Hey, Im usually not in this part of the forums but after tomorrow il be here alot. Heres a cool story. I had a 1979 Bronco that was beautiful with a 4 inch suspension lift and a 3 inch body, 460 the truck was mint. I sold that for some very very very stupid reason. I told myself that im going to wait to get into another project....... But. Last night was my graduation party and my dads buddy brought a photo album of all his old trucks and toys. He had a 79 F250 jacked way up with a flip up front end. The truck was beautiful and now i really want to start a project. Well he also said that he has a truck for me. Its a 1975 F-250 highboy 4x4. 360 Engine with a 4 speed, 1st gear Creaper. The truck body is shot because its in michigan truck. That sums that up. He said i can have it for 400 bucks. Now heres the kicker. He tore the motor down. Had it re honed with new rings, his wife had there baby and he never finished putting it back together. The heads and intake are sitting in the back of the truck and there pretty rusty looking. Im sure it will clean off. The truck being a highboy already sits pretty high. Its got the leafs all the way around so i was thinking doing the block lift kit and a body lift. I want to build this truck on a budget, Slowly and a little at a time. The first thing is to get the motor cleaned up, back together and running. So can you guys help me out with how to clean my parts, torque specs, and anything else i would like to know.

 

First of all i would go with a 390 over a 460...i know you said you had a 360, the reason why is the fact that you can get way more out of a 390 for alot less money...you can take that 360 you have using the same block and heads and turn it into a 390 and still get good power out of it with some headers and an aluminum intake. Just change the bore and stroke on that 360 and u got more power from the 360 for less money...jmo.

 

Not a bad idea. I did some reading about doing that. If everything goes ok with the putting it back together part and it starts up ok, it has a 2 barrle and factory manifolds so i would like to put a 4 barrel on it

 

That's a good idea..i would recommend going with a stock 4 bbl intake like i have on mine...they say that the performance of an alluminum intake is better but i'm an original kinda guy and that's just my preferance if ya know what i mean....not only that it's cheaper and it does virtually the same thing....cast iron = $20-$30 bucks at a junk yard....Aluminum = $250-$300 just not something im willin to spend...jmo again.

 

I hope you aren't thinking of blocks under all the leaves?!?

Never put blocks under the front end - they have a habit of letting the front axle actually pull out from under the truck during turns. The best scenario is using all new, or rearched springs all around.

 

yea i c what you mean now. Im trying to find a set of front tractor tires for it. If you get the picture. the truck came with 2 sets of steel wheels 16 inch and he said that i should be able to find tractor tires for it. A cheap tire you know. I also have a set of brand new wranglers for it so i can plow snow in the winter. Also has a plow!

 

do you mean tractor tires like these?

 

nooooooo lol Those are some weird lookin tires tho! No i mean the spyder track kind that you would see on the front axles of the big dually tired tractors. As long as they are able to mount on a 16 inch wheel i shouldnt have a problem.

 

Like previously stated, don't put blocks in the front.
Also, don't stack blocks in the rear.
I don't see tractor tires bolting to stock 16" truck wheels.

You can put 35" tires stock on the truck, even 36s, so depending on how big of a tire your looking to run, I wouldn't worry about lifting it any. Since the truck is rusted to he!l, cut them, and you could fit as big as you won't depending on how much you cut, but on stock axles I wouldn't go any bigger than 38s unless all your going to use it for is a mall crawler.

I also agree about turning you 360 into a 390, it doesn't take much, but like Broken40 said, you'll get more power.

 

yea, i was also thinking of the sawzal lift kit for it lmao.

 

It'd be the cheapest and simplest way to do it.

IF you do a suspension lift you'll need to change brake lines, spend all kind of money on all kinds of things depending on how high you go, the more complicated/costly it is.

I hate body lifts. They're cheap, but hard to put on, ugly, and don't do anything for flex.

Since the body is already rusted, why not just cut it out and have room for larger tires while your at it.

Out of curriousity, what size tire are you planing on running?

 

ummm unless i find a good deal on some tires which im hoping for some 35 inch all terrains. But as of rite now it has 3 all terrains and a kelly on it, and i have a brand new set of goodyear wranglers. those are for the winter and plowing.

 

Come on now, get the mud terrains. You'll regret the A/Ts if you get in some slop.

 

you won't find a tractor tire in 16" the smallest they come is 16.5"

I don't know that I've ever seen a budget built old ford truck... I said that too... after spending $26K (just in receipts) on fibreglass body parts, paint, engine, tranny, axles, frame work, 9" lift, driveshafts, wheels and tires, etc. I had a ridiculous mud bogger, that got a lot of warnings from the police about driving it on the street...

 

LOL i know about spending money on a project. 12,000 into my bronco and i didnt even touch the 460 nore drive train! This one is going to be pretty budgety. I know il spend money but not to much, so far i spent 15 dollars for kerosene to clean crap, 5 dollars for a gasket wheel for my angle grinder. 10 dollars in Paint (Ford Blue and Aluminum), 40 Dollars in gaskets, 4 dollars for steel wool, So far so good. All i have to do is clean out the rest of my lifters and put them back in, flush the block with the rest of the kerosene, get my gaskets and put the oil pan on, take the lifters back out and re oil em and then put them back up, fill the valley with the oil and start assembly. I still have one hurdle and that is with the cracked ear on the head. I was going to do all the 390 crap to it but im just gonna keep it simple. Its got the two popper and what not. It should be enough to do pretty good. And yes i know about tires too. I have some old old old school kellys in the bed already on 8 lug wheels. Those will work for now. Il try to talk my buddy into letting me have his 44 inch TSL's! Im already about 40 percent done with putting the motor together!!