swapping 6.9 or 7.3 in 78 FORD f-250
 

Anyone out there that can help me with swapping a 6.9/7.3 motor into a 4x4 70's truck?
I found a 89 4x4 with a 7.3 that i could use.. Or is the 6.9 better??

What about mounts? Aftermarket?

I thought about doing something like this for awhile shouldn't be too bad heck you could prolly go the easy way and just swap cabs over.

As for swap kits and mounts I would just use stock ford mounts for it

there is plus' and minus to each motor 6.9 or 7.3 the later model 6.9 is supposed to be the stronger block but any of these motors would work for you. Most of the internals and what not are interchangeable from what I have heard.

Good luck man

thanks for the response
I cant swap the cab, I have a 78 4x4 crewcab with a stretched frame for to fit an 8ft bed and still have 4x4 (ford only offered a 6ft bed with 4x4) go figure, so the cab swap wont work.

I was hoping to find someone on here that did the whole thing.. and learn from that

I would go with the later 7.3 with the turbo. It is a better motor than the 6.9 and there are a lot more aftermarket parts for them. Resources are readily available for the 7.3 a lot more than the 6.9. My buddy put a P-pumped cummins in a 79 ford f250. He restored the truck and it is show quality. It took him about six months to do all the work himself. He used a nv4500 tranny from dodge. It is really a good swap.

is the diesel truck a 3/4 or 1 ton??? the 7.3/6.9 diesel swap is actually very easy in these trucks, you just got to keep your diesel tranny cause of the bolt pattern, and the lower shift points, plus if you keep the t-case you get a lower low gear in the t-case than a factory 70's ford........is your crew cab a 4x4 or 2wd, and what year is it, if its a 77 or older you got a low pinion 19 spline dana 60 and they are significantly weaker than the 78-79 high pinion dana 60's......if your diesel truck is a 1 ton then i would recommend using its front axle cause its a high pinion dana 60 unless your crew cab truck is a 78-79 F350 4x4 or F250 with the Snow Fighter package.....you may have to move the spring pads though.....

my crewcab is a 4x4 with a HD dana 44 up front and i already have a sterling 10.25 in back
i just need some help fabbing up some mounts for it to work.. I'm keeping the zf5 speed behind it too :)

if you have the dana 60 out of the later fords you cant use it anyways in the older truck. i have alot of experience with the hd 44 in those and they are great axles. the dana 60's in the later years use a 36.5 spring width as compared to your 32.5 spring width. and you can move the perches but it doesnt quite work. the perch on the pinion side is cast into the block, and if you were to make it fit, it would stick out almost 2 inches on one side more than the other. (learned that the hard way:argh:)

but stick with that hd44 i got one of those from a 78 f250 in my display pic truck and i run 44's on it and have no bad luck with any thing on it plus parts are cheap for it

thanks for the info, i have a dana 60 from an 89 f-350 andsaw that nightmare after i got it home.. So yea im sticking with the HD 44... now if i could only find some pictures of mounts people made up to put the 6.9/7.3 into the 78-79 frame would be great.. I have ideas of what to do. but pics make it so much easier :)

i know i stated this in the other thread you posted. you will need either a 3 inch body lift or to redesign the fire wall alot with a sledge,torch,plasma cutter. the heads on the 6.9/7.3 are to wide and hit firewall bad.

also the frames on the older trucks are narrower so the engine is harder to sit down in the frame. it has been done a buddy of mine did it out in ohio.