My family has owned my truck since 1979 when it was only a few years old. We still have it.

The 4x4 F100 had a motor swap done in 1983. My grandfather got free diesel fuel off the farm so he swapped the motor out with a Perkins 4.236 engine, which came out of a 1966 Massey Fergueson Combine Harvester.

The Perkins engine faithfully has run for 49 years, first in a Combine and then in my F100. To make a long story short, it still runs perfect but has picked up a rod knock after all this time.

I will miss the familiar smokey smell and the rumble of of that engine and the 26 miles per gallon. I've replaced the Perkins with a 300 4.9 6 cylinder motor ( I just bought an entire donor truck and swapped everything over with a new motor and carb.) It's like losing an old friend.

After my truck being down for 10 days ( I had to drive a car it was horrible!) I am back on the road. Now here is my question, What do i do with the Perkins?

The perkins engine just sits on the polished concrete floor looking sad and abandoned. Every once in a while it drops a sad tear of oil which I have to wipe up with an old bath towel as the smell of my grandfather's farm wafts out of it towards my nostrils.

Should I rebuild the perkins and put it back into the truck? I have everything I need to put it back, all the custom brackets for the pump, transmission, alternator, etc. I could do it in a afternoon with a stone axe and a couple of bronze wrenches discarded long ago by the Roman Legion on the ill fated march on Perscelies. I doubt I will need to get another 49 years out of it as I will not live that long.

I feel like perhaps I should put it up for adoption. Would anybody want it? Does anyone do Perkins swaps any more? Or is it like Latin, everyone knows about it but has never actually seen anyone that can speak it. Or should I put it out to pasture to hopefully be reborn like a phoenix rising up from it's ashes to become something new?

Sad and confused.

 

TBH if you can find the parts and it means that much to you, rebuild and swap it back in. I know what you mean about having an engine that has memories built into it. I still have the first mustang short block I ever took out and tore down. It could use a rebuild and after I finish my modular engine for my 01 mustang it will be torn down and reworked to go into my f100 (if I don't get a Coyote first)

GLHF no matter which way you go.

BTW I love the eloquence with which you write.

 

So many people are running a cummins it's starting to sound like an earworm. Sure would be nice to hear someone say " It's a Perkins" only problem I see is people wondering how you put a restaurant in there. Like the linguistics.

 

To me it sounds like that perkins means quite a bit to you from your story. You cant just buy memories like that.


In my opinion, you should leave the 300 in while you rebuild the perkins.


Id love to have a dent with an oil burner conversion that gets 26mpg! I do however think you would have a hard time selling the engine. Its not nearly as common as a Cummins swap.

 

I want to give it away to a good home. It has a plate that bolts up to a big block ford trans. Free is the price.

 

Re homing something you love is sometimes harder then you think. The actuality is that with no nostalgia from the new owner, the engine may end up sitting on someone else's polished concrete floor, weeping and wondering what it did to deserve that fate. Every time you jump into that F100, you will be reminded of once was, and because the old familiar sound and smell of the Perkins is gone, so will be some of your enthusiasm for the truck.

Rebuild it, slowly, meticulously, and give it the home it truly deserves... Under the hood of your grandpas truck!

 

If you give it to someone it will probably end up doing some duty like going back into a tractor on a sheep farm somewhere.

 

Yes it could end up doing 'farm labor' , kind of a let down from ' chauffeur ' duty's. Some of the farmers around here use that engine as a stationery engine for irrigation pumps. It would probably work in my tractor but i'm not looking for one. I would go along with putting it back in the truck after an overhaul. Do what makes you feel best . ___JIM__

 

If you weren't so far away I,d do an offer on it, it's the cost of freight that I worry about, freight charges can be astronomical on this side of the border. My brother would probably enjoy making sure that it got fixed right. He,s a 35 year factory ford dealership mechanic that got tired of being the guy who fixed everyones screwups. He now works for himself when he's not on his sailboat, he's been running diesel long before they became cool. For the sake of conversation, how much does it weigh?. My Mennonite farm boy bone is twitching, I'm assuming it's rigged for a clutch.

 

from wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perkins_4.236 for us younger noobs...

Could it be turbocharged? I heard oil burners take to the turbo like there's no tommorrow. I suspect the engine should be built for it tho

 

AMEN!

LOL!

 

Sure you could turbo charge it. Would would you want to? It has gobs of torque without it.

 

If I were you I would always regret selling it. It deserves to be rebuilt and run for another 50 years.

 

A big THANK YOU to kehoeautomotive! I cruised down to New Orleans and he loaded me up with the Perkins and all sorts of goodies. Now... to find a new project. I have an '85 F-350 DRW flatbed that currently has a 6.9. I'd love to swap the cab for something older, say '53 - '56? That would be a pretty rare find these days. Maybe... Or what about dropping the Perkins into a Ranger or Bronco II? Lighter weight, maybe get a 4x4.

The main thing is I'm going to rebuild it and put it in some sort of Blue Oval vehicle.

Thanks again!!!

 

Kehoe's a poet, and he doesn't even know it