On my '84 F250 351W, I installed a reman 2150 from Autoline:

https://autoline.ca/

I am very pleased with it and recommend this outfit highly. IIRC, I looked up the part number at their website but ordered it through RockAuto. I think it was around $300. Here is the Autoline catalog:

https://www.showmetheparts.com/autoline/

When I entered the parameters for your model, it gave 5 choices depending on emissions package, GVW, and transmission. Even if you don't go with Autoline, the search results may help narrow down what you need.

 

C8178A and c8194a are both listed i can either for under 300. Both autoline from AZ. I see no difference in them.

There is one more but it has a big 2 pin plug that this truck don't have so I'll disregard that.

Truck is a k transmission so c6. I'm going to go glance at the truck again today

 

I would not even consider the variable venturi, even if it came with it originally. What a nightmare carb that was. I have never retro-fitted a vv engine to a regular carb, so do not have any info on that.

 

Well I think it WAS a smog engine and it's been de-smogified.


looks like a big mess to me. Lol.

What Says you

 

Does it have a vacuum line or vacuum advance can on the distributor? I don't see one from this angle. If it doesn't, yes it was a computer controlled engine. Being a early truck it may have indeed been a CA model. No need to worry, if you have spark it should run. If you are having problems with the ignition and it has some weird setup on it, you can swap out the distributor easily. Again, the aftermarket (China) has drop in HEI 1 wire distributors you can drop in. Thankfully under all that crap is a ordinary 351w.

 

No vacuum at all on the dizzy . i noticed that myself. I've built old 351c/400/460/289/302/352/360/390 etc etc... and ive built many efi 302/351/4.6 and coyote..... even several 3.5 and 2.3 turbos.....

Never saw such a cluster @#&* of a mess under a Ford hood. What is the 35 vacuum lines behind where the carb sits. What are the two electronic boxes... one on each valve cover. The screw on thing to the passenger side of the carb is unhooked and goes to nothing on either end.... The vent solenoid (I'm assuming since it leads to the charcoal evap can) is unhooked and all those vacuum are plugged. The smog pump is gone too. So it's all been gone and the truck was running without it so hopefully a carb will work an s get it moving.

I also see that I have a kickdown linkage that need be hooked. Lol. For some reason they have just bent it back out of the way. Either way its like every other job I get from this customer...... over complicated

I'm a Ford man and I wouldn't give 500 for the whole truck. Wish he would just forget it. Lol. But he said go ahead with it

 

As emissions got tighter and tighter, Ford and GM started using a hybrid system that still had a carb, but also had a computer like fuel injection would have. The carb still applied the fuel, but they had a solenoid on it where the computer could cycle the solenoid and trim the fuel. And they wanted to control the timing more precisely, so they got rid of the older style distributor that had weights and a vacuum advance to control the timing. They put a distributor in there that is locked at where you set it with the timing light. They then take that locked signal and send to the computer, the computer would modify it and send it back to a module to fire the coil at the timing it saw fit.

All those pieces you have on the drivers side valve cover are vacuum solenoids for various emissions pieces. The computer controlled those also.

Once you take this stuff off the engine, it's almost like taking a important piece off a fuel injected engine. It goes into a "get it home mode", the engine will run but not have much fuel mileage or performance. If you want to get it back to a good running engine, you need to buy a generic carb for a regular engine, and buy a generic distributor for a older engine with the weights and centrifugal weights inside it to control the timing.

They went to this system here and there on the v8's till they went to fuel injection. But around 1984 they went across the board on the 300 sixes with this system. We get tons of posts in here with people that have the 300 six, and there are many posts on how they bought a regular 1 barrel carb and HEI conversion distributor to get their engines running good again.

 

I've re-curved many distributor by welding the gap in the plate and swapping springs. I've tuned plenty of computer on newer ones.... never saw one quite like this. Thanks for the info.

The worst smog I've had was an 86 mustangs lx with the 2.3.

So I guess this is just another job that went south. Lol. I'll start finding parts. Thanks for the info

 

So what year and carb do I get that will work. An autoline carb is fine. I went to 80 and 5.8 but that brought up cleveland. I went to 82 and again there were several....

Is old 302 stuff the same? Could i get a 70s 302 f150 carb and distributor?

If so.... the 78 302 had steel and cast distributor gears.... says one can damage the cam if you use the wrong one. Which i need.

I've used steel gears on performance builds when I used wild cams for years.... never hurt one. Lol

 

Back in 1986 when I bought my truck I was already leaning diesel even though they were more money. Popping the hoods on the diesel and gas models iced it for me looking at all that spaghetti on the gas engines. At least with the diesel I could find the engine.

 

You can use a 302 carb. It would be close enough to work, I used a china one for a 302/351w on my 2.8 v6 in my Bronco and it worked fine. The 302 distributor will not work on the 351w, the hex drive for the oil pump is larger on the 351w. You can't hardly go wrong getting a aftermarket HEI unit. Take the hot wire off the coil you have now and run it to the HEI unit after you stab it in, and you are done, just set the timing.

Here's the diagram for the computerized ignition you have on your engine. Get that white/blue wire that goes to the old coil and you are running again. Of course the HEI unit has a coil built into it.

 

ok. Coil is still on it so I'll steal the wire. And yeah I've done several hei distributors. Most cheap ones I haven't got much longevity. Good to know about the 302 vs 351 though

 

Yes, they do make more expensive HEI conversion distributors. Are they still China units with a big price tag? I am not sure about that.

 

Same here and why my first new car / truck was a 86 K5 Blazer with a 6.2 diesel. It also did not need to go thru smog in my state.
The other was it would pull my car trailer where the gas motor was only a 305
Dave ----