I was given a 73 Ranchero that has a 351 4V engine and a 4 speed manual transmission. We are trying to find the history of the truck. Does anyone know of a way we could do this? Possibly by using the VIN? Any help or suggestions is greatly appreciated.

 

Hi, and welcome to the site!

You could use the VIN to get a build sheet from Ford that would show how the truck was orignally equipped, where it was built and so on, though much of that info is actually contained in the VIN itself. I assume this is a GT, as the Ranchero GT was the only model available from the factory with the Cobra-Jet 351C-4bbl and 4-speed, though they could certainly have been swapped in a later time. The VIN would tell us that. You can post it or email it to me and I can decode it for you.

I had a '73 with a 400 in it, never really liked the '73 front end so I replaced it with one off of a '72 GT along with a 351C-4bbl (which I still have...the engine, not the car) and made it into a faux '72 GT.

If it's actually a GT and it's the original engine and tranny and not a transplant, you have a potentially fairly valuable vehicle there...

 

Hi there. The VIN for the Ranchero is 3A48Q316692. When I tried to look on the free sites it wouldn't pull anything due to being "short on #'s". Thanks again for your help! Greatly appreciate it.

 

Rancheros had an 11-digit VIN, so it's correct...just won't work in a VIN decoder designed for a 17-digit VIN.

Here's what I come up with: 3A48Q316692

3 (1973) A (Assembled in Atlanta) 48 (GT) Q (351 V-8 248 hp) 316692 (Build Sequence Number)

That's all the info contained within the VIN. For any more info than that, we're gonna have to go to the door plate. But from what I've seen so far, you do have an original 351C-equipped car there. I found a '72 equipped the same way as yours, 351C/4sp with 93K miles in Seattle for sale for 10 grand. A '72 is more desirable than a '73, but if yours is in decent shape it could be worth quite a bit. Wish I still my '72 Q-code Ranchero GT. It was rough, but restorable. I still have the 4-bolt main 351C block for it, along with the insert for the hood scoop and the C6 tranny, not to mention the pink slip, but the car itself was stolen about 10 years ago...

 

Hmm, how does someone steal a car when you have the engine?

 

I had a friend who built a 69 cougar with the 4 barrel clevland engine heads and 4bolt mains.
Got it running good parked in front of his house.

Next morning he comes out to go to work gets in the car turns the key and nothing no click or anything, gets out opens the hood and in the night someone stole the whole top end left him the shortblock in there thats it.

 

That is amazing that someone can do that and nobody hears anything.

 

No kidding! That's some talented tweekers!