OK I read some of the old forums on the EFI to Carb swap but have a few questions... First the problem. My soon to be father in law has a 1983 F-150 4x4 with a carbed 300 I6 5 spd. He has just invested lots of money on a new flatbed, breaks, fuel pumps, Etc, etc... He also just redid all the body pannels so the truck looks real nice. The problem is his 300 I6 has some major engine problems now.

After looking around on craigslist I can find a replacement 300 EFI motor for a few undered dollars and not have to break into his block to see what the problem is. I have always had the EFI motors and have not worked on the carbed motors that much. So I have a older truck with a carbed 300 and a new 300 EFI to work with...

Questions:
What is easier: Swaping the old truck to EFI? (all the cheap engines I can find are EFI and have few miles).
OR Swaping all the older carbed stuff back onto the newer EFI motor?

If I swap his truck to EFI what all is that going to entale? What will I need to pull from the donor truck?

From what he's telling me I think his 300 I6 is in need of a rebuild after 350K miles... So I figure a engine swap with a $200 motor is going to be cheaper.

Please advise!

 

i think you just need to swap the intake manifold and carb onto the new motor and the distributor, basically anything that looks different on the new motor needs to be changed

never done this before but i would guess this is what needs done

 

i agree with the post above. will be cheaper and MUCH easier to put the FI longblock into the carbed truck and put that carb intake on it. everything should bolt right up.

 

Thanks guys... That was what I was thinking... I don't know if any of the wiring would be different or had to swap a computer... Or if fuel pressure was different on the EFI's compaired with the old FI's. I would have suggested just getting a 80's-90's EFI truck to him, but he is partial to the truck since it was the first he ever owned. He bought it new when he started farming back in 1983 so there is some sentimental value to fixing the old one... Besides that with C4C just getting done the salvage yards aren't offering a whole lot for the old trucks... I doubt he would have got more than what he just put in the rear brakes back. He has a newer 2000's truck to get him by for now... just likes to use the old one to do the dirty farm work and keep the new truck nice.

One more question...

I think he wants to do a new clutch as long as I'm in there. I just did the clutch on my 300 EFI ZF-542... will I need to drop his 4spd tranny too? or can I do the clutch with just the engine out? I have only done clutches with the tranny droped so I don't know if there is a different order to do things in... let me know what you think!

Also... Is it hard to do the swaping of the FI stuff back to the EFI block? Like I said I haven't worked with FI's at all so I don't know how to tune them and what not... Any special tools I'd need?

 

you can do the clutch with just the engine out the only part on the tranny is the slave cylinder if its hydralic as far as the efi to carb stick with the carb you would need the wiring harness dizzy and computer from the donor

 

Did you consider the megasquirt... I've just started looking at it - but might be an option for you: How to Megasquirt most EEC-IV Fords easily

 

OK... So an update on my father in laws (FIL's) 83' f-150... evidently his truck is parked at home in a field now. I have been looking for a new motor because the one I was looking at got sold. I did find out that his engine is trashed though! He didn't hook up the oil pressure/temp gauge when he was doing work on the truck... Yep you guessed it! He ran the truck down on oil and blew it all to heck! I definatly need to find him a engine now. I am hoping to find a cheap I-6 with a 4spd tranny... I don't know what kind of condition his tranny is in but needed a clutch kit. The adventure to put ol' bessy back on the road continues...