drop in a sweet lil cummins!! there is a guy on the HAMB building up a truck like yours, hese`s got a complete chassis from a more modern vehicle under it powered by a cummins.

 

Rick, leave the back door unlocked and I'll be by to pick it up. I'll test that set up for you for 5 or 10 yrs.

I had hoped to not use the computer control box but your set up seems to be exactly what I need. My biggest fear is an undersized link in the drive train and nothing working or break downs all the time.

I figure the two speed with the 292 will be all the power I'll ever need. I know pulling MPG will stink. My wife's truck is a 2003 Chev with the 8.0 gas and Allison. At 23,000 lbs we get 6 mpg. Same as the fire truck by itself but with much more comfort. I am setting this up for a lighter load. The 22 is smaller than a model t truck. Trailer will weigh more than the truck. Most of my driving will be without the trailer.

My family is sorta big truck crazy. Dad still drives the 76 F-800 COE pumper to car shows. He'll be 87 this November. The 44 Seagrave is too hot in the summer to drive very far. I never considered comfort before. But health issues change things and I cant handle the 100 degree plus cab temperatures in the summer. It is an open cab but no air gets in the cab as it has fixed windows front and sides. No vents either. We spent considerable funds to upgrade it with a BBC (sorry Ford fans), power brakes and Allison trans. Couldn't make Power steering fit. I have no issues spending money again but I need to get the right set up to smooth over cost issues with the boss (wife).

So I need something BIG, COOL, and RED to drive to shows over an hour away that I can afford to put fuel in. I need to pull a camper or flat bed trailer as well. The wife needs to be able to drive it so PS is a must. She can drive the 44 but it kills her in town to turn it. AC is a must for me.

Now let me go over my check list, mask, gloves, flashlight, bolt cutters, now where did I put that address...............

 

The mileage is a huge factor. I had hoped for 15 towing and 20 empty. I also hope to win the lottery so i understand not all things are possible. Remember I titled it pipe dream.

I am not an artist mechanic, I never played one on TV or radio either. I can time a truck, set the points, do the brakes, etc but I am no good at designing the unknown. I know lots of people have done crazy things before me and why not learn from their mistakes. I have no problem learning from other people's mistakes. I hire all my mechanical work done. I trust my mechanic fully but, his ideas may not be the one I should go with for the best out come. So we are searching for what has been done in the past to find out what won't work and how well it did work. A 6 banger might work but.....is that the best.

 

Hmmm.....that would qualify as a "Pipe Dream"!!!


It's also NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. (period)


Even with a diesel you couldn't do it.(well maybe with a Cummins 6BT, an OD trans and TALL gears....)


I am hoping for 15 MPG when running easy on the flat in top gear with the torque converter locked.....I think I'll be lucky if I get 10-12!!

My F-600 weighed about 7000 lbs with the old flat bed on it. (pics in my gallery)

With the current flat bed I have to put on it and the lift gate, automatic trans, I figure I'll be at around 7500-8000 lbs empty.

With those kind of weights it's just not possible to get super high mileage.


There is a guy on here that has put a Cummins 6BT in his 56 F-600.

I think he used a ("tall") Dana 80 rear axle and a manual trans.

I seem to remember an empty mileage of around 20 or so......

 

I put a cummins 6bt in my 56 f600 that weights 9000# with a dana 80 with 3.31 ratio and 38in tires I'm turning 1800 rpm at 62 mph.
Best mileage so far was 20 but 16 seems to be the norm for the in town driving.
I drove the y-block for 13 yrs and loved the sound it made while working my way through the gears but I don't miss it since the straight piped cummins makes great music of its own.
The great thing about the cummins set up is that I now can drive it on the freeway at a very comfortable rpm with plenty of power. The Y-block was working very hard just to drive 55.

 

I knew your ears would be burning!!

I think mine will run pretty nice at 2100rpm @ 60! I don't expect to get 20 mpg though.......15 maybe......(hope hope!!)

 

The straight piped Cummins is a thing of beauty for sure, mines been restriction free (turbo silencer ring, muffler, cat converter) for a few years now and I love it.

And if you ever do have a power shortage you can chip it cheap for a big improvement. I run a Quadzilla XZT+ on my '01 24v, it has 3 settings, stock/mileage/power. The mileage setting gets me a solid 2mpg's on the highway and the power setting adds 65hp/200tq at the flip of a switch, all for around $300!

The Cummins option is a serious consideration for a powerful truck with reasonable mileage.

Ok, i'll stop plugging the Cummins now, I promise...

Good luck with your decision, I need to hear a Y-block I guess, you guys make it sound pretty neat.

 

The Cummins option is on the list for sure. I will have to do some research on them for availability and cost. It may get closest to my "Pipe Dream".

 

If an engine swap is in your future I highly recommend getting a complete donor vehicle if you want to keep your costs down.
I used a 94 f700 box truck and by doing all the work myself, was able to keep the costs within my 3k budget. If you will be paying someone to do the swap I think you could spend 10k real fast

Keep the pipe dream alive! Mine was once a dream as well.

 

takin notes here...

also, if an E4OD is used, I'd highly recommend carefully considering the "toughness" of them and do a little research. I'm no expert by any means, but 10 years ago, I rebuilt these for a living (in a reman plant environment). I saw MANY come thru with tags reading less than 25k miles and pull the pan - shavings. There might be some years or combos that were built a little better or tougher than others. I know there were aftermarket pieces that Ford wouldnt let us put back in that might have actually improved things... In the same breath, I did see a lot of 250k mi trannies come thru too. and I'm not talkin about the people the temp agency sent us!

my pipe dream can be deducted by my avatar. a crew cab coe is my holy grail. I used to watch the E450's and 550's, but am now looking at F650's & 750's. Again though, quality was an issue on these as I understand manufacturing was moved south of Texas and a quick comparison of used truck values on a med duty Ford and a med duty Intl will show it. You can get a SMOKIN deal on a used med duty Ford. but once the smoke clears, what do you have? maybe good, maybe not so much.

hope this helps some. BEST of luck in the project.

JML

 

HaHa,

 

Yeah, and Don't go google'n for trannies or you won't like what you find!!!!


My E4OD was rebuilt by a local guy that is very familiar with all the mods to make them live. He did a bunch of them putting it back together.

He also said that even though it had over 100,000 miles on it when it came out of my neighbors F450, he said I could have used everything inside. (it just had a slight front seal leak)

My neighbor told me that he didn't baby it at all and I saw what he was dragging around on a daily basis! 10K+ lb truck and more than 10K+ lb trailer+machines etc...

I'll probably never have that much weight on that thing.


I needed a trans that had an Over drive, locking TC, and provisions for a tail mounted parking brake. I didn't want to be hauling chocks around everywhere!!

I also stuck with the 5 lug BUDD type wheels so my rear axle choices were limited.

If I had it to do over again, I would do what User Rustyrelic did and use much more modern rear and front axles. This would give me the ability to have big truck disc brakes.

I would also dump the 5 lug BUDD wheels and use more modern type hubs and wheels.


That'll be in the next truck!!

 

Based on the information so far the Cummins is the best choice.

I'll be test driving it next weekend and deciding. Almost certain it will come home with me. It is drivable now and we can start to accumulate parts. A complete doner vehicle is what I would like for a swap because they are cheaper.

 

Yeah, If I had to do it over, I would probably do a Cummins.

Just consider how you'll do the parking brake if you cannot find a rear axle.

NONE of the old trucks used a wheel mounted parking brake!

If you can find a ZF 5 speed or 6 speed trans (for a 4x4), I think the parking brake unit I have will bolt right on. It's the same one used on all the F450/550's and Motor home chassis'