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Hello, I have a 48 F4 with a bad 226. Since it is cost prohibitive to rebuild one of these engines I'm exploring the idea of replacing it with a 300. I know its been done with success in the past. My truck is in good overall shape and I'd like to leave the original transmission in it. Is there any chance a 300 can be made to work with a 4 speed crash box?
Welcome to FTE! We need to see photos of your F4. They are the perfect size truck. Mtflat will hopefully chime in here as I believe he has an F4-F6 with a 300 six in it. I don't believe there is a bellhousing to adapt the T9 4 speed crashbox to a 300 six. You may be able to remove the half bell from the T9 and adapt the T9 to the 300 bellhousing though. I installed the Mercedes 300 diesel in my truck for the same reason you are wanting to install the Ford six. It was only cost effective because I was able to do all the work myself. If I had had to pay someone for all the modifications that I had to do, I could have built a flathead for a lot less. If you can do the work yourself, the 300 six would be a great engine.
Mark
Welcome to FTE! We need to see photos of your F4. They are the perfect size truck. Mtflat will hopefully chime in here as I believe he has an F4-F6 with a 300 six in it. I don't believe there is a bellhousing to adapt the T9 4 speed crashbox to a 300 six. You may be able to remove the half bell from the T9 and adapt the T9 to the 300 bellhousing though. I installed the Mercedes 300 diesel in my truck for the same reason you are wanting to install the Ford six. It was only cost effective because I was able to do all the work myself. If I had had to pay someone for all the modifications that I had to do, I could have built a flathead for a lot less. If you can do the work yourself, the 300 six would be a great engine.
Mark
Just as I suspected. I should have guessed the T9 wouldn't work. Any idea what truck transmission might work well with a 300? My F4 has a pto for the hoist so I need something that can run that. I also would need to figure out the handbrake situation.
Ford used the NP 435 four speed from '66 on. It was utilized in pickups and medium duty trucks. Another choice would be a T18 from a 1965 Ford. Check wrecking yards, you may find one with a pto in a medium duty truck.
Try to find one local. Ebay prices are inflated. A NP 435 can be identified by the aluminum top cover. Dont be fooled by the top cover of a T18. Early ones had T98 cast into them.
How do you intend to use the truck? A rebuild of the 226 may seem expensive, but consider the cost or the new engine and trans, driveline mods, possible different radiator, exhaust, switching to 12v, etc.
Not to mention all of the work of building mounts and fab related to an engine swap etc.
just depends on what you want I guess...
I do drive the thing quite a bit. I'm just trying to decide if it's better to spend a fortune on a 226 that can be tricky to get parts for and provides anemic hp at best or spend a fortune on a drive line that may allow me to drive at safe speeds and better parts availability. I can see pros and cons with each I guess. Thanks for all the advice so far.
How "bad" is your 226? I just rebuilt mine after 35 years in a field and I think my all in cost was somewhere around $950. The only part I had an issue finding was the conrod bearings because my crank was ground 0.030 under in the late 1960's.
My 226 is pretty bad I'd say. It needs it's crank machined, head machined, block needs bored to 60 over. The pistons alone are $60.00 each. It's not that I wouldn't consider rebuilding it, I'm just exploring the idea of a little bit newer and far more common engine. I like the idea of the 300 six. It still seems like it fits the truck. One thing I will not do is put a Chevy motor in a Ford. That's also come up a few times in conversation too. Thanks for your input.
Bill
A 300 six was one of the engines on my short list when I decided to replace the bad engine in my F4. I just never found the right one and after a while decided to install SOB engine that I will not mention the manufacturer thereof. This installed engine driving a robust OD transmission and a Dana 70 with 4:10 gears puts the F4 down the road at any legal speeds I want to travel. The E brake set up on the Dana 70 solved the E brake problem.
Remember, Ford installed many engines manufactured by other than Ford over the years.
I have read about the Hercules diesels for the export trucks and I would love to find one for mine. I have the particular model number at home somewhere. I did a little searching on the internet for one, but they seem a bit scarce. If anyone knows where one might be I'd be interested in it. Thanks to everyone for all the help and advice so far. I really appreciate it. Here's a picture of the vehicle in question.
Bill.
10-01-2017, 11:35 AM
