300 ford inline 6 power mods

Ihave an inline 6 in my 86 f250 4x4.   I would like to find out what others have done to bring out a few extra horse power and torque.

Headers ? carb? bored out, looks like lots of block for that.  Deck the head?

I dont need a ton of extra power but a few extra ponies would be nice.

Thanks , John

No persoonal experience, but I have a friend that put headers and exhaust on his and noticed a differnece, really woke up the tired engine.  

go with carb and headers for a simple upgrade add camshaft ignition and tranny regear for more extensive upgrade. i have a friend who just hauled over 12000# on the bed of a flatbed 350 with the straight six and thats all he has done to it  
asphalt=another example of wasteful government spending

jhasty4:
go with carb and headers for a simple upgrade add camshaft ignition and tranny regear for more extensive upgrade. i have a friend who just hauled over 12000# on the bed of a flatbed 350 with the straight six and thats all he has done to it

I would skip the headers because they will take away form low end torque that 300's are famous for. A carb and a mild cam upgrade together with some deeper axle gears would make a big difference. With proper gearing, 6's can move a lot of weight. In the 70's I hauled a fullsized car on a trailer for Ohio to Tenn near NC border with a 66 Chevy P/U with a 250 in it. It came stock with 4.57 gear and did a fine job pulling it even on interstate hills. Back before there was emissions, 6's did a fine job. In later 70's I new a a old retired guy that had a stock 58 C60 chevy single axle dump truck that was cherry. He had gotten it out of a farm sale and hired out for $40/hr to haul gravel and asphalt on big construction jobs when contractors were hiring every truck they could find. His normal load was 8 tons and it hauled it fine without breaking a sweat His total GVW with that load was around 28 to 30K.  BTW, it had a 261 six with 4 speed and a two speed rear axle. He said it got about 8 to 10 MPG average too working too. Sad part is I could have bought that truck for 900 bucks back then. I wish I had and parked it in barn as it would be neat to have today and in full working order.  

clifford racing has a lot of 300 six parts aftermarket stuff. He cuts cams and other related coolstuff. headers are a great upgread but pipe dia. is critical for low end 1 5/8 is a good start for 300 six on low end torque and midrange. On the engine 0 deck and make compression and goodcam. headers help with detonation prevention. Gets heat away from engine better than factory manifold. good aluminum intake and about 600cfm carb for starters.  

wyomingtrailheader:
clifford racing has a lot of 300 six parts aftermarket stuff. He cuts cams and other related coolstuff. headers are a great upgread but pipe dia. is critical for low end 1 5/8 is a good start for 300 six on low end torque and midrange. On the engine 0 deck and make compression and goodcam. headers help with detonation prevention. Gets heat away from engine better than factory manifold. good aluminum intake and about 600cfm carb for starters.

Any header is going to take away for low RPM torque. You cannot let cylinder pressure blow down too quick if you want best possible torque at low RPM's. Also a 600CFM is WAY too big for a 300. Try maybe a 450. Carbs are not like super chargers or bigger is better. Too big and air velocity through them is too low and performance suffers.  

once built a 300 six with clifford headers solid cam and a 600cfm 1 to 1 linkage holley. That little dude ran good. Some head work on porting was done but it still didn't give me the low end torque that I wanted. Later did a 400 ford with some upgrade and out performed my little 300 six I have built many ford engines for 4wds and still building. On the low end torque and headers hurting torque, you must have ran to big a tube and collector. its all about cam profiles and how they are cut for low end torque. On the cfm's for a engine big question and lots of possibilites. I currently run a 472 ford with 950 cfm 1 to 1 linkage set up and fully tunable air bleeds and metering plates. I do keep my exhaust pipe dia down for low end torque for 4wd's and run certain mufflers per application. On the cylinder blowing down that is done with camshaft timing on exhaust opening. I had a cam cut purposely for low and mid range for a 460 in a heavy truck and all my performance buddies didn't understand but I love that cam and still currently running it. Proper torque converter built also. I need more info why yours hurt torque.  

On headers their are many out their and for 4wd trucks I like long tube headers and tri Y's. clifford makes a good header for 300 six. one of the potential problems with a factory manifold is hot spots. Plus anything you can do to get heat off the exhaust valve helps detonation prevention. I havent done a 300 six in a long time but clifford is still out their making it work for his guy's. My first 300 six started with a comp cam 268hyd and thats a good start for a guy learning a engine in 4wd world. Hope this helped out on info for bc logger. its nice to have different point of views on subjects and able to learn on what you really want. by the way I spent about $5000 on 300six to run its best. Lots of good machine work and nice parts and head work.  

Well I'm not sure if this person is still deciding on what to do with his motor, but personally I'm kinda of a big enthusiast about the Ford 300 so I'm on these sites reading and learning about what other people have done to their motor/truck. But to get to the point I have a 85 Ford 300 that's bored over 30 with a Comp Cam 260 lift, A clifford 4 barrel intake manifold, A single outlet Header, And 650 Mechanical Holley double Pumper 4 barrel on it, and stock head currently And it runs like a dream.

I was told from Clifford that anything over a 500cfm cam would be too big. So I took his advice and droped about $400 on a holley 390cfm carb. I ran good but not in the mud, which I was looking for. So my brother had a 650cfm sitting on the shelf and one day we put that on. It was amazing, The low end torque and power is there.  

i have a 1988 F150 EFI 300 4x4 all stock except a flowmaster 40 series with a 3 1/2 inch tip in front of my RR tire.

im tryin to find a way to enhance performance but not alot such as a mild cam and a few other light modifications.  Where could i find those sorts of things at for a reasonable price.

I am also looking for a good 4" suspension lift kit for a reasonable price also.  Who would yall recomend for a good price?  

i have a 1972 F250 with a 300 6 and the engine came all tricked out... all it had done t it was intake, carb, exhaust, pistons and valves and it still has loads of low end she scoots for having 4.10 gears and a granny 4 speed. but intake, carb, and exhaust should be all you need to push a good 100 HP out of your 6  

I just got given a 1988 f150 with a 300 in it. It is fairly low miles. What is there for the EFI version? I was thinking about converting to carb to keep it simply. Its a 2wd. that I plan on using as a pre-runner [and any where else I can go] and to tow a future buggy project I hope to really get started next year.  

I have a 1985 f-150 with a 300, AOD, and 4:10 axle. The carb is a carter yf from the holley reman catalog, listed for a 69 f-100 with a 250 or 300. The distrb. is a NAPA rebuilt with an electronic conversion. Exhaust is a set of split manifolds for the 93 300 F.I. engine, and 2 1/4 " duals with turbo mufflers. The only internal mod is a timing gear set from a 69 spec 300 and a set of quality after market valve springs. This combination will run with any stock injected 302 and deliver 14+ MPG. Idle is ulta smooth power and torque are right now with only light throttle. I work at a NAPA and can supply part numbers.  

I have a 1982 Ford Bronco with a 4.9L 300. All stock as far as i can tell...any ideas? I'm looking to make it an offroad/daily driver.  

I have been doing some some work on an 300,6 and found out for power use a crank from a 250 with the inline six,don't need nothing for the valves,bump up timing instead at zero go to 4,and advance to 14btc.