Hi,

I'm in the process of swapping a Perkins Phaser diesel into a 2WD 93 F-150 SWB that came with a 302. The engine weighs about 700lbs- pretty close to the weight of a 460 I believe.

I just wanted to find out from some of you that have done big block swaps of something else that adds this much extra weight, what kind of problems you run into with the stock springs on the front end. I haven't set the engine in the truck yet, and have alot to do with motor mounts and such before I do, but based on this info and any experience you guys have, what kind of springs do you think I'll be needing to get the ride height back close to stock?

Thanks

 

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There's air bag "helper" springs that go inside your stock springs to help the weight issue. Otherwise, you may try factory replacement springs from the same year F250 with the 6.9/7.3L diesel.

 

Thanks for the reply. Well the Navistar is extremely heavy even compared to my engine. It weighs close to 1000lbs actually. My 4cyl Perkins Phaser 90 weighs ~ 300lbs more than the 302 it's replacing, and so the Navistar weighs about another 250 - 300 on top of that. Also the F-250 frame componentry is heavier making the whole truck heavier minus the powertrain. Now I know there are heavy duty aftermarket springs available for my truck, I just don't know how 'heavy duty' they are. I could try a set of those but w/o knowing what results I would have with them installed it would be like an $80 trial and error shot. Also I was thinking about possibly using a set of new replacement springs for an older model 73 - 79 F-150 with a big block, which I could also pick up for about the same price, but I don't know if they would work on the later model truck w/o knowing whether there are any differences in the free length, coil diameter etc.

There are several different routes I could go with it but I'm sure someone here has swapped a big block or some other engine in this weight class into these later model twin I beam trucks, and thus already knows whether there will be any issues with the stock springs. I expect there would be considering the weight differential, but like I said considering that this thing weighs in at around the same as a 460, the fact that that swap has been done no telling how many times should mean that at least a few people would know what if anything needs to be done with regard to springs.

 

Well the FE big block is about 100 lbs lighter than the 460. I know the F100-F150's came with the FE360 available into 1976 and there were no differences in spring availability. See if the spring numbers are different for a 93 F150 and a 93 F250, go from there...

--Mike