Good idea on the D44. I'm not doing that mod anytime soon, so I'll have plenty of time to research it.

Man, I'm just plain excited about being able to drive around in my truck again instead of the '96 V6 mustang I've been driving since my truck broke.

 

Part time home made kit will involve some drilling, some of the big comp making these kit do just that anyway so save some bucks and do it yourself if possible. Start looking for a F*** 150 ttb front end.

 

I meant to get this done way sooner, but grad school doesn't leave much time for anything else. I pulled the engine, tore it down, and sent the block and heads off to be magnafluxed and mic'd, and the crankshaft and rods to be mic'd.

Hopefully, I won't have to replace any of those and can just reuse them after decking/balancing, etc.

I've got several pictures of the truck, engine, parts, etc. but they're all 2+ megabytes each and I haven't figured out how to get them down under the 97.7KB limit for posting.

 

Merc,
I'm not going to question your experience but on the Jeeps it is way more involved than just drilling something out. The inner "C" on Jeep axles is smaller than old school style ones. So to use old school outers you had to either swap out the inner "C" or spend the $1,200 + on the kit.
I would think that if it was as easy as installing old school outers that many more folks would do it. But someone with one laying around could take a bunch of measurements and see what could work. Just like for the new Jeep JK Wranglers, Reid Racing makes a custom outer knuckle that accepts the old style spindles so you can have locking hubs.


Back when I first got my TJ I bought a Warn hub kit for the front axle. Plus I had the Warn full floater rear axle kit too so had hubs on the front and rear axles.

 

Two years later and a lot has happened. I am resurrecting this thread to give updates on my engine build as originally posted in this thread. If this needs to be a new thread, that's ok.

So after I sent the block and crank to be inspected, graduate school commandeered most of my free time, slowing my progress to a crawl. Nonetheless, changes were made to the build plan and progress was made:

ENGINE:
-The block has been align honed.
-The block has been decked and trued with a torque plate.
-The cylinders have been overbored 0.030".
-The crankshaft has been internally balanced by drilling and filling with tungsten, allowing for the removal of the external balancer.
-The rods were all balanced within 1 gram of each other.
-New Keith Black hypereutectic pistons were balanced within 1 gram of each other and were fitted with Total Seal gapless top ring sets.
-The rotating assembly was assembled and there is less than 0.0015" (yes, 1 and-a-half thousandths!) difference between the piston heads at TDC.
-The static compression ratio has been calculated to be 11.0-to-1.
-The quench distance has been reduced from approximately 0.150" for stock engines to 0.030". This will have a huge effect in staving off detonation.
-I have commissioned Racer Brown Cams to build a custom cam for this build, with fuel efficiency and avoidance of detonation on premium pump gas as the goal.
-I have ordered a Rollmaster Gold series timing set

HEADS:
-New Hughes Magnum iron heads were ordered with new springs, valves, etc.
-I am currently porting and polishing the heads for airflow efficiency (I am not enlarging any passages or appreciably increasing internal volume; I merely removed sharp angles, rounded corners, and smoothed walls according to a tutorial on porting/polishing. I've finished one head and am very pleased with how it turned out!
-I will mirror polished the combustion chambers to reduce the likelihood of preignition, and use a buret to volumetrically measure them all to within a half milliliter of each other.
-I will send the heads to the engine builder to do a 3-angle valve job.
-I will hand-lap the valves to the valve seats when they return.

INTAKE:
-I purchased a Hughes AirGap manifold
-I plan to port/polish the throttle body

EXHAUST:
-I purchased PaceSetter Shorty headers and will wrap them to keep under hood temperatures down.
-I will replace the stock exhaust with a header-back, catless dual exhaust using two high-flow mufflers -probably Magnaflow.

IGNITION:
-I purchased a MSD 6A digital ignition with 135 mJ spark energy and 6 discharges per ignition event as an overkill ignition system to increase flame front speed and reduce the likelihood of detonation.
-I have purchased MSD 8.5 mm Superconductor plug wires.

COOLING:
-I am replacing the mechanical fan with a dual electric fan setup, although I have not decided which one yet.
-I am replacing the stock thermostat with a 180 degree Stant Superstat.


As this engine is now 11-to-1 compression ratio, I need to keep it cool to help reduce the risk of detonation and preignition. Will the stock radiator be sufficient with an e-fan setup? How many CFM does the e-fan need to pull in order to be worry-free? Thanks in advance for any input!

 

Shorty headers aren't going to be much of an improvement over stock..... Maybe a tad bit better.... but, full-length headers would be even better. (better scavenging than the shorties.)

stock radiator should be good enough. No idea how much airflow you are going to want. Might take a look at some of the dual fan setups, and see what fans they use. I know there are a couple DIYs in the FAQ section on such a topic.

 

Here is a nice test done by Hot Rod Network comparing the torque and HP between manifolds, shorty headers, and long tube headers of two different diameters. The test indicates that a significant improvement in low range torque can be had simply by bolting on a pair of shorties. The shorties actually outperform the long tube headers under 2500 rpm, which is where most engines operate 98% of the time.

http://www.hotrod.com/how-to/engine/1406-comparing-headers-and-manifolds/

 

Interesting. Looks like shorties are better than stock at least.... Which is kind of a surprise to me. Long-tubes are better above 2500 RPM though. So, either way is going to be an improvement. Shorties are certainly easier to install......

 

Big Green 360 thanks for starting the thread and posting your progress, I am new here and stumbled upon it while hunting for some other info. It's cool to see there are more people in the world with the wherewithal to even draw up such an animal. I am considering a similar build later this year for my 3/4 ton and I'm wondering how things are going for you.

Back in the 90's after reading some of David Vizard's books I built an "experimental" Ford 351W with the same goals in mind...good low-end power so the motor is in it's "sweet spot" a cruising speed = better MPG (about 10.5:1 CR, roller rockers, flat-top pistons, edelbrock intake & carb, and the right cam) and dropped it in a '83 Crown Victoria. I also didn't want to run premium fuel (I ended up needing minimum 89 non-ethanol, was hoping for 87 but couldn't quite run it). That engine had really good power where it needed it. Peak HP was probably nothing to brag about, but who drives around at WOT-redline-the-tach anyway? It easily pulled over 20 MPG, anywhere from 55 MPH roads or running 85 MPH across South Dakota on I-90. That was an interesting project, and what I have since decided is having a diesel for occasional heavy towing is fun, but way overrated (and very expensive).

So my goal for a 3/4 ton 4wd pickup would be low-end towing power, and with the EFI and electronic timing I think 15 MPG should be "easy" to dial in.

Once again thanks for posting your build, keep the posts coming and let us know how it turns out!

 

Wow! For a street engine, the shorty's are impressive. I wonder what a full header with a smaller diameter tube would do?