First off, My appologies if I am asking something I missed in the FAQ THREAD.

My brother and I are planning to purchase a 1974 F600 with a 330HD engine, 4 speed tranny and 2speed dually rear end. The price demands we buy this truck, as we could drive it straight to the scrap yard and make a considerable profit.

I was told the the heads and intake on the HD FT engines will not mix with factory FE pieces. Is this true??... We were hoping to remove the governor plate under the carb and possible exchange the intake for a factory 4bbl FE intake.

We were hoping to allow the motor to pull a few more RPMs and possibly eventually add a turbo and a carb box later on.

ANY EDUCATED THOUGHTS ON THIS?

I should add that we are actually planning on transferring the drivetrain (engine, trans and 2spd rearend) to a 74 F250 4x4 chassis add the NP205 divorced Tcase and gear the front to match the rear... IF CORRECT GEARS ARE AVAILABLE.... all to build a parts chaser/shop truck/plow truck/racecar tow vehicle..

or would the 330HD do well with a 4.30 series gearing in the dana rearend/front end we already have in the 4x4 chassis? and just convert the rear to a dually set up....

 

IF it is an HD, the heads and manifolds don't match up.

If you want more power, a 391 would be the way to go.

More rpms are going to give you valve spring trouble methinks.

While these are underpowered load wise, brake and steering wise they have about all the power they can handle....

 

Does a 4 times over Master & Registered Marine Mechanic fit your definition of educated? Please I am not bragging, but since it has been asked who I am on this forum so I guess I will start to say it. If so -

Well, looking at around a 7.2 to 7.4 to 1 compression ratio, it would be a good candidate for a turbo. Now, wether or not you could use the power in heavily loaded situation on a long term basis is another question. HP creates heat, some of which can be taken care of thru the cooling system, but it is hard to get rid of the exhaust heat, meanig it will be hard on the exhaust valves, manifolds and system.

This heat will turn exhaust manifold from dull red to cherry red on a GAS heavily loaded truck/motorhome pushed hard up a pass. A short service life can be expected at these temps. That is why your exhaust manifolds are COMPLETLY different than the FE engines.

FYI - On the 460/454/440 families of engines - Dodge, on there 440-3 engines actually made different cylinder heads for these truck rated/duty engines - they increased the coolant flow around the exhaust ports and runners. Dodge is the only one that did this, and they sufferered signifigantly less exhaust manifold trouble on heavily loaded trucks/motorhomes. Neither Ford (460) nor Chevrolet (454) did this, and they have gone thru several generations of exhaust manifolds to try and keep cracking / warping down. The downside to Dodges appproach? A larger cooling system, capable of rejecting/transfering more heat in to the air stream is required, read "more expensive"

As mentioned, the heads and intake are different from a FT to a FE. I can directly attest to this as I just did the heads on my 1970 330.

Ford, at least according to my manuals, set these engines up at a 13:1 fuel air ratio rather than the more common, ideal 14.7:1 fuel air ratio. Why you ask? Heat again is the answer, a bit more cooling and defense against "pinging" from a lean mixture, which while only bothersome in a lightly loaded pickup, turns into a piston desroyer in a medium duty truck.

Heavy GAS truck engines that are heavily loaded contiuosly are built the way they are for a reason, and no it is not to slow down the trucks, but to give a reasonable service life in these heavier continuos load conditions. If a set engine design produces 200 hp continuosly for 100k miles, then at a continuos rating of 400 hp, the same engine, given the same materials and construction might have a service life of 20 to 25k miles. Much like the square of hp for speed, close to the same applies in this case.

Perhaps a better comparison would be a 500 CID hemi - producng 200 - 400 hp, and given reasonable maintenance most of them run/ran about 75k -100k miles. Now, in a top fuel dragster at 6000+ hp, at the end of what, the 5+ second run, the engine is torn down and rebuilt. At that end of the run, you see what the heat build up does as many of the spark plugs will be melted away. This would be bad in your truck, and yes, even at the much lower hp range that we are talking about, spark plugs can melt/erode if exposed to excessive combustion chamber temp for a long time. Pistons also follow this destructive path as well as taking the temper out of the piston rings...

Diesels I will add are rated the same way - the more hp out of a given design, the less miles / hours it is rated to run between failures -

Now, as far as more rpms, possible, but remember that all of your accesory drives are set for a maximum of about 3800 rpm. You ,may be looking at some pulley swaps. You also have a very heavy flywheel, much hevier than anything put in a light duty pickup - this is of concern if greatly exceeding the rpm range that this engine is designed for.

Basicly, in a nutshell, Ford knew what they were doing when they designed these engines for the type of service that they were intended to perform. There was a reason why they did not just use a FE engine - they would not hold up in this continous heavy load service. Hard to beat the factorys R&D budget.

See you in the heavy truck forums! David

 

Yeah, strap a turbo on it. NOT. Let's move on to actually answering this guy's questions:

An FE intake will not just bolt onto the FT heads. The exhaust crossover is different.

Better to stick with an FT intake. Look into a 4bbl 391FT intake.

It should fit. The 4bbl will give you smaller primary venturis in the carb, which should help low-speed gas mileage and throttle response. I bet that when you're on the highway, the 4bbl secondaries will be open anyway, so all bets are off on what it'll do to your highway mileage.

However, having some second-hand experience with an F600 and a 330 (my brother's), it's a gutless turd. Strapping on a 4bbl will probably not help much in the power department, and the valve springs will CERTAINLY need to be replaced to get some RPMs.

You might be MUCH better off finding a 391FT 4bbl running engine and just dropping it in. But that's up to you, and it is worth some time to find out if the 330HD can handle the 4bbl.

Save the 330HD just in case

 

Krewat, you are very good at answering posts, and my hat is off to you in respect, but I am trying to make sense of this post - in reading back thru the resonses to the OP origional questions, I see NO posts that do not address the OP's questions.

I see at least two posts in addition to yours that state that the heads and intake are not compatible between the FT a FE, is that not answering the OP's question?

I see at least one post, not including yours that gives a EDUCATED viewpoint towards answering the OP thoughts towards putting a turbo on the engine. AND gives some ACTUAL EDUCATED thoughts on making it work - or not. Again, is that not answering the OP's question?

So as I see several posts that actually have answered the OP's questions in addition to yours, who has addressed one, but not answered all of the OP's questions?

?????

David

 

My point was that he didn't need a dissertation I'll leave it at that.

--

As for the "added info" later on, if you are going to go with an F250 chassis anyway, just make up a 390, 410, or some other stroker combo.

 

Well, that is your point of view on a dissertation, and I respect that. However, that said, I do beleive that the OP was appreciative of the information posted, so it must have done some good. After all, is this not what the forum is for, all points? Besides, who are you to decide if the OP needed a dissertation or not?

BUT, it was wrong to accuse me or anyone else of NOT answering this guys questions. That is not true to the facts. We did so, just evidently just not in a format that you carred for.

Since we are talking opinions now, my opinion is this, if you are too lazy or shortsided to read thru a lengthy post giving many facts, many reasons why to as well as answering the questions posed, then I wouold respectfully request that you shut up and sit down, don't put anyone down for answering the OP's questions in a format that you don't approve of. Again, this is my opinion.

FACT - some things CANNOT be answered in a single sentance and/or paragraph.

Again, I am not sure why you, as a respected member of this forum would choose to make such a statement in the first place, accusing anyone of NOT answering the OP's questions, when in fact they they were and you just didn't like reading... Again I ???????

David

 

I didn't accuse anyone of anything. Can we please MOVE ON now?

If you care to discuss this, PM me directly, this isn't the place for this.

 

The pistons will not handle a Turbo. The 330HD are cast Full skirt Pistons
4 Ring pistons with the Top ring land very close to the deck

1952