mikesplumbing,
i drove a 95 ford f150 for 10yrs, it had the 300 i-6 in it, it and the 302 ford motors are my favorite ford engines...
my old 95 ford had some work done to it, i was looking for fuel mileage because stock, the fuel mileage on a good day was 15mpg it wasnt the most economical engine for sure..
i took all emissions stuff off the truck, cut the catalytic converter off of it, put a split exhaust manifold on it, put an adjustable fuel pressure regulator on it, msd coil, did some work on the throttle body, and the throttle position sensor and a copy of a flowmaster from summitracing.. computer didnt have to be messed with because i didnt go to far with the mods and the computer was speed density so it would handle alot of mods... the truck wouldnt get out of its own way, but it got up to 20mpg , and ran a helluvalot better than stock, it would pull a house, i couldnt tell my boat was behind it... i did this stuff to it and was planning on going farther with milling the head .100 and putting a cam and adjustable rocker arms on it.. even pondered with sticking a blower on it, with stock pistons the most boost you can run is like 6 lbs, and thats going to net you around 70 hp on a stock engine, even looked at turbo charging, if i were to boost one it would be with a turbo, the inlines work better with a turbo rather than a blower.. with the cam, milling head and exhaust ,rockerarms, carb you were closer to 100hp, so actually it was more effective to use natual aspiration than using boost to a point.. if you put forged pistons in and cranked up boost to 10lbs or better it was more effective..
basicly just playing and using leftover parts i had like the muffler and coil, and adjustable regulator from an old mustang, the split manifold/header was from an old dragracer buddy of mine that i had to modify to work.. i was after a lil better performance but i knew the truck would get better fuel mileage, i think if i were to put a bigger cam in it fuel mileage would have been even better, i think what i was hitting was the power to weight ratio of the truck was way low with the I-6, on the books stock the I-6 was about 150hp and i knew it would get alot better mileage if i could get the power up on the engine, and i was correct..
i looked at sticking a turbo on it, a relatively cheap way to do it was using a mitsubishi turbo and 24lb injectors with adjustable fuel pressure regulator, the computer wasnt a problem just as long as you didnt go nuts with the boost, but i was also told i could send the computer in and have it reprogrammed with a different map sensor..
but i was satisfied with its performance as it was so i just drove it for 5 more years without having truck payment, when i was wanting a truck with more power i ordered a 2wd dodge ram swb 2wd with a hemi and towing package, sold my old ford (which i kick myself everytime i think about it) but i shouldnt have, should have kept the old ford, it was the most dependable vehicle i have ever owned hands down...
i bought that truck new for $13000 drove off the lot, drove it for 10yrs, kept the oil and plugs, and cleaned the filter ever 4000 miles religiously changed tranny fluid every 40k miles..sold it with 160k miles on it for $3000 to an old man that is still driving it daily, i think now that truck is now 15yrs old and i still see it about once a week going down the road..
i would probably buy it back from him...
