2005 model Ford trucks

JerryG · Oct 20, 2004

These was a farmer here that did the exact same thing as Birdhunters guy did. He loved it and said the miles was great.

Richard, that is a smaller 4 cylinder engine that I don't think weighted as much as a big block. Weight wasn't a problem.

bgott · Oct 20, 2004

I ran across a guy who stuck a 108 c.i. Mercedes diesel in a '40s IH pickup once. He adapted the engine to the stock granny box 4 speed and then ran a 3 speed trans behind that. If I remember correctly it was an overdrive. It wasn't a hot rod, heck, the Mercedes diesel car back then with that motor was a total pig, but with triple reduction and the granny gear in the four speed it could pull the frame apart if you weren't careful.I remember him telling me that he tore it up something fierce before he realized how heavy the crossmembers had to be to mount the three speed. Those trucks had super low rear axle gears in them anyway so compound low was really low. I haven't done the math but I figure it was geared lower than a tractor when you figure in the smaller tire size. Overdrive would have made it easier to drive at highway speeds than with the stock engine.

cowboydoc · Oct 20, 2004

Ok I believe you guys but how in the world do you get a 50 hp motor in a pickup, which is pretty heavy, to go much over 30 or 40? And then you say it had more power for not shifting down which equates to torque so how could it have more torque than an inline six? We had several of those inline sixes on the ranches. As far as torque they had about everything beat. I've rebuilt alot of 4 cylinder tractor motors and that inline six a couple times. Every 4 cyclinder diesel I ever worked on was ALOT heavier than those six cylinders no contest.

wroughtn_harv · Oct 20, 2004

Richard all of us old guys at one time or another has known someone like Bgott described. I used to have a neighbor in California who had a Ford with two three speed transmissions hooked up together. Low low was not moving more'n a mile a month. High high had the motor motor barely turning at freeway speeds.

Around town it was the back transmission in second and you used the one on the tree like normal. He used low in the rear transmission for moving his travel trailer when parking etc. And he only used high in the rear one when cruising down the interstate.

Some of the old guys had some neat stuff. I once had an old boy with a sixty five Malibu come in to use my welding equipment to do a repair. This was about 1975. It was a two door Chevelle with a ball hitch located between the rear window and the trunk. He'd built a gooseneck kind of hitch for his travel trailer. The Chevelle was his toter.

What he repaired was a trailer locator. It had two wheelbarrow type wheels driven by a briggs motor about two or three horsepower. The way it worked was he had a handle like the tongue of a kid's wagon for steering. He also had a forward and reverse transmission and hand throttle. He'd disconnect the trailer from the car. And then he'd get out his locator and put the trailer in it's place.

He was probably the most ingenious man I've ever known. I only got to talk to him for a couple of hours that day but it was a treat. He claimed to have been the one who invented thr process for cast aluminum race car wheels, said he worked for Cragar.

Thinking of him reminds me of the time I'd went to a yard sale with my dad to pick up a skillsaw. The fella had died and the family was cleaning out his stuff. In the garage was a frame of a motor home in the process of coming together. What fascinated me about it was he'd found the front drive train and motor from an Olds Toronado. They had only been out a year or so at the time but he was already on top of it.

I'm sure there are still some birds like that out there these days. But I'm just as sure there are teams of people in white suits with nets searching for them high and low. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Bird · Oct 20, 2004

( He'd built a gooseneck kind of hitch for his travel trailer. The Chevelle was his toter. )

Quite a few years ago, in one of my RV magazines, there were pictures and a story about a Cadillac with a fifth-wheel hitch on the roof for his trailer.

( a trailer locator )

I don't recall seeing a gasoline powered one, but it sounds much like the electric Power Caster.

( motor home in the process of coming together. What fascinated me about it was he'd found the front drive train and motor from an Olds Toronado )

I guess you know that was the drivetrain used by the GMC motorhomes in the mid-70s.

ScottAR · Oct 20, 2004

Tractor motors in trucks is not a far fetched idea. AMC made half a dozen Jeeps with perkins 4cyl. There's a guy at another forum I go to that has one. They were prototypes and Jeep denys even making them but....

There's an older feller around here with a 63-64?? Ford F250 dually with a 453 detroit in it. I forgot to ask him what he pulled it out of. Can hear him comin' too... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Edit: Ooh ooh I forgot, There's a guy on my bronco mailing list that took a 3.9 cummins from a Case forklift, bolted in a dodge truck trans. and now has a diesel Early bronco. That's an easy one...

BigDave · Oct 20, 2004

Doc,

I had a Suzuki SJ410 SUV. Please notice I didn't call it a Jeep. It had 45hp, and 50+lbs of torque from a one liter engine. The suzuki weighed about 2500lbs, so it was about half the weight of a full-size truck, but it could get up to 75mph. I would think a full-size truck with 60hp & 120lbs of torque could go 60 without too much difficulty.

bgott · Oct 20, 2004

The 4- 53 Detroit and the 6- 354 Perkins were very popular conversions back in the days before you could get a diesel in a pickup.

wroughtn_harv · Oct 21, 2004

The first time I looked at the Suzuki it's selling points was it fit in the back of a three quarter ton pickup bed. The motor was a two stroke that pumped out twenty five horses. And there was a trick pipe available that added another three or four at higher rpm's.

A couple of years after that I was given a serious run for my money up a sand dune by one with a Datsun 1600 engine that was built and strong. Supposedly the drive train was stock except for the hot motor.

My ride was was a 59 or 60 CJ5 with a built smallblock and a Super T Ten four speed. She was a getter. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

One of the more fun vehicles was a stock more or less 79 Chevy van. It had a three fifty with a three on the tree. I needed lower gears for hauling a racecar on a trailer. So I installed a Saginaw four speed. It was an instant swap, bolted right in.

Then I noticed the stock linkage for the three speed looked like it would hook up to the new trans. I tried it, had myself a four on the tree. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif I drilled a hole in the floorboard and had a rod that shifted reverse.

I'd pull up to some gearhead kid at a light. They knew the three fifty. They knew what I'd done to it. They also knew I only had three on the tree. I'd short shift just to catch fourth gear and see the heads spin. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif