I was looking for a 300cid engine for my F-100 truck. The following table shows what I found. Prices are valid on February 2001 :
| Company | Cost | Warranty |
| Economy Engine Sales | $1049+$300 core | 6 years 100Kmiles |
| Kragen Auto Parts | $1074.19+$325 core | 18 months/18K 36 months/36K for $99 60 months/50K $199 |
| Loyal's (510) 581-2200 |
$975+$300 core | Unknown |
| ATK-Engines | $1499+$195 core | 36 months/60K |
| United Engine | $625+$150 core | 12 months/12K |
| Jasper Engines | $2046.25+core | 36 months/75K |
| The Engine Connection | $1,399.00 (18-month Warranty) $1,499.00 (3-year Warranty) $200.00 Core Deposit |
The Decision:
In the end, I decided to assemble my own engine. I order a 351W engine kit from PAW. It was a lot more expensive than any of the rebuilt engines above and I went over budget. But I learned a lot more assembling my own engine than I would have otherwise.
One thing I have realized about having a project vehicle is that you need to have a constant relationship with it.
Otherwise, it will end up collecting rust in the driveway. This is what happened to my 71 VW Bus.
So two important rules for my "new" F-100 truck are :
So for those who ask me why I want to buy an engine instead of rebuilding the 240 cid that is already in the truck, my answer is that I will rebuild the 240. But while I am doing that, I want to drive the truck. Rule number two.
My previous project car (before the Bus) was a Plymouth Colt. I used it as a daily driver when I was not doing stuff with it. It was a good relationship.
It is not obvious from the picture at the top of the page that the front bumper was smashed in.
Removing the dented bumper needed a lot of WD-40, arm muscle and a grinder. The trouble with bumper bolts is that they depend on the bumper to hold them in place while you try to remove the nut. Unfortunately, the bumper was corroded enough that the normally square hole that was supposed to hold the bolt in place was no longer square. So the more I turned the nut with the wrench, the more the bolt turned.
An electric 4" grinder made short work of the problem : it removed the bolt head.
Second problem : I purchased the new bumper from JCWhitney. Then I found that the holes on the new bumper did not match the mounting holes on the truck frame. !@#!#$@!%^&!
Whether or not this was due to the collision (i.e. the frame is not straight), I don't know.
In the end, I filed the bumper mounting holes and made one of them oval.
Here's a picture of yours truly preparing the engine for the first run.
And it RAN!
The engine was on the Engine Test Stand that I got from PAW. It was made by an outfit in New Mexico called P.C.S (505-98204966). The trouble with using the stand is that you have to fully assemble the engine with headers and mufflers. But when you put the engine into the vehicle, you may have to remove the headers thus requiring an extra set of gaskets.
More engine pictures...
Here are some issues I encountered while assembling the 351W:
I started off with a timing cover with cast-on pointer. Since I had already installed the oil seal, I decided tostick with it. This meant that my original water pump did not fit. After bolting the water pump to the block, I found that none of the (used) crankshaft pulleys that I had could work with the 4-bolt harmonic balancer. So I got a set of underdrive pulleys for 1969-earlier vehicles and a 3-bolt balancer. That combination seemed to work.
All in all, I went through 2 sets of water pumps, balancers and pulleys.
One day, when I get all my receipts sorted out, I'll publish the part numbers.
The latest problem was that the oil pan drain plug sits just above the crossmember. So I couldn't use the oil pan unless I didn't want to change oil. Solution: use the rear sump oil pump from Ford Motorsports. The led to another problem : the high volume oil pump was a 1/4" too high. So I had to use a normal oil pump. Add two oil pumps to the score.
I found the following two books invaluable:
The first is especially useful if you do not have a reference engine to look at. It points out the little parts
that you need and which are not advertised the catalogs or talked about in the magazines like the oil spinner,
load spreader ring and camshaft thrust plates. In fact, even the parts guys at the nearby Ford dealer did not know
what a load spreader ring was!
I sold my little truck today (Saturday, October 15 2005).
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