A bunch of of was sitting around and was talking engines. which engine would be better for towing and gas mileage . The 5.0 or the 4.9 and has anyone done any up grades to their 4.9? Do they make a under drive pulley kit and do they make much differents for the 4.9? Thanks joey!

 

The 5.0... with 4.10 gears.

 

I towed with a '95 E150 Clubwagon XLT 5.0 for nearly 20 years. Put 342K miles on it, the vast majority towing. The 5.0 was a great motor. The 4.9 is too but the 5.0 is better in every respect.

I bought the van with the standard 3.31 gear and used that for quite a while. But it struggled sometimes when cruising at 70. The motor was well below the torque curve so any slight incline cause the van to loose speed or downshift. I switched to the 3.55, which was the optional tow gear. It worked very well. I could cruise at 75~80 very comfortably. I had considered the 3.73 but was happy with the 3.55. If you are doing much highway towing I would use the 3.55 or 3.73. The 4.10 would be good for around town.

 

My vote is the 351 with 4.10's. And don't waste your money on under drive pulleys. You'll get zero gain there with these engines. Leave those to the ricers.

 

It really depends on if you are talking stock or modified. They both will do the job.

I'm a big fan of the 300 6 cylinder. When you say 4.9L are you talking carbed or EFI? I like the carbed 300's better then the EFI simply because they are easier/cheaper to mod. Pullies won't do anything on the 300 and it'll cost you a whole lot of $$ to try it. The 300 crank pullies are built right into the harmonic dampner. So to change the crank pulley you need to swap on a neutral balance V8 balancer and do a custom pulley.

Where you are going to get the biggest gains on the 300 is modifying the induction, exhaust, head work ( porting & larger valves ) , a slight bump in compression and lastly the camshaft ( bigger then you'd go on a modified V8 ) . The 300's have 50 cubic inch cylinders ( the same as a 400 ) . So you need to get them to breathe better. Once you do it's a night and day difference in their performance.

On the EFI 300's the fuel injection is also going to be a hurdle on the mods. The injector size and the stock ecm are going to prevent a whole lot of gains. A freer flowing exhaust and a V8 truck throttle body is a good place to start the mods.


A modified 300 would make forget about a 302. But the 300 isn't as easy to modifiy as the SBF V8's are. There are no aftermarket heads, a small selection of aftermarket intakes. And if you can't do the work yourself ( like porting the head ) it's going to cost some money.

But the 300 is simple to work on, fewer parts to break, and a whole lot easier to work on in a van then a V8.

If you want a V8 the 351W will tow better then the 302 and not have to work as hard doing it. So the mileage would be slightly better too. For towing the 460 or diesel would be the king. But I wouldn't want either one in a van! I've owned a 460 powered van and had to work on it and pull the engine. It was a nightmare.







It depends on what it's going in. How many F600's did Ford make with the 302 in? They built a bunch that came with the 300.

I towed with a 302 in a 87 F250 LD that had a NP435 and 3.73 gears. It did the job for me for over 5 years. But that was because it had the manual transmission and some gears.

But I wouldn't want a 302 in a E350. I'm going to be swapping a modified 300 in place of the 351W in my E350.

I've hauled a lot of heavy loads with many different 300 powered trucks and vans.




I wouldn't want either a 302 or a 300 for towing if it has the wrong gears and a automatic transmission. Right now both of my vans are 351W/automatics. I tow with that combo but I hate the automatics. So in my E350 I'm swapping in 4.10 gears and a NP435 manual 4spd transmission.

 

Yep.. and they were slow. The OP only offered 2 engine choices so I took the one that will do a better job when properly equipped, if I could pick any engine it wouldn't be either one of those and of course the vehicle it was going in would influence the choice too.


Why? I don't understand why you would give up that V8 for a limited motor like the I6. And I'd speculate your problem isn't the auto trans it's that it doesn't have enough ratios, what if it had 6 gears with nice even spaces between a granny low and OD. Unless you are talking about the E4OD of course and you're sick of rebuilding/replacing it, Ford really did a poor job with those.

 

Well I don't know too many people that drag race grain trucks.


There's nothing limited about my 300. I'm not swapping in a stock engine. It's far from it. The 300 will do anything I need it to. I've hauled a whole lot of vehicles with stock 300's. I've hauled everything from two VW rabbits at once to a couple grain trucks ( not at the same time ) . I've hauled more F250's & F350's then I want to count. And I never had a issue pulling any of them. And I also haul a lot of scrap metal. And I didn't have any issues pulling 10,000 pound loads of scrap on multiple occasions.

These two pictures will show you why the 300 is going in my E350. Neither pictures are of my vans.


A 300 in a 75-91 Econoline:




A 351W in a 75-91 Econoline:




Which one looks easier to work on? I'm completely rebuilding my E350. Full mechanical rebuild from the ground up. When I build something I make it as easy to to work on as possible. Fewer parts means fewer things that can go wrong. The 300 doesn't have timing chains to stretch. One cylinder head instead of two. Twelve rocker arms and push rods instead of 16. Six connecting rods and pistons instead of 8.


My automatics work. I just hate slush boxes. I like to control the shifting. No hunting gears like the auto's. No transferring extra heat from the transmission into the cooling system and making the engine run hotter with the manual transmission. No leaking cooler lines with the manual. No valve bodies and clutch packs and bands with the manual. No ten mile long dipstick with the manual transmission. No leaking transmission pans and making a huge mess when changing fluid. No filters to change. And the 6.69 1st gear in the NP435 is a whole lot easier on the whole van when towing or hauling a load. If you can't tell I really hate automatics. Plus the NP435's are dirt cheap and dependable. The worse thing I've ever had happen to one is worn synchro's.

My E350 is a 351W/C6 and my E250 is a 351W/E4OD. And surprisingly the E4OD has held up pretty good. It's had a whine since the day I bought it ( over 8 years ago ) . I've been waiting for over 8 years for it to grenade so I could swap in a NP435 in that one too. Not much of a hard decision once it does crap out. Let's see rebuilding the E4OD or spending $50.00-$100.00 for a used NP435? Oh and my E250 has around 250,000 miles on it.

 

I dont plan on towing more then a lite trailer behind my van and don't mind slow. I would love to have the 6 cylinder and manual trans! It would be so much easier to work on..

I just couldn't resist this though.
Nezperce, Idaho Grain Truck Races

 

Two things: Use a double row, roller chain setup on the timing set and you'll have no stretch, it'll last as long as the two gears in the 300 (more if those gears were the fiber ones Ford used at one time ) Second is the $50 to $100 for the manual swap. You will end up spending about what rebuilding the E4OD when you're done. It's not going to cost $100 to swap it, it'll be far from it. And a 351 is every bit as reliable as a 300. So the extra parts to break is not much of an argument.

 

As for this, you obviously don't know many truck drivers. It happens far more than you know.

 

LOL

If it moves under its own power - some jackwagon somewhere, has raced it. Guaranteed.

 

A chain will never outlast gears. I've got gears off a 1965 300 that are still in good shape. They've lasted longer then the 351W has existed. And I've also changed out plenty of those SBF V8 timing sets that were the plastic covered teeth. Cleaning all that crap out of the oil pan and pick up screen isn't fun either. So the 300's that had the fiber gear weren't the only bad timing set idea Ford had.


I never said the manual swap was $50-$100. I said the NP435 would cost that. The most expensive part of the manual transmission swap is the driveshaft. But you are missing the point. Yea I could rebuild the E4OD. But when I'm done I still have a crappy automatic transmission. I don't like automatics. The point of the cost off the transmission is if there is ever an issue with my NP435 in the future I can replace it for $100 or less.


I've owned around 30 351W's. So I'm well aware how reliable they are. And I like them, in almost anything but the vans! I hate working on V8's in vans. The 351W is a great engine. I just like the 240/300 more.

 

That part is brain-dead easy to fix. Run a good transmission cooler BEFORE the radiator, instead of after. Dump the heat to the air, instead of into the radiator.

If you live in cold country, that is. If you live in hot country, just bypass the radiator cooler completely.


That 300 is a bullet-proof engine, though, and it sure does look a lot easier to work on!

 

 

If you put it in front of the radiator, then you're preheating the air going into the radiator. You'd have to space it 6 inches or more away from the radiator to prevent this.