The exhaust port and bolt locations are the same carb vs efi, so any header you find should work. The stock setup is touted pretty highly in the 300 community and is a good design, but I don't think you can go wrong with long tubes.

The 300 head flows like complete garbage, so porting is a must IMO. you don't need to go crazy opening the ports to have a nice torque engine, just need to clean the bowls well and remove valve shroud from combustion chamber. Milling for compression is what I'd do as well, and if you're willing to run 93 octane (or 91 if that's all you have in your area) then a set of pistons to put the compression 10+:1 is what I'd do as well. This would make for a crispy responsive engine that will complement the inherent torquey design of the 300.

The t18 is not the best option for a transmission, if it's a street truck with little or no towing then the Mazda 5 speed that came in this generation truck is your absolute best bet, if you need or want a granny gear then a zf5 is the cheapest alternative but the gear spread is pretty bad for a daily driver.

 

Thanks for the info

 

My daily driver for 5-6 years was a 300 with a ZF. I'd take it over the Mazda any day. Besides being tougher, and shifting smoother, you can back a trailer up hill without smoking the clutch. I'm not sure what engineer's thought process was on the Mazda that it needed to back up 60 miles an hour.

 

I had a 1988 with a 4.9 and the T-18 four speed, granny gear for first and reverse. I thought it was a fine combination. I drove it 276,000 mile with no transmission problems.

 

Any particular reason that you don't want to go with a newer C6? or E4OD? both are solid transmissions, and I find it much easier to have one hand for coffee during my commute.

 

Before my granddad passed away he had mentioned he had always wanted to do a custom build on his first truck that he passed down to the grandkids which was an 88 Ford with the 4.9 and he was a firm believer in standards and I’m building this truck in memory of him so after years of looking I finally found a good running 88 ford with the 4.9 and snatched it up That is the main reason for going to a standard over an automatic and on a sidenote I prefer standards as well. But this is all new to me kind of a trial by error learn as you go project I have found several m5r2 do I need to change the driveshaft or the differential ??