Bought an '89 F150 4x4 twin-stick 6 cylinder. The body on this thing is totally wasted. I've never seen one rusted this bad.

Anywho, I spent today pulling the EFI 4.9L, M5OD, and BW 1356.

This isn't exactly what I wanted to replace the 351M/C6 in my '78 Ranger, but it's a start. $300 with no title and I was able to drive it on the trailer. It ran rough, but didn't smoke. No power -- had to put it in 4-low to climb the ramps. I thought it might have a fuel-related issue, but when I was unhooking everything to remove the drivetrain, there were two vacuum lines that weren't hooked up or plugged. I'm surprised it even ran.

I thought, since I heard '89 was the last "easy" year, about keeping it EFI, but I'm not sure . . I'm not even close to doing the swap, however I've secured my choice engine either way.

Ideally, I'd like to find a bullnose F150 with a twin-stick NP435, swap the NP tranny and t-case to my '78, then drop the 351M/C6 in the bullnose and swap steering columns. Then, sell it.

I don't regularly pull loads, so I could get by with the M5OD, but I do not like an internal slave cylinder.

Anyway, I have plenty of time to think about it. It's definitely not in the cards this year, so who knows. I'll keep y'all posted and update shortly with some pictures.

 

Overdrive would be really nice.

 

That is one advantage of the M5OD. My guess is with a fine-tuned 4bbl, I could possibly see 17mpg. That'd be great!