Whats the cheapest, easiest, most reliable carb option for an 86 F-150 300 4spd 4x4?

Not looking for tons of power, don't go crazy trails.

If need be will swap ignition system as well.

 

I would suggest that you get an autolite 2100 2 bbl carb. It will give you a noticeable power gain over stock and they are a good carb. You will have to swap to a duraspark 2 ignition to switch to any carb besides the stock carter YF 1 bbl feedback carb.

 

Thanks for the reply. What if I went with a petronix or simmilar?

 

I don't recommend using a 2-barrel. You'd have to put on a 4-barrel intake with an adapter. 4-barrel carburetors are superior for power and economy; there's no sense in choking it down with a 2-barrel. Although I do agree the 2100 is a good carburetor; I just don't think it makes sense to use on anything other than a 2-barrel intake.

I swapped the stock intake and Carter carburetor on my '79 with an Offenhauser intake and Edelbrock 4-barrel and I'm happy with it.

 

I put an Edelbrock 500 on a Clifford intake on a mildly built 300 a few years ago, ran great.

What I'm looking for at the moment is the easiest, cheapest way to get this truck running well.

Again, not looking for speed, towing or climbing ability, just want it to start and run.

 

You can put a 2 bbl on the stock intake, they make adapter plates. Do a search for it.

If you just want it to run, why not use the/another stock carter???

 

I agree - if you're looking for the cheapest way to get the truck going again, I'd rebuild the one you've got. If the truck is litereally missing the carburetor, I still think it'd be cheapest to find another 1 barrel.

I found that adapter, thanks for the tip. Not as expensive as I thought it'd be.

 

Problem is that the truck has the POS feedback. What I would like to do is replace that with another carb, a stock 1bbl off of an older 300 would work fine, just need to know if there are some better than others.

 

they are all just carter YF;s, actually not too bad of carb, the main two faults of them is that they don't offer enough air/fuel to the 300 to get any decent power out of it, and they like to be rebuilt often, like every 2 years or less. But either than that they are reliable, simple carbs.

I vote that you swap to ds2 and put a non-feedback carter on there and you'll be all set. that's the most budget friendly way to do it. about $12-$15 at a j-yard for a rebuildable carb, (around here anyway) and about $15 for a rebuild kit.

 

if you swap to dura spark u must swap the entire wire harness. you can plug in the dura spark system..but.. after running for a little the ignition box will burn up and then the truck wont run. swapping the entire wire harness is needed because the TFI-IV system that you have lacks the ballast resistor inside the cab. that is needed to regulate the voltage for the DS system to work.

now the crappy part is you can swap the entire harness up top (motor bay into cab) but the problem when i tried is the connectors that are under the master cylinder that go down for the tail lights and gas gauge are diffrent. so pretty much swap ENTIRE truck wire harness. not unless if you pay close attention to all your connections and find a harness in the bone yard that has the DS system and will plug in. its a nightmare to convert.

your other option that i would take is locate the ballast resistor and tie it into your harness. be carefull not to cut it shorter cut it ahead of its connections. carefully study wiring diagrams to make sure it will be done right and do alot of research their has to be something on here or somewere else about how to convert TFI to dura spark 2. i kno someone has done it because no one wants all that BS TFI covering up the awsome 300.
oh yea if you convert that whole ton of wires coming from the computer out the fire wall and all over the motor will be gone/ you can rip that crap right out

for keeping a cheap fix just rebuild the carb you have now. it just might make a diffrence and use all the parts. dont be stupid like most people take it apart spray it with carb cleaner and just replace gaskets.

or possably find a feed back 2v off a v-8. look into that if it will work.

 

I found that replacing my carp with a walleye to be effective. The Carp I used to have mounted on the roof had increadable drag and hampered milage. The walleye with its streamlined body and aerodynamic fins realy gave me the speed and milage I was looking for. Sauger, trout, or perch are also good substitutes.

The cheepest carb is the stock 1bbl. They always work just never great. They love to be rebuilt frequently though they are cheep to rebuild.

What about a rochester monojet anyone?

 

How about an old points style with a petronix upgrade and an old carter 1bbl?

 

Lol.





True on the 1bbl. They're moderately numerous, easy and inexpensive to rebuilt, but they're not the best and they don't last long on a rebuild. I think in the 4 years I had one on mine, I rebuilt it twice myself and had it professionally rebuilt once, and it never ran all that great. Gas mileage was definitely good (got around 20 from time to time), but one day it would have twice the power as the day before, or would run rough the next, gutless the third, etc. etc. When I realized I had ultimately already spent more money trying to get it to run right than I would have if I converted to a 4bbl, I nixed it.

 

There is a bunch of stuff in this six forum about converting to DS2. It really isn't as hard as you describe it to be. Look up Jim's Rebel. He knows all about it.