Howdy all!

I've been sucessful at my 58 f100 restoration because of this forum, so I thought I would try a few questions for my other truck.

I bought a 79 250 explorer with 72000 miles on it! It's in wonderful shape! It still has the factory QC stamps on the front fenders, hood and back of the cab! Even rarer (I think) is the emissions sticker on the passenger window.

It has a c6 coupled to a 460 and it's 2wd. I have a ine on a 4 spd and a 205 tcase. I was looking at tearing out my IFS and going to a straight axle 4wd. Has anyone done this and do you have any tips? It's not a matter of I can't do it, I would just like to see any brick walls anyone else has hit with this conversion.....

Also I had to rebuild my carb the other day and thought it would be a brilliant idea to jet it from 622 to 75's now it runs rich and misses when I get it started. Too much for a stock motor? Thanks yall!

 

what engine is the 4 speed off of? you may need to put a new bellhousing on. the best way is to just get a whole truck with all the parts on it and swap them. also you may need to change the exhaust after the manifolds, and i think you may need different motor mounts to clear the axle. leaf spring mounts may need to be fabricated as well since you are going from coils to leaves, also of course youd need an external balance flywheel being a 1979, and new clutch kit, and pedal assembly, and steering column from a stick for it to look correct

 

You wouldn't have to go to leaves. I really liked the ride of my F250, so I used a mix of 150 and 250 parts on my conversion. I used mostly 150 parts(axle, coils, track bar, steering,etc) and 8 lug outters. I really like it, but by far, tracking down all the little stuff has been a pain. Decide what way you want to go and get everything before you start. I looked at a lot of F150s before I dug in.

 

I was wondering are the frame rails the same between a 2 wheel and a 4 wheel drive? i remember read a long time around there are close, but the engine crossmember will cause some problems.

 

The trans and tcase are off of a 460, I'm getting the pedals, steering column, crossmemebers, all the nuts and bolts, unfortunaly I do need to still get the flywheel, and clutch kit. I haven't gotten the numbers off the trans yet, but it's not the compound low, so I think it's the np425? I do know that the tcase is the old 205. I haven't measured frames for the dana 60 yet, and I really hadn't thought of that Thanks!!!! You probably saved me alot of stupid mistakes!

 

It is my belief (although I don't have concrete proof) that the 2wd and F150 4wd and 78-79 F250 4wd all use the same framerails and mostly same crossmembers. My 2wd 250 frame looked identical to my 4wd 77 F150 donor truck frame, except for in the front. The crossmembers are different there.

 

You will need a different oil pan for the 460, you can still buy them from ford, but I believe the 2wd uses a front sump and I know the 4x4 really should run a rear sump so that will require the pan, pickup tube and oil pump as well as a new dipstick for the pan but like I said you can buy the pan, pickup and dipstick as a kit from ford and the oil pump is pretty easy to get about anywhere.

 

Thanks for the info guys! I for got about the 4X4 oil pan issue,
So does anyone haver any thoughts on my wonderful idea of jetting the carb to 75's from 62.2? Too rich? It sure runs like it! What is the most you can jet a stock motor? And while I am planning to get the edelbrock intake and cam package what should I jet my carb to then? Thanks in advance!

 

Well on jetting unless I know the engine is running really out of range, I never change more than 4 jet sizes max at a time. No one can give you a exact jet size for your engine as each and every engine will be a little different depending on many factors not limited to the engine itself, but things like altitude, age driving habits etc.
Simple answer is if it seems like it's running rich it probably is.

 

Perhaps a better question would be what would yall recommend for a stock 460 with a c-6(for now) that I use for towing sandrails and what not.

 

how was it running before? what did the plugs look like? theres a whole lot more to power than putting big jets in the carb most likly ford did a lot of research before fitting the stock jets in the carb for best runnability the biggest budjet based improvement on a 460 is to open up the exhaust 2 1/2 or 3 inch true dual exhast with low restriction mufflers like walker turbos good rumble but won't P.O. the cops. To check jetting you either need a chassis dyno or a strech of flat road you can run about 70 for a while then you shut down with as little idling as possible pull some sparkplugs and check the color you want to see brown to tan black is rich and white is lean but first you gotta let it breath

 

color is not a good indicator of rich/lean and is not the proper way to check as the fuel formulation can make a difference on that as well as the condition of the engine. what you look for is carbon around the outer ring, I prefer to see it about 3/4 of the way around for best performance and running condition.
Here is a real good article on reading your spark plugs with pictures.
http://www.dragstuff.com/techarticle...ead-plugs.html