Thanks, you guys on here are great, and really helpful. Tom's 54

 

I believe your right about them don't wanting to rebuild it, but know I do have an extra rebuilt C6 for small block--cheap to help a Ford fan out. Tom's 54

 

Sorry, had a dyslexic moment. Ford produced the C4 until 1986 not 1968.

 

Actually if you want to be technical the C4 was introduced in 1964 and produced only up until 1979 which it was then replaced by the C5 and used up until '82 which then was junked in favor of the AOD.

The C6 was made from 1966 until 1996, from the mid-80s on it was used primarily in the trucks behind the 460 and some 80s 351W H.O. trucks.

And not being able to rebuild it... BS! The C4 is the most widely rebuilt tranny next to Gm's TH350 and the Powerglide! The C4 is so popular the racing guys are ditching the heavy C6 in favor of the C4 because of all the advancements made to the C4 in recent years. C4s can be built nowadays to handle 1000+ hp and 1/2 the weight of a C6 that is comparable. I just had a c4 built, with a few upgrades to the tune of $650. If those guys would have told me that, i would have grabbed the tranny and never went back. What a scam.

That 260 you have really isn't worth much other than to a purist that needs one. Next time you go fishing, tie a rope to it and toss it off the bow and when you're done fishing, just cut the rope. You'll do yourself a favor. The 260 was 'ok' but has many oddities. For one, yes it's a smaller bore, a 3.80" bore compared to the more popular and standard 4" bore size of the 289 and 302 as well as 351W. The other thing was they were 5-bolt bellhousing blocks. The more common '66 and newer 289, and 302s were 6-bolt bellhousing blocks. No real aftermarket options for the 5-bolt blocks. Since it's coded for a Galaxie, there isn't a Galaxie guy I know of dumb enough to put a 260 back into a barge of that girth. Just about 95% of all smallblock Galaxies get the modern engine or FE engine treatment. Just thought I'd throw that out there.
On a side note, the 260 block itself might make a neat flower planter too.

 

BS! Anyone that believes the claptrap typed on Wiki Wiki needs to take a course in Reality 101. And...this includes a gazillion topics, not just this one.

The C4 was introduced in 1964, used in myriad 1964/81 Ford/Mercury Passenger Cars, 1965/81 F100/150's, 1965/79 F250 (I-6's), 1965/81 Econolines, 1973/77 Bronco's.

First year FoMoCo offered the C6 with the 302 as an option in F100/150's was 1978.

The C4 was all that was available (optional) in 302 equipped 1969/77 F100's, 1975/77 F150's, but since the C6 was an option over the C4 in 1978, either trans will be seen from 1978 thru 1981.
If you want to get technical, take a look-see in the 1980/89: Ford/Merc Passenger Car & Ford Light Truck Parts Catalogs - A/T Transmission Application Charts.

C5: Some 1981/83 F100/150 3.8L V6, 255/302 / Some 1984/85 F150 302 / 1983/85 Ranger 2.8L V6 / Misc 1982/86 Ford/Mercury Passenger Cars V6's, 255/302.

The AOD was the worst POS FoMoCo ever offered, worse even than the A4LD and that's saying something.

Introduced in 1980 initially for Passenger Cars, by 1986, the warranty costs to fix the terds EXCEEDED all the warranty costs for ALL FoMoCo A/T's COMBINED back to 1950!

Driving in heavy stop and go traffic, the constant shifting up/down .. in/out of O/D fried the AOD's guts, and it didn't take too long for this to occur, either.

Peeps towed trailers in O/D without a care in the world, until the AOD fried its guts, that is.

Many AOD's were repaired multiple times, due to salespeeps BS and the vehicles owners manuals that said to drive in O/D, without a caveat of any kind.

FoMoCo finally woke up, changed the owners manuals, warning about towing in O/D, ditto driving in heavy stop and go traffic.

 

Bill,

2 posts back:

My apologies, my typo. I have found Wikipedia to be accurate for the most part. A little slanted (depending on who wrote the article) but pretty good otherwise.

Dano78,

I hear you on the 5 bolt. Unfortunately my 289 and C-4 are of the 1964 5 bolt variety which is why the speed shop that built my motor could only use their dyno as a test bed and not actually tune it. Their clutch wouldn't fit inside the only bell housing I could find for the 5 bolt.

I had a 260 in a 63 Mercury Meteor station wagon and it proved to be a great motor. Powerful enough to tow my 14 foot boat and pretty economical with the single barrel carb. Good enough to go camping and boating in AK.

 

If there's talk of throwing a 260 out here, I'll gladly take it. My Meteor could use it. Or at least the draft tube, timing cover, motor mounts, and other external stuff.

C6 has more parasitical hp loss than the C4 does.

I never put a kick down rod on my '79 Bronco w/300cid and C6 swapped in, and never needed it, as there's enough low torque to get it moving. A 302's power band being in the upper rpm's, might need one, I don't know. But you can get away without one. My 2 cents.

 

Wouldn't it have a two barrel carb?

 

Maybe. I don't remember. It was 28 years ago. I thought it was a single but I could be wrong.

 

I have never seen or heard of an American V8 with just a single barrel carb but then again that`s not to say there aren`t any.

 

I hope the AOD isn't as horrible as portrayed up above - I just put
one in behind our 351W. It looked like the only way to get a true overdrive. (One note - It didn't work coming out the gate so it's already been replaced for another one - hmmmm.. Something to do with the pump I'm told).

Ben in Austin

 

long as they are adjusted correctly they work solidly..

sam

 

Thanks Sam,
I had heard they need to be adjusted or you can wreck them pretty quick.
I wasn't familiar with the problems in stop & go traffic - We live in Austin that's about all there is going down 183 in the morning. So is there some restriction about being in Overdrive in stop & go traffic?

Ben in Austin

 

It does. So does the 221 v8.

 

With the shifter in OD, the AOD will drop into 4th/OD at about 42 mph. In typical suburban traffic, that's about how fast you get going between traffic lights, so it ends up shifting in and out of OD a lot. The early AODs had a weak OD servo, as I recall '85-'87. Police, taxi other HD models had larger servos. By around '89 they were using the HD servo on all of them, and I think added an even heavier duty servo. You can easily and cheaply upgrade the servo to the HD one during a rebuild, and the aftermarket has alternatives too. My son had an '85 TBird that we got cheap because the OD was shot, but we just drove it in 3rd for a year or more.

Like Bill said, best to keep it in "D" (3rd, no OD) in situations where it would be flopping back and forth from 4th. Adjustment of the throttle valve linkage was absolutely critical to preventing burnout, and the cable TV they went to in the '90's was much easier to adjust and keep adjusted. Unfortunately the only good way to adjust involves using a pressure gauge off a trans port under controlled conditions.