My1972 ford F250 Camper Special died. 390 dead, underpowered too. Have a 428 to install. Truck has old 3 speed manual trans with "granny" low gear. Are 428 flywheels neutral balanced like the old 390 flywheel? I was told 428 flywheels are balanced differently. What clutch can i use? Old 390 had a 10 inch clutch and pressure plate. Can a 428 flywheel use a bigger 10 1/2 or 11 inch? now the high dollar question, what about a toploader trans? Driveshaft work or crossmember mods ok, i can weld and fab myself. Driveshaft can be sent out to get the lenght right, balanced, and properly yoked. THANK YOU IN ADVANCE ALL. Take it easy on me this is my 1st post. DAHMER

 

Welcome MR_J_DAHMER to FTE. The 428 flywheels are quite differently balanced so the 428 flywheel is needed. Should be the same clutch and pressure plate, 11 inch should be fine. Obtain a car 4 speed bellhousing for the toploader as I don`t think a truck housing will work. Mostly a bolt in with the right parts and a nice step up in power.

 

Fomoko1,is right about the flywheel, but the truck trans will bolt to it, the 428 and the 390 are the same basic blocks.

 

I don`t know if the car toploader transmission has the same front bolt pattern as the truck 4 speed. That could require a car bellhousing for this application. The engine blocks are totally the same between a 390/428, no difference at all except in the production of 428 engine Ford had to make sure that there was no core shift in the casting process and probably sonic checked the blocks or had a different set of castings because of the much larger bore of the 428. Would be nice to bore a 390 block out the .80 thousands but it could cause problems if the cylinder walls have any shift core shift.

 

Need 428 flywheel due to they are EXTERNALLY balanced while all other FE's are internal. Your 428 will shake badly with a std 390 flywheel(ya, I found this out many years ago while I was learning this crap).

If you want a car toploader, then you'll likely need a car bellhousing(I've never compared, but been told patterns on tranny are different). I've never had a creeper tranny to measure.

As long as you don't need creeper gear, the car toploader is a great addition. I run one in both my F100's. Not sure of OAL of truck tranny, but the short toploader is 24 1/2" from face to tail(not including input shaft). Compare to yours and that will determine driveshaft change. There is also a long style that is 27", but not as common(but available).