THE FMT (FORD MUSCLE TRUCK)
Paying homage to the Motortrend show "Roadkill", we decided to "borrow" the moniker that they used to describe one of their vehicle projects, adopting it for our very own version of the same concept, but in a different format. That project is the FMT or Ford Muscle Truck. As with the Roadkill guys who labeled a pickup truck that they modified as a muscle truck as they built on it making it more powerful and more high performance, we plan on doing the same thing. In our case we're using a Ford truck as our blank canvas for our muscle truck or the FMT.
The truck in question is a 94 F150 short bed single cab truck. This truck was picked up for $500 as essentially a body due to the fact that the engine was dead and was 2/3 disassembled in the truck. When we got it, the short block was locked up due to rust invading the innards of the engine, rendering it useless to us. Now while all of the peripherals were present for the most part, it would still mean that I'd have to hunt down another engine for this thing.
Now this truck comes from the factory with a 302ci V8 with EFI and an E4OD automatic transmission. I could replicate this setup as all of the components are there but one of the problems that we would run across is trying to get everything restored back to the way it was as far as the wiring, vacuum lines and other solenoids and hardware that are involved with the emissions and the EFI system. This would be a PITA. My solution ended up being converting this truck over to an older configuration, basically a carbureted, mechanical fuel pump V8 like what would've been present in the same truck 20 years ago.
There are a few issues with this however. One is the idea that the fuel system on an EFI engine consists of high pressure fuel pumps and associated fuel lines, which include return lines. All of this would have to be modified since an older setup would use the fuel pump on the engine to draw fuel at a low pressure for the carburetor. I would have to rip out all of the fuel lines and install just plain metal lines going from the fuel tanks over to the point where the block mounted fuel pump would be at. The sending unit in the tank would also have to be modified as the fuel pump is attached to the sending unit. I would have to remove and reconstruct the sending unit to just have a pickup at about the same level as with the fuel pump on board, and cap off the return lines and cut the power lines that would feed the pump motor. Lastly, since this truck has two tanks, I would have to address the idea that there's a splitter of some sort in the fuel lines to take into account the two separate tanks.
FMT staged next to F250.
One idea that I had for this truck regarding the two fuel tanks is the idea that when I re-do the fuel system, I would actually just go down to one tank, keeping the front fuel tank where the filler port is in front of the rear wheel. The intent here would be that the engine would be regressed to the older carbureted setup using an older electronic distributor. Instead of the Duraspark dizzy that would go on the older V8, I'm going to use a hybrid GM HEI dizzy that is built to fit in SBF V8's. This would require me to reconstruct the fuel system to be a low pressure system like what would be in an older car/truck.
Then there's the transmission. Being an E4OD, it's not usable short of adding an aftermarket controller, which isn't going to happen so the next option is converting this thing to a 5spd manual. Since the truck has this option from the factory, all I'd have to do is source the clutch/brake pedal assembly along with a transmission and other associated hardware so I can complete the conversion.
The first thing that I'd have to do is get an engine ready for this truck. We sourced a late 70s Ford truck 302 for cheap off FB Marketplace. Since the accessories were different as was the oil pan, several changes would have to be made to ready the engine for installation into the 94 truck. I want to be able to bolt up the accessory assemblies from the 94 truck so everything else can operate as it did when the truck was an EFI truck.
I decided to change course and work on the interior, specifically the gauge cluster. Since the EFI system and everything on the powerplant would be changed around, I would have to make some changes. In the meantime, I managed to get some of the interior reassembled, mainly just to get the loose components back in place. I will have to visit how the tach and fuel gauge on the cluster would be used, if at all, since neither gauge would be getting feedback from the stock sources, being the HEI dizzy and an aftermarket fuel sending unit.
With a 5 spd transmission and associated hardware in hand, I was able to get the powertrain assembled and ready for installation. I wanted to get the powerplant installed in the truck before I added the accessory assemblies and other crap as I would be doing this using the engine crane on dirt. This involved winching the powerplant out of the F250 after bringing the powerplant down from the garage, pulling the F250 out of the way, lowering the powerplant to the ground, then changing the crane around to face the F150, then pulling the F150 towards the crane which is suspending the powerplant in the air. From there I work the powerplant over and into the engine bay of the F150 as the truck is pulled closer and closer to the crane, using the F250. Eventually this back and forth continues until the powerplant is all the way into the engine bay and resting in place. But as is always the case with this stuff, there are obstacles.
With the transmission in place and the shifter hole cut, I was able to move on to mounting the transmission crossmember and a shifter once I was able to source one. Another thing that I had to address was the oil pan. The pan that was on the engine was a front sump pan and wouldn't fit on this truck so I had to swap over to a rear sump oil pan. Another thing that had to be addressed was the idea that the timing cover that was used on this engine which would allow me to attach the newer serpentine belt accessory assemblies did not have a hole for the oil dipstick. The engine made for this truck had the dipstick hole in the block. This engine does not have that so the only real option was to put a hole in the side of the oil pan and fabricate a dipstick tube with some aluminum tubing that would be mounted in the side of the oil pan using an oil pan dipstick flange for a powerstroke diesel engine.
With the dipstick and oil pan in place I was able to mount the accessory assemblies then move on to the exhaust. Since there was a dual exhaust system already on this truck, all I had to do was reweld the pipes that I had to cut while in the process of mounting everything. I stuck with the stock exhaust manifolds and flange pipes. No extra fabrication was necessary for the exhaust system.
Getting close to the first startup there were several things to take care of. I got the ignition system in place, along with associated hoses, carburetor, fuel lines and some wiring modifications. As stated, since the engine is different, I had to accommodate the hookups for the oil sensor, temperature sensor and the tach signal from the HEI distributor. This involved going into the dash and the remaining wiring coming through the firewall. I had already taken time to clean up the engine bay of all the unnecessary wiring that was associated with the EFI system. One other thing I took care of was bleeding the hydraulic clutch system so I can be able to safely work the clutch when the engine was running.
With the engine running I still couldn't rest easy. I had to tweak and tune the engine as it was just not quite right. I had to go into the carburetor as well as check the rocker arms to make sure all was well on the valve train. Even with a bunch of playing around, the engine still didn't seem quite right, as if something else was wrong. It seemed as if something could be wrong in the valve train, not sure, throttle response was poor much less its ability to idle properly.
Not wanting to concede, I will have to dig deeper into this thing to see what I might be missing with the tuning, specifically swapping carburetors to see if I can get some improvement in the engine's operation, and if not that, trying another set of cylinder heads as some of the symptoms can be associated with valve train issues. This is the chance one takes when messing with used engines that were never able to be vetted before purchase.
I decided to pull the old heads off the engine and swap them out with the spare set of heads that appeared to have been reworked as they were pretty clean. This at least made me feel better that if the problem is in the heads, these "new" ones will fix the problem. Of course a head swap isn't straightforward and requires a bunch of work from start to finish. Even with the cylinder head replacement, in the end I still found myself swapping out carburetors to get the best result on the operation of the engine when it comes to tuning and overall operation. This engine is used, probably well used after all.
With the truck running and driving, I went back to some low level stuff. Since the gauges weren't acting quite right on the gauge cluster, even with the stock sensors in place on our different engine, I ended up trying out an aftermarket 4 in one gauge cluster. This thing is another one of those Chinese productions that comes with its own sensors to install in place of the old sensors while also showing battery voltage and if you have an aftermarket fuel sending unit, can be calibrated to read the sending unit in your fuel tank as well. Later on I ended up modifying the old sending unit to accommodate an aftermarket sending unit so I didn't have to hack up the fuel tank.
Fast forward a year or so and I decided to swap out the C6 transmission in our F250 with another 5 spd that we picked up from the local junkyard. As such there were some missing pieces so the plan was to "borrow" parts from the FMT's 5 spd setup to get the F250 set up. But since I was removing pieces from the FMT, it was only fitting to swap out the 5 spd in the FMT with the C6 that was pulled from the F250. The C6 still has plenty of life in it and is more than capable of delivering more service in this truck.
With all this work done on the truck, the topping off with the C6 transmission was really for the sake of making the truck more salable in the event that I decide to offload the truck. Most people nowadays don't know how to drive stick shifts so converting to an automatic would at least help sell the truck better. All in all this was a project that I wanted to try out just to show that it is possible to convert a "modern" version of an older powerplant back to an older version with some simple parts swaps and light modification. This would allow one to take a "newer" vehicle that happens to use these updated powerplants and has an issue like a boogered wiring or missing/irreplaceable ECU and revive it with older tech. Whether a newer F series truck or E series van or even an older Crown Vic or Fox body Mustang, one can take the body and just swap out parts to get an active powerplant back. Same goes for any GM trucks and some cars.
