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Running a 67 F100 with the bigblock 352. At least I think its a 352, yet I can't imagine the 390 or 410 drinking any more fuel. I do know it is in fact a bigblock FE engine. Purchased a few years ago and now enjoy this as a daily driver back and forth to work....add in a few stops to the gas station each week. Anyway the 3spd auto is needing rebuilt as I put about a quart of trans fluid in it every other week, at least I easily identify my parking spot. Told the boss he does not need to pay me for the asphalt resurfacing job.
Main question is what are my options to upgrading to a 4spd automatic on this thing? I'm not overly familiar with adapter plates or much, grew up with SB Chevy's and we just swapped trans all the time from one to another, but they were all 3 spds. Now that I am older and wiser I have Fords! This is not a hotrod, just daily driver, if I rebuild the engine I will keep it under 300hp.
Ideally I would find something I can just bold up and possibly have shaft cut down if needed. But if plates or adapters are needed please advise and educate. I see alot of trans on the market but not sure what to get as I have no old timers that know Fords that well. Tried talking to my dad and he was offended, claimed to be middle aged...apparently he plans to be 160 years old.
The FE engine has its own, unique bellhousing bolt pattern. No other engine family transmission will directly bolt up to it. And, no overdrive automatic transmission was built with the FE bellhousing. That leaves needing to use an adapter of some sort. That problem is the adapter kits are very expensive, as you can see by the example above, the buy in starts at $1100. Add the cost of the transmission, and the rebuild for it, if necessary, and if you use a newer one, the electronic brain box to make it work, you could be knocking on the door of 5 grand for the trans swap. If your goal is increased fuel mileage, you'd have to buy a lot of gas to make it pay for itself. Even if you increased your mileage by 20%, you're talking about 2 mpg. Just something to think about.
Another option would be to swap to a FE bell C6 trans and add a Gear Vendors overdrive unit to the back of it. Those run about 3K, too, but way less hassle as you're using more factory parts and not reinventing the wheel with a full custom swap.
The FE engine has its own, unique bellhousing bolt pattern. No other engine family transmission will directly bolt up to it. And, no overdrive automatic transmission was built with the FE bellhousing. That leaves needing to use an adapter of some sort. That problem is the adapter kits are very expensive, as you can see by the example above, the buy in starts at $1100. Add the cost of the transmission, and the rebuild for it, if necessary, and if you use a newer one, the electronic brain box to make it work, you could be knocking on the door of 5 grand for the trans swap. If your goal is increased fuel mileage, you'd have to buy a lot of gas to make it pay for itself. Even if you increased your mileage by 20%, you're talking about 2 mpg. Just something to think about.
Another option would be to swap to a FE bell C6 trans and add a Gear Vendors overdrive unit to the back of it. Those run about 3K, too, but way less hassle as you're using more factory parts and not reinventing the wheel with a full custom swap.
52 Merc hit it on the head.
Even with all the upgrades to the AOD they were never used with a big block, 351W SB might be the largest motor in the late 80's.
Any of the other over drive autos would be electronic and would need a box to make them work so that is on top of the adapter, trans, and all the not so little things to make it work.
I think in the long run a C6 and GV OD would be the way to go if looking for a auto OD trans but that's me.
Dave ----
