'89 F-250 drivtrain351/C6/ transfercase, Good driveline for offroad? buy pending!!

[MidnightRebel07]

I found a guy that has a 1989 F-250 that has a 351 fuel injected, C6, 4wd transfercase Borg Warner (he thinks). The truck has just over 100k miles on it and runs shifts good.

My questions:

Is this drivetrain a good setup for a trail/ street rig/ rock crawler?

Does truck have a Borg Warner transfercase and can it be converted into a doubler?

Not sure how long this will last so Hopefully y'all can help me out so I can score this if it's worth it.

Thanks in advance.

 

[MidnightRebel07]

Where's all the Ford guru's??

 

[colintrax]

Pirate would be a better forum to ask this on.
It'd be a good drivetrain but what axles are gonna be taking this power? And what size tires? With enough work anything can be converted to a doubler, which transfer case is it? BW means nothing other than the brand.

 

[MidnightRebel07]

I don't really like trying to get any help from Pirate. I'll be running D44 HD from a '89 GW running 5.13's and H1's with 37's. I'm not familiar with the F-250's so that's why I asked about the drivetrain. The truck will come with a D50 front, not sure about the rear. I just text the guy if it's a manual or electric transfercase ?

 

[MidnightRebel07]

Where's my buddy Xeek??? He would know.

 

[colintrax]

Shoot him a PM but like I said. You should try pirate. Do some searching on there, you'll prob find the info you need without having to post. Rear is prob a D60 but MAYBE it's a sterling. Doubt it though, being the 351

 

[MidnightRebel07]

The truck had a TTB Dana 50 front and Sterling rear axle with a 6" suspension lift but I let the guy keep those to drop the price a couple hundred. I don't need those. It has a fuel injected 351, C6, not sure about transfercase (need to check numbers after he hauls it to my house on Saturday. It's on the full frame and has the cab with everything else in it. I'll upload pictures in a couple minutes.

 

[colintrax]

For a couple hundred you shoulda kept it all lol the front ain't worth crap but the sterling is. And the lift is worth a little

 

[MidnightRebel07]

Update.

I bought it. 1989 F-250 with a 351, C6 and manual transfercase, my buddy who I didn't know was the seller until I got to his house is going to deliver it on Saturday. I picked it up for $300. I was going to just buy the motor, trans and transfercase for the $400 he had them listed for but he's letting me have the whole thing for $300, score. Now I'll have the steering box and other parts I need for my SAS as well. I let him keep the axles to sell to another buddy of ours. He bought the truck mainly for the suspension for his F-250.

Here's a picture of the rig as it sits now. I'll get more pictures this weekend and post them.

 

[MidnightRebel07]

'89 F250 drivetrain and more packed into a '03 SAS'd Sport Trac...

This week has dragged on and the snow/ ice storm made things worse. I moved the trailers around in the driveway after spending three hours breaking up what started as five foot high piles of snow (but turned to solid ice) with a 12lb sledge hammer and pick. I now have a space ready for the truck when it's delivered tomorrow.

I'm thinking of gutting the Sport Trac and using all the wiring harness, gauge cluster, etc... from the F-250. Is there anything I'll need to retain for the ST to work.

Eventually I might go with a fuel cell but what do I need to do to the ST's tank/ sending unit to accept the fuel injected 351w?

I've done plenty of V8 and other engine swaps but never in as new of a vehicle as my ST. Just trying to plan ahead.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[colintrax]

How are you planning on swapping gauge clusters? Only problem I see with the fuel system is if the 351 is returnless or not. Pump should be good enough, but a high performance pump wouldn't hurt. The 351 is a little more thirsty than your 4.0

 

[MidnightRebel07]

The 351 has a return line. I plan on modifying my dash to fit the F250 gauge cluster into it. I'll fabricate a complete dash if necessary. It'll be mostly driven on the trail but still on the road sometimes so I would like to have the gauges work.

For those of you that are familiar with the '89 351w, can I remove most if not all the emissions B.S. and have it run fine?

 

[just1me]

The 89 -351 windsor is rated at 210 hp, and 310 ft lbs. A cousin of mine once had a 91 F250 4x4 with the 351, though his was a 5 speed, it had 4:10 gears front/rear and it would climb pretty well,we tried it on a few steep hills. Later he sold it to some guy who ended up entering it into a truck pull and made a near full pull.

I don't see why you can't keep your stock gauges and just run the needed wires for those gauges. I don't know the 89 F250 wiring, but I'd imagine if had the wiring diagrams, could figure out how to integrate it into the Sport Trac's existing wiring.

 

[MidnightRebel07]

I might splice the wiring harness into the factory ST gauges if it's not too much of a hassle, I'm fine doing wiring just figured it'd be easier to just sue the F250 parts and make people tae a second look when they look inside the truck. if I can shed a ton of eight by doing it this way then that would be even better. I won't need the ECU or most of the electronics. I'll be removing the ABS system while I do the SAS as well. The SAS will be done first to remove the front axle, crossmember, etc... to make room for the 351. I already know how much of a pain it is to swap a 351 into a RBV with the crossmember in place from all my research.

 

[MidnightRebel07]

It took about thirty minutes to get it off of the trailer, already had it planned out and blocks set in place.

This is how I had it blocked so we could pull the trailer from under it, used a metal cart under the back of the frame to roll on the trailer as it was pulled out then blocked the rear.

It doesn't look sturdy in the pictures but it was. I cut off the back section of the frame, lowered it down about two feet and reblocked it myself.

 

[MidnightRebel07]

I've been reading a lot about these motors and can remove all the emissions b.s. without affecting the way it runs. I know some of you might yell at me for removing the emissions stuff but it'll be used 80% of the time as a trail rig. If this weather ever gets warmer out I can start the teardown.

 

[just1me]

Are you going to try and merge the 351W exhaust into your existing RT ypipe? On my cousins 91 it had all that emissions stuff and on the passenger side exhaust manifold there was all these metal lines running into it, which made it pain when we changed the spark plugs.

 

[MidnightRebel07]

My complete drivetrain, RT y-pipe and RT high flow cat will get sold after I remove it.

 

[just1me]

You should have no problems selling those, I'm sure even the Ranger guys would be interested in the y-pipe, and cat pipe.

 

[MidnightRebel07]

Stuck the battery in the truck today, put the fuel lines into a gas can and it fired right up. A bit loud since it has no exhaust past the y-pipe but runs smooth. Can't wait for this weather to change so I can start the teardown and refresh the drivetrain before I install it in my '03 Sport Trac (will be SAS'd before it goes in). Here's a couple video clips of it running...