I have a '82 F150 with a old rebuilt 302 in it (was rebuilt back in the early '90s). I just found out how ever that Ford offered on the 351W and 460 from 1980 to 1987 a Holley 4bbl carb.

Well I found a used Ford 302 4bbl intake which appears aluminum and I believe is a older Ford Racing intake manifold and I also found a Ford reman Holley 4180 4bbl that's been sitting on the shelf for a few years for $64.

Now my question is if I decide to pull the trigger and buy the carb rebuild it and buy a OEM style intake manifold for my 302 what else would I have to change out to go from a 2bbl to a 4bbl?

Would my stock throttle cable still work? Looking at the carb what I know I have to do is use a Tee and hook a vacuum line from the front and rear bowls together and then tee it to the oem single hose to my charcoal canister. I will also have to decide if I want to keep the EGR spacer or get rid of it for a spacer. I already have the EGR valve blocked off as I cant stop it from coming in too quick causing a stumble off idle.

Only other thing I am really thinking about is if this is going to hurt the performance of the engine going from a 2bbl carb to a 4bbl carb. I would be real upset if I spent the money and time to do the swap and the 2bbl carb was peppier and pulled harder under wot acceleration than the 4bbl.

If anyone can provide some insight I would be greatful to hear from you. Ive never done anything like this myself before and don't want to cause problems for me since this is my daily driver and I cant afford to put it down multiple times for problems or issues.

 

I'm not carb expert but I tell you what I think. Get a "Dual Plane" intake what ever brand you buy. You want "street" performance so anything else will hurt that goal.


If the EGR is non-functional then remove it. You may not need a spacer under the carb.
It depends on the actual carb you get and various other factors. Some engines run well without and some need a spacer.
If the carb is a street carb then is should run better then the 2 bbl. Do expect to have to "tune' the carb as the chances of it running best just bolting it on are nil.

 

The manifold I am currently looking at is a factory manifold, I found one off a '83 302 Mustang, it is a dual plane design and it would without a doubt require a 1" spacer as the Ford factory manifolds were designed with the EGR spacer in mind. I thought about picking up a 4bbl EGR spacer and seeing if the truck will hesitate on acceleration from a stand still with the EGR functional again with a 4bbl carb.

My only concern is half the people are telling me the 600 CFM 4180 carburetor is too big for a stock 302 and the other half are saying it should work just fine. I cant justify the expense let alone the time of pulling my original intake and doing this swap if its going to make the truck run worse performance wise than it does now.

 

The aluminum Mustang 4V intake is very good for the street, except as you noted it is designed for EGR and a regular spacer won't cover (or block) the EGR passage.
Fords almost always use a 1" spacer stock, so you should use one.


I would simply bolt the carb on to the 4V intake and see how it works, you might get lucky and it work just fine. After all, it is a factory rebuild that's presumably been indoors since rebuilding, so it hasn't had old gasoline sitting in it.


I wouldn't bother with a rebuild kit for the carb unless it actually shows signs of needing one. Just bolt it on and see how it goes.

 

Intake and carb are not going to give much performance upgrades unless you change the cam and heads. If that were the case I would buy and Edelbrock top end kit that has everything you need and will give estimated HP ratings.

 

With that intake and carb ? You're not going to see much of anything over what you've got now. Both were lo-po pieces. And you do not need to change the heads necessarily to see an improvement, it all depends on what heads you've got now. If you have the 82 block and heads, then leave it alone. The 82 block will not handle much more in terms of cylinder pressure (HP increase) before developing leaks from the cylinder decks being too thin in these blocks.