newbie to the forum here ok so any way, back in September i bought a 75 f150 from a guy that lives around the corner from me(he was second owner), the original owner bought it for hualing horses to races back in the 70s and slept in the camper that was in the bed, the guy around the corner from me bought around 80/81 and then parked it in 83, sat in the drive way since, talked to the parents got the ok to see if its for sale, knock on the door and after a look over and a week of letting the dude decide we agreed on 800 bucks, not bad for my first car so anyway back to the motor, 28 k miles, runs pretty good for sitting as long as it did, a few performance questions, already have a pair of hooker headers for it, plans are to do a true duals on it. and my dad is willing to give me one of his old quadrajet if i get a 4 barrel intake, other then those simple things what else can i do on a budget to increase the power and torque.
thats how it sat till i picked it up, and heres wha it lookes like know

 

Welcome to FTE! Congrats on getting that truck.

The headers are about the best thing for an FE motor. However, you will grow to hate cheap headers, and will end up replacing them after they rust out or can't be made to seal any longer.

IMO duals sound better with a crossover pipe like Ford installed OEM. Check under your truck, your fuel tank may give you troubles with pipe routing.

The 360 is a low compression, gutless fuel swilling pig. That said, headers and a 4bbl bring them back to the surface, but don't address the low compression, sunken piston and extra mild cam situation. Don't worry about that right now. IMO, go with the headers, and then run it a while. You may find it's just fine with the stock 2bbl, which is easy to rebuild. People will tell you you can get better mpg with a 4bbl. Well, you can, but you probably won't. To get the better mpg, you have to baby it and run off the primary (front) part of the carb. Not many can do that all the time.

Anyway, you should run it and make sure the trans is good. You also need to go through the brakes. The rear brakes probably have water in them at the least or are ready to blow out the cylinders at worst.

 

thank you, what headers would you not consider "cheap", my dad swears by hooker headers, he should know since he has built 3 drag cars before my time . gas tank wont be a issue, its behind the axle and my plan is to dump out the exhaust just before the rear wheel arch, and i still need to go through everything on the truck, already have the new hood rad support and fender on as you see in the pic, brakes work a little, lol just enough to stop in the drive way, its just sitting for this winter, snowmobiling takes up my weekends and im gonna hit it hard come spring time and get it all done for when i get my g2 around September

 

Couple of things, I have the same opinion on the 360 - leave it for now. I had a stock 360 in my highboy when I got it - headers and a 4bbl did a LOT to wake it up. It was not even CLOSE to what I got with the 390 I built, but it was a step in the right direction. Advancing the timing, or playing around with the mechanical and vacuum advance specs also yields some good throttle response and overall power.

One thought, the Quadrajet is a spread-bore carb. Meaning the primary venturis are smaller than the secondarys. So, it needs a spread-bore manifold or an adapter.

Ford never used spread-bore carbs (ok, never say never) but every Ford 4bbl intake I've ever seen is for a square-bore carb. All four bbls being the same. So if you really REALLY want to use that Quadrajet, you'll need an adapter or an aftermarket manifold which I'm not sure anyone ever made. A Holley or Edelbrock carb is probably a better idea.

I loved my '74 highboy when I got it at the age of 20 from my brother who bought it brand-new. Good luck with the truck, and keep us informed on it's progress