Boys, I'm looking at buying an '86 f-150 reg cab, 4 speed, 4x4. It's my favourite body stlye, but when looking online for parts, most everything I can find is for '84 and before, and '87 and later. I'm concerned that these two years are overly difficult to do anything with as opposed to an '80-'84 (same body style).

I'm interested to hear anyone's suggestions or opinions.

Thank you.

P.S. I intend on making it a resto-slight mod to be a reliable everyday driver, but will have the guts to go when I punch it.

 

???
The parts should be the same. I've never encountered this problem before. Where online are you looking?

 

Primarily on Ebay it was actually rebuild kits and bearing kits that I found, someone here mentioned about intakes and it got me looking. my understanding was something about the dipstick being behind the motor in these two years, and that ebign said maybe there's other stuff that's strange about it. Your name speaks volumes though, and most anybody would know better than me. As long as everything mounts the same and fits in the same places, I'm happy.

 

dipstick behind the motor???
Most everything on the carbureted 300 hasn't been changed since 1965 when the engine first came out. the dipstick itself will always be in the same place, but the mounting brackets for it might be slightly different. As far as 1987 being a cutoff year, that's the first year that 300's came fuel injected. But that other 1984 cutoff year, I'm not sure about. Perhaps they were talking about the feedback system in the last few years of the carbureted 300 being different (300's up until 1980-something didn't have feedback systems, If I remember right it was like 1982 or 83 or possibly 84.

Rebuild kits and bearing kits are going to be the same for all 300's (1965-1996) assuming your engine hasn't been rebuilt before.

 

FWIW, I would buy newer, with EFI and the 5 speed. You have to spend a lot of bucks to gain the extra power and the extra gear if you start with a carb/4 speed.

IMO, the last few years of the carb are miserable. IF they are all hooked up, they are ok. BUT they used plastic vacuum lines, which get brittle and break very easily now that they are old.

ymmv, good luck

 

On an 85-86 you are going to be dealing with a computer controlled feedback carb and computer controlled ignition timing advance. Considering the age of the truck it is unrealistic to think those systems will be in good working order. The systems are very costly to maintain and parts are more expensive than the pre-computer controlled stuff. I had to remove the computer and change to and early duraspark 2 ignition system as the computer would not advance the timing.
If you go with an 85-86 truck, add the cost of a DS2 vacuum advance distributor and a non-feedback carb to the price of the truck because you will most likely be getting rid of the computer controlled stuff. The early 80’s trucks are also a good choice as they have lower maintenance cost without the computer stuff.

I also would give some serious thought to an EFI with a 5 speed. The overdrive will help with your gas mileage especial if you do a lot of freeway driving over 60 mph.

The down side to early EFI systems is the fuel system stuff is pricey, complicated and hard to get too. Changing the fuel pump on my truck is $20 and 10 minutes, not so on an EFI. With dual tanks you also have to consider “fuel selector” cost, it is known as a “best seller” at the Ford parts department. It makes a replacement carb look cheap.

good luck

 

meh. I agree about the EFI's having more out of the box power, but I dig the simplicity of a carb. I'm not worried too much about my feedback system, I am planning to convert to duraspark II and a 4 bbl soon. (I'm hoping the duraspark is an easy swap? no matter, easy or hard, I'm all for it. I love working on my truck) Carbs are easier to work on, and you can get way more power out of a carb'd 300 than an EFI, (unless you go with megasquirt) but the stock EFI computer will not handle too many engine mods without starting to not run right.

As far as a lot of bucks to make a carb'd 300 make as much power as EFI, you're looking at a duraspark II conversion and EFI exhaust manifolds, which can be had for cheap at your local boneyard, a new intake manifold ($250-$320) and a 4 barrel carb. And once you're there you can bump up your compression ratio, put in new forged pistons, port and polish the head and put in oversize valves, put in a cam, and blow the doors off of any stock EFI 300, and probably most stock 350 chebbies for that matter

It really all depends on what you want to do and how much you want to spend....

But how many hot-rod 300 straight sixes do you see every day? They are rare and cool things!

 

Thanks guys, all very good points. I'm going to see the truck on sunday so i'll let you all know from there. I'm going to be for all intents and purposes broke over the winter, so it'll be some time before any real progress happens, unless it snows ten feet each month.

Thanks again.

 

While searching the bone yard for a core, I came across 300's with three different locations for the dip stick: 75--82 can either have the d.s. in the block behind the drivers motor mount, on in the oil pan. The later models I saw all had the d.s. in the rear of the block behind the oil filter. The book confirmed the casting numbers for the 75--82.

 

F-250 Restorer, would you kindly tell us what parts we need to bag from the boneyard if we want to convert our one bbl feedback setups to duraspark? I'm not quite clear on that subject either. And thanks for the stuff you told me about carbs for my six earlier.

 

And sorry about the dipstick thing. I was wrong. I never noticed any different locations.

 

non-feedback carb and choke stove heat riser tube (hot air input to carb)

DS2 module with BLUE plastic part under wires

Round coil to match slide-on connector style

Engine harness. a good engine harness is the hardest thing to find. Try ebay

Jim

 

I already have a brand new round style coil. It's 12 volts and says on it "no external resistor required" will this work? and thanks JimsRebel, that's a helpful picture.

 

If the coil has the slide-on connector I would go with it. The "no external resistor" thing means it is rated at full voltage, 14.5 VDC... OR it has an internal resistor, really not sure what to think about it. You might want to research it more. You do not want an internal resistor coil. The coil wire will also be different, round coil/square coil.

Here is a good read.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/8...lp-needed.html

Photos of a coil and the "mystery" of the ballast resistor bypass wire. Kind of a long read with lots of links to other threads but worth the time to read it.

JIm

 

You can get a DS2 harness from Painless Wiring. It is not cheap, about $120.00. That's how I have mine hooked up. I used the white w/ blue striped wire on the driver side for power. It is hooked up to the ballast resister. It comes with good instructions, that you can view on their website. The direct link is below.

http://www.painlessperformance.com/w...rchField=30812