Bill, That engine is a Ford/Uhaul only deal. Find a good 360 rebuild it with a rv cam and you would have a much better puller.


John

 

Appreciate the input,but probably would not.Reason is if I bought it,it would only see occasional use.He said $500 and it's mine.I have a shop outback and my 4wd F250 is usually filled with firewood so I'm thinking this F350 would be better suited for that and I could use the pickup more for other things.But again,I might go that route if I loaded it up seeing it's such a dog with a light load.
I don't know why they didn't just use the 361 in the first place,the fuel economy difference would be nothing.Too bad fuel is so high these days,I miss being able to go junkin on little gas money.

 

Bill, I don't recall all the story, except it was exclusive to Uhaul, and I think it was after 76 when the FE/FT family engine was discontinued. If you buy enough Ford trucks you can get deals that others can't. It was in both parties interest to keep the Ford badge in the public eye when they rented those trucks.

Dog or no, having 350 for lite use "if you can store it" for $500.00 is not the worst deal in the world.


John

 

I wonder why they wanted the FE based 330 ? Mechanics familiar with the old engine maybe ?
Yes I thought after 1977 it was gone, but I think in the medium trucks it made it until 1978, but I'm not sure. Still, makes me wonder why they didn't go with the 351M after 1976.
Still kicking around buying the truck. Problem is auto parts have really skyrocketed lately. It needs tires, few misc. things and oil now is pushing $6 a qt. for many brands, it's just insane how much things like this have shot up in the last 10 years.

 

Bill, Just FORGET about it, you can not afford it, walk away man, walk away.

As Hillery sez, WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE???



John

 

I can, just question if I want to get into it. Daughter and her two kids living back home makes me more careful.

The Hildabeast ? She makes me sick.

 

Going with the 351M would have meant a bunch of changes, and that is not as HD a motor as the 330 FT.

 

I have to laugh, all these comments about these 330's being dogs in mere F350's.

Try one in a C600 at 35k+ pounds loaded. Yup I do it quite often, and yes, on steep hills I am in the single digits. Obviously not a freeway hauler when loaded, secondary roads only - and that is what the right lane and four way flashers are for. Just let the truck work its way up the hill, kick back and take the time to look around and see what you miss when traveling along at 50 mph....

But then at 7.4 to 1 compression ratio, these engines will slog along all day hammer down, where as the light duty 9:1 engines detonate themselves to death in short order in this type of service.

It is what it is. A engine designed for a time when it was common for all trucks to be in the slow lane, even the largest class 8's. People had different expectations back then. Pickups were utilitarian and not family haulers for the majority, and most were of relatively low horsepower, and relegated to mainly the slow lane as a normal situation.

Besides U haul back then had a stipulated maximum of 45 mph limit on everything they rented, it was in the rental contract that you signed, so high horsepower was not needed, but reliability and low operating cost (as in repairs) were needed.

David

 

So as I am apparently about to acquire a '77 F350 U-Haul with this mystical wonderful 330, have we determined with 100% certainty (as in part numbers off the engine parts certain) which 330 this actually is?
I wouldn't mind seeing a complete list of differences between the MD and HD variants with only factual verified evidence on it.
Between it basically getting renamed by U-haul to the Xtra and various conflicting threads full of repeated hear say I am confused.

The truck I am getting is still all original with the log books and whatnot jammed in the glove compartment and the U-Haul brand mono radio, bit of a fascinating time capsule. I can tell by the service logs this truck has seen more states than I ever will.

 

The main difference was the crankshaft. The MD's got the cast 352 FE crank, the HD's got the steel 361 unit.

 

here's an interesting one...my 330 FT is not ex U-Haul but has the XD on the aircleaner. Was this factory from Ford or did somehow an ex U-Haul aircleaner make in onto my rig? Also, can someone tell me more about how these are governed to only 2800 max rpm (so I have been told)?

 

Mike,

The 330 XD was not exclusive to Uhaul. It was however exclusively used in one ton, or F350 models for Uhaul as the normal F350 got a light duty 360/390 engine instead.

The XD series was used in many models and it came after the MD and HD series was retired? Marketing thing I guess, perhaps people who are not students of history will be more willing to buy the same old thing if it is wrapped in a shiny new name? If you do a search on the medium duty truck forum, you will find that I have scanned and posted a original XD engine series multi page brochure.

You can also go to my Photobucket.com account and see this brochure as well as many other scanned older Ford brochures and information. dmanlyr is the name as well.

As to the governed speed, if you are only getting 2800 rpm, then it is not set as per the factory. That engine should have a governed speed of 3400 to 3600 rpm. If you find no governor on the carburetor, along with the distributor that goes with it, and the engine will not turn up to its rated rpm, which is NOT only 2800 rpm, then you have a engine issue.

Being local to the area, I looked at the truck you bought, it was very interesting. It was listed on Craigslist for quite some time before it found a new home!

David

 

Governor's on the carburetor, bottom, built into the throttle base plate.

 

When I was younger my dad bought a 79 uhaul that someone put an extended dump bed on. The first thing we did was pull that 330 and drop a fresh rebuilt 460 out of a lincoln mark III in it. That old girl would haul whatever you put behind it or in the bed. He still runs it to this day on the farm. We learned quick with that truck everything was different when getting parts for it. Thanks for bringing back up the good memories of this fun uhaul!

 

UPDATE: buddy removed the box for additional storage (yes, I live in Kentucky) and he gave me the truck for FREE ! So I have a good running cab and chassis and now I'm building a flatbed so I can use this for firewood hauling.
Thankfully it will see limited use, my friend (who now has two trucks for his business) claims his much larger medium duty Chevrolet 8.1 V8 496 with automatic gets better fuel economy.