Hi All,

A friend of mine has a 58 with a tired 272 (or 292?). The truck is rust free. He also just bought a very rusty, low mileage t-bird with a 390/auto. He wants to put the 390 into the f-100. Any suggestions of where to find mounts or headers to make all this work. Also, what do you think the diff. ratio is in the truck? It had a 4 speed. Any info will be greatly appreciated.

 

Speedway Motors has alot of different mounts for Ford trucks also LMC. As far as headers I installed a 460 in mine and used headers for a 73-76 f100 460 they cleared everthing just fine. I don't know about the 390 but frame width were similar until 1979

 

That would make a very nice swap. I did that with a 53 F100. Used the cross memeber/engine mount from a Ford car from 1957 up to the later 60`s by welding extentions to both sides, bolting the engine up to it , lining evrything up and welding it to the frame. There is no need for headers as there is tons/lots of room for the exhaust system . As for rear ratio, it is easy to change it for what ever is required as the 58 has a 9 inch and very common/strong rear axle. Most rodders use them in all makes of vehicles as they where very plentful in the late 50`s thru the 70`s.

 

I cut the front crossmember from a 56 Ford passenger car frame, trimmed the
ends and bolted it to the y-block in my 60 (using car motor mounts) prior to pulling the y-block out in preparation for installing the FE. This allowed me to keep using the truck while I was preparing it for the FE.
Then fabricated flat plates for each end of the tube crossmember. Used
angle iron on top of top frame rail and on inside of bottom frame rail. The flat
plates were welded to the crossember and used bolts to bolt the four pieces
of angle iron to the crossmember and frame rails. The engine I used came from
a 66 Galaxie and I used all the pulleys, brackets and fan that went with it.
Used Ford alternator and hooked it up to existing truck wiring without cutting
my wires.
I had to move the radiator forward about 1 inch using square tubing on each
side between the rad. and the support. I used stock FE exhaust manifolds and
fabricated my on exhaust out of the 66 Ford pipes.
I used the 66 rear crossmember and bolted to the underside of the bottom
frame rail. The transmission I am using is a 57 Ford passenger overdrive.
Had to shorten a driveshaft.
I also had to notch the front pickup crossmember for bottom pulley clearance. and notched out for the bottom radiator hose for extra clearance.
The engine looks like it was made for the 60.
jt

 

You didn't say what kind or automatic is in the T-bird. If it is an FMX, then use the FE bellhousing for a truck and that part will bolt to the existing bellhousing mounts.

 

thank you all. yes, i believe the trans in an fmx.