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Anytime someone catches a glimpse of my f-100 in the shop, they always make some type of comment, good or bad. So i figured ill post up my swap progress here. Most of the parts used in this swap are things i had laying around the shop or were purchased used for pennies on the dollar. I would say 8 out of 10 things i had on hand from other projects/ part outs.
I obtained the truck by trading a completely clapped out 83 volvo 240 wagon for it. Supposedly was sitting for 12 years out in the street. Its a 1964 f-100 shortbed, originally 223 i-6, 3 on the tree, 3.91 gears in a 9". First thing i did was redo the front solid axle with new king pins and bushings, power discs up front and redid the drums out back. Here's the truck when i got it in driving condition. Its completely rust free with the exception of some surface rust on the floor board and truck bed.
So I drove it a few times with the tired old 223, I couldn't stand how slow this thing was. Originally i was going to do a turbo 2.4 ecotec to a 5 speed, but i felt like it wouldn't have enough low end torque for the times i wanted to use it as a truck. I remembered that i had a extremely low mileage lq4 out of a 2007 cab and chassis truck that broke 2 con rods because they never changed the oil.
This is what the oil passages looked like.
Since this is a budget build, i cleaned out the block myself and all of the metal that was embedded in every nook and cranny. I then ran a hone in the bores to help the new rings bed in. I found a cheap but beat rotating assembly for a couple hundred bucks. I was able to clean everything up and found the pistons, rods, and crank to be in good shape. I actually had a set of builder quality moly coated rings that i filed to fit so i can do forced induction in the future. I also had a pair of head gaskets and a set of main and rod bearings with no markings on them. I think these were from an engine i was supposed to rebuild but we went with used instead. I reused all the other gaskets with strategic application of ultra grey, cleaned up the timing kit, lifters, and stock cam. basically this short block is composed of 5-6 different engines.
The heads are from the same engine, just completely coated in oil coke and sludge with metal all over. Cleaned and inspected them, they are straight and guides showed little wear. Had to source 2 used coils to make a set as i only had 6 good ones. Dug out a pair of ls3 manifolds that i had from a header install on a camaro. Going with a carb setup because i had a manifold and a 6010 box that i got from trading some lt1 parts quite a few years back.
Here's me test fitting the engine and trying to figure out my cross member situations.
Finalized the measurements and burned everything in. Flipped the manifolds forward because it will be easier to do the exhaust and it will be ready to do a single turbo in the future. Water pump is a take off unit from a collision repair, the threads for the fan clutch are all chowdered up but its good to go other than that. Got a high mount alternator bracket. Cheap setup but looks pretty solid.
Carb is a crappy 750 edelbrock that a customer wanted nothing to do with, i can tune these carter's pretty good so ill try it out since it was free, found a random alternator in the alternator pile, got a used starter from LKQ for 20 bucks.
Got a radiator from ebay, 3 row unit for 120 shipped. Had a fan assembly from a collision repair. Its from a late model VW. fits perfectly, it has PWM controller that i'll have to hack to retain the soft start and such. Upper hose is cut from a saab 900 turbo, lower hose is a cut down lower hose from a 99 tahoe.
Anybody choosing you on is due for one VERY unpleasant surprise!
Haha, thanks. It should be pretty light weight when done. If i can get traction, it should be pretty fast even n/a.
No pics of the trans setup, ill get some tomorrow, basically its built 4l60e with a billet sonax input and drum and a 2600 stall converter. transmission is out of my lt1 volvo wagon that i swapped to a t56. shifter is out of a manual swapped challenger and its a b&m pro ratchet. All that i really have to do is wire it up, and find a driveshaft that fits, fabricate the exhaust and its drivable.
Cool,we built a 63 unibody F100 with a sbc way back in the day,it was always fun banging people's heads of the back window just because. What alternator mount are you using,might give that one a try for my 53 GMC.
Cool,we built a 63 unibody F100 with a sbc way back in the day,it was always fun banging people's heads of the back window just because. What alternator mount are you using,might give that one a try for my 53 GMC.
4l60e fits under the truck real well, fabbed up the new trans crossmember. hooked up the shifter and mounted it. i think i might make a better mount for the shifter but it works.
Lots of room under and around the lq4 in this truck. probably one of the easiest swaps ive done.
Here's me messing with the VW fan and built in controller. Got a crappy little square wave generator to output when the controller wants to see. These suckers pull some air and thats on a weak *** battery.