny? Check out the availability and price of a control harness before committing to a price if you aren't getting the entire truck.
I'd rethink putting in the camaro clip, the turning radius ends up HUGE! I'd put in a Jag IFS crossmember instead, much easier and cheaper for a much better setup.
PS: my panel has a CSB 400 in it.

 

I bought a 350 TPI and tranny with B&M shifter gave 500 for the whole car runs great with 90,000 miles on it.

 

When and if you get that engine make sure you get the wire harness and computer. There are companies that will modify the existing harness (cheaper) or make a new harness for you. You will also have to send them the computer to have it flashed for your installation. The number one thing they have to remove is the VAT system or your engine will not run. With the harness the will remove everything that is not needed for you installation and label all the wires and where the go. Its really simple plug and play after that point. Another thing you will need to buy adapters (or make your own) for your engine mounts they are a little different on the Gen III engines. These modern engines run well over a 100,000 miles if they were taken care of. The trans should be a 4L60E which is a nice trans.