Hodge Podge Engine Project

[NWDave]

My wife and I recently purchased a 1969 F100 Ranger. The previous owner had sourced and installed a 428 engine to replace the tired 390 (which he then sold). It starts and runs fairly well. It idles like it has a healthier than stock cam, sounds like a 268/270 duration from my experience. Only issue is it didn't have a vacuum line hooked to the vacuum advance on the stock distributor. I hooked up a vacuum hose to a port on the front of the carb, but I still get detonation/knocking when I get into the 4 barrels.

As it sits, the engine is a menagerie of parts. I measured the stroke right away, BDC to TDC, and it is 3.98". It has casting code D2TE-AA 71-74 heads, an S-code 4 barrel cast iron intake (68-69 390GT?) with a Holley 750 cfm vacuum secondary 3310 carb sitting on a 1" spacer, and a set of fairly rusted Headman Headers.

So, starting late this Fall, my plan is to yard out the engine, and dive headlong into seeing what's under the heads, bore size, bore wear, what kind of cam? The engine has a few oil leaks, and looks like a 50 year old engine, rusty, dirty, rat turds on the intake manifold.

My goal for this truck is cruising around, hauling the occasional light load, and maybe some day getting it to the drag strip, just to see what it will do in a controlled environment. That said, I would also like to add some front and rear sway bars, so it doesn't corner like a sailboat! From what I've read, full length headers and front sway bars don't mix well.

[colnago]

As I understand it, if you can mount the front sway bars in front of the axle, it won't interfere with headers.

Joseph

[NWDave]

That makes sense, I will have to round up some photos of the forward mounting method. I want to keep my headers, if at all possible.