I'm thinking about trading a friend paint and body work for his '85 F-250 4x4 x-cab. Truck was originally a 460, he's put some time and effort into the truck, rebuilt axles F/R maybe 20k ago, all new suspension bushings, clip swap ('95), bed swapped to match the clip, all in all a clean shell.

I have my '86 F-250 oil burner that is falling apart (been one hell of a work truck in it's day) but the engine/trans/t-case are all good. What difficulty would it be to convert the gasser over seeing as I have a complete donor rig...

anything wrong with your cab?It'd be easier to just swap clips and beds but.....You'd need hmmmm....the electrics of it of course as well as the driver's part of the dash ( for fuel lights and glowplug lights) can't think of what else...really not that difficult.....I got a buddy doin a 94 cab swap onto an 89 chassi in his IDI

Mine's a regular cab, and I've always liked the x-cab fords... and with all the newer parts on the '85 it kicks the 180k of the '86 in the butt...

Fuel lights I can see, but the GP relay has been gone for a while and a button in it's place, so all I'd really have to do is put a 12v light in the circuit...

Yup, I'm an idiot..interpreted your first post wrong. The drivetrain swap should be cake and pretty easy.....convert the dash if you want to...if not you're golden. Just make sure you've got the electricals to make her run right and you should be good...you'll of course need the engine towers n such and possibly the crossmember....

Going from 460 to a 6.9 is pretty easy for the most part. The towers need to come off, then simply bolt the plates over the frame cross. The bolt holes are already there. If the 460 was carbed (not sure when they went injected) then the fuel pumps in the tanks may work, not sure about the screens though. Otherwise, you will need to pull the senders out ans swap them, or modify them to eliminate the pump. Have to make sure they have return lines and all that fun stuff. The rad support is another issue, as the diesel a/c rad supports are deeper than the gas units. If you have one that has the high output heater, but no factory air, then you may be able to get the rad to work without having to swap supports, as the rads on them are wider, but not deeper.
Chances are you don't have the water separator in use any more, so the water in fuel light is useless, and the glow plug light would be easy enough to wire up is you wanted it to work, or add some other light and just know what it is for...

Fellro said:

...Chances are you don't have the water separator in use any more...

Click to expand...

Actually, I think it still works IIRC my dad used to always take it in each year to get it serviced...

If it is in use, it is the aluminum tank thing behind the master cylinder. Usually the rubber seal at the bottom fails, allowing air into the fuel system. Most are bypassed by now. I redid mine with a removable filter style from an 83 Chevy 6.2. The factory unit can not be serviced either, it is permanently sealed.

The 6.2 chevy water seperator mod is used extensively on both these and the 7.3 IDI engines...you should check out oilburners.net if you haven't already...a very knowledgeable group of IDI guys over there.

There is two styles of water seps too. I have teh spin on, the other is like the Deere filters, glass bowl style that clips on. I know about oil Burners, also Diesel Garage. I don't spend as much time at them as I used to, just don't have the time. I quit the Drama Stop pretty much because I tired of the attitude.