Tuesday, September 3, 2019

And I Still Have All of My Fingers

I spent the holiday weekend assembling and installing an engine in my old truck.  I have to give a HUGE thank you to my buddy Travis for all of his help.  He and I have been doing work like this together since high school. Still enjoy the hell out of doing it. The engine is now the nicest looking part of the truck, but hey the old monster is 35 years old. Hell, The "new" engine is 25. 

It's running mostly straight out of the exhaust manifolds in the video below, but it IS running. We towed it into the shop on Saturday and I drove it out on Monday.  Still needs a little work, but I'm smiling.

-Wayne




8 comments:

Old NFO said...

As long as you've still got all the appropriate body parts, it's all good! :-)

Unknown said...

302 or 351?

J.D. Brown

Wayne said...

NFO - That's always been my philosophy too.

J.D. - It's a 351. I'm building it as a tow rig to pull my car trailer and make salvage yard runs and what not. If it also happens to be quicker than the guy next to me, well, that's just a bonus.

Unknown said...

Nice. My small truck has a 350 (I am a Chevy guy), the big crew cab 4x4 has a 454 in it. The 1 ton is what I haul things with, the 1/2 ton gets driven to work and home depot occasionally. They are a 92 and a 96 respectively.

J.D. Brown

Wayne said...

J.D. - Both of those are solid engines. I'm a Ford guy, but I can respect those choices. For me it's always been "drive what makes you happy. Anything else is a waste of time and money." I've been spinning wrenches on Fords over 30 years so it's what I know. I'm just looking forward to getting my truck back on the road so i can start working on the next broken down piece of junk in my life.

Unknown said...

Wayne- I have had fords as well, and I was a dodge guy when I was in my early 20s. Not a thing wrong with Fords, but Chevys were what I gravitated to in my late 20s and I've stayed with them. I can work on all of them plus my kids Japanese cars. I really like old Ford trucks and I miss my 78 F150 4x4 that I had before my youngest son was born. That was 18 years ago and that 300 straight 6 was a great engine!

J.D.

Wayne said...

That 300 straight 6 was probably the best gas powered workhorse engine ford put in their trucks. Things were damned near indestructible.

Unknown said...

Yup, it was a torque monster even in stock trim. I had the 4 speed with granny gear behind that engine, you could put it in granny, let out the clutch, and hop out and walk beside the truck. I ended up blowing the rear driveshaft out of it pulling another F150 uphill out of a muskeag bog when I was stationed in Alaska. Sheared both U Joints and broke one side off the slip yoke!

J.D.

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