351 need some help

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Mar 12, 2010 | 08:59 PM

jonbass40

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Joined: Sep 2007

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351 need some help

I need some help and ideas. I recently bought a running 351 with a ZF, perfect for the zf conversion in my pickup. I bought it from a friend and it seemed to run good but with unknown miles I thougt it would be a good idea to open the bottom end up and look at the bearings and maybe pop the heads off and see what condition everything is in. It will be going into an 85 f150 so I will need to convert it to carb. I already have a 600 carb, a performer intake and some shorty headers all of which I plan on using. I would like to add some more performance but I am on a pretty tight budget. My other question is what all do I need to change so I can run a mechanical fuel pump and v belt accessories, or would it be better to keep the serpentine set up? Thanks for the help

Mar 12, 2010 | 10:30 PM

Conanski

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Joined: Jun 2006

Posts: 31,930

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From: Ottawa, Ontario

If the motor was running and had good oil pressure I'd suggest you leave the bottom end alone unless you plan on a rebuild. If you did pull the caps and found scuffed bearings the motor should then get completely torn down and refurbished by a machinist, simply replacing bearings on a worn motor is just guaranteeing a bearing failure in the near future.

Converting the motor to carb is simple, if the truck has an electric fuel pump then you don't need to do anything besudes install the carb and intake. If you want to use a mechanical pump then the timing cover has to change an you'll have to install an escentric on the front of the timing set to drive the fuel pump. Serpentine belts are better than v-belts IMO so if you got em use em, otherwise you have to swap pulleys.