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Mack
07-12-2010, 01:19 AM
First off I'd like to say thank you to a couple guys off of the site that helped me with this. Dave (DarkPrincFang) and Gary (ZJ_5.2_Limited). Thanks for all the help guys, you made the swap possible.

Here's the story. I bought a 1977 F150 with a 1972 Ford 360 (5.9 L) V8, 4spd, 4x4 on brand new 32x11.50x15s. When I bought the truck the guy said that it needed carb work and he thought it needed rings. I tried to fix the motor, until one day I tried to start it, it back fired and caught on fire. Then I said to Hell with it. Last fall I picked up a 1976 390 (6.4L) from my cousin's junk yard (Murphy's Junk Yard in Dawson, PA) for $350. He let me drive the truck around the junk yard so I would know if it ran. One of my dad's buddy's put main and rod bearings, put it in time, and replaced some gaskets for $20. (Just enough for a case of beer).

A couple months ago, we pulled the 360 and tore it down. Turns out, rings and carb work weren't the only problems. It had 7 bent push rods, excessive heat marks on the bearings, sings of water on the heads, bad timing gears, and so on.

One of the nights last weekend, Gary and I started on the 390 at midnight. We picked Dave up at 3AM and set the motor in. By the time Gary got off work that day, it was mostly hooked up. We were missing the wire that runs from the starter to the selenoid so we hooked up jumper cables and ran the positives off the starter bolt and selenoid, and the negatives off of the block and the negative battery terminal. The motor turned over, but not fast enough to start.

I let it sit until Friday night at 8 when I picked Dave up. We made a wire for the starter/selenoid connection and put a better battery in. The motor turned faster, but wouldn't start. Dave spent literally all night trying to figuer out why it wouldn't start while I put the grille assembly, bumper, light bezels and turn signals on.

We assumed that I had a bad coil. So Saturday morning we went to Sprout's Place in Hopwood, PA to find parts. We pulled a freshly rebuilt Motocraft carb off of a J10 pickup for only $30. On the way home I stopped at Autozone in Uniontown and bought a new coil, dist. cap and the little triangle piece, thing that goes in the distributor. Brought it home, put the coil, distributor cap, and triangle rotor thing-a-ma-jig on and it turned over faster and would now backfire. (Hey, it's progress from turning over slow)

Then we tried to catch it in gear. Still did nothing, but we did figure out, that with some assistance, a Honda 250EX will pull a truck.

Later that night my old man looked at it, and we discovered that it was WAY out of time. After we put it in time, it turned over three times and started.

It's not completely done now. I have to do some small things to the motor, new power steering belt, wire up the lights, fix the breaks, etc.

Lets add it up.

1977 F150 (with a bed full of parts) - $2,500
1976 Ford 390 - $350
Flowtech Headers - $170
Carb - $30
Coil - $23
Distributor Cap - $6
Plastic Triangle Piece That's Probably Pretty Important... - $5
Labor - $20
Junk Yard Admission - $1
Gaskets - $20
Oil - $15
Gas - $10
Burger King - $6.36

So far I have $3,156.36 (roughly) invested in the build.

I'll add pictures tomorrow after I get off work.

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewPicture&friendID=28763238&albumId=3002358

You can see them on my myspace for now.

Thanks for reading my novel. Any advice for this kinda stuff would be appreciated. I'm still a rookie at all this.

jlovbasz3
07-12-2010, 07:58 AM
The old ford looks clean!!

ridgerunner97
07-12-2010, 04:02 PM
That is a good lookin ole Ford! Nice work.

ZJ_5.2LIMITED
07-13-2010, 03:20 AM
http://c2.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/61/l_e025d92b01494b239b7aa1ae15c5d399.jpg
yeah this is what happens when V8 of said white truck locks up 4 32s.. connected to the V8 of a Grand Cherokee.. haha we both stopped pretty quick, i was watin for the air bags to go off.. lol but wait till you guys hear this thing coming up the road.. lets juss say his neighbors no longer like him for starting it up at 3am without even so much as an exhaust manifold.. lol an jim now we gotta certain red ZJ that needs attention.. hahaha

Mack
07-13-2010, 03:51 AM
LOL, I just wish you could have seen your unibody twist. It looked like a cork screw. I hate to burst your bubble, but you remember when I put it in 4 LOW and 1st gear and it went no where? Yeah....my front drive shaft hasn't been on since the truck was sitting in my yard...

The exhaust, is rather loud and obnoxious....just like the owner of the truck :-) I actually do have my manifolds on, but that's just so I don't toast my valves.
So I decided to take my truck down the road for a putt Sunday evening. On my way down the road, I noticed a bunch of people standing on they're porches and staring at me like I was out jogging without any pants on. (It was 'cause the exhaust, I just found it funny) But when I got to the crest of the hill, I went to slow down to down shift and realized, my breaks don't work.... So I figured that I'd duck off into a side street and slow her down. Well, shortly thereafter it came to my understanding that the power steering belt was never installed... I'm pretty sure I let out a spine-tingling scream of panic when I realized all the farther I could turn was into some neighbor's mail box. So I put all 140lbs of my ass into straightening it back out, so I'm going back down the hill on the main road of my patch, so desperate times call for desperate measures. I put it in the lowest gear I could get it in (2nd if I remember right), turned the key off, dumped the clutch, rode what little breaks I did have, and mashed the e-brake all in the distance of 20ft. Fancy footwork if I don't say myself. But my buddy ended up towing me back to my house. I unhooked the chain and haven't touched it since....

ZJ_5.2LIMITED
07-13-2010, 10:50 PM
jim...... that hose for the power brake booster... i am gonna go out on a limb an say you either put that hose on an it fell off or .. well just left it off an said f*ck it... lol.... an yea measured the wheelbase.. she still holds a 106.7" on both sides so its all good, so you were juss watchin the tires (junk ass that they are) shake back an forth like i showed you the one day.. how when i jump up an down on the vehicle the shocks stop movin an the tires flex.. lol.. thats where all my body roll is.. its all poly under there so. which is what we need to do on yours.. get all poly perf crap from autozone.. lol

ZJ_5.2LIMITED
07-13-2010, 10:53 PM
update your sig too jim.. there are certain discrepancies that i see.. lol