I just bought a 76 F250 and want to put a diesel engine in her but am wondering if the stock front suspension will hold the weight of the Cummins 6bt or Navistar N10 engine that I want to put under her hood its the 2 wheel drive model that I have. or should I sell it and get a 4x4 with a blown engine and do what I want to do to that one?

 

Respectfully,


The reason there are so many of these trucks still on the road is; THEY WERE BUILT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME.


If you want a noisy, smelly, expensive fuel, expensive and time consuming "swap" combined with long warm-ups and finicky in cold weather to go into a perfectly fine gas motored truck that was never intended to hold a diesel.....go right ahead. Lots of guys have done it.


You can make reasonable power and MPG more easily and dependably using the engine that's already in it, which is most likely a gas sipping 6 cyl, 302 or a stump pulling 351M400.


Good luck

 

Sorry, 1976 you prob have a decent 360 or 6 cyl.

 

Diesels do have their advantages......and your front end should hold up a 6BT.......You may have to install the heaviest front coils you can find.......IE: 460 w/AC

 

The only thing I would worry about is how much the springs get compressed down. original springs are probably already sagged a bit, so I agree with 78 PEB on needing to install heavier springs to compensate for the added weight.

 

Yes, it will hold. You are only adding a few hundred pounds. It would be like 2 grown men sitting on the top of your hood with a regular small block under the hood.

Suspensions and axles have to hold up to dynamic loads which apply much more loads than a static load. There is also huge safety margins built in.

It might make the front end sag a little more, but probably not much more than 1/2". Add a leafs are cheap if you feel you may need them after the install.

 

Welcome to FTE! Lots of good people here, and often willing to help...

I didn't see that you mentioned what engine you currently have, but you did ask about swapping in a diesel.

There are a bunch of threads here on swapping in a diesel. I look at a lot of the threads, not because I'm interested in doing such a thing, but just because I find the engineering interesting.

Read the threads and you'll see this is not a simple swap. People modify/move the firewalls, remove and recreate crossmembers, notch and reinforce frames, remove the air box on a/c trucks, and have to fabricate motor mounts, transmission mounts and adapters, change the power steering, alternator and radiator...well, you get the idea...

And the above posts are right-on regarding the weight. Sure, you can do it...but Ford never did it, and there were a lot of good reasons

theres a huge amount of work, time and expense in a swap like this. If you bought you truck to drive it, then drive it. If you prefer to have it occupying your garage and every waking hour for several months to years, that's your choice too.

Not trying to talk you out of anything-it's your truck, do what you want-just be aware of what you're biting off...

And welcome to FTE!

 

Thank you for the advice and yes I know that its not a weekend deal. Would converting to Electronic Fuel Injection be a better option for better fuel economy and horsepower and torque gains. The 360 that is in it now is getting worn out and tired.

 

EFI done correctly will be an improvement in overall driveability (cold starts, altitude changes, etc). As far as power and fuel economy there is a good argument to be made that a properly set up carb can be equal to, if not better, especially powerwise. EFI 460's don't seem to get any better fuel economy overall than a good running carb setup, especially when you factor in the overdrive transmissions the carb'd trucks didn't have. So if your primary reasons for EFI conversion are mileage and power, not worth the gains (if any) IMO.

 

I would fix what you have. With all the expense of putting in an old diesel you can buy a lot of gas. JMO.

 

The easiest diesel swap would be an old IDI from a mid 80s Ford to 1994. They are dirt cheap and used parts are cheap. Not a power monster by any means. I had one in my truck before I put a Cummins in. Did OK and got 15 mpg with a T18, 3:50 gears, and the huge fuel mileage sucking 39.5x18.5 swamper tires with huge rolling resistance.

 

EFI won't give you fuel mileage increases that are worth the investment. No matter if it is an EFI or carb, the fuel/air ratio in your engine has to be in a very tight tolerance band for your engine to run properly. Too lean is very bad on the engine, and too rich wastes fuel. EFI won't gain you much over a properly tuned carb other than some minor things like the warm up cycle and severe elevation changes like others have said.

 

So far from what I'm understanding is that I should do a diesel conversion on something else. ( I do want to do that one day ). Would putting aluminum heads and intake on it help any? I know weight reduction would help with fuel economy. It's got the 2 barrel Holley carburetor on it now which was rebuilt according to the previous owner by a handful of people.

 

The weight savings with aluminium heads in insignificant in the grand scheme of things and surely not worth the extra money of the heads.

If sticking with the gasser and that obsessed with fuel mileage you can start learning to drive like a hyper miler. An overdrive tranny would be nice no matter if you had a diesel or a gasser.

You can pick up old diesel IDI engines for under $500 if you look around and wait when people realize after several months those engines are not all that valuable. Fairly minor fab work, but a welder will be required.

Just think about this. If your truck currently gets 10mpg and you spend thousands of dollars to hopefully squeak out 12mpg, how many miles does it take to recoup? Lets say at $3.00 a gallon for gas. 10 gallons at $3.00 will get you 100 and 120 miles respectively. That extra 20 miles saved you $6. If you spent $2000 in mods, it would take you $2,000/6x120 = 40,000 miles. If you managed to get that improvement for $1000 you would have to drive 20,000 miles to recoup the initial cost.

Certainly depends how much you drive the truck.

 

Thank you tabascom16 for your input. By the sounds of it I should get a new carburetor for it so that I know that all the parts are with it. Since I'm not sure that all the parts are with current carb. Given the fact that so many people have worked on it. Maybe I will hot rod it when I get a 4x4 F350!!!