1978 F250 Build Post 4
Disassembly – 351M Engine and transmission
Switching gears (no pun intended) from the cab rust issues to engine disassembly we decided to pull the engine and transmission. This way we could work on the frame, engine, and cab all simultaneously (read: when we get frustrated with one area, move to another). The engine is a 351M with a 4 speed manual transmission and attached NP205 transfer case. The original engine was blown and this was swapped in around ’86 I believe, we have the work slips but it doesn’t tell from which vehicle the engine is from.
The plan is to break it down and completely rebuild it from the ground up, we’re unsure of how much wear is on the internals but we’ll soon find out. We want to rebuild the 351M with a stock bottom end besides a slightly bigger cam, stock heads, lifters, rockers etc. and an Edelbrock intake and carb. We’ll be running headers and Flowmasters for exhaust. We want to keep it pretty mellow and reliable for the street.
We pushed the cab back on the frame and pulled everything out of the garage to powerwash the engine and transmission. We didn’t have our engine crane at the time so we used some redneck engineering and come along to get the engine up and out and into the engine stand (somewhat sketchy). Next we plan to breakdown the engine and get it into the machine shop.
