"Blue" my 1994 F-350 dump truck

[Snoranger]

Dad had 2 351’s at the same time, a ‘96 bronco he bought new and a ‘94 F250 reg cab 4x4 he bought used. both ran stock tires, 3.55’s & the E4OD. The F250 had over 150K miles, the bronco might of had 40 when he got rid of it. The truck absolutely had more power than the bronco, pulled better more kick when you stabbed the gas from a dead stop. Didn’t make sence. But Ive had several 2.3’s and they all have been a little different from each other. The ‘94 truck still exists, its behind the barn. It spit out one of the spark plugs, power steering line rusted through & when it was last on the road it was starting to have transmission issues. Was a former oil field truck so it is a rusty mess underneath.

My parents bought a new E150 clubwagon back in ‘94 with a 351W… that thing felt like it had twice the power of the ‘88 F150 351w my grandfather had. I know they both had the same gear ratios, but that ‘94 was just a beast.

 

[Shran]

My buddy & I had a few 460 powered trucks - I had two identical '85 F250's (supercab 4x4, 4 speed, long box, 4.10 gears) that were totally stock and he had a '79 F150 4x4 that we swapped a somewhat earlier engine of unknown build into. It had a C6 trans and 3.50 gears. He also had a '94 crew cab 4x4 dually F350 with an E4OD trans. Out of all of those, the '79 was just a ridiculous brute of a truck. The power to weight ratio of that thing was just perfect and you could tow anything with it at any speed but it drank a LOT of oil. One of my '85's was probably the second best one, it had "enough" power but it just wasn't very fast. The '94 was a turd. Big, slow and horribly inefficient.

I had a couple of early 80's F150's that had 302's and they were night & day different than my '86 with the same engine. I think the '82 I had was only rated at like 120hp and had an AOD trans plus 3.00 gears in the rear axle. It would barely get out of its own way. I think my '86 is rated at 180hp but it feels like a rocket ship, power for days out of that little engine. Crazy how EFI and a couple other small changes will make such a difference.

 

[rusty ol ranger]

My buddy & I had a few 460 powered trucks - I had two identical '85 F250's (supercab 4x4, 4 speed, long box, 4.10 gears) that were totally stock and he had a '79 F150 4x4 that we swapped a somewhat earlier engine of unknown build into. It had a C6 trans and 3.50 gears. He also had a '94 crew cab 4x4 dually F350 with an E4OD trans. Out of all of those, the '79 was just a ridiculous brute of a truck. The power to weight ratio of that thing was just perfect and you could tow anything with it at any speed but it drank a LOT of oil. One of my '85's was probably the second best one, it had "enough" power but it just wasn't very fast. The '94 was a turd. Big, slow and horribly inefficient.

I had a couple of early 80's F150's that had 302's and they were night & day different than my '86 with the same engine. I think the '82 I had was only rated at like 120hp and had an AOD trans plus 3.00 gears in the rear axle. It would barely get out of its own way. I think my '86 is rated at 180hp but it feels like a rocket ship, power for days out of that little engine. Crazy how EFI and a couple other small changes will make such a difference.

Gearing seemed to make an outsize difference on the older trucks too.

I had an 83 F150 with a T18, 300, and 4.10 rear (that im pretty certain wasnt stock). It would pull anything, topped out at like 72mph, and got 8mpg.

My buddy had the exact same truck only an 84, had a 300, the goofy 3sp/wOD and some crazy high like 2.47 rear. It wouldnt pull the meat from your sandwich, got mid 20's mpg, and was just hitting O/D when mine was topped out lol (although, mine would get to 60-65 ALOT faster)

Seemed back then you could truely get a truck in any flavor you wanted.

Ive only drove a couple of the factory EFI bullnoae trucks but yes they did seem to really giddyup compared to the carbed 302'a. The fastest stock bullnose i ever drove was an 85 F150 2wd with a 351W H.O backed by a C6. It would fly.

 

[racsan]

Gearing seemed to make an outsize difference on the older trucks too.

I had an 83 F150 with a T18, 300, and 4.10 rear (that im pretty certain wasnt stock). It would pull anything, topped out at like 72mph, and got 8mpg.

My buddy had the exact same truck only an 84, had a 300, the goofy 3sp/wOD and some crazy high like 2.47 rear. It wouldnt pull the meat from your sandwich, got mid 20's mpg, and was just hitting O/D when mine was topped out lol (although, mine would get to 60-65 ALOT faster)

Seemed back then you could truely get a truck in any flavor you wanted.

Ive only drove a couple of the factory EFI bullnoae trucks but yes they did seem to really giddyup compared to the carbed 302'a. The fastest stock bullnose i ever drove was an 85 F150 2wd with a 351W H.O backed by a C6. It would fly.

Thats why I wish there was a 2-speed rear end (like on the old grain/dump 2-1/2 ton trucks) and have 2 selectable ratios, 3.50 for empty driving/commuting & 4.10 for when you needed the deeper gear & were really doing work. Im not even sure that exists in the heavier trucks now, they just have more gears, maybe auxiliary transmission of some sort. There was at one time a box that you could get to go behind a automatic that was a overdrive, I remember the brand name “gear vendors”. I think it was meant for muscle cars though so you could afford to daily drive it, not sure it would hold up to light truck useage.

 

[Brain75]

The discussion of Brownie Boxes / Gear Splitters / AA / Warn Overdrive etc came up a several times in my hunt to put a modern manual transmission in my '48... ultimately every time it came back to it was just about as economical to find a better transmission than to mess with all the extra a gear splitter involved. I ended up going with a T5 since that was a seamless install behind a flathead. Flatheads are torque monsters for their era, but still 40's & 50's technology not huge modern horsepower monsters. I would think a ZF5 (or another similar trans update, maybe even a WC T5) would be ticket if you wanted to "fix" the transmission issues of a bullnose Ford.... I grew up on a NP435, so totally understand the falling off a cliff issue between gears that thing has.

That said, I thought at least one company survived all the way up till the start of the pandemic - AA?

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I don't know how Kenworth managed it other than the fact it was pneumatic, but I drove a Kenworth for a year that had a pneumatic gear splitter of some sort. (Only paid to drive it not wrench on it, and other than electrical never had any issues or reason to raise the hood.) So a little familiar with gear splitting feel as far as driving... can only say I ever split the very first and very last gears on it, and then only when completely full to the brim (probably overweight - short hauls for farm, nothing that went through a town or past any scales).

Edit: additional thoughts
That said my '48 started out with the original Dana 41 with insane gears, and I did the transmisson first, then swapped rear ends (it was/is a driving truck, not a project) so I got to drive it a little in all 3 configs: Original trans w/ 5.38 rear end, T5 w/ 5.38 rear end, and T5 w/ 3.00 rear end. That is a huge huge jump... too big, I wish I could have found a 9" with 3.50 or 3.75 gears cause that would have hit the sweet spot... figuring out the right gear ratio is a science. I suppose I should put a center section on my 'yard hunting list and keep looking, but it runs and drives, and it can make it to the store and back so it's not a priority.

 

[Snoranger]

Thats why I wish there was a 2-speed rear end (like on the old grain/dump 2-1/2 ton trucks) and have 2 selectable ratios, 3.50 for empty driving/commuting & 4.10 for when you needed the deeper gear & were really doing work. Im not even sure that exists in the heavier trucks now, they just have more gears, maybe auxiliary transmission of some sort. There was at one time a box that you could get to go behind a automatic that was a overdrive, I remember the brand name “gear vendors”. I think it was meant for muscle cars though so you could afford to daily drive it, not sure it would hold up to light truck useage.

Gear Vendor was one of the big manufacturers… I have a US Gear overdrive for a Ford 4wd.

The GV goes after the Tcase and can only be used in 2wd. The US Gear goes between the trans and Tcase, but that means you need to modify both driveshafts.

 

[ford4wd08]

The OBS never did.

Ford sweet talked their way to hold it off a couple years until the new bodystyle trucks came out.

96 F150's at least had OBD2 I have a wrecked one in the pasture that has it with the 5.0.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

So… things happened and it’s been a hot minute since I started this… today I cranked out a bit of work on it. Getting close to having the heads off. Once they are at the machine shop work on this will come to another temporary halt while I fix the green Ranger again. Soon as the green Ranger is back up, I’ll be back to this. I need it running sooner rather than later. I also need to spend some time rounding up the parts I’ve already collected and see what I need to get yet for this. But anyway…

 

[Curious Hound]

So… things happened and it’s been a hot minute since I started this… today I cranked out a bit of work on it. Getting close to having the heads off. Once they are at the machine shop work on this will come to another temporary halt while I fix the green Ranger again. Soon as the green Ranger is back up, I’ll be back to this. I need it running sooner rather than later. I also need to spend some time rounding up the parts I’ve already collected and see what I need to get yet for this. But anyway…

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[lil_Blue_Ford]

View attachment 126304

lol, you just wait…