I have a 1963 short school bus (20 feet long)
it came with a good running 292---cool
it also had 7:20 rear gears --not cool


the question is would this engine be able to power this bus at highway speeds with better gearing
is there enough torque to handle this


the engine was replaced by a reman short block years ago
the block numbers are 59-60 292
the heads are (or numerically) correct
and how will the truck heads handle modern fuels

 

Based on my fond memories of our '58 F600, I'd say regardless of gearing you are going to hit a wall about 60-65 with that motor in that big of a vehicle.

The old heads will not like unleaded, and will erode and burn'/sink the valves even faster when held at WOT trying to go 70+.

 

that's what I was thinking as well
I love the old yblocks but may use this motor for another project
will probably go another direction

 

Are you still running the original axles? What size tires are you using? That's a lot of wind to push. If you set your goal at 60mph you could maintain that. The heads will hold up if you get a valve job and have hardened seats put in the exhaust side. When I had my heads one for my 351m that's what I did. It was only $80. Then have the heads shaved .020 to give a little more compression. The last 292's had lower compression.

A guy in the truck club has a 59 C600 with a 292 and allison auto. He used to load it with 8 skids of sod and hook up a trailer with a forklift on it. He says it would hold 55mph all day long. Don't know what ratio he had in it, but he changed the rear to a 488 a couple years ago. Now it will run 70 empty, but it smells a hill coming. The truck is retired, so now its for fun.

If your gonna load the bus up with people and supplies, you may not want to fart around with those gears.

 

not using the old rockwell and replacing with a dana 70 hd from a dodge motorhome
the rear gear ratio should be either 4:88 or 4:56
rear tires will be 8r 19.5 about 33 inches tall

 

Just add some turbos. It will do fine.

 

You could go ahead and do the rear axle swap and try it out.

By the 60s, 292s were seriously detuned, so that engine is not any representation of what a 292 is capable of. Assuming that the current engine is tuned well and operating correctly, you could probably build that engine to have about 50hp more than it currently has and still be a good engine for truck use. And you can easily make it more powerful than that, but you'll start getting it into an area where it will be no good for truck use beyond about 220hp (lots of fun for a lighter vehicle, though).

So if you go ahead and swap the axle and get the tires you want installed, you can see how it does and consider that you have about 50 more hp to work with if you need to. If that doesn't seem like it will do it for you, then swap something more appropriate for the task.

 

the block is .40 over
I have located some rams horn manifolds and a dual 4 intake
and I am looking into hardened seats for the heads and maybe mill them a little
I have 2 more y blocks and will checkout which heads are on them
I would really like to keep a Ford engine in this project
just dont wont to get passed by bicycles