I have a 1987 ford f250 2wd,351ho with a edelbrock 600cfm 4 barrel carb. It has 373 gears in the sterling rear end. Gong to put a dana 60 with 355 gears in it after winter. My truck has 71,500 original miles. I would like to know what i can do to the engine . I would like to have alittle more torque and better gas mileage wouldnt hurt either. This is my daily driver.

 

Going to 355s isn't helping any. May not be too noticeable though.

You have a carb engine. You can do ANYTHING.
I'd start with headers and full exhaust.
If you can do engine work yourself, upgrade the cam.
Port the heads.

Really all depends on your ability or your wallet.

 

Thank you for youre reply. what headers would be a good ? Ive heard alot of people complain about there headers leaking and or they have to keep retorqueing them. Im assuming by eguast you ment duals. I can perform most of the work. I havent a clue as how to degree a cam. As far as changing rearends,well my truck has a semi floater . I pull trailers alot in the summer,figured that would be the way to go.

 

You could also change the rear gear from 3.55's to 4.10's that might get you better mileage.

 

The cam in that motor is pretty good, where it's really lacking is the smog era heads it's wearing with hugh combustion chambers so compression is quite a bit lower than it should be. Swap on a set of GT40s from an early Explorer or Lightning and you'll gain close to a full point in static compression(8.3 to 9.1) and 25-30% in airflow, which if you pair with a set of longtube headers and 1.7 roller rockers would produce a healthy boost in TQ and HP... meaning enough that you're gonna have to rejet the carb.

 

cant find many explorer v8s at the scrap yard but mountaineers are everywhere. im assuming they have gt40 heads

 

'96 to 97.5 Explorer/Mountaineer got the "3-bar" GT40 head we're talking about, later trucks got the GT40p version which performs a little better but has a radical spark plug angle that makes header fitment more complicated.