Hope I'm in the right place - I have a 1951 Ford F2, and I am looking for an engine and driveline to put in it. I have thought about a 302 or 351. A guy says he has an '87 with a 302, that runs well, but the truck and body are trash. As I really want to get a "donor" truck, this might be a viable option. I used to restore early British sports cars, but haven't worked on EFI, or newer cars, since the 70's.

Anyway, my questions are:

1) is this a good year for a 302? I have heard conflicting reports.

2) Should I hold off for a 351W?

3) any particular year/combination that you would recommend?

I'm not afraid of any kind of work involved, just don't know about the "new" (to me) motors. I feel the donor is the way to go, because I will have everything needed to make it run. I'm just not knowlegable enough to "piece" one together, and the donor makes sense to me.

I am not restoring this truck, just want it dependable. The body is in amazing shape. If I get a 5-lug rear end, I'll swap the 8-lug to 5 on the front, so that's not a problem.

Here's a link to what I have, so far...

My F2

Thanks in advance!!

R

 

Well I can give you some general advice on buying a used motor. If it runs, listen to it for anything that doesn't sound right. Second and really important in my opinion is do a compression and leak down test on the motor if you can. I can't remember what the compression should be off the top of my head but I think that all cylinders should be about 10-15% of each other. The leak down will also tell you if the cylinders are holding the compression also. In 87 I think that is still Speed Density, not a bad choice but another opinion is to try to find one that is Mass Air. Are you going to leave it in stock form or modify it? Mass Air responds better to change than Speed Density from what I gather. I have more experience with mustangs than trucks but I do know that you can usually come across mustang 5.0's pretty easy and since that truck was never an EFI truck you will have to route the harness and EEC custom I would say to look for a mustang motor with harness and then find like a T-5 or AOD(simply for the overdrive) tranny. The T5's are the manual tranny in fox body mustangs. Do some research on fitment for your truck but I would say that it shouldn't be too hard to fabricate something if you had to, like a tranny crossmember. I don't know how much you are gong to pay for the donor truck but you may find a better deal this way. I know that locally in Corpus Christi I can usually find a good running 5.0 in stock form for about $200 and the tranny for about $500. Good luck and I hope this helps you out. Please post up pics as it comes together.

 

Marcus - thanks for the info. I'll have to look around - the donor truck is about $500, supposed to be a good runner, just rusted and beat up, due to Indiana salted winter roads. It's just a fact of life, around here...

Guess I have some more homework to do - prefereably, I'd like to find a mid/late 60's or early 80's aspirated motor, not to deal with the EFI, etc, since I have NO experience with that at all. I'd hate to do a swap, then have to pay the local shop $80+ an hour to get it running, if I had problems...

Again, though, thanks for the info! I'd rather not make a serious mistake, if I can help it!! :0)

R

 

Well in that case, I say get if the compression is good. Buy a decent carb intake and a demon 650, decent cam and you will have a nice motor for not a whole lot of dough.

For street rods and the like I still like carbs better than EFI though EFI is more efficient. But I would rather tune with a screw driver than a laptop.

 

I have an 87, great running truck. In my opinion you would really be limiting yourself down the road. The 87 302 would be a speed density motor, the computer system is limited on the speed density, it is a bank/batch fire system where it fires 4cyl then the other 4 back and forth. You can't really do a lot of upgrades. The Mustangs on the other hand switched quickly over to the mass air EFI systems because the regulations on the cars were more strict. With the mass air system you have a lot more flexability, it uses a meter to measure the amount of air going into the motor and the computer can adjust everything to make it run good. You could start with a 302 and then switch to a 351 later much easier with a mass air system, you could modify just about anything as well for much less money. You can do all of this with the speed density system as well but not as easy. You can buy a kit to change over speed density to mass air but if your starting from scratch why not go with a mass air system. I know you can get the truck for cheap but I don't think it would be worth it. If you want to save time and money go with a carb setup. Find yourself a 5.0 Mustang 90 or newer and go from there. You will be so much happier with the Mustang computer, wiring harness, intake choices etc...

 

Nice F2. I wish my 51 F1 was that clean. If it was mine I would Find a carburated 351. Put a MSD ignition on it. And find a good C4 auto. You would have a lot less headache Than trying to use the EFI. If I was going to do EFI on mine I would go with aftermarket injection.

My 51 is still stock flathead V8 and needs alot of body parts.

 

RB, and all...
When I got my truck, the oil pan had been off the flattie for a long time. I figured that the PO had found something, like a cracked pan rail, or something similar. Doesn't appear to be, now that I have it out. Actually the flathead looks as good as the rest of the truck! Seeing as it's an F2, and never gonna be a more desirable F1, I am going to try to keep it as stock as I can, with flattie, granny, and low gearing. So for now, the donor is out of the question, unless I find something serious with the flattie. even then, I might (probably) look for another flathead, now that the flathead gods have spoken!!

Click below for a quick flash of my progress:

My truck

Thanks,

R