Many many years ago I put EFI on my 84 F250 300 engine. That was a learning curve as there was no FTE or internet to search from. I wound up using a EFI head due to the missing bolt holes others have said about.

FFW 20+ years or so ,now I am restoring my 84 F250 and done away with EFI as I scored a Oppy DP intake. I took off the EFI intake and put on the Oppy DP with water heat hooked up to it. Left the EFI exhaust on the engine. I had no issues mounting the Oppy DP to the EFI head.

 

How did you hook up the water heat to the Offy intake?

 

What did you use as the ECU? or did you just swap the engine?

how was the power for the EFI?

Why would you ever go back to carb after having efi?

 

Getting my thread back on track a little bit;

I heard from the machine shop today. Results are as follows:

Head Good, No Cracks. Valve Guides Good. Valves / Seats good and ground out fine. (3 angle valve job)

Block good, no issues. Machined for Mechanical fuel pump. Boring 30 over and honing.

Crankshaft no issues, will polish out fine to standard size (standard bearings)

Rods good, no issues (standard bearings)

I'm looking at new pistons and rings of course, as well as gaskets, oil pump (might as well), seals, etc. I bought a 260h cam since my original didn't have a lobe for the fuel pump. Comp Cams told me this one does. New valve springs, pushrods and lifters.

I also found my exhaust and intake manifold were cracked. After a lot of thought and conversations, I decided to keep this build pretty stock and am keeping the 1v carb. Got a new intake and exhaust manifold on the way.

In the end, this should be a good running, reliable, stock (more or less) engine. The EFI head will give me a bit more compression than my original engine I think.

In any case, so far so good...

 

Sounds like a solid plan. Should be very reliable and even stronger than stock.

 

Please keep us informed!

 

I still need to get a few misc. parts but some will transfer from the old engine. The fun is going to be pulling the engine out of the truck - remove drive shafts, remove transfer case, pull transmission - all a royal pain.

I'm also getting a new harmonic balancer and water pump pulley for the new build. The salvage engine was an automatic so when I get ready to do the swap, I'll need to switch over the flywheel, clutch and such. Will probably replace the clutch at that point also, while i'm there..

Once I get the block back and before I start the re-assembly, I'm going to build a test stand. Easier to test the stand fit with a bare block..

Machine shop should be done Friday or so..

 

Today I soda blasted the oil pan, lifter cover and timing cover. Then cleaned, primed and painted 'hammered' black, 2 coats.

Other than cleaning the shop, that was it for the engine build today..

 

That is progress.

 

Dropped of the valve springs and such to the machine shop today. It's looking good and should be ready for me to pickup on Tuesday afternoon.

Total rebuild cost counting machining will be about $1200. My labor is free..

That's counting the new cam kit, harmonic balancer and exhaust / intake manifolds as well as a 'new' to me 'Powered by Ford' valve cover. I'm using a Carter YFA that I just rebuilt and a standard distributor for now. The DUI will be transferred when I install the engine.

I'll replace the clutch when I transfer the engine as well, since I'll be there.

 

That's a good price. I rebuilt a 351W for $997 not inc the cam a few years ago, but I had a friend in Ark City do the machine work and he's fairly inexpensive.

Don't forget to use plenty of oil additive as well as cam lube to ensure no serious wear at startup. And, on the 8's you can pull the dizzy and put a socket on the oil pump shaft and then spin it with a drill to pre-lube everything. Spin it until the drag gets serious or the oil pressure gauge shows pressure.

 

I usually use a break in oil with zinc to get things started, then change the oil. I usually just use the starter to spin up the engine to build pressure first, but if I can just spin the pump that would be better.

I did learn the hard way once to install the distributor and use it to things up when installing the oil pump.

Looking forward to getting this going but need to build the test stand first, once I get the block back.

Not really looking forward to the swap and pulling the xfer case and transmission.

I need to figure out the best lift points with the manifolds attached; it's way easier to install those outside of the vehicle. Oddly enough, cast iron is heavy..

 

Got everything back from the machine shop today. Got the block back on the stand and getting ready to clean, mask and paint it. Then I'll start getting some measurements for the test stand before starting pre-assembly.

Starting to get excited..

 

Yet another update:

Painted the block (Dark Ford Blue)

Finished the pre-assembly and made sure everything was in spec (you gotta love plastigage).

Installed Crank and Cam shaft.

Plan for tomorrow is checking to be sure fuel pump will work ok and get the pistons installed. That will pretty much button up the short block until I get it off the stand.

From that point, I think I'll actually start to build the test stand. I planned to do that before I started the re-assembly but I couldn't contain myself.

I'll try and get some pictures tonight and get them posted tomorrow..

So far so good; everything turns smooth as glass with one finger

Inch by Inch..

(BTW, we ended going 20 over instead of 30.)

 

That is exciting. I understand for sure.