My fiancé and I currently are going to school and are rather broke. She currently has a 1973 F-250 camper edition with a 390. Anyways, she needs a car/truck that is reliable for when we move out this summer and we don’t know whether or not we should just finish up restoring her old truck, or buy an LS1 powered f-body. She has some sentimental ties to this truck and its something that she plans on keeping and restoring at some point (though we had planned on doing it later). She also likes the drag strip (I myself am into building up 5.0s) so that’s why we were thinking about the LS1.

We both would probably rather restore the truck. The problem is I’m not sure how much work/money it would be to restore this truck for the most part. We have about $10,000 to work with, but would not like to spend much more than that. I guess I’ll start by listing the problems/what needs to be done to make it reliable:

-Needs a rebuild, which we would probably some sort of stroker. (unsure of what a 390 can be stroked to)
-Needs to have the suspension fixed. She wants to lift it a few inches so we would probably just do a lift kit and shocks/struts. (not sure of what else would be good for an old truck like this, any other advice would be awesome)
-Replace/rebuild the tranny. Its still in working condition, but I’m sure it could be freshened up with how old it is. (its an automatic, but I have no knowledge of these/any trucks so I don’t know what kind)
-Replace other engine components such as water/fuel pumps, etc.

All of the rest of the problems like rust, timing chain, some other miscellaneous things we have already fixed/replaced for the most part. Anyways, I’m just looking for some ideas/estimates on what some of you that have experience with this sort of stuff think we should do.

Sorry for the long post and thanks alot for your guys time.

 

I don't see you getting into the 5.0s with a F-250 and a 390. Find a decent 460 in a junkyard and build it up with around 2 grand and dump that in.
Neither engine will get great gas mileage, but if you take it real easy, you can expect about 12 or a little under.
Restoring it with 10k is easily doable, but not to perfect condition, pick and choice what you need done first and do it all the cheapest and best way possible.

 

Que?

I said that I am into building 5.0 mustangs and she likes to go to the strip with me, that is why we were looking into getting her a LS1 f-body or restoring her truck. She just needs something reliable, but we have already done some work to her truck so I was thinking of just going all of the way with her truck and totally rebuilding the whole thing. I just wanted to know how much it would possibly run us to basically do all of the things that I listed lol. No way would I even attempt to break into the 5s with a 390 and a truck lol

 

Engine rebuilds can vary in price depending on what you want and where you go. A stroked 390 will not be cheap. A stroked 460 will more than likely be cheaper than the 390 stroked and IMO I think the 460 is a much better engine.

Suspesion is easy. Just price the lift lit you wish to go with. Are you installing it or paying some one to do all of the work?

If you spend the time shopping around you will see what things cost and if you shop enough you can even find good deals on some used stuff.

 

We will be doing most of the work ourselves, with the exception of the engine work (I'll probably just take it out, bring it to the shop, have the work done and then drop it back in assuming I stick with the 390) and possibly the suspension stuff. I've never done something like a lift to a truck but my step brothers are both really into trucks so they may be able to help if I ask.

I would love to go with a 460, you have any ideas on what trucks had them that I could find at a junkyard? Plus, if we did the 460 swap, what else would we be looking at as far as tranny, etc.? lastly, what do you think the swap would proabably run us for parts alone?

Once again, thanks for all of your time

 

Since you have an auto trans it would have to be swapped because the FE has a different bell pattern than the 385 series engines. You need a set of truck exhaust manifolds or headers and a set of 460 conversion motor mounts. You will also need a rear sump oil pan.

It's much easier to look for an older full size car for the 460 motor. If you find one the is 79 or newer it will be from a truck and it will be externaly balanced instead of internaly balanced. This is important when selecting a flywheel.

If you buy the L&L conversion parts it will cost a pretty penny. Here's where shopping around and surfing the net for used pieces will help.

I have a few sets of truck manifolds and a couple of oil pans but I do not have the motor mounts. For my 78 bronco project I found my conversion mounts and truck manifolds from a local person, I got lucky. This saved me a few bucks from buying new and it saved on shipping.

I bought a set of doors on ebay from CA. I actualy won a complete 78 F350 460 4x2 truck that did not run. I only could afford to have the doors shipped back to me but the point is I found the doors I needed by looking at every option out there and asking people questions. I asked the seller if he would sell me the doors if I was the high bidder and he said yes. He still has the rest of the truck and I am sure he would sell parts from it. I found my ZF 5-speed trans the same way. A seller had a F350 rolling chassis for sale and the high bidder did not need the trans so I meet him and bought the trans.

Shopping and asking questions can yield some good results and save you a lot of cash. As long as you have time to play the game it will be worth your while.

 

I would go with the truck. It's be worth more than a plastic F body. Insurance will be alot less too. You could always use a 428 crank and get more cubes out of it.

 

I really recommend against rebuilding the 390. There are tons of 460s sitting around in old trucks, econolines, and even passenger cars. I got my 460 out of a 76 lincoln continental with a C6 transmission for $100. I'm almost done with my rebuild and it's only cost me $768.62 for parts so far. I do however have the advantage of already owning plenty of engine building tools.

To get the power I'm going to get out of this 460 with less than $800, you'd have to throw more than twice that into a 390. And your idle would still be rocky and I'll still have more torque.

I'm doing a body off restoration of my 78 F250 camper special. I bought the truck with no motor, not tranny, and no driver's door. Also, it was two wheel drive. Now, 5 months, $4,517.28 later, I've got a 4wd truck with a nearly completed 460, and i'm about to begin my four link set-up. That $4.5k includes 8 inch lift coil springs all around, shocks, links and heims, motor, transmission, new motor parts, door, front axle, tranfer case, driveshafts, the list is almost endless. I have a total budget of $8.5k and it seems ill be able to meet that. That of course is without new paint.
-kit

 

Pokerpuller, I would like to see that camper special you have. I bet that 8" coil sprung lift is awsome. What are you expecting to get out of your 460 when finished?

 

Building a 460 is so passe', like cherry red 65 Mustangs.
Stay with the FE.

 

Passe' gets passe' for a reason: cause its so cool in the first place that everyone wants to do it. (my other car's a red mustang, although a 93)

I should be over 400 for both horsepower and torque. I'm building it pretty mildly, in fact i'm even using the stock cam. I plan on finishing the truck in may, but always hoping to finish earlier. I should have some interesting pictures soon.
-kit