Working on a 1989 Ford F-150, 300 six, five speed. Wow! bad gas.

[Henry W]

Well, the engine is getting a fuel and ignition make over.
The ECU is bad, 4 injectors are leaking. I took some more time off and the truck be getting the fuel and ignition system changed. For now it's going to be carbed, then switched over to Throttle Body Electronic Fuel Injection by early next year. It will still have the emission stuff that's required in North Carolina.

The ignition system will be A Dura Spark II distributor triggering a MSD 6AL Ignition control Box
https://www.holley.com/products/ignition/ignition_boxes/street/parts/6425 For now a Dura Spark II will be mechanical and vacuum operated. It will be sent to someone I know to set up the advance properly so I can run 87 octane gas without having to worry about detonation. Once I get the Throttle Body EFI
( https://www.holley.com/products/fuel_systems/fuel_injection/sniper_efi/sniper_2300_2bbl/sniper_2300/parts/550-851 ) the carb will be taken off and put away. The distributor mechanical advance will be locked and vacuum advance will be disabled so the EFI fuel injection can control the timing.

The intake manifold looks like it will come from Australia. https://www.aussiespeedshop.com/product/ford-240-300-4-9l-big-6-aussiespeed-4-barrel-manifold-as0524/  The Aussie's have been on top when building performance stuff for inline sixes for decades.

The carburetor will be an Autolite 2100 with 1.08 or 1.14 venturi's. I'm not sure witch size I'm will go for at this time. The Autolite 2100 2 barrel carb was way ahead in its time for a carb. Here is a brief summary about them:
Autolite 2100 carburetors were made from 1953–1973. They are a synchronous two venturi (barrel) design, meaning both venturii operate together. There are eight different sizes ranging from 190 cfm to 424 cfm. They are available with manual, electric, or automatic hot-air chokes. They incorporate a feature called Annular Fuel Discharge, which greatly reduces the likely-hood of hesitation and flat spots under acceleration. They use the standard Holley bolt pattern (same as Holley two barrels).
Size is determined by the diameter of the venturii. This can be found cast into the float chamber side. It will be a number in a circle, with the number being the venturi size in inches.
0.098 - 190 cfm, 1.01 - 240 cfm, 1.02 - 245 cfm, 1.08 - 287 cfm, 1.14 - 300 cfm, 1.21 - 351 cfm, 1.23 - 356 cfm, 1.33 - 424 cfm

A stock ford 300 six engine will only draw so much CFM and an Autolite carb larger than 300 CFM will be over carbing  the engine.

The Aussie manifold has long runners and they help with low end torque. It's the longest runners I could find for what I'm doing.

[Henry W]

So far I purchased:

*Offenhauser C intake manifold.
The Aussie manifold would not clear the AC evap coil box so I went with the brand that has a decent following from others that have done exactly what I'm doing.

*MSD 6AL ignition control.
Rev limiter will be set at 3800. Plugs will be re-gapped to 0.50 - 0.55

*Duraspark II distributor.
It will replace the TFI unit that's in the truck.

*Holley Sniper II 2300 Throttle Body EFI.
Seems like a very simple system. Has only four cables to hook up. The EFI ECU is smaller than a cell phone and very easy to program. The EFI has a vacuum circuit to operate the vacuum advance on the Duraspark II  distributor. For now this will be used until I'm ready to lock the distributors mech and vac advance and allow the EFI control the timing.

I've read the this EFI setup can be calibrated to run E85 fuel if needed. I hope I would never have to run the stuff.

I'm hoping to achieve 18mpg highway with today's gas.

[Henry W]

Today I just completed installing the Duraspark II distributor and the MSD 6AL ignition control box. I started cutting the engine wire harness open to remove all unnecessary wires. Tomorrow, it's rewrapping the harness and put it back in place.

[sailawayrb]

I have been greatly enjoying this saga down memory lane...nicely done!

[Henry W]

It is a project but that had some setbacks but I am making good progress. Hopefully it will be running sometime in October.
Thanks for the moral support.

[Henry W]

It took longer than expected to finish the wiring harness. But it's completed.

Next step is installing high grade studs in the head to fasten the intake and exhaust manifolds. I believe ARP makes studs that will be more than adequate for the task. The original fasteners are Grade 5, 3/8-16 bolts. I was lucky getting all of them out without breaking some. I will not consider re-using the original fasteners. I don't want any headaches if I need to pull the manifolds off in the future.

I hope to make lots of progress in the next two weeks.

[Henry W]

Back to work on the F150, spiral wound spark plugs, ignition coil, manifold gasket and  adapter cord for mating the MSD ignition box to the Duraspark II distributor have been ordered.
Hopefully I'm able to install the manifold studs in the cylinder head tomorrow.

[Henry W]

Installed the intake/exhaust manifolds yesterday. Next to do is the throttle body. I might have it running before Christmas 

[Henry W]

It's been a while since I posted. I forgot about this topic.

The truck has been running since the first week in July. I'm working on a tuning issue. I believe it's the O2 sensor location. The O2 sensor will be moved closer to bank 1 exhaust manifold. I hoping this will correct run issues when full throttle is given. From what I read, the 02 sensor could be scavenging exhaust from bank 2. And too much heat loss for the sensor to operate properly.

On a positive note, the truck is averaging 15 to 17.5 mpg. That is better than Ford published 31 years ago.

[Henry W]

Here is a picture of the progress.

(Must be logged in to view.)

[Henry W]

Just completed the tuning of the engine. It's running fine the intake manifold needed to be tuned to prevent reversion through theTBI. A tapered restrictor Carb / TBI adapter was used.

The engine has very good throttle response. Torque is great. Combined City / Highway driving the truck managed 18.38 MPG.
Now it's time to get back to the EB300 powered genset.

[Tom Reed]

Thanks for the write up on the truck, I just forwarded this thread to my BIL who's just getting into these trucks. I wonder if the components you used are CARB complaint.

[Henry W]

Hi Tom,

Unfortunately the parts are not CARB compliant.