Hey yall i got a 86 4x4 150 with a 360. Well i just bought the truck and have the motor out and totally stripped down. Bad thing is i dont know what i should do with it. What i am wanting is a mid-grade performance engine with some low end torque. Some people are telling me to bore it out and some people say no, just work with the heads. Im not looking for total high performance motor but i want people to tell that this thing isnt stock. This is going to be more of a weekend driver and a little off road. If anyone can help me out with some suggestions on some machine work or parts i should get please let me know im kind of stumped.

 

Depends on your budget.

And boring it out - not really a performance enhancement. We're talking about adding 5-10 cubic inches from that, max. The reason you bore it out is to clean up scratches and whatnot on the cylinder walls. How are the cyls? Scratched and leaky? Bore them out as little as possible to clean them up. Otherwise just leave them alone.

If you've got several thousand to put into it, I'd go with a 4" stroker setup, a set of decent heads, and a cam. The stock iron 4bbl intake manifold is a fairly good piece, you won't notice much of a gain by switching to an Edelbrock Performer intake, and you want to keep your low end stout so I'd just leave it alone. Camshaft, heads, headers, good coil, good ignition box, good distributor, blah blah blah. Make sure you've got a decent oil pump and water pump too, and a good double roller timing chain. Might as well replace those things while you're in there for longevity.

Low-buck - camshaft, headers
medium - + heads (or head work)
expensive - + stroker kit, etc.

 

Ok well that helps a bit. Im looking in the medium price range, about $1,000. I will spend the extra cash to have it done right so that it last but I dont want to go over board. The cyclinder walls are ok but will have to get them honed. With the heads, would you get them milled or bigger valves done or just reconditioned. And what size cam would you suggest. I want some thing that is noticable but not over kill. Im probally going to go with a 600 or 650 cfm carb and i have and aluminum intake that came with it. The headers are already on order.

 

Well for a grand you're honestly not looking at much, especially if you're getting the bottom end rebuilt - rebuild kit alone is several hundred, plus the labor to clean up the bores and reassemble (balance too).

Absolutely do:
water pump
oil pump
timing chain
camshaft*

Should do:
Mopar orange ECM
good coil, plugs, wires

Honestly with just that you're probably over a grand. You want it reliable first.

What I've got:

86 w250, a727, 35x12.5 all terrains
Edelbrock performer intake, performer plus camshaft
Holley 600 carb
Milodon high flow water pump
MSD Blaster coil (high vibration version)
Mopar Orange ECM
Hooker comp headers, 2.5" into 3" Flowmaster 30 series and single 3" out the stock location
Stock heads, stock 8.1:1 compression, stock torque converter
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To the ground it made about 180hp and 250 lb-ft, which isn't all that impressive, but it is pretty quick. With head work, a serious bump in CR, and a bit bumpier cam it would really come alive, but when I get around to that I'll most likely stroke it out to 400+cid. The motor has about 80-90k on it and still runs pretty strong, so I'm just waiting on that.

 

Which headers did you order and are they fully emissions-legal? If so, where did you get them. I need street-legal ones to keep the emissions ***** happy here.

 

I ordered hooker competition ceramic coated, 1 5/8 into 2 1/2", and no they're not emissions legal. You could pipe your own air pump inlets if you wanted emissions functionality, but it wouldn't be DOT/EPA certified or anything.

 

I didn't think you had to worry about emmisions till 1986? and what does a 29 on the tag of my 83 d150 mean? it s a 318 auto *.25 rear. how do i determine the ratio? and what ratio can i install for road mileage?, what will identify it?

 

If it had emissions equipment on it, you're supposed to leave it. You can get a $10k fine for tampering with your emissions controls, but most likely nobody will ever find out. If you're not in an emissions inspection area then you don't have to worry about passing and therefore you don't have to worry about Air pumps or the like. And it was quite a bit before 86 that emissions equipment showed up, try closer to 73, 74ish. My 86 is a HD gross weight 8510, so it didn't come from the factory with cats, but it still had dual air pumps and a charcoal canister.