Hi,
I'm looking at buying a 73 f-100 from a customer of mine. He is original owner. It's a 4wd with 4spd manual. Here is the tricky part. He ordered new and says it has a 428 motor. He wouldn't knowingly lie about it, but I was under the understanding that that motor was not available in 73. Could it have been special ordered?. I will be going to look at it tonite. I saw it yesterday but was busy and couldn't look real close. What can I look for to distinguish motors. I believe the 4th digit of vin is for motor?
Any help would be appreciated.
TroyW

 

you're correct. a 428 never came in a truck. the 4th digit of the VIN will tell you what engine came in the truck from the factory.

available engines in a 73 F100:
240
300
302
360
390

the only thing is a 302 and a 390 were never used in 4x4 trucks. maybe this truck was converted into 4wd.

how to tell the different engine families apart.
351M, 351C, 400 have 8 bolts on the vavle covers
429, 460 have 7 bolts
302, 351W have 6 bolts
all FEs have 5 vavle cover bolts and the intake goes under valve covers.