Mark

Definitely not opposed to a sniper EFI if I'm being honest 1, I'm cheap and wont come off the funds needed to purchase the unit. 2, and this is really just a personal deal, but I like the idea of a basic simple carb. I mentioned above I work on jeeps primarily, so I've spent so much time fooling with fuel injection, and playing swaptronics with elctrodigital stuff for so long now , that having something that's just basic and simple just seems like a good idea to me.

I've had a few 5.0's, and have spent a bunch of money building them up...the second last one I had dyno-tuned and all. It worked really nicely in my little 1984 F150 Flareside. I can say that the 5.0 is one of my favorite engines for sure...and they sound great when built, even mildly. Most of the big power gains in a 5.0 are in the 3000+ RPM range, which is fine if that's where you're planning to operate it. I just finished building a 5.0 for my 1952 pickup, and I decided to do a budget build...but not really for budget purposes if that makes any sense. This truck is just going to be a cruiser, and will never be above 3000 RPM, and rarely even above 2500 RPM, so there was no sense in me building it up for higher RPM HP that I'd never use. I have the engine installed with an AODE-W transmission (4R70W), so it will cruise highway speeds with ease. I specifically went with a 5.0 out of a 1996 F150 because I wanted the 1994-up F4TZ roller cam. In 1994 the 5.0 got the F4TZ cam with the H.O. firing order (351w), and it was probably the best stock cam to get low end power out of the 5.0. Other than that, it's a stock '96 5.0 roller block bored 0.030 over, with rebuilt stock E7 heads. I installed a cheap aluminum 4bbl intake from a 1984 Mustang 5.0 GT, and a Summit 500CFM 4bbl carb with annular boosters. I also went with a new DSII distributor from a roller block Mustang GT. I'll probably have it custom curved later on. I went with a set of cheap Ebay block hugger headers for fitment purposes. It's about as budget as a 5.0 can get. It will probably be a 180-200HP engine, but I don't really care about that. I just wanted a nice little 5.0 cruiser with the AODE that sounds good and runs along nicely on the highway when I want to travel with it. I went with black this time for a change. Rembrandt that's pretty much exactly what I was looking for. "Cruiser" that would come as close to what this Truck will be more than anything else I can think of. I won't be drag racing it, there really isn't a specific purpose on this rig other than to drive it the 8 miles I travel to work every now and then and maybe into town here and there. I did drive it to a "cruise in" recently, and it got lots of attention, but i drove that hour drive because i really liked the restaurant that was hosting the cruise night lol. A build like what you did is pretty much what I am after. Being that I've never worked on this setup before what I am specifically after is "hey I used this cam, intake, headers" etc. This engine has the E7 heads. They are going to the machine shop when I take the block. I appreciate the info.

Hey, great information, and perspective. So what I've got that this engine will ultimately end up in is a 1984 f150 2wd short bed. I bought the truck last February and spent the spring and summer reworking the body, doing enough to the tired 300 to get it going dependably and and a whole host of wiring issues and things that go along with a vehicle that's sat up for several years. I don't know Fords, this is my only one I own, I've lived in a jeep world for the last several years, more specifically xj and wj jeeps, and even more specifically 4.0l jeep motors, so admittedly I lean heavily on advice of others with what the best ways to go on pretty much anything to do with the ford. So to narrow my question, when I say "build" with regards to this engine in my mind I'm thinking everything off the shelf mild build. Really not targeting a certain horsepower or really any major power gains, I'm thinking more along the lines of stock plus a little. I probably should have said "budget build" or something along those lines, I'm definitely not looking to drop a lot of coin, I've got more tied up in old rigs as it is then my wife likes:) This will definitely be a learning experience for me I'm way closer to retirement than I was 30 years ago, but surely an old dog can learn a new trick here or there.

I'm looking for ideas, and was wondering if anyone might be interested in sharing their build ideas. Broad question I know so for a bit of direction this is what I'm working with. I did some horse trading recently, and in on the trade was a 5.0 out of a 93 f150. I initially thought I'd just ultimately trade or sell it. I've since decided I'd go ahead and do a build. I've got it torn down and on the stand. Block looks clean and judging by the lack of too much RTV and mismatched bolts I'm going to say I'm the first one In it. What I do know is this. I'm staying with the AOD transmission currently in the truck. I want to go carburated. Even though it's not, for conversation sake let's say it's a daily driver. I want to be able to stomp on the gogo pedal and it get up and go! So what I'm looking for is, What cam? What intake? What carb? What head work? Anything that someone has actually put into practice and has seen good results with I'd be interested in hearing. If there's a thread for a mild built 302 that someone has already written, I couldn't find it, but if anyone knows of one please direct me to it. Thanks yall!

I finally got to get back to my truck, have had a ton going on, but since Friday I put most everything else to the side and got after my leaning issue. The short answer to "can this old truck sit level" and by level I'm referring to side to side. The answer is mine does now. I did get an alignment, to my dismay that didn't really impact my issue much at all. There might have been a nominal difference but not enough to correct what I was chasing. So I went Back to my initial thought of body mounts. I ordered a set of poly bushings, they came in and I finally got a chance to install them. As of right now my truck is sitting level. I'm telling ya, this is something that has bothered me night and day, probably way more than it would bother others, I wanted every corner matching it's opposite corner, and it now is. Some key take aways for me on this part of the project: If you really dig through forums there are some really handy techniques for removing the old bushings, I had one of the rear ones (passenger side) really fight me, in the end a 3lb sledge and a punch won that fight. Online, lots of folks make a lot out of the drivers side rear, for me, it was the last one I did, and frankly the easiest, I loosened the bolt, probably 3/4 of an inch, beat the wham jammy out of it, and in very short order it was loose. From underneath, I fished the old out, and the new in, and never dropped the tank. Shims! The fine tuning for me was in the shims. I dug through my tool boxes, junk drawers, and every nook and cranny of my shop and rounded up shims and fender washers from likely every automotive manufacturer under the sun, I know for fact there are shims from jeep, dodge, and Chevrolet installed on my truck now 😆. For a truck that truthfully should have went to a salvage yard, I'm satisfied with how it sits now. On to the next chapter of this old truck. Really not sure what I'm going to tackle next on it.

I've been driving it the past day or two just to put some miles on it, and first impressions are it rides super nice. I understand what your saying 👍while this is the first ford I've played with in 30+ years, I'm on my 5th jeep and this one I've been building for the past 6 years. I completely rebuilt the suspension on it. It's all iron rock components, old man emu springs, and bilstein shocks. Most of those brands unless someone has lived in the jeep or Toyota world have never been heard of, but they are the upper echelon of lift components in that world. So if I get to the point of truly altering ride height there will be lots of thought and reasoning involved. For now though I'm not going to do a whole lot more driving until after Friday when I can get the Alignment squared away, the more I look at my stance, the more I really think that's a large part of my lean. After that I'm going with body mount replacement.

It's unlikely this Truck will ever see a day of work, I've got a few project vehicles going at the same time, and like the others I'm going to let this one evolve. I'll drive it to work here and there and that sort of thing. I feel like I'll end up lowering it front and back at some point, but I'm a ways away from that point.

When it comes to off the shelf springs they wont be the same as your OE springs. The part houses carry springs that are middle of the road that will work on any application of truck. For example RockAuto for my '82 F150 Flareside has only one leaf spring listing for a 2wd truck and its the Dayton #43769 that is a 1,850 lb load rating that is a 4/1 leaf. My truck is actually a 3/1 leaf. Only way I could get a 3/1 leaf is to go with a 4wd leaf spring which wont fit as they are 3" wide compared to the 2wd which is 2 1/2" wide. Eaton whom I will be buying my springs from has all the plans and can custom build the springs for you for your specific application as well as increasing to decreasing the height from stock. For my truck the following is what I could buy from RockAuto which is generic. Moog CC820 coil spring : fits every truck out there with and without AC. $80.79 pair Dayton 43769 leaf spring : 4/1 leaf 1850 lb per spring rating. $347.99 each Total : $776.77 not including mounting hardware. From Eaton this is what I have on my list to buy. MC508 coil spring : w/o Factory AC Heavy Duty ; W/ Factory AC Standard Duty +1" above stock. $224.00 pair ML2749 leaf spring : 3/1 leaf 1250 lb per spring rating 125/226 spring rate stock heigth. $410.00 each. Total : $1044.00 Sure, I could save money and go with the cheaper option, but it would also make my truck ride very different than it does not especially in the rear with the 4/1 leaf vs the 3/1 leaf I currently have. Most people aren't concerned with something like this and will get what they can but for me I will spend more money to get what's right and I do want a leveling kit for my front end for a level look with the new leaf springs, but I know as a fact leveling blocks hurt ride quality and having taller springs to raise the front actually makes the ride softer. Curiosity got me, I went and pulled up what I got. They are 4/1 Dayton springs load rated for like 1600+ pounds vs. From the factory I had 3/1 rated for just over 1300 lbs. Also my new ones spec out at 1 inch longer, so essentially I'm thinking that is why I'm closer to factory rear ride height even with the drop shackles. There installed so for now I'll just go with it and see what the alignment does.

Getting the alignment is my next move. Im Sure the "lean" is more noticeable to me than it likely is to others. Not many people have seen the truck, and even fewer have seen it that truly knew what they were looking at, and so far I've had to point it out for them to say anything. I won't have an opportunity to get it in the alignment shop until this coming Friday, so I'll have to wait. The leaf springs I purchased were from general spring, the only thing I wasn't really happy about was with the factory old springs, and the drop shackles it lowered the rear-end to the rake I was after, the new springs, even with the drop shackles it seems to be back closer to the factory rake. The new ones had an additional leaf than what the factory ones did. My coil springs I got from LMC, they didn't show leafs or I likely would have gotten them from there as well. My ignorance might show here, because while I've been shade tree wrenching since I was a kid, this was my first time ever swapping out leaf springs, I've just never owned anything that had them to swap out.

All vehicles out there sit un even. You only notice it when the vehicle is low to the ground but when they are high up you dont really notice the variation in height side to side. There are ways to remedy this such as cutting coils off of a coil spring to fine tune the height. The best way to get a level look is to upgrade to coil over springs as you can adjust the spanner and get side to side height even. At work I dont think I have ever seen a truck that was less than 1 - 2 inch lower on one corner. Thanks, that actually makes me feel a little better, it just seems so obvious to me. Like I came out of the parts store earlier and all I could look at was the lean.

So as I prepare to move forward with my truck, my next problem is the truck has a lean too it. I'm looking for anyone that might have ran into this. Here's what I've done. New front coil springs. New rear leaf springs. New radius arm bushings. New ball joints. 2 inch lowering shackles in the rear. New shocks As the truck sits it's 1 inch lower on the passenger side, than it is on the driver's side. I've measured the frame to ground at several points, and I'm close very close on both sides. I have New axle pivot bushings but hadn't installed yet, truck needs an alignment after installing new components just hadn't done it yet, hadn't been driving it just yet. Body mounts are original and I'm sure replacements could certainly benefit but, and I'm not sure if this matters, but even those measured at the same thickness, atleast the ones on the front of the cab did. Lastly, and I'm unaware of bullnose trucks all had them or not, but there's no sway bar on my truck, front or rear, I do intend to install them eventually, but wanted to add that there isn't one on either end, might not add or take away to the problem I'm seeing. No change if the gas tank is full or empty, and currently I have the passenger side rear shackle lowered 1 inch while the driver side at 2 inches, that was in a effort to combat the unevenness. Sorry so long of a post, anyone dealt with unevenness?

Oxford white and ingot silver both are ford color codes, basecoat clearcoat real basic paint job. I'm bi-vocational I run a injection molding plastics plant Monday-Friday and I'm a deputy sheriff on the weekends. So I picked the white to match my patrol unit. And the silver was picked by my mother, she always liked a silver car, I'd initially planned on going back with the baby blue. But I like how the silver came out. Side note this whole rig was painted with an 8 gallon Walmart compressor that I added a 30 gallon holding tank to, I used an LVLP gun as opposed to the more common HVLP. used a cheap gun from Amazon (sprayit 33000) 2.0 tip for primer 1.3 tip for paint and clear. Paint came from ebay. Oxford white, autobahn paint, ingot silver, custom paints.com clear coat speadokote "simple clear" I wet sanded to 3000 and buffed, there's lots of little dings and spots that aren't perfect, but it'll drive.

Feb 15 Aug 15 The reason for the cat on the tailgate is, my mother passed away after I started this build, she was a big cat person, so it's somewhat of a memorial piece to her. Cheap LED sidemarker lights from eBay, I think they look cool 😎 It would be easier for me to list what hasn't been done lol. This Truck had sat for many years, and truthfully most would have taken it to the scrapyard. I have legit pulled parts off of trucks that were I. Better shape than what I'd started with. I'm no where near completion, lots and lots of little things to tidy up, but it's drivable, and it's mechanically sound. I painted it and I hadn't painted a vehicle in SEVERAL years, but even with its flaws I'm happy with it. Thought I'd share a 6 month progress picture. The biggest change that can be seen obviously is the paint, oxford white/ingot silver by the way are the colors. But brakes, suspension, completely rebuilding the floor of the bed. The interior, the wiring hours upon hours have gone into it. All I've done is work sleep and build 7 days a week. So I'm thrilled to get it to this point. Still so very much more to do. I owe a lot of you thank yous because on several occasions I've had to read, then re read posts.and gary.....you are a Saint man! The documentation you have compiled....second to none sir!

Rainy day in Southwest Arkansas and I'm off, most recently I've been working on brakes, wheel bearings, shocks, bushings stuff that has to be done on my old rig but I needed a change in pace. So rather than wasting a day because of rain, I thought, let's try our hand at upholstery work. Now I will say, in all likelihood I'll eventually end up replacing what I've done here with a tailor made seat cover. But for now I wanted to get something done that will suffice until that point. Not really wanting to buy a seat cover, that I never have any luck with, they always seem to get lose and look like a bed that's been slept in, I picked up 40 bucks of what feels like canvas or denim and pictured below is the outcome. I didn't remove the factory cover, and in hindsight, I might would have laid down some quilting type stuffing before the new fabric, but again for me it will be ok. I used a TON of hog rings and it seems to be a good fit. At any rate, here's my project of the day. Happy Easter 🐰 Before After

New floors the past few days, started out just going to be the metal at the threshold of the doors, ordered the metal from LMC the further I wire wheeled the less impressed I was. Ended up replacing a much larger section. I just couldn't do it until I saw nice clean metal. I knew I'd not ever trust it. Then cleaned it all up and installed some sound deadener I got off of Amazon. Don't know anything about the quality. It seemed fine, and I got my weekly workout rolling it in 😂 slapping the floor it's now more of a thud rather than a hollow metal can sound, 🤷 I think it'll be good. Before After Brand is Mat66 I suspect it's probably the same as just about all this type of stuff.