I'm about to swap a Crown Vic front end into my 1960 F100. I have a 72 F250 for hauling and towing. I've got a 2000 Ranger 4x4 for camping and smaller truck errands. I've got a 2018 Ford Focus for my daily driver and longer highway trips. So ive decided I want the 1960 to just be a comfortable, around town truck and a back up daily driver.

i was originally going to drop a 4.6 in as it would be pretty straight forward and there's a ton of info on this swap. But I started thinking about the Lima 2.3L, early 90's version has 100 hp and do well on gas. Early 90s Ranger weights about the same as 1960 F100 Flareside. Put a M5OD behind it, Probably get pretty good fuel economy. I'm a slow lane driver for the most part these days so I'm guessing 100hp would be fine.

I did a few searches and couldn't find info so I'm guessing it would be fairly unique.

Anybody have any thoughts? I'm not totally sold on the idea and the 4.6 can get decent fuel economy. And the local pick n pull has 9 Mark VIII which all came with the Teksid Aluminum block. With their 25% off days coming up, I could grab one for about $140 plus all their fees and another $75 for the Transmission.

 

IIRC the 223 6 cylinder that was used in our trucks was about 140 or 145 hp. 100 hp seems awful light for these trucks.

 

Personally I would go 4.6l as it's economical and easy resale compared to a 2.3L engine. Now if you really feel the 2.3L is something you want it's totally up to you as it's your truck, and your build. Do what you want period.

D

 

 

I would go with the 4.6 easy install. I just got mine running and the only downside I can think of is the cost of the electronics for the engine. For simplicity I went with a Ron Francis kit for the engine side. Very easy to install but somewhat pricey at $1500 for the kit which included a tune which bypassed the PATS system and the cats.

Pat

 

$1500 Ouch. But I've seen a few homemade harnesses and they look messy as hell. Do you feel like it was money well spent?

 

Definitely worth the money in my opinion. If you can read you can install the kit. It comes with well written instructions, all connectors needed and the wires are long enough to mount the Telorvek panel anywhere in the vehicle. Each wire group is individually bagged and tagged.

They have very good tech support, we called a few times with questions and got right through for help. The only glitch we ran into is the connector didn't fit my fuel drive module (Ford made several). They offered for me to send in that harness and they would change the connector for free. We were so close to starting it for the first time, I felt it could take 2-4 weeks to get it back so I decided to buy a new module, about $30.

I haven't wire tied and wrap all of the wires yet but I think it will look very clean when done. It also saved a lot of time vs thinning the CV harness, and chasing any gremlins doing that now and in the future.

Below I linked the kit I ordered and an article showing the install into a Mustang.

Good luck with yours, Pat
https://www.ronfrancis.com/prodinfo.asp?number=CV-05
How to Wire EFI with a Custom Harness - Modified Mustangs & Fords

 

Looks like the wiring harness is about a grand, is the other 500 for ECM flash?

 

 

Yes, the tune was about $500. I got the tune with 2 programs, 1-returnable fuel line to the tank and 2-non-returnable. I'm not familiar with tunes but my buddy said we can adjust a lot of the parameters if we want. If you decide to go with that you may want to call RF and talk with them first.

 

From what I see on their website, they thin your existing CV harness. Not a negative thing. I just don't know how easy it would be to now route the wiring in the truck.
https://mitymotorsports.wixsite.com/.../the-beginning

Also I just remembered with he RF kit we tossed the gear selector switch from the trans because I went with a Lokar shifter. However the RF kit needs that in place so it can tell the ECM what gear the trans is in. Other wise it will not shift out of first gear. Ask me how I know. :-)

 

He goes thru the entire harness and pins every wire out and re looms it. The harness runs the same route as in the CV or donor and the computer would be in the stock location, Then you run power to it and route some wires to your OBD2 port and any gauges you need. Fairly straight forward.

D