Alrighty so one of my projects has fallen through. I was working on getting a 500 caddy into my 79 LUV truck. Now i need odd parts that cant be bought off of that truck for my 80 LUV daily driver so that project has been abandoned to keep parts. Now heres the thing, i saw the 64 F-250. Now how sweet would it be to have a lowered 3/4ton whith a built 500 caddy?
So how much would guys whant to kill me if i put a GM motor and tranny into my 64?

 

I almost did that. I had a rusty '76 Fleetwood, and a tired 352 in the truck. The Caddy resembles a Ford, except the distributor is slanted, and you can buy adapters to put 460 valve covers on one. It would fool most people, but not many of us.
My truck wouldn't have been worth too much with the Caddy in it though...

 

Yay! Controversy! Some would want to slap you silly for that idea. I'm not a purist, I lean more towards doing what works for you. I think it would be cool to have the crazy torque of that 500 in that Slick. I say go for it, but make sure that you have a couple of spare sets of tires for the rear! Ultimately, you need to build what YOU want to build, not what others say that you want to build. But I'd say you're comfortable with that since you're playing with LUV's.

 

Yes build what you feel like, other people can hate it, but its your truck and i think it would be alot of fun to do that

 

i,m building a 63 swb unibody and putting a 440 chrysler in it.

 

Do what you want, it's your truck. However, you should fully expect most people to pay little or no attention to your truck at shows as the bulk of us just don't like/see the need/think it's silly to put a non-Ford engine in a Slick. I've seen a couple of nice trucks at shows, but as soon as I see that Chevrolet under the hood, I completely lose interest.

I can also tell you, a mongrel truck is also extremely hard to sell when the time comes. Unlike older trucks, guys who shop for Slicks want FORD trucks, and that means ALL Ford. Not trying to be negative, just telling you what I've seen over many years of watching the 61-66 truck market.

 

well i highly doubt ill be selling this guy. Im a huge fan of trucks whith style, and i realy like the body lines of these guys. Thats also why i drive an 80 LUV, becouse they look better than S-10s

 

My 54 F100 has a 500 caddy in it. I have found various articles on building it up as well as quite a few aftermarket parts for it, but to be honest probably the only things I will do are the Sanderson block hugger headers and Edelbrock Intake. Even though these will give me a little more ooomph it really doesnt need it. Just the exhaust manifolds look like crap and I the stock intake on a 500 is lower than the Edelbrock and is not aluminum. If you decide to go the route of really building this thing up (custom grind cam, higher compression, nitrous, whatever else) one thing to consider: Caddy rods are NOT made to handle extreme torque / rpms. You can replace those with, mmmm, a Buick rod I want to say it is. (?) I can find that out if - you are going that much stronger let me know.
I'm like you in that my 54 is not and will never be for sale, so those who don't care for my engine combination don't really concern me. Hell they might not like the color white either, you know? I know this - very very few people will ask you to run redlight to redlight against them once they know you got that stump puller in there.
Oh and one other thing I really lke about the 500 - with duals and decent turbo mufflers it doesn't beat the ground at idle - sounds lke a mild V8 - sleeper? Well, lets just say the Mustang GTs around here had to learn the hard way. Funny how they don't try to jump up beside me any more...

 

For real? On a Ford enthusiast's board supposedly made up of Ford enthusiasts there is a thread about powering yet another classic Ford vehicle with yet another non- Ford engine. Is nothing or noplace sacred?

 

I;m a purist, but have a love for the old caddy engines. I mean come on, 500ci and it STILL got decent mileage in a heavy car. Do it.. It's an awesome swap and you will come home with a smile every time you drive it.

 

I believe that a truck should make the guy/gal that owns it happy. If the owner wants to put a Caddy or a lawn mower motor in, thats fine with me. Will I have an opinion? Of course. Should it matter? Not at all.
Dono

 

Odd - I didnt see anywhere where it said "Members of this forum are not allowed to discuss / own / like anything else under the hood" . My truck is great - has the classic, mean looks and runs JUST the way I like it. I get a lot of compliments on it, yes even with the hood UP. Bottom line, IMHO, run what you like - the 500 is a good running motor bone stock, runs on pump gas, and a few minor mods and you have 500 lb/ft of torque at the rear wheels.

 

I would admire the effort you put into such a project, go for it. tell us how it goes when your done

 

Torch, grinders, welder, imagination, determination, ingenuity...... go for it.

 

By the way, if by chance any of these folks talk you out of doing this install, which from the looks of the thread isnt going to happen, I would be quite happy to pay you a good price for that motor. There are some 462 Caddy around but the 500's are getting kinda scarce nowdays.
I have a lawn mower that would run great with that on it...

PM me if this might be possible. Thanks