I was wondering how hard it is to put a cummins engine and manual tranny right out of a doge into my 78 ford? Or should I keep my 400and build it up? Or get another ford gas engine? Just wanted a diesel. Also on the cummins swap what's a rough cost and time estimate? Doing all fab work myself. I already have 12v cummins engine and tranny. Thanks.

 

answered this same thread/question in the 73-79 forum.

 

Thanks chase truck for the reply in the other thread. I'll continue it here seeing as it's the right section. I was just wondering a rough cost. I have a rolled dodge with the 12v and manual transmission. With that would like 3000 more do it? Or 5? I can fabricate. Have a welder and everything I'd need. So all work myself. Also like a scale of 1-10 the difficulty level for an experienced person. Thanks hopefully starting this soon.

 

No problem. Again your questions are a bit tough, although they are similar to what I asked when starting mine...

For cost - again it depends on a lot of factors. If you will be leaving the truck pretty much as is and just putting in the dodge motor & trans and then re-using the ford T-case, radiator, etc., etc. then yes - $3k should probably do it. There is lots of nickel & dime stuff to it though and materials costs can add up.

As for skill level - what is an "experienced" person? To me that is one who could build an entire car/truck by himself. A fabricator experienced in building complete tube frames, fixtures for parts and then tube fitting as well as sheet metal.

Are you experienced with past motors swaps or just general wrenching or fabrication?

See what I'm getting at with the questions being a bit tough to have a clear/definite answer for?

 

Well it will be my dad and I doing it. We race cars and build the cars from scratch. Build the frames and roll cages and all. Also build all our own engine and switch them all the time. How difficult for us do you think it would be?

 

Should be pretty easy for you guys then.

Major fabricated parts are the motor mounts & possibly trans mount. Then there is the front cross member to deal with depending on if your truck is 2wd or 4wd.
All else aside from that would just be bracketry etc. if you decided to do other things like swap in a hydroboost, etc.

Do some thread browsing here & on Dodge Cummins Diesel Forum as there are LOTS of 70's Ford swaps in both places and TONS of pics & ideas in all of them.

 

Ok awesome thanks. Ya I was just lookin at your thread. Very good info and pics.

 

One last thing I will need the Dana 60 front right? And its a 4-wheel drive. So notch engine cross member? Like the pic in your forum chase truck? I guess it's easier to figure all this out when I actually do this. Thanks

 

d60 is better for the torque of the cummins but may not be NEEDED depending on how the truck will be used.

As for the cross member - some guys (like me) cut the thing. Other guys cut it completely out & fab a new one.

I saw in one guys thread somewhere that his 1st gen, 4wd dodge donor had a cool looking, removable cross member stock. Had I known this when I started my swap I probably would have searched for one of those to look at using.

 

Okay great thanks for the info. Probably many more questions to come later in the swap. Like how all the gauges work with the cummins and speedo and odometer and all. Quite a bit to do/learn.