i have a tired old 360 with C6 tranny
-one piston is quite low compression and tranny clunks when shifting.
+it may do a 1000 10 km grocery /booze runs but i suspect it[motor/trans] would die on one 1000 km run
SO whats a good swap motor /auto tranny combo that can replace my C6 and 360 Fe?
-i would consider an LS swap since i did one into a 86 Gbody already but prefer a ford
=i would even consider a LFX engine tranny swap since i drive a 2015 camaro 2Lt as daily driver if its feasable and extra donor car parts would fit my camaro

 

My old boss always yanked 360s out of his F-350s to either swap in a 390 or to convert the 360 to a 390. He always said a 390 pulled better and got about the same fuel mileage doing it. I never drove a 360, he did his swapping as a step of his normal prep before letting a truck be used hauling mail.

 

i would prefer fuel injected as my 360 takes about 3 minutes of cranking to start in summer after its sat awhile .
not sure if fuel pump is weak or what but wintr starts would be worse
=plus despite a 308 rearend it runs alot of RPM on highway at 100+ km /hr
-so a Aod od tranny with well running engine would be nice.
-if i had to guess im betting my 360 has like 120 hp left of 200ish stock sae net

 

The cheapest would be to work with what you have in the long run. JMO

 

360s aren't exactly hot rod hearts, but they have brought a lot of once new trucks to today. How big is that + after the 100 in "100+ km /hr["? 100 km/hr is like only 62 mph.

My '77 has 3.50 gearing and I find A 3.08 rear gear is pretty high, ODs will lower highway RPM by 30% at any speed while they reduce torque, resulting in down shifts and reduced deceleration as one slows, increasing wear on brakes, etc. I usually lock OD off under 40-45 mph here locally on my several ATs that have OD. These trucks were designed and set up when 55 was the speed limit, they are bricks moving through weighted medium (call it air). In traffic, I like a vehicle to slow or retard when I let up on the gas pedal, I anticipate, I like to avoid unnecessary braking where I can.

Below is a pic at 100 km/hr.



I near never had overly long starts, but I use a manual choke that has been there for near 40 years. I grew up using a choke. I know from experience in this '77 how much choke to use & when with any pumping. Cold start, one little pump, choke to first joint of finger, it starts. Only time I had longer starts was with the Edelbrock carb and it's short bowl vents in an open element air filter, but the Holley has always been a great starting carb and is better than ever with the current semi open air filter I made, much less evaporation from the bowls.

If stock, good bet that the automatic choke is a bit off.

 

YEAH the choke tube riser pipe has disintegrated and now only have electric choke on a new chinee clone carb , that may not be set up properly yet.
im looking to semi -retire probly gonna be a canadian snowbird every winter and live in mexico or states for 3-6 months and may need this truck to be my daily driver when back in canada
AND 2025 may be the last year i have access to my Moms detached garage to do a swap, if her acreage sells for what she wants.
SO a classic truck with Fuel injected motor , OD tranny would be great and cost me 130 cdn a year to insure versus 130 a month like my camaro.

 

I drove a 360/c6 for years. Changed to a 390/c6 and hardly noticed the diff. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone because what I did was expensive. I got tired of the horrible mpg and went looking for a way to keep the HP yet double, if possible, the mpg. What I did was build a 300, larger valves, ported head, ballanced, 351 pistons, pre 68 rods with ARP bolts, cam, roller rockers, 4v intake, headers, Eddelbrock 625 carb, DS2 distributor recurved, MSD box, TFI coil and free flowing exhaust. That gave me the hp of a stock 360, but the mpg almost double, if I keep my foot out of it. Oh, I also installed a zf5 manual trans. I threw a lot of $ at it because I knew that I would be keeping the truck as a dd. All in all, still it was far less expensive than buying a new car. And, with all the carbs that I tried, 2 different size Autolite 4100's, 485 and 600 cfm, a holley 465, 3 Summit Racing carbs (which are Holley/Autolite hybrids), a 750 and a 800 cfm Quadrajet (about 500 cfm is in the toilet flusher secondaries), a 500 and a 625 Edelbrock. I did get 2 carb books out of the experience, so every one of those books that I sell brings the cost of my build down. Good luck.

 

Get a Scat 4.25 crank and a 390 block or better yet a 428 and never look back. Add the Edelbrock Pro Flo 4 and Bobs your uncle.

 

Are you looking for power or MPG..? If mpg, I would find a 300 with a 4 speed, I've had this combo in 4 trucks, and the worst one avg. 16, the other 3 all hang around the 18mpg area on the hwy and drop accordingly just running around in town.

I've never had a 300 with an auto, but have driven them, wasn't impressed. All of mine with the 300 had the Offy intake and Holley 390 cfm carb and 4 speed, except my 66 F100, still has stock everything, and he gets an easy 18 running down the road at 55-60. Has plenty of pep to get going, and my 66 F250 towed ol Mater home with the 300 working pretty hard up the long mtn draws but still did it.

 

1. I want fuel injection for possibly more power, better reliabilitty and winter starts. SO far with new chinee carb and tank/sending unit, it drives good around neighborhood but left me stranded/stalled on sustained highway speeds twice its 1st summer after only ten min high rpm driving .. it must have a collapsed/plugged fuel line, weak fuel pump/ bad fuel tank switcher, or vapor lock?.
2. AOD tranny would be nice to turn less Rpm for less engine wear AND more mpg AND probly get more low end performance with my 3.08 rearend from a taller AOD 1st gear than current C6 1st gear.

 

Not a ford engine, but the 5.9L 12v VE diesel is great for power and mileage. It is expensive and a lot of work, but with a 5speed transmission and stout axles it would turn yours into a good hauler. I had a 390 and could not convince myself the mileage was worth it. If I had to do gas it would have been a souped up 300 with a 5speed.

 

As you've read to this point, it's a balance between what you want to do with this truck and what your budget for it will allow. Budget is a mix of dollars and what they call "sweat equity" which depends upon your skill set and the amount of time you can invest. Start with the project goals and folks here can give you a wide array of choices.

 

Unfortunately with the FE you'll be hard pressed to find a non-FE engine that mates to you transmission without expensive adapters, so you may want to consider doing a full engine/trans swap. That's what I did - went with a crate 347 stroker + Sniper2 EFI and a TR4050. If I were doing it on the cheap, I'd look for either a 300 + sniper + C6 (and add a gearvendor overdrive) or consider an Explorer 4.0 v6. Either way you'll probably want better gearing for on-road efficiency.

 

YEAH BUdget is a big roadblock. i have a rusted rear quarterpanel, floorpan, cab mounts that need fixing too but otherwise good looking truck from 40 ft.
SO its no showtruck and not worth 10 k in entire new diesel drivetrain or stroker crate engine with built trANNY.

im think 5000 cdn budget max for fuel injected engine and OD tranny so thats under 3000 usd.
-my LS swap G-body cost me about 2000 cdn by time everything was reconfigured and hooked up,[couldve been cheaper but that wouldve took ALOT longer plus it was during covid]
that was just engine, with stock tranny and rearend, which was biggest reason i sold it, too little off line performance combined with many rpms on highway despite the 2.32 gears it had

what is the TQ difference from a 360FE to ford 302 or 351w?
- i see those as best budget build replacements combined with an AOD