Thread: 300 I6 in a Falcon Wagon

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Well, right now I have the opportunity to pick up a complete running 300 I6 for $100, but was wondering if it would be worth the swap.

It would be going into my 64 Falcon Wagon which is currently housing a 170 I6.(3 on the tree trans)

Would this be a good motor to hop up? If so would it be a direct bolt in like the 200 or would I need different mounts and such?

Thanks

Originally Posted by mudbog42

Well, right now I have the opportunity to pick up a complete running 300 I6 for $100, but was wondering if it would be worth the swap.

It would be going into my 64 Falcon Wagon which is currently housing a 170 I6.(3 on the tree trans)

Would this be a good motor to hop up? If so would it be a direct bolt in like the 200 or would I need different mounts and such?

Thanks

Wow, it's been fourty years since I played with the Ford inline motor. I was building a H/G early Thames panel gasser with a 300 inch Ford six, top loader trans and Henry's narrowed nine inch about 1969 until the new drag Volkswagens blew away the national records (like todays index).

The 240 and 300 inch motors are the same family. The 144/170/200 inch motors like used in the Falcons and early Mustangs are completely different. The 240/300 is much longer than the smaller motors so it would most likely need to have the firewall moved back (not easy in a uni-body car) like an early falcon. The big advantage to the big motors is the intake is cast separately from the head. Clifford offered cast aluminum four barrel manifolds. The bellhousing and valve train share 289 size parts. Remember there is early and late bolt patterns five and six bolt so get the correct housing to match your engine. You will need to do a lot of fabrication on this conversion.

The 300 is quite possibly the best engine Ford ever built. It responds well to mods and there are a lot of good hop up parts. I have warmed up a couple and actually have one built and another one in the waiting now.
I was not aware the 300 had early and late bell housings, learn something new everyday.
The 240 head is just a bit shorter and should use 240 push rods but has a little higher compression. On the 300 there is 4 different rocker stud variations, some adjustable and some not.
Clifford is a great source for parts but also Offenhauser still makes intakes. I have one that is a dual port and I believe it is still in production. I also have a 2 fours intake and there are several others made, even mechanical injection.
The later efi engines use a split exhaust manifold that is a nice upgrade. I have a couple sets of those and also a set of long tube headers but will probably opt for the manifolds when I install the built engine in a truck.
Also the engine will reward you greatly for any time you spend cleaning up the ports with a die grinder.
I like Comp cams and have run the 260 with great satisfaction.
I have strong plans for a 300 with small twin turbos running on propane.

The 300 inline 6 is a great engine and when I had one back in High school we couldn't buy a dual exhaust for it so we split the manifold and built are own intake with a small carter 4 barrel for it and wow, we could beat some sbc with that engine and it had alot of torque.

Don't over look that the series of Ford 300 inch engines were used for industrial motors, like in mobile water pumps, generators, welders, etc. The industrial 300 inch motor version came with a "forged crank" as standard. I had one years ago when I was collecting parts for my gasser build. So check out the surplus yards for possible core parts.

Hey John, i see the small Ford 6 on a lot of farm machinery like swathers, do those have better parts too?

Other then unique and cheap, don't really see any reason to go to all the work of modifying the firewall, fabbing up mounts, etc... Either a 289 or a 302 is going to be an easier swap, and will result in a car with much higher resale.... By the time you get the 300 in and mod it so it has some power your going to spend as much or more as you would putting a V-8 in.... If you go looking for a V-8, keep in mind the 289's and 302's are narrower and shorter then the 351W and as such would be the easier swap... Some of the early Falcons actually came with a 260 and a 4 speed....so things do fit quite nicely.....

the 300 I6 even being a really good engine, it won't fit in a Falcon. it's not too long, it would fit that way, but the intake comes over too far and will not fit due to the shock tower.. '69-'70 Mustangs they will fit in, but there wider..... best bet if you want simple, is the 200 I6, or even a 250 if you don't mind changing transmissions... D7 up cylinder head, 2bbl carb, 2.3 Tempo 4cyl flat top pistions, shave cyl head .040 and run a .045 thick head gasket.. that will get around 9.5-10:1 depending on what everything ends up.. 200 hp is not out of the question.... when you figure the weight savings of the 6cyl ( the 200 6 is only 325# ), and the fact you don't have to change spindals, steering box ( if your doing it right, a V8 conversion uses a V8 box ), rear end ect to use a V8.. a 200 will make cheaper Hp as there is no conversion nessasary.