With goal 2 in mind.... I bought this 1989 F350 4x4 on craigslist for $1,000. With 140k, the 460 ran perfectly but the transmission was shot. Best part was the Dana 60 kingpin front axle with disc brakes and 4.10 gears! =)




I kept both axles, the wheels and tires, and the rear bumper. I sold the 460 for $450, the transmission/xfer case for $150, and the bed/cab for $500. The rest of the parts/frame i took to metal scrap. Ended up with a free kingpin 60/sterling 10.25 and $160 in pocket.


Sterling 10.25 rear. Drum brakes and 4.10 gears.


Dana 60 kingpin front. Disc brakes.

 

Chief, are you running the C4 heads on the FE or going with the 460?

If using the C4 heads, AND planning to run headers, realize the only headers that will match the early/CJ style ports are FPAs bought with the proper flange Truck heads have a lower exhaust port (same with 390 unibody cars) and the common cheap headers will not seal easily because of the port mismatch.

Manifolds aren't an issue becuase the entire face of the manifold seals, not just the weld around the tube like a header

 

​My understanding is that the C4AE heads are not CJ heads, (I may be wrong though). I picked up a set of flow tech long tube truck headers and the ports matched up perfectly to the C4AE heads.

These heads (C4AE 6090G) have 8 bolt holes. I thought the CJ heads all had 16.

 

My next find was a hydroboost, master cylinder, saginaw steering pump, fluid cooler, and all hoses from a 2002 Duramax for $100 from a San Diego salvage yard.




Back home, i pulled the old vacuum booster and started working on fabricating a bracket to make the new booster work.


Ended up being able to weld the duramax hydroboost mount plate directly to my existing vacuum boost mount.



Fresh paint.


Took the opportunity to clean up and rust proof the firewall while the new bracket was drying.


Had to weld the factory vacuum booster pushrod onto the hydroboost pushrod to make it mate up to my brake pedal but the whole process was simple and only took a few hours.

 

I've driven many miles without power steering and while i love nostalgia, it's time for this to go.


I decided after alot of reading on this forum to use the 78/79 4x4 steering box for my power steering conversion. This requires cutting into to frame cross member on the drivers side and boxing the frame to fit the box.



I used a piece of the 1989 f350 frame I cut off to box in the frame. I inserted 4 pieces of 9/16 steel pipe (plumbing pipe from the hardware store) in the bolt holes for the steering box and welded them in place for strength.

 

So you are 100% correct that you do not have CJ heads. What you have are early exhaust ports that exit at the same location as CJ. The reason FE guys reference them that way is 390, 390GT, truck heads, and lopo 390 full size cars all got the low exhaust port. Cobrajets and all early engines (pre-66) got the high exhaust port.

This isn't the bolt pattern, this is the port in relation to the bolt pattern. Bolt patterns can be 14 (390 GT) 16 428 CJ, 8 vertical (truck or full size car) on top of that, 8 bolt heads can be either high or low.

So you can have 8 high exhaust or 8 low exhaust. Your truck originally would have had D2TE-AA heads which are 8 bolt low port. Your C4AE are 8 bolt high port exhaust

Although the bolts will line up and the outside of the flange will look normal, look close at the gasket to make sure it matches the header and the head (put it on one, then the other, without flipping it), because the Flowtechs shouldn't line up, they should be correct for the D2TE-AA head

Here is a picture, the calipers are set up for the C4 head on the right, you can see the floor is about .250 difference. This will cause a gasket sealing issue if the headers are made for the other style head

 

Time to fit and install the sterling 10.25 from the 1989.


Got the old axle out (yes it looks scary, but i lived...barstools make great jack stands)


Because of the 34\" width of a highboy frame I had to move the spring mounts in on the axle tube. I ordered spring perches and new u-bolts from Barnes 4wd and welded the new perches onto to tubes. I used the leaf springs and forward leaf spring mounts from the 89 F350.

 

This is the same issue faced by those who buy Edelbrock's Performer RPM aluminum heads as I did. You may be able to make use of those FlowTech headers by elongating the bolt holes by an eighth of an inch. This is what I did, see this post.

 

I follow now, I didn't know that. The Flowtechs I picked up were another craigslist find so I'm not sure what year range they are for but I did as you suggested and checked the gasket against both the header and the head and there wasn't any disparity I noticed.... the truck is running now with the new motor and no leaks yet. Hopefully I got lucky but I will be watching them now! Thanks for the explanation man, always excited to learn more about these motors.

 

For the rear shackle hanger i decided to pick up another set of f-350 front hangers from the junkyard. I mounted them higher on the frame than the forward set and trimmed the excess that stuck up above the frame.


Next up the front axle!

 

Bro, it's going to take me a month to read your thread! I've been in it for an hour already and I'm impressed. Beautiful work! I'll be ripping off your ideas for my saginaw pump install next weekend!

 

Thanks. It is long.
I took the long way around and hope that you find a more straightforward solution.

 

With the front axle install I had the same problem as the rear. The highboy frame is 34" wide while the new kingpin axle is set up for the 42" frame from the 1989 F350. The problem with the front axle is I couldnt move the spring mounts on the axle because the drivers side spring is already up against the pumpkin. I decided instead to fabricate wider spring mounts on my 75 frame to accommodate the wider springs.





Mocking up the new front spring mount with the kingpin axle.


Using the 1989 F350 springs, the rear eyelet of the front springs sits just under the frame rail to keep the axle level.


Fabricated these for the front spring shackle mounts.


I notched the frame and then boxed the inner frame rails for reinforcement in order to get the shackles to sit at the correct level.






Front end fabrication done and working on the crossover steering.

 

Nice fab work, Chief! Keep up the good work!

 

I replaced the rotten transfer case rubber mount bushings and decided to fab a little extra support. The cross bar will also be used as a mount point for the track bars that come later.