well after my first 300 died/was killed, i'm going to put in another 300. my truck is mostly a work horse. is there an ignition i can swap to for better performance/power. i'm looking into a header and intake setup. any more ideas are welcome.

 

We need to know what you started with, most electronic settups are darned good, especially with new ignition wires, new spark plugs. I have found headers to be a pain, and performance is not greatly improved to justify, especially in a six. Use your truck as a worker, buy a V-8 to rod around.

 

Try Clifford Performance. They specialize in the 300-I6. They have headers, 4bbl intake manifolds, etc. For ignition, you could go with a Davis Unified Ignition HEI style dizzy. They can custom curve your dizzy for your needs.
Good Luck.
Dan.

 

Check out the Inline 6 Forum on this website. Great info there!

 

Offenhouser also has a couple of intakes for the 240/300, instead of hedders you might want to look into getting the EFI exhaust manifolds (cheeper, cast iron, last forever & flow almost as well as tube hedders). You didn't say what year truck you have, but if your truck is '84 up, then you've got the TFI ignition. The easiest (& cheepest) upgrade is to backdate it a little with the duraspark II system, a very reliable electronic ignition. I'm running an offy "C" intake with a 2bbl autolite, EFI exhaust, duraspark II ignition on my '84 F150 4x4. Not the fastest thing, but this dumb thing will crawl up a tree & tow more than it should.
Edwin

 

sorry it was a craphole day yesterday. it's an 81 f150 300 w/ 4spd 4wd. i think it has the duraspark setup. will look into the efi manifolds.

 

You have many excellent suggestions for improving performance. I tend to lean toward the stock Ford Duraspark II ignition. It is good for up to 400HP, inexpensive, and very reliable. The only real advantage to an after market ignition is the rev limiter.

Any gasoline engine will perform better when you increase the volume of air entering the combustion chamber AND increase the flow size of the exhaust. There are limits of course, but this is the least expensive way to get instant power. A different cam will wake up any engine, but again there are limits, and you should first increase the volume of air moving in and out of the engine.

The only significant differences between the stock Ford distributer and a high peromance distributer is the advance curve, and length of distributer drive shaft. Billet aluminum does not make for a better distributer, just more expensive. If you do not need extra clearance for the distributer, then why spend big bucks on high performance? You can have your stock distributer recurved at a local shop, just tell them what engine and parts you are using and they will curve it for your applicaton for a third of the cost of a new high perfomance distributer.

 

Wrenchturner:

I have been using my 300 cid w/4spd and NP-208 for 290,000 miles as a work truck. I have looked into doing something to it but have decided that there is little to improve on. Considering that there are 6 intake and 6 exhaust runners, that leaves little to improve on. I can tell you that I have pulled an 80,000 semi with a broken drive shaft at an idle with the stock combination. I will confess that the truck is a little on the heavy side, over 8000 due to all of the equipment and utility bed and 600 lb front bumper with winch and plow mounts. Yes the springs are not stock.

If you are using it as a daily work unit, don't change it. That is just my suggestion.

I just broke the NP 208 friday. Exploded the Planitary. First major 4x4 part replaced. Have rebuilt the engine several times and do keep spares around. Even had spare transfer case but it turned out to be bad. BW-13-45 unit.

Remember...UPS loves the 300 CID.

 

I agree the Duraspark 2 is a great ignition system. I switched my 84 from TFI to D2 a fews years ago, best mod I ever did.

I also have an offy Dual Port intake with a Holley 390cfm 4 barrell, EFI manifolds, walker downpipe, to a flowmater 50 series, and dual 1.5" pipes out the back. Runs great. No more getting ran over top off of on the interstate.

 

Not to hijack the thread but what's involved in the Duraspark2 upgrade? Is it just a swap over? Any writeups? I have a 86 2x4 with the 300 I6.
Keith

 

KEdwinH,

Use the search engine and search this forum for "Duraspark". You'll find tons of information. Good luck.