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Stock stock stock 1979 351m? Should I gut this baby
So I just picked up a 1979 Ford F150 4x4 that is about as bone stock as I have ever seen. It is in need of some tlc and some body work but under the hood is just as Henry Jr. made it. And thats no joke, its all there. All the vacuum lines, the emissions junk and those odd catch cans on the side of the frame rail. Factory air cleaner and on and on and on. So in an attempt to get it running better tonight I had a thought to just strip all that crap off and start plugging vacuum lines. It even has the two vacuum ports things on the water neck still intact. Any advice would be very helpful, I have not done any damage yet but I fear the day is getting near. I have dreams of making it look like my 292 y block in my 60, bare bones. The engine is a 351M with factory everything in tact, factory carb etc.
The problem is that stuff oftentimes can't be removed without making it run much worse than it already does. It can be done, but you better know what you're doing. Apparently it's not as simple as it should be.
Then there's resale value, if you do want to sell it can be difficult if your state has emission testing. Just something to think about.
Well either leave it alone and just drive it, start yanking stuff and you might mess up the choke or the MPG, not that you get that much anyway.
Or take a bunch of detailed pics of it all and then take it all off very carefully. Because I am sure there is some FTE guy that wants it and that ='s $$ for you and maybe enough for at least a new Alum intake or 4bbl.
My ol silver 77.5 351M is stock as the day it rolled off the line too with all the vacuum stuff ect...and a/c and I like it just the way it looks.
I would leave it stock and replace the vacuum hoses. Using the old ones as templates to get everything exact. You can always go aftermarket at a later date if you choose. F150 4X4's are not as numerous as 2WD Trucks. Short boxes are a lot rarer. But its your truck. Make it your own however you like it. If you change things... Document everything, take many pics and be careful to save all the old parts (as stated above) in case you ever want to return to absolute stock.
And whatever you do... Please post some pics so we can see your truck. Love the older 1/2 ton 4X4's
Thanks for the advice folks. This truck was an early christmas gift for my son, I surprised him with it on monday. We will get some pics posted and I thank you all for talking me off the ledge. It will remain stock, we will just throw some time, money and profanities at it until we get it right. We did get a factory service manual on ebay so we will wait till that shows up before we start the tune. Thanks again!
I run a similar truck... '78/400 all stock. With a full tuneup, reman carb and inspect/replace as needed vacuum lines it runs great.
I'd start with the tune up including new good quality wires and go from there. If the carb is original or suspect, it may need rebuilt or replaced with reman.
As posted above, just pulling the emissions stuff off may make it worse. Doing it "right" means different carb and distributor calibration for starters... a big project with little gain unless you rebuild/upgrade the rest of the engine. If you do pull it, do it carefully and completly and you may be able to sell it to somebody in CA who needs it to pass emissions test.
the first thing i would do is think of your buddies. i would get lots of pictures before you do anything , or you could end up like this . this is a 79 351m as well - 4x short box. i am still amazed that anyone could let a vehicle go down like this. the p-o didnt lift a finger to try and preserve it. when new this was a beautiful machine. im slowly bringing it back bit by bit.
the first thing i would do is think of your buddies. i would get lots of pictures before you do anything , or you could end up like this . this is a 79 351m as well - 4x short box. i am still amazed that anyone could let a vehicle go down like this. the p-o didnt lift a finger to try and preserve it. when new this was a beautiful machine. im slowly bringing it back bit by bit.
dont forget to post the pictures !
This looks like 70's 80's attempt at engine bay customization. We did it all the time back then. If the wiring harness wasn 't butchered by the PO consider yourself lucky. Not to hard to change back to stock. Pictures of unmolested trucks can be extremely valuable to owners wanting to return things to stock. It takes lots of hunting for old parts to restore with as well.
My father and brother each bought brand new 1979 F150's each with 400's.
One was a 4X4 with a 4 speed manual T18--it had minimal smog equipment installed (no air pump) apparently because it was a slightly heavier truck and that had something to do with the smog equipment that got installed. The truck ran well, started well, and I own it today. It is still a great truck.
The other truck was a 2WD with a C6 and it had all the original smog equipment--air pump, vacuum lines, etc. The truck ran well when new. My brother decided to do himself a favour and remove the smog equipment, and plug the vacuum ports etc. The idea was to improve gas mileage and performance. The truck never started well after that and you had to feather the accelerator to keep it running until it warmed up. Gas mileage did not improve--I am not sure about performance. He sold the truck a few years later.
Like the saying goes "If it isn't broken, don't fix it!". Don't get me wrong, I like well done upgrades to these old trucks as much as the next guy. There are great improvements that can be made to these old trucks if you know what you are doing and do the upgrades for the right reasons.
It's pretty easy to spot trends reading the forums and troubleshooting problems after a while. One of them is people trying to get smog-era motors to run halfway right long after somebody yanked everything and threw it away. First rule of intelligent tinkering is "save all the pieces."
12-23-2014, 10:00 PM
i would get lots of pictures before you do anything , or you could end up like this . this is a 79 351m as well - 4x short box. i am still amazed that anyone could let a vehicle go down like this. the p-o didnt lift a finger to try and preserve it. when new this was a beautiful machine. im slowly bringing it back bit by bit. 
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