Breathing new life into my '76 F-150...

I purchased my beloved truck in the Summer of 1985 from my ex-girlfriend's mother, Mrs. Harp (don't know her first name since I never addressed her by any other name other than "Mrs. Harp").  The truck had been originally used for trailering horses to show competitions (an "American Arabian Horse Association" sticker still resides on the passenger door), but had since been retired since Jamie and her mother no longer paticipated in these competitions.  Consequently the truck sat for a very long time on Mrs. Harp's property.  The truck was wasting away under the harsh, New Mexico Sun.  Every time Jamie and I would visit her mother, I would tease, "So Mrs. Harp, when are you going to sell me that truck?"  Finally, after about a year of hounding her, she gave in and sold me the truck for $1500 (split into 3 payments of $400 and a fourth payment of $300).  I have been using this truck to haul music equipment ever since.  Though her appearance is rough (the truck, not Mrs. Harp), mechanically this truck is in as good a condition as any vehicle on the road today.  I would take her to New York tomorrow if need be.  So why am I replacing the motor?  Good question.

When I purchased the truck she had about 80,000 miles on the odometer.  Mrs. harp had had the engine rebuilt at 60,000 miles.  I know this to be true because the engine had been painted entirely in iridescent green...yuk.  Around 1990 the county of Bernalillo implimented emissions control requirements for all vehicles manufactered in 1976 or later.  Just my luck, eh?  Eventually my truck failed emissions because of bad valve guides.  The failed valve guides were a direct result of the EPA's ban on "regular" gasoline, which forced the use of unleaded gasoline.  For those not in-the-know, unleaded gasoline ruins old-style "leaded" valve guides.  All one can do is run the unleaded gas until the guides fail, at which time they must be replaced.

I had the heads rebuilt (with new, hardened valve guides for unleaded gasoline) and she was good for another 8 years.  Unfortunately she has recently failed emissions again with 160,000 miles on the odometer.  I could do the heads again, but with 100,000 miles on the bottom end, I figured I'd just replace the motor.  I would normally rebuild the motor myself, however since I wanted to upgrade to a 390 CID from a 360 CID (would have to replace the crank shaft), doing the work myself became cost-prohibative.  Conversely, purchasing an entirely new long-block would allow me to sell my old block outright (which still ran).  This would further reduce the overall cost of my engine upgrade. There were other upgrades I wanted to do to the engine.  So replacing it instead of rebuilding it just made sense.  Here are some of the other Horse-Power modifications I made to the new engine:

1. Upgrade to 390 CID from 360 CID ("There's no replacement for displacement").

2. Since I was trading out the engine and peripherals anyway, I decided to upgrade the 80 lb., 2-barrel, intake manifold for an Edelbrock, 25 lb., aluminum, 4-barrel intake manifold (found on eBay for $186.85, which included shipping).  This not only lightened the engine by 55 lbs., but also allowed the installation of a 4-barrel carburetor, which, in-turn, facilitated greater fuel delivery.

3. As noted in #2, I now needed to purchase a 4 barrel carb.  I found an Edelbrock 1405 on eBay for $130.78 (which included shipping).

4. Wait!  It doesn't end there.  As long as I'm going for all this horse-power and greater efficiency, I sprung for a set of Hedman "Elite" headers from JEG'S ($310.00 delivered...ouch!).

My thinking is that, with the lighter engine (by about 55 lbs.), better intake and exhaust flow, and a more tuneable carburetor, I'll be able to break the 14 mpg mark.  Traditional thinking states that greater displacement and more carburetion automatically add up to worse gas mileage.  However it is my belief that building a more efficient power plant will not only increase gas mileage, but will make more H.P. available to me when I want it.  We shall see.  I will post results to this site.

I started trading out engine peripherals (valve covers, oil pan, etc.) on May 9th.  As of May 15th, the new engine was completely built and ready to be installed.

Here's some pictures of the engine and parts prebuild.

   
      Edelbrock intake manifold and Edelbrock 1405 carburetor.                           New engine (Long Block) by Proformance.                                                             New Hedman headers!

And here's the old engine as she sat in my truck the day I started this project (notice my high-performance, high-flow, air filter set-up?).