I have a 1989 Ford F250. This truck came with originally with a 351 EFI engine and a 4speed autotrans with a locking torque converter. The trans has NEVER been right for towing any kind of a load and because it's electronic, there's no such thing as a "kit" to fix it. When running empty down the interstate, the truck has always delivered pretty darn good mileage for a V8 in a full sized truck. But as soon as I put any kind of real load on it, whether hauling lumber or pulling a trailer, mileage has always gone straight down the tubes as has performance. The torque converter never knows whether to lock up or not and it's almost a given that whatever I want it to do, it will do EXACTLY the opposite. I absolutely HATE HATE HATE it!

Now to the motor. The 351 EFI used to be great. But then it developed a leaking head gasket and put crankcase pressure into the cooling system. It wasn't bad so I just kept putting coolant in it. The engine had almost 300,xxx miles on it and replacing the head gasket basically totalled the entire truck. I nursed it along for a couple of years actually.... using the truck mainly for short trips around town. That way there was never enough time to blow all the coolant out causing the truck to overheat. Finally, the poor old tire motor threw a rod and that ended that.

So now I've got this F250 sitting in my yard with a blown EFI motor and a tranny that I HATE! Ordinarily, I'd just sell it for scrap but for a couple of things that I might take into consideration first. To begin with, the truck is a supercab. Finding a supercab for sale in a ¾ton is like finding the holy grail almost. Especially given that I'm trying to keep a fleet look as all of my trucks are Ford white. I'm in the lawn biz andmy customers get a warm fuzzy when they see a white Ford pull up. A quick glance out the window and they imediately know who's there.All my other trucks are single cabs and I gotta tell you that, once you get used to having that extra space with the jump seat behind you, you can never go back to a single cab without it driving you NUTS! NUTS, NUTS, I tell you!! ARGHHH!! Also, this is a Tennessee truck. That means there aint no rust anywhere. Absolutely NO RUST! So a white Ford F250 with a supercab is a lot more rare than you'd believe and when one DOES come up for sale, it brings a stupid rediculous price around here.

Finally, I picked up an old ambulance a few years ago. This ambulance was built on a 1977 E450 Ford van chassis. I had another truck that needed an engine and the ambulance had just what I needed .... a 460 with a C6 auto. Just before the ambulance had been retired, both the 460 and C6 had been replaced with brand new stuff. Then right after all that got done, a benefactor came along and bought the little town that owned this ambulance a brand new diesel ambulance with all new life saving equipment. I paid $400 for the ambulance and have recovered all my money from the sale of horns, sirens, PA systems, medical gear and stuff all on ebay. Then I sold the ambulance body for scrap and got another $200. The other truck that needed the engine has been sold for scrap. So now I have this brand new 460 and C6 and an F250 that I love. Seems like a match made in heaven to me.

But the swap may not be all that easy. Here are some differences and maybe you folks could steer me in the right direction.

The ambulance chassis is considerably wider than the F250. This means new motor mounts. Any ideas which ones will be needed? Also a mount for the C6.

The F250 had fuel injection. This means little fuel pumps in each gas tank. What will be required to convert these to feed the carburated 460? I know what you're thinking but in Tennessee, no one cares if your EFI vehicle gets converted. I LOVE this state. Also, there are only 2 counties in the state that even check for cats so I could build my own exhaust system. True, the muffler shops supposedly get in trouble for building a non catalyzed exhaust system on new vehicles but I can do one of my own and absolutely NO ONE in Tennesseeever bothers to checkthis. It will never be an issue.

If I replace those fuel pumps, are they associated with the sending units? I own a total of 3 EFI Fords for a total of 6 gas tanks and not a single sending unit works. I'm getting dang tired of driving around watching my odometer and guessing as to how far I have to go before I run out. It's maddening.

So any help I can get will be really appreciated.

 

Should be able to use sending units out of a diesel and use an electric fuel pump on the frame or a mechanical on the engine. Also the wiring would need to be spliced in the harness to use the fuel tank selctorvalve.This also mounts on the frame in place of the one for the EFI tank selctor. The selector switch (in cab)also needs a few wires changed. Easier to use all parts off of a diesel. I have parts if you need some. This is really not as difficult as it sounds. Pulling the bed off would be a plus.