Mom surprised me with a really neat little book called "Ford Pickup Trucks."

In this book there's a few old ads. One of them is promoting the Twin I beam. It also goes on to mention,

"3 all new engines!
Every 1965 Ford pickup engine is completely new! Now Economical 240 cu in Six is standard. Or take your choice of two optional engines: 300 c.u. in Big Six or 352 c.u. in V-8, the most powerful engines ever offered in Ford pickups!"

Thought it was kinda neat an old Ford ad promoting the 300 as one of the stoutest truck engines up to that point.

 

It would be awesome if you could post pictures (or links to pictures) of these ads. I'd love to see them.

 

I agree! Warm up that scanner.

 

I'll do my best to take a picture of it fellers, but the prit is very small. I'll do my best!

By the way guys this isn't the first ford Ad including the 300. I saw an old one at a Ford dealership that had a section dedicated to the "new" big six. Advertised as "The most powerful six in a pickup".

Ha, I just noticed in the article itself the author notes the longevity of the 300 exceeding the flathead V-8's.

Pretty neat. One heck of a motor in it's time!

 

 

I love how they call it the Big Six. (in capital letters no less).

Thanks for sharing Bill.

 

Sure thing J!

BTW, did you know the 4-cylinders from the 30's and 40's were big? Over 200 cubes!

Just a random fact I learned from the book that surprised me.

 

That's crazy! Those are some big 4 cylinders.
My curiosity got the best of me, so I had to look it up. It was a Ford Model A and it had a 3.3L I4 (around 200 - 203ci).

The one that always blew me away was when I was driving a delivery truck. It was an Isuzu and it had a 5.1L I4 in it! Turbodiesel that made 210hp/475tq. I often wondered what one of those would be like in a light duty truck (or Bronco).

 

Yessir you're spot on, the Model A's and T's got the big 4's. They only made 80 horsepower and not much torque, but made it all around very low rev's (think: EFI 300 rev specs and that's pretty close).

Holy Mac and Cheese Batman! A 5.1L 4? That's nearly as big as a Cummins diesel!

I wouldn't mind having that Isuzu diesel in my truck. How did it do on fuel?

 

Another strange thing is a lot of motors from that era, 1910-1940s, had massive strokes compared to the bores. You would have these 4 and 6 cylinder motors with bores barely over 3 inches and yet strokes of almost 5 inches. Then in later decades they flipped. Most engines had bores around 4 inches and strokes in the 3's. Guess the engineers changed their minds. Funny how much power even way back then they could produce for airplane engines and such, many hundreds of horsepower. Yet most car and truck motors produced maybe .3 HP per cube at best. The times have changed.

 

Yeah, I imagine each of those cylinders had to have been the size of a Folgers® coffee can.

It did surprisingly well on gas mileage. I think it got around 8 - 10mpg. Granted, empty, the truck could weigh up to 15,000lbs depending.

Take 5 tons off it, and I imagine the mileage would go up.

 

I would imagine the reason they flipped them was, as technology on the subject increased, they were able to have tighter tolerances, smoother assemblies, better breathing, etc. that allowed them to rev higher and higher. A long stroke doesn't do well for revving, so they shortened it and made up for the size in bore.

Back when they couldn't breath worth a darn, stroke was everything!

 

LOL J, yeah I bet you're right. Take a couple ton's off the van and see how she runs then!

91Bronc, you said what I was thinking. I've noticed that myself! Small 3'' pistons with 4.25'' strokes.
Then, like you said, it swapped.

I bought an automotive book the other day that has pictures and engine specs on many classic cars and even newer. It's very intersting seeing how these different engines are designed to make power. Depending on the bore and stroke, the engine could be either a torque monster or a revver. And honestly I haven't seen too many engines that were in the 300's class as far as gasoline low-rev- horse and pulling power.

Very very interesting.

I'd like to drive a car with an Inline 8. Can you imagine how long that camshaft must be!?

 

The old small bore/long stroke design was based on steam engine technology, where it was king.
The older engines couldn't turn anywhere near the kind of RPM that later engines could. But, they didn't need to. They relied on torque to do the job, just like the 300. By the time the flathead V8 came along, the bore size started increasing, while the stroke decreased, allowing for higher revs, and more HP, at the cost of low end torque.
One downside of longer stroke engines, even at lower RPM, the piston speed is much higher, since it has to move much further in a short period of time. This can lead to much greater friction and wear on the pistons/rings/bore, especially at higher RPM.

 

I love this commercial

YouTube - 1984 Ford 4.9L six Ad