I've been looking in vain for a decent shortblock for my '88. Most all of the used EFI motors around here have 150k+ on them and I just wouldn't trust them. So now I'm looking into possible swapping in a '75 shortblock. I know that the balance changed, so that means different flexplate, right? Is that the only major difference? If I wanted to keep the stock EFI and all of it's accessories, what else am I looking at?
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77 F150 Ranger 302 C4 2.79 16mpg 243k? who knows... Not much is original
the 75 will be an internally balanced engine while the 88 would be externally balanced engien. as long as you get the flexplate with the 75 engine, it will swap in no problem. the cranks and flexplates were different and the 79 and newer (externally balanced) engines used a weighted spacer between the balancer and front of engine (looks like a hatchet) while the early engines used a solid spacer only. the harmonic balancers were the same so you can swap that from the 88 engine to the 75 engine if need be.
to use EFI on the 75 engine, you will also need to use the heads from the 88 engine as the efi heads and carb heads were different and the efi intake won't work on the carb heads and vice versa. same with exhaust manifolds and distributor. basically take all the accessories and sensors off the 88 and swap them onto the 75 engine. also the timing covers are different as the early covers had the fuwel pump pad and the efi didn't
Thanks for the reply. Yeah I know that the efi heads and carb heads aren't interchangeable. Just wasn't sure if I was forgetting anything else. I was hoping to find a decent mileage complete EFI motor around and do a full swap, but they seem to be made of unobtainium.
I guess my real debate here is whether I'm going to swap shortblocks and keep my old heads that have lots of miles on them, or swap in a complete carbed motor and do away with the EFI entirely.
Anybody else done an efi-carb swap? Most of the search results are people putting a carb on an efi motor, whereas I would be swapping the whole carbed shebang. I need to have this puppy road-trip worthy before Bristol. Can't pull the camper with my ranger!
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77 F150 Ranger 302 C4 2.79 16mpg 243k? who knows... Not much is original
if you do the straight carb conversion youll need a fuel pressure regulator to drop the fuel pressure to the 5ish psi that a carb can use... youll need truck exhaust manifolds or headers because the car manifolds wont fit... if you have the e40d tranny youll need a standalone computer for it or to swap to a c-6... thats about it... its a pretty simple swap.
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drive trane parts may strand you, but suspension parts can kill you.
if you cant pay cash for it, you cant afford it.
I am doing the same baisc conversion. One item to look at are the pistons in the Pre 79 shortblock. After obtaining a remanufactured short block for my conversion I found out the pistons were set up for an 8.0 compression ratio instead of the 8.9 CR the EFI needs. The dish in the older pistons are quite a bit deeper than the newer EFI pistons.
I am a little curious as to why you want to do this. Why not just rebuild your existing engine? As far as the 150k on the 460, most 460's are hardly broken in at 150k. I pulled mine down at 165k because it was starting to use oil. I found out that I had made a mistake by pulling it down. The existing rings were hardly worn and I had to break them as I took them off of the pistons to make sure I didn't confuse them with the new ones. A new set of valve seals would have solved the oil consumption porblem.
In my case I am doing an engine swap. 302 EFI to 460 EFI.
The first engine I bought was trash. Had already been bored to .060 over and had cylinder damage in one cylinder. I picked up a 87 remanufactured long block off eBay for relatively little and was just planning on swapping heads when I noticed the piston issue. Found out I had a cracked head when I sent the EFI heads off to be reworked.
So now I'm looking for a proper set of pistons. Hope to swap my carb heads for a good set of EFI heads.
I am a little curious as to why you want to do this. Why not just rebuild your existing engine? As far as the 150k on the 460, most 460's are hardly broken in at 150k. I pulled mine down at 165k because it was starting to use oil. I found out that I had made a mistake by pulling it down. The existing rings were hardly worn and I had to break them as I took them off of the pistons to make sure I didn't confuse them with the new ones. A new set of valve seals would have solved the oil consumption porblem.
This one's well beyond "starting" to use oil. It's burning a quart every 50-100 miles. It has 168k hard farm miles on it, which probably equates to 268k normal miles.
I'm going to tear it down and inspect first, but I think it's unlikely that it can be fixed without a trip to the machine shop. Maybe I'll get lucky though.
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77 F150 Ranger 302 C4 2.79 16mpg 243k? who knows... Not much is original
These 460 blocks are hard and really take a beating. Low speed and a lot of idling around a farm are really hard on an engine. Mine was strictly, mostly towing, highway miles. I didn't even have to use a ridge reamer on mine. I just took the cylinder hone and cleaned the carbon ridge off of the cylinder walls. Hopefully yours will be the same.
P.S. I drove to the store yesterday and the lowest gas prices I saw was $4.07 per gallon for regular. I guess the oil companies are determined to destroy this country.
Low speed and a lot of idling around a farm are really hard on an engine.
It's done plenty of that.
It has also been known to have 10 round bales on a trailer and one in the bed, locked down in 4 slinging mud like a banshee to get us out of the field.
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77 F150 Ranger 302 C4 2.79 16mpg 243k? who knows... Not much is original
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It has 168k hard farm miles on it, which probably equates to 268k normal miles. 
