I have a 1983 Econoline with a 300 4.9L 6. In the future I was thinking of buying a remaufactured engine for her.

My questions are:

1.) Do I have to replace the 300 6 with a new 300 6 only, or are there other 6 cyl. configurations that would both fit inside the van, and bolt up to the existing tranny? I like 6 mainly for the economy side of the swap.

2.) I've seen a few places that just sell the remanufactured core or block, but you have to supply all the other parts, ( valve cover, carb, etc. ). Are there any national chains that sell completely new engines with all the parts, or is that just a pipedream? I feel that if I purchase a new engine everything should be new, not just some of it.

I live in New York City, and Long Island, NY.
If anybody can advise me of situations or shops that would do this type of work I would be appreciative.

The only reason I'm even thinking of this is that the van is in great shape,I love it, and the price for most of these new vehicles are ridiculious especially when your putting two kids through college!!

Thanks for the help, ArnieB.

 

There was a 250 I-6 also but I don't know if it was any good or worth changing to. I don't think I have ever seen an I-6 carb to pan crate.

 

check out this place for some ideas http://cliffordperformance.net/

 

It wasn't a 250, thats the smaller one... the other big six is the 240.... horribly confusing isn't it?

Nobody is going to sell a complete engine, unless you find one that was very recently rebuilt that somebody is willing to sell.

The problem with living in New York is that you can't swap in much, they have a lot of emissions restrictions that will set you back.

 

http://www.rhinoengines.com/ford49lighttruckengines.htm

I have talked to them about my own replacement. It seems like a good deal.

Hope it helps,
Mike

 

If you're going to buy a replacement engine, and want a warranty, I would absolutely only buy a longblock. This way they can't claim your heads screwed up the block. If you don't care about a warranty,a nd going racing, pick the best combo of parts for your application.

For an ordinary rebuilt engine, I've had great luck with ATK engines, and they've always taken my cores. Even though one or two of them *I* wouldn't have taken back. But they took them and gave me credit, so yay for me. And they ship pretty quickly too, in this giant plastic thing you can toss the old engine in as slimey as it came out.

 

You won't find a reman engine complete carb to pan, but the main engine will be assembled. Some do come with the valve cover and oil pna, but I know of none that have the carb too, although i would think that would save some problems...

 

It would make life a lot easier... however keep in mind most shops buy from remanufacturer "X" because of price. Quality is secondary, I'm sad to say, and the remanufactures try to balance price and quality. They want business, but they don't want returns either. It's a tough thing to keep in check too. Labor and parts cost money.

This is why a lot of the rebuilders are not on the east coast. Labor is more reasonable in the middle and south of the country, and there are more "core" places to acquire blocks, heads and cranks from.

There used to be a core place down in Arkansas, and often a friend of mine would purchase parts on my behalf. A rebuildable block for $30, a pair of rebuildable heads for $20... that sorta thing. Sadly they folded so I'm back to local junkyard pricing... but you get the idea.

In comparison, there is a local machine shop who gave me a quote on a BBF custom project, and the labor rate was $75 an hour. Yeah, that's neat, and I know the guys inside who actually pour their sweat into the motor wouldn't get anywhere near that, so I chose to build it myself, outsourcing the balancing and various other things I want no part of to the aforementioned friend down in AR.

Twin turbo stroker with low compression on the cheap!