Yes, I know. . .I'm a glutton for self-punishment


It's a 1987 F250 4x4. 460/c6 gass guzzler Going to build a "mileage motor" come spring. . .if there is such a thing to try and eek out 12+ mpg Or propane!

I think I payed a fair price for it, but the guy was dead set on getting the money for the tires he put on the week before so initial price was higher than I wanted. . .oh well. . .they are brand new though, maybe 15 miles on them since driving it home! So right now, I'm going through my little list of stuff it needs and an inspection next month and it should end up my daily driver. Needs different paint, I HATE RED!!!!!

I'm suppossed to be saving a decent amount of money, if I calc'd right with this vs my 04 F150. . .plus it's 18,500k CGVWR Basically, twice as much gas, but no payment and less insurance. . .

We'll see

https://www.ford-trucks.com/user_gal...&albumid=28842

 

Congrats, looks good!! If ya want to pull the 460, I can make you a real good deal on a great running 351W

 

Nice looking truck! Clean, and shiny! Beast of a truck! What was the price? Get rid of your 04 yet? You're gonna love the cheap insurance. :-) And power. That 250 has a pair! :-)

I'm gonna slap you for getting a truck you have to smog. Good thing I know a bunch about the EECIV in your truck....:-)


And a C6...12mpg if you're lucky. :-) Dang, dude. :-) Make a switch to disconnect some of the fuel injectors once you get to cruise speed...like the Chrysler MDS.

What size tires are on it? I've been looking for good-looking tires for my 76.

Nice buy!

 

Can you convert it to fuel injection to improve gas mileage?

 

It's an 87, so it should have an earlier form of FI already on it.

 

Many thanks for the compliments!

Actually, this truck is factory Carb'd! One of the reasons I bought it. It also is Non-Cat from the factory This was the last engine in the last year you could get a carb'd motor, and I beleive the last year you could be exempt from Cats due to the GVWR (built January,1987). This truck has a GVWR of 8,800# which is 1 ton territory I beleive, and 200# over the F-250 HD GVWR of 8,600#. . .I think mine is what became the Ambulance chassis in later years.

I'm going to look into using my 70's 460 block for the base rebuild since I already have it partially machined and tanked along with the heads. I also want to swap my rebuilt NP435 into it from my mud truck. That way I can use the 460 truck block in this thing for an eventual 557 stroker and a built c6 in the mud truck I was looking for more than just a truck when I bought it

When I put the 460 together, I'm going to stick with the carb for now. I have read you can lean them out and run a hot spark with wide gap plugs to get a little better mileage than normal. We'll see, I have also looked into MegaSquirt. Would be interesting, and 100% DIY which I'm all for

The price. . .the final price was higher than I wanted to spend. . .But I rationalized it out:

All the trucks I had considered were in the $2500+ range and were in worse shape. Also, all those trucks would have needed new tires anyways within months of purchase. The final price was $3,500. . .~$733 for the tires, ~$2767 for the truck, which was under my budgeted $3,000

The tires 33" x 12.5" x 16.5" Dakota Definity A/T

3.55 gears, so the highway rpm's stay down in the low 2200 range.

I would have gotten an older truck, but around here they are either gold or garbage. . .and I wasn't about to have one shipped in

Just hope I can afford to drive it to the next meet

 

Good hit on the no-cats. I see you've done your homework. :-) (Guess it's not a CA model!) Does it have EGR, thermactor and all that silliness? If it's just a simple feedback carb, with no other smog junk, then it should be easy to work on. My 88 had every smog doohickey known to man on it.

 

Dunno about the carb It's stock though. . .

Yeah, I haven't seen it but I'm sure it has an EGR. I think just about everything did since the mid 70's. It also has the goofy air pumps, which serve no purpose as far as I can tell. In CAT trucks, the pumps supplied O2 so the catalyst could work effeciantly (IIRC). . .dunno what pumping air into the exhuast stream does without them, unless it's to just dilute it for the 1987 sniffer test

That stuff shouldn't make it too hard to work on and tune, it's just really in the way. . .one of the things on my Too Do list is changing all the gaskets including the valve cover gaskets. They're trapped under those "rib cage" air pump tubes I'll have to snap a pic for yah so you can really appreciate your near empty engine compartment. I forgot how mig a dressed 460 is!

I don't mind SMOG stuff, it definately needs to be cleaned up though!

I'm definately not missing the crap my original F150 had, I'm sure it was just as bad as your 88!

 

My 76 doesn't have an EGR. Only on CA models from 73 onward and everything from the mid 80s. No smog pump either. Love my Federal-spec 76. :-)

Smog pump is used to inject air into the heads/exhaust manifolds during cruise and cold start to allow excess hydrocarbons to combust (your "ribcage"). Lots of people pull the belt to the smog pump and install an idler pulley for it, since the belt drives something else that's neccesary. Worth a couple of HP. Yes, catalyst vehicles get O2 to the cat to help with the reaction.

Yeah, my 76 is very empty. No power brakes, and if I yank the huge AC compressor, we're rolling things back to the fifties! I plan to re-do all my wiring with relay-fed buss bars (see my gallery). I tried to hook up an electric choke to the only switched +12 wire I found under the hood, and it made my alternator light come on! Still seemed to be charging, because I measured 13.8V at the cigarette lighter all the time while driving, and it was 12-something with the engine off. See my gallery for the latest incarnation of my DIY wiring diagram.

 

Really? Maybe I'm getting my dates messed up. . .I know the mid 70's 460 out of my 78 came from a Lincoln, and it had EGR (blocked off, of course). And most trucks I have looked at had it. . .unless previous owners had stripped it all off. Oh well, learn something new every day

Love the wiring diagram. I wish people did all there accesory wiring simply. . .the guy I bought mine from has extra cab lights and running board lights, and extra brake controller (he kept it ) wiring. . .and KC lights on the front and all the wiring is jack-legged onto existing switched wiring or with those clips to feed off of existing fuses in the block. It looks so tacky. I'm curently going to run a dedicated hot wire to a separate fuse block similar to those found in boats and run my accessories off of that, or try to at least! Wiring makes me confused and angry

BTW, how'd your truck turn out? Finish everything on it?

 

Nice find, Steve. If you find you don't like it, I'll take it off your hands.....

 

Your 70s 460 is a passenger car motor; that's different from trucks. The old exhaust manifold on my truck had an NPT fitting for an EGR, but the intake & carb had no provisions at all for EGR. Carb didn't have any extra vacuum fittings either.

I have a dealer-installed fuse-clip that fed the separate A/C blower motor & clutch. YOINK!

My 76 is still a work in progress. I've done the carb & fabbed a new throttle linkage (smooth as glass now), but it needs loads of stuff done still. Electrical work, finish the cab sheetmetal, rebuild front cab corners, rear wheel arches, cam, tuning, weld up exhaust, intake manifold heat, power steering (maybe. might put a shunt valve between the high and low sides so I can turn it on in parking lots. I like no power on the highway.), rebuild window regulators, new windshield, stereo, fix drivers door release (I have to reach out and open it from the outside. :-)), repaint lower half, un-dent the dents, new chrome trim. The list goes on and on. New gaskets on the motor (valve cover, rocker panel, oil pan), clutch, de-grease the whole thing (leaky oil pan gasket = nasty), wire-wheel the loose rust followed by a case of Rustoleum, maybe pull the bedliner and inspect the bed. Oh yeah, and upgrade the AC to modern components. Pull an R134a system out of a Honda or something. Nice small components instead of the Briggs & Stratton-sized compressor that's on there now. Flush radiator. All new belts & hoses. Rebuild the truck end-to-end. 3.23 gearsa and ARB air locker (with CO2 bottle) in the rear.

Dedicated fuse blocks for the win!

 

Sweet truck Steve!

So I should expect you at Jenro's this weekend????
I'd like to see that beast in person.

Bob

 

Maybe, but not in that. . .I got my "list" of stuff that needs to be done I'm still working on. . .probably through this weekend. pan gaskets, fluid changes, tune up, some wiring. . .I haven't even transfered the title yet, thats friday afternoon. Hopefully next week I can put a for sale sign on the '04

 

Looks like a nice truck. Your going to build a "mileage" engine out of the 460? Good Luck.