Talk some sense into me please.

[R422b]

I got a crazy idea and I need some help getting it out of my head. (Unless of course it's a good one.)
So this is probably the wrong forum to be posting about this in because it would be swapping into a Ford truck but you all are in my opinion the experts on small block Chevys in trucks so I'm posting here.

I have a 2000 F350 V10 single rear tire truck with a 9 ft utility bed and due to the fact that it's a POS Ford repairing it is extremely expensive and I hate Ford so I don't really want to waste my money on their parts.
Here's where my crazy idea comes in I've been looking at small block Chevy parts lately and realizing they are outrageously cheap so I was thinking about building a heavy duty 350 and mating it up to a 4L80E and swapping it in there with some form of aftermarket electronic fuel injection control / transmission control.
So I have to do some research on the Ford side as far as exactly what I would have to rip out of the track to make it a engineless rolling chassis without too many dash lights glaring at me. Preferably with no computer and then if that isn't too much work I feel confident that I can swap in the Chevy parts and throw in aftermarket gauges.

So just from my reading of late it looks to me like I should reasonably be able to expect to do this swap for about $8,000
This is definitely only in the theoretical stages because I cannot afford $8,000 right now.

Now I may be better off putting in an NV4500 transmission and save some money on the transmission side of things.
I would definitely be open to that but finding the pedal assembly for the Ford might be the deciding factor against it. Also as far as the shifter goes I don't know if it would be compatible with the Ford shifter but if it's not I just about go for a wire through the floor right now because I just need a running work truck.
So yeah I have a heck of a lot of things to research but how crazy am I?

Talking about GMT400s using Tapatalk

 

[R422b]

Oh yeah and before anybody says it would be gutless I just want it to be known that I really don't care about gutless.
If I can reliably flog the crap out of it to get myself across town in between jobs I don't care how gutless it is. I may even take the tow hitch off and sell that to help pay for the swap since it wouldn't be much of a tow rig with a 350 and already weighing 8500 lb.

Oh yeah and I would most likely try to reuse the stock Ford exhaust by just having a cheap exhaust shop weld in whatever fittings were needed to mate up the stock Chevy front half to the stock Ford back half.

My main requirement is that I have to be able to reasonably assume that the motor will last 200,000 miles. And to be clear I'm looking at brand new crate motors not junkyard used motors.

Talking about GMT400s using Tapatalk

 

[454cid]

I think I would look into a Cummins swap.

 

[R422b]

I think I would look into a Cummins swap.

That defeats the affordable objective pretty quickly.

Talking about GMT400s using Tapatalk

 

[Christian Steffen]

Man this sounds interesting, cummins certainly has been done before, but we all know how expensive those are.. Why not just sell the ford and buy a chevy of similar spec? 1 ton with a 350, 454, or even a 6.0?

At any rate I'm interested, I would like to see it happen. haha I have a coworker that believes the v10 is the best motor known to man, so I would love to show him this if you pull it off. lol

 

[stutaeng]

A Ford powered by a Chevy? Subscribed! Has it been done before? Probably! This is your work truck, right? So it doesn't have to be pretty and you guys (the State) don't even check for emissions, right?

Some custom engine to frame mounts, custom transmission crossmember mount, and custom driveshaft at the minimum. Are you planning on a Carb or TBI? Or a Vortec? The only issue I see is the gauges. Truck is going to be down for some time while you sort things out...

Is your tranny going out too? Why not a Triton 5.4 Swap? I think those should be pretty easy to source and they are pretty reliable. I forget the whole 2V vs 3V, and they still have the spark plug issue?

Otherwise probably better to sell the Ford and get a Chevy. Can the utility box be swapped? Or is it specific to the Ford? I used to see a lot of GMT400 C3500 and C3500HDs with those utility beds around here for around $2500-$4000, either from AT&T or the railroad companies. I seem to recall they had low miles for the year and engine and interior always looked better than any comparable "regular" 3/4 or 1 ton.

 

[R422b]

Man this sounds interesting, cummins certainly has been done before, but we all know how expensive those are.. Why not just sell the ford and buy a chevy of similar spec? 1 ton with a 350, 454, or even a 6.0?

At any rate I'm interested, I would like to see it happen. haha I have a coworker that believes the v10 is the best motor known to man, so I would love to show him this if you pull it off. lol

Well I found that it's often best to fix what you have which unfortunately is a Ford so since the interior exterior and chassis is as close to perfect as I can ever hope for I thought maybe I would be better off just throwing in a new motor and transmission. The problem is Ford parts are too expensive and I don't like them to begin with so I thought hey I wonder how hard it would be to throw a 350 in there built to be beat on and run it until I find the perfect chevy.
I noticed I was looking on a website that was posted here that had Chevy crate motors and they have I think it was listed as 350 HD truck engine so that got me thinking I'm a big fan of small motors so why not?

Talking about GMT400s using Tapatalk

 

[R422b]

A Ford powered by a Chevy? Subscribed! Has it been done before? Probably! This is your work truck, right? So it doesn't have to be pretty and you guys (the State) don't even check for emissions, right?

Some custom engine to frame mounts, custom transmission crossmember mount, and custom driveshaft at the minimum. Are you planning on a Carb or TBI? Or a Vortec? The only issue I see is the gauges. Truck is going to be down for some time while you sort things out...

Is your tranny going out too? Why not a Triton 5.4 Swap? I think those should be pretty easy to source and they are pretty reliable. I forget the whole 2V vs 3V, and they still have the spark plug issue?

Otherwise probably better to sell the Ford and get a Chevy. Can the utility box be swapped? Or is it specific to the Ford? I used to see a lot of GMT400 C3500 and C3500HDs with those utility beds around here for around $2500-$4000, either from AT&T or the railroad companies. I seem to recall they had low miles for the year and engine and interior always looked better than any comparable "regular" 3/4 or 1 ton.

Yeah ideally I would just buy a Chevy but I have not been having any luck on my search so I thought I would look at a different angle for a while.
Also there would be a certain satisfaction in shaming a Ford by powering it with a Chevy motor. I'm surrounded by Ford guys so I would really enjoy that.

We have no emissions or safety inspections here so I can do whatever I please.
My thought was to run it with a Holley EFI system likely a throttle body because I think that was the cheap one and if I'm remembering correctly there are self tuning so I wouldn't have to necessarily mess with learning the computer side of it.
I'm thinking something like 250 horsepower Max because it just needs to get me in between service calls it doesn't need to beat anything in a race. This would definitely call for a forged crank and four bolt mains because I would not be gentle on it but I don't need it to be a powerhouse.
Just looking at all the technology available it seems like powering a truck with a 350 would be the most economical and simple way to go about it.
Ideally I would be doing this on a Chevy and I would put my heart and soul into it to make it perfect but since this is a Ford I would plan on making it run and drive for reasonably cheap while also doing everything to a reasonable standard of quality but not putting my heart and soul into it since I don't like the truck that it's in.

It'll probably never happen but who knows. If I make a lot of money this year and I still haven't found a Chevy it may just happen this winter.


The reason I would be swapping to a Chevy transmission other than the fact that it's easier to mate up a Chevy engine to a Chevy transmission is that my engine and transmission are bad not to mention the air conditioner. So yeah I would be swapping to all Chevy engine and belt driven components. I may or may not bother even trying to make the AC work although I probably should because it's too dang hot here.



Talking about GMT400s using Tapatalk

 

[R422b]

I could probably swap the utility box as I don't see anything ford specific about it but I'm really not seeing a lot of Chevys available. I am keeping a lookout and maybe someday I will find my dream truck and also have the money to buy it at the same time. Every year I make more money so who knows.

Talking about GMT400s using Tapatalk

 

[red98]

Oh yeah and before anybody says it would be gutless I just want it to be known that I really don't care about gutless.
If I can reliably flog the crap out of it to get myself across town in between jobs I don't care how gutless it is. I may even take the tow hitch off and sell that to help pay for the swap since it wouldn't be much of a tow rig with a 350 and already weighing 8500 lb.

Oh yeah and I would most likely try to reuse the stock Ford exhaust by just having a cheap exhaust shop weld in whatever fittings were needed to mate up the stock Chevy front half to the stock Ford back half.

My main requirement is that I have to be able to reasonably assume that the motor will last 200,000 miles. And to be clear I'm looking at brand new crate motors not junkyard used motors.

Talking about GMT400s using Tapatalk

I think trying to make the two OEM electronics systems talk to each other will be your biggest hassle, so I'd try to avoid that in as many places as possible, so I think the manual swap would make it easier than trying to make the 4l80e work.