On sale day, 360's magically become 390's!

The 4th digit of the VIN is the engine code: 1974/76 F100/350: H = 390 2V // M = 390 4V // Y = 360 2V

1968/76 F100/250 4WD: 360 2V only.

 

Cheap and easy engine swap leaves the LS. Doesn't get much cheaper or easier.

If you want to dig into wiring you could look into a Ford efi engine. There is info out there but not as much as the LS engine family.

If you find a mechanic that knows carbs well it will be good for years. If you swap in fuel injection it will be good for years.
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OP asked for increased reliability that would be simple, not drawn out, and not expensive.

A coyote or, god forbid, a LS swap is not going to fit that bill.

A throttle body efi kit like the sniper, plus a little freshening up of his 390 is a much better option. He could go as far as getting a new set of edlebrock heads, intake, and headers and still be far ahead on reliability, simplicity, time to complete, and cost compared to any swap.

 

You want to do things on a budget so what has been done before is that to get reliability back, people fix or replace their carburetors with a new carburetor or EFI.

New carb or new EFI will both be "bolt on to manifold" affairs, as IF there is a 390 EFI intake manifold it will be expensive expensive...

So say you put a new carberator on it, and check or maintain other items, to get reliability back, do you know what you now have? A good running engine to SELL to help fund your swap project. You would also be selling radiator and transmission as a package or seperately.

As you want to go to EFI in the future, if you put EFI on your existing engine now, you will also have to go from a mechanical "puller" fuel pump that is bolted on the engine, to an electric "pusher" fuel pump that is mounted in the fuel tank or mounted close to and lower than the fuel tank, as EFI needs a consistent fuel pressure to work with and tune with.

Going from 390 to 5.0 you will need the 5.0 transmission as well, because the bellhousing bolt patterns are different. And with a different transmission the driveshaft is also now different, so custom driveshaft modification is now in your plan. And the transmission mount is in a different place so that will need to be changed. The frame mounts for the engine mounts are different so those will be changed as well. Change your exhaust routing and hookups as well. The radiator hoses will land in different places so go to custom hoses to keep 390 radiator or swap in the newer radiator too. If you have power steering then you are looking at retaining old power steering pump and buying or fabricating a mount for it on the engine and how to run a belt to it, or going with the newer power steering pump and making custom lines from it to the frame mounted steering box.

The shifter linkage for automatics will be different. The clutch pedal linkage will need different parts if it is a standard transmission.

Wiring for the starter solenoid is different on newer 5.0 engines.

Other things to consider:
Oil pressure sender, Coolant temp sender, Ammeter, speedometer cable, Dakota digital gauges, cruise control if equipped, A/C setup if equipped, mechanical cooling fan or electric cooling fans, exhaust headers, single exhaust or dual exhaust, ignition wiring, Cummins diesel swap equals power AND mileage...

 

This is one of the most informative threads I’ve seen. I have a 360 and just got a new Holly carb installed and my truck stalls a lot. I’m getting the original Ford carb rebuilt so we’ll see how happy I am with that, but like you guys‘ wives and daughters, I like to turn on a vehicle and drive. And I like not stalling. And better gas mileage would be nice. But I’m not really looking for a can of worms involved in these swaps. Help me reconcile these statements:

And does anyone have an estimate of the costs of each option?

 

Was it tuned after it was installed? It should run right out of the box but it won't be optimized for your engine. You could have a vapour lock issue. Your mechanical fuel pump could be slowly failing. You could have crud in the gas tank plugging up the fuel filter in there. You can put the carb you are having rebuilt back on but it may stall a lot too if you don't find the cause of why it is stalling now.

 

If you go with the Holley Sniper Master kit, which runs $1260 for the 4bbl version (supports up to 650hp) and $1110 for the 2bbl (supports 350hp), then that covers the throttle body and the fuel system. I'd add in another $250 for other odds and ends you may need or if you screw things up. In my case on my Bronco when I dropped the tank to modify my sending unit I found that the tank developed holes right where the mounting straps on the bottom hold it up and those straps were basically keeping everything in like a band-aid and I ripped that band-aid off, so I had to order a new tank. Situations like that.

If you bought a parts vehicle you could potentially get everything you need for a 5.0/5.8 EFI swap for less than that. I know in my local wrecking yards that a 5.0/5.8 would run me $200 and the transmission for it would be $200 as well. That's not including all the other items you'd need to complete the swap and as far as knowing what the items are, I'm not sure as I haven't personally done that particular swap.

I like both EFI and carbs, it just depends on my personal situation. My 77 F100 has a 302 and is running a Motorcraft 2100 and it's been "flawless" for me. Gutless, but flawless in operation. lol I'm eventually putting a 460 in it and I have another 4bbl carb that will go on top of it.

My Bronco got EFI, because I like to use it off-road and at angles the carb I had on it was flooding out all the time and killing the engine. It was also too big for the engine (750 cfm on stock 351M). I put the Sniper on it and it's been great as far as eliminating the issues my carb was giving me and best of all it'll sit there and idle without flooding out when the nose is pointed at the sky. That's not the only reason I went with EFI, but it was a big factor overall.

This kind of angle would kill the engine with the old carb on my Bronco and that's with me trying to fight it by throttling through it and shooting black smoke out the tail pipe.

 

Funny story, a few years ago my coworker tells me he saw fuel leaking out of my truck. I jumped in the truck and managed to get it down to the garage before it ran out of gas. Ended up with a new gas tank since the old one was rusted through. Less than a year later, the same thing happens but this time it’s the brand new tank that somehow develops a small hole. The technician says they can’t warrantee the tank so I’m out another $500 for another new tank. The same guy told me they don’t make a plastic tank for my truck which I now know is incorrect. Anyway, there shouldn’t be crud in my tank now. I can try changing the fuel pump. The carb was tuned twice but I’m gonna say it wasn’t done very precisely because the guy didn’t use a vacuum gauge. The main problem I have is that the engine takes too long to warm up and my choke doesn’t work. If I pull on the choke even slightly, it chokes the engine to death. With the old carb and no choke, I often started the truck and drove off immediately as if I had fuel injection. It stalled sometimes if it was cold out, but not that much. With the Holly, I have to sit there and feather the gas pedal for several minutes to keep the engine going long enough to warm up. It’s super frustrating. I drove with the old carb for almost 5 years and was happier.

 

Affordable and fuel efficient? Absolutely. RELIABLE? I doubt it. That thing will have gone through dozens of sensors, ECMs, software issues, coil packs etc by the time it gets to the same age (nearly 50 years) and miles as his current 390.; Trust me on this. I fix late model stuff for a living, there's a damned good reason my daily driver is not OBD/ computer-controlled.

 

I can tell you the Sniper EFI kit (going all in with the Hyperspark get-up) is about $1500 plus some miscellaneous fittings, wires and hoses and whatnot. However, my mouse-eaten rig needed a carb rebuild and all the ignition wiring redone with serious work on the fuel system from the filler to the engine before it was going to run. It made sense to me to go modern. It fired right up the first time I tried after connecting everything correctly. It's not foolproof. You have to know what you're doing and there's a lot of settings that really should be tweaked to get it reliable. I have no regrets at all, however.

 

What kind of gas are you running? Gasoline carburetors do not like ethanol blended fuel. I had a Holley 600 on a 360 that would leak and flood three days after a rebuild using ethanol blended fuel. I switched to straight gas and the problem went away. On the ethanol blend, it ran rough, would barely idle and died often. It was also harder to start. But on straight gas, it ran like a different truck.