Alright thanks. Man this just screams "Find a drivable donor" , or I'm going to be tracking down parts left and right. lol

 

Maan... sweet ride! Gives me an idea for our '55 F6 Flatbed. I have one question... where did you get that rearend?? Ive never seen one of those that narrow or did you have it shortened?

When i get my build done ive been wondering what to do with the engine in there now... thanks to you sir i now have a pretty good idea hehe im thinkin toy hauler

 

If you need ANY parts, i probably have it...i have taken apart three of these trucks....i got a lot of extras XD!

And another thing, I come towards BIllings, MT a lot...if you need help with anything im sure i could find a way to make it to sheridan.

 

Thanks Quintin, that should help me out a great deal. Much appreciated.

Anyone have a list of everything I will need? If I find a good deal on one that's out I'm not sure what all needs to be there or the wiring or anything else I will need.

Hairy, thanks I sure do love it, I can't work on it without someone trying to buy it off of me, I usually talk to at least one person an hour when I'm out there. The rear end is factory on it, the bed isn't and the fenders are much wider. I still need to get new tail lights and I plan on this just being a temp bed (too much work to really fix verse the cost of a new reproduction). My goal has been to make it look like it could have been factory, so a whole lot of work for things that aren't supposed to be noticeable, lol. Like a rear bumper that matches the front, only the F600s didn't have rear bumpers and the front one is curved on an F600 and on an F100 the rear bumper is flat.

 

The wiring is the super easy part , dont even worry about that till the engine is in and ready to run, I bet if you hooked up with a tow company they could find you a whole doner.

 

My main concern is I don't want to be missing something and have a massive head ache because I don't realize I'm short a part or two. Building is a lot of fun for me, stupid problems not so much, lol.

Since I want to convert it to 4x4 I figured it might be easier getting a full donor. If I can get one at a good price that is, no point in paying a couple extra thousand for parts I don't need and can't sell. Ideally it would be great parts in a rusted out truck so I could get it cheap, but we tend to not get much rust here (too cold in the winter, too dry and hot in the summer). I'll have to check out the tow companies, I've seen them having some good trucks before. Thankfully I live in big diesel pickup country so there are quite a bit of these trucks around.



About what are these engines supposed to run at on the highway? I know most gas engines are made for about 3000RPMs but I know diesels run at a lot lower RPM. Just trying to figure out the gears I will want.

 

The 6.9 makes - 170HP @ 3300RPM, and 340ft. Torque @ 1600RPM

The 7.3 makes - 180HP @ 3300RPM and 375ft. Torque @ 1600RPM.


So for highway cruising, I say something like 1400-1700RPM is the sweet spot (if your cruise speed is going to be around 55-65.



And forgot to answer your question about mpg, you'll see inbetween 13-18mpg.

 

So with a 5 speed I'll probably want something like 3.00 then? Or if I can find a 6 speed it looks like I can even use 4.11s (puts me at 1400RPM at 75mph if the 6th speed is a 0.50 OD like some T56s, but if it's only about 0.62 like most then 3.56 should be the largest I go with)

Well crap, seems I really need to find what transmissions I can run then.

So what do I have for bolt up options? I'd like it to be a manual, 6 speed is ideal. Anyone making adapters for these if need be?

 

You can find a ZF6 (6 speed off a PSD diesel from a 1998-03 PowerStroke.

Same bolt patern, so direct bolt in deal.

 

Awesome, always a plus when it's easy. On these Y-blocks if you want anything other than factory it's a $900 adapter.

 

That have the 292 in it? I didn't notice till that other pic that its the fenders that are wider. How was it done if you don't mind spilling some secrets, I'm looking to widen mine as well. I'm curious to know if you can regear an old rearend like that to something taller than say a 4.56 our old 44 stoody has like 5.13's the ol flathead winds out at about 45. That old 6x6 will go through anything tho. On the bumpers have you considered using a front bumper for the rear? Think I've seen a couple that body style like that.

 

It has a 272 HD, which makes it a pain if anything breaks, like my water pump, because they are slightly different and are not in reproduction, but the differences matter.

On the fenders I just welded on a 4" length of steel and made a section to drop the fronts down a little. Still quite "raw" as I'm waiting to make it look pretty when I have the materials I need for a proper paint job.

As far as re-gearing, to my knowledge you can't. I have a 5.83/8.11 rear, but 5.83 is about as high-way gears as you can get. Usually you have to swap out the whole axle, but someone out there might know different.

On the rear I used my old front bumper, it was twisted and warped, I had to hammer it out quite a bit.

 

If I'm not mistaken, the OD ratio in the ZF5 and ZF6 are about the same. Something like .02 difference.

 

I'm in the same boat as you are.
I have a 1958 F600 with a 292, 5 speed (not OD) and an Eaton 2 speed rear axle with 6:33/8.23 gears. I searched everywhere and I learned that your 5.83 gears are the lowest numerical gears ever offered for that Eaton axle. I decided that the old 292 was not practical so I bought a 1988 F-SuperDuty with the 7.3, ZF42 and a Dana 80 axle with 5:13 gears. The ZF used in the FSD has the same drum brake emergency brake system as found in our F600's. The Dana 80 has the 10 lug axles and I want to keep the original 6x8.75" bolt pattern on the F600. The old UPS and FedEx Freightliner delivery trucks had a Dana 80 with the 6x8.75" lug pattern (and disc brakes) and I found one in a junk yard with 3.73 gears. There are 2 different ring gear carriers for the Dana 80- one for 3.73 and lower numerically, another for 4.10 and higher numerically. I will be running 9R-22.5's which have a 37" diameter. If the 3.73 turns out to be too low numerically I have a 4.10 ring and pinion that I can install on the 5.13 carrier out of the FSD. I also found a Spicer 7231D (Brownie) which has 2.14 UD. DD and .86 OD so I don't think I'll need to change from 3.73 to 4.10.
All of this will eventually wind up in the 58 F600.

 

Sounds like an awesome build.

That's good to know the e-brake too, I had been wondering what I would end up doing to be able to keep one. Pretty cool how very "right" these 80s Diesels work for vintage builds.