Thread: My 77 's Overhaul

In 2008 i purchased a 77' F150 with my graduation money. When i originally obtained it, it was in great shape, and i should have given it the proper attention and restored it right then and there. However my 18 your old eyes only saw a 400 cubic inch V8 4x4 and 33" muds, needless to say the truck has been up and running and back down again several times over the course of its life with me. Not to long after i first started driving it i lost the seal on the transmission pump, and all the fluid there was to be had. So it sat parked for a year while i was saving up the funds to replace it. And as soon as it was ready to go, she was back out on the trails, were i had my first and only miss installed torque converter, and lost it mid trail. So then i ponied up the money and had my friends dad's shop rebuild my transmission, and while it was there they manged to destroy my driver side door, and replaced it with a miss-matched black door, which i still need to re key, and order the proper vin plate from Marti Auto. Not too long after this, discount tire had inproperly torqued one of my wheels, causing the studs to snap, and for me to loose a tire at speed. Did decent damage to the driver side rear quarter.Some time after that i was cruising up the hill(read mountain pass) and i start getting a loud engine knock. It was quickly decided that it was from a rod bearing, or less likely a main bearing, towed the truck home, and there she has sat for the last 2 years. Well today i finally got the itch, and having some spare time, tore back into the 77. My plans are for a mildly built 400 with a NP435 4 spd to be swapped in the place of my current "BulletProof" C6. As well as clean the truck up as a whole from the cab forward. The bed is so damaged at the moment i currently plan to run a flat bed, until i can find either a good donor, or make another one from reproduction parts.

As far as the transmission swap goes, i am going to be using all of the guts out of my 1979 Bronco. While it has been an excellent $500 bronco, the time has come to use it for what i bought it for. A donor rig. So i already have all the parts i need including a manual steering column so my swap wont look so half assed like many of the others out there. Ill throw up the few pics i have taken of the truck since i have owned, as well as pics of what i have managed to get done so far.






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Todays Progress







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Messed with the engine bay a tad

Well today, i was lucky enough to resume progress and get after the motor finally. I ended up pulling the motor alone so it took about a 30 hour once everything was set up, but overall it didn't go to bad. i had to remove both tires, and drop the front of the truck until the rotors were less than a 1/2 of an inch from hitting the ground. To do this i simply used two floor jacks, one under each radius arm. Unbolted the motor-mounts, and pulled her out, the crazy part is even with the front end dropped that low, the motor only cleared the radiator support by about 1/2"! And as you can tell from the pictures space is something im lacking and that doesn't seem to help my cause any. Once i finally got the engine put on a stand i began dismantling it. Found a large amount of metal shavings in the oil pan, and then some more in the oil pump pick up. The culprit turned out to be the #1 rod bearing, its so bad that 99% of the bearing is in the pan, and the other 1% is in the pickup. The #1 journal has some gouging, hopefully the crank is still salvageable. Well im not feeling too well, so ill get the pictures.







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More Pics

More Pics






And the last pic, is of the 400 short block, haning out next to a complete 460.


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Originally Posted by RhinoZ24

Sounds like you have alotta work cut out for yourself here. Keep at it though, she has potential that's for sure.

Thanks for the encouragement! Its needed, Ive been to hell and back with this truck,a and have come so close to getting rid of it so many times, but never have. Hopefully once this mechanical rebuild is done, she'll start playing nice, and i may actually get to drive her around for a bit.

Oh she will, you don't need a nice appearance, just a nice beast under the hood haha. And holy shredded metal in that picture, you weren't kidding!

Just ran into a huge wall with this build. Due to the availability of my desired pistons, I cant build the motor the way I have intended until march. And due to time restrictions with the up coming work season, compromises may have to be made somewhere, and i'll have to wait to have my high performance build completed.
Current Options Include

1. Stock Compression Rebuild, almost 100HP difference

2. Re-Ring my running 351M from the donor truck

3. Re-ring the 351m, and wait for the parts for the 400 to come in, so i can build the 400 the way i want.

The downfall to this is i am working with an unknown amount of time, due to my career. In all reality I could be called tonight to go to work in California tomorrow, with no notice.

Any thoughts?