I have receintly purchased a 54 F-100 that has a 283 cu. in. C&(*y three speed. I would like to make it all Ford. I'm for asking for advice as to what to change it to. The truck will never be a trailer queen/king. I plan to drive it on club cruises and to local car shows. I will add power brakes and power steering but keep the solid axle. I may even add A/C some time later.

Who has experience with a Ford engine that is different than the 239 cu. in. 1954 Y-block? I want to avoid changing the crossmember if possible. Ideally, I would like a simple bolt it swap but realize the original motor mounts are probably gone. I'm sure the Chevy doesn't mount the same as Ford. I have the original 4 speed tranny with the parking brake attached to the yoke and the handle sticks up through the floor. Kinda cool. I'd like to attach the Ford engine to it.

Thanks for any info
Ron

 

The truck I purchased has a 1968 Ford 302 with a c-4 automatic. I am not going to use it. Has home made engine mounts. Complete, but no accessories on it . IT'S FREE!!!!!!!!!!! South east side of Kansas City,Mo. chuck

 

Sounds like the original suspension is still there, so probably the only thing is the PO cut the original motor mounts out and welded in his own? Mid-fifty is just one of many companies that sell the orignal motor mounts. That said, they also sell swap mounts for putting in a later model Ford engine. And welcome to the board!

 

I'm interested. Does it run? How much work does it need? Cell Phone 573-230-2780.

 

Take it, take it, please take it, you will be glad that you did.

 

I plan to take it. I can't believe that I got this kind of reply. Let alone this quickly. I have gotten a call from 49fordpickemup. He is only 125 miles from me and the engine/tranny is setting on his patio. I will probably pick it up late this week or early next.

 

I just love it when a plan comes together! The 302/C4 is a good setup and compares very favorably with the 350/350 competitor. In your particular case you will see even better performance and MPG since you are moving from a 283.

 

All the major vendors sell xmembers that bolt in both the engine and tranny. I believe for the cost it will save you a bunch of headache fabricating your own. Check out my website in my signature for pictures of what I mean.

I started out with a 302/C4 combo and recently swapped in a 351W/AOD. Only had to move the tranny mount back a few inches.

 

I don't know how soon you plan on starting on this or doing the swap, but I may have some stuff you can use. I have two '53s that I will be seriously modifying and there will be a pile of frame and chassis parts left over. One of them had the flathead V8 swapped out with a Y-Block and it looks as though it was a direct switch. That one has an extra cross member in front for the V8 that the 6 cyl. version did not have.

Also you might want to check the cross member under the cab as a lot of people ripped that out when putting in other engine and tranny combos. It's a bad thing to do because it screws up the frame and cab mounts due to flexing. The other '53 I have has that problem. Some hack tried to put a 302 with an old FMX tranny. They hacked the crossmember out under the cab and scabbed in some rough pieces of steel for a mount. the good news is that from the looks of things they never got it running so it probably didn't get flexed much if any.

Point here is that this Spring I plan on stripping all the vehicles I have down and just keeping what I want to build my two '53s. Same goes for my donor vehicles. I can't say for certain but I may be cutting up a frame or two if they are not worth restoring or selling as is. I might end up with cross members and other chassis parts. Shipping would not be too bad for a cross member or chassis parts. Of course if someone is interested in a whole chassis I could help with making arrangements. Given a choice I would rather see someone who could use the stuff have it as opposed to taking it to the scrap yard.

Oh, BTW, thanks for bringing an old Effie back from purgatory by exorcizing that "C" abomination. There ought to be a law...

Later Man...

 

My F1 had the same setup. 283 3spd.
The previous owner made mounts out of plate steel and torched the cross member through the center.
I put a 302/c4 in it. The 283 was wore out and had the trans missing and most of the wiring was long ago eaten by mice.
I took the remains of the stock cross member out and put in a swing pedal.
Is your cross member still original?

 

I'm really not sure what I have. I can't answer the question about my cross memeber. I need to crawl under it and post some pictures. I know for sure that the tranny mount has been moved toward the back of the truck by about 2 1/2 inches. I can see the original holes. I still have original pedles if that helps answer the crossmember question. There is also a very broad crossmember in the front of the truck. I have some body alignment issues. I need to adjust doors, hood (I'm going to reverse tilt the hood), and my cowl vent is shot. I will probably weld it shut. I'm think about Vintage Air at a leter date.

 

To answer Dave's post. I'm taking the truck to a professional body shop early in February to get the cab, doors and hood aligned. While he has things apart I may try to slip in the 302/C4 combo. We'll see how quickly I can get the engine running and prettied up.

Ron

 

The 54 engine was originally mounted to the center of the front crossmember. The common way to mount a CSB is wth a tubular universal crossmember mount. Look for a tube running under the engine from frame rail to frame rail. If it is there, it will be a simple change to replace it with one for the FSM. Mid Fifty Mid Fifty F100 Parts sells them for a wide range of engines. (Get their print catalog as soon as possible! It's free and has an unbelievable wealth of useful information besides the largest selection of F100 parts, stock and modified.) If you have the stock pedals, the tranny crossmember could not have been moved since the pedals mount to it.
Be sure the shop has had multiple experience with aligning the front sheet metal on F100's before you let them touch it! Do a search here for a lot of topics on doing it correctly. Done correctly it's not that difficult, done wrong and it will never fit properly. The method and order is opposite most vehicles. Ask how he will proceed, if he doesn't say he will start with the radiator support and then the hood, RUN AWAY as fast as possible!

 

AXracer, thanks for the heads up. I read some of the posts concerning my cab alignment. I found it interesting that raising the cab seemed to a popular beginning place. The guy that looked at my truck mentioned the first thing that he would do was to replace all the bushings in the body mounts. So, that sounds incouraging. Maybe he has done some of these fat fendered Fords.

I plan to crawl under my truck this afternoon and shoot some pix. I try and post them this afternoon as well.

By the way, I am looking at the reverse tilt hood kits. I've found one from Autoloc and one from Classic Performance Products. Do you have any experience with either of these products? Do you have a recommendation? How 'bout straight axle power steering?

Ron

 

Fergusson777 and I wrote the "book" on straight axle PS conversions. We highly recommend using a Toyota 4x4 PS box. It's a simple bolt in using the conversion mount, U joint and pitman arm available from Mid Fifty (and they will even buy your old stock box!). The stock column needs simple modification if it is important to you to use it but you will lose the horn button in the center of the wheel functionality (most use a remote accessory horn button), unless you use a bit pricey horn switch conversion kit. Aftermarket and later model donor columns are not an issue. The Toy box conversion looks and works like it was made for it.
Once you post a few times (10?) the search and other functions will become available to you, so keep posting!
Yes, replace the cab bushings first. I was mostly refering to aligning of the front sheet metal: inner/outer fenders, grill, wind deflectors etc as being different sequence than most vehicles due to Ford's flexible frame design. Make sure you have all the parts, especially the firewall to valance panel support rods, the rubber pads for under the radiator "horseshoe" support and that the inner and outer fender mounting brackets on the firewall are not damaged/missing/rotted away (common situation). Mid Fifty can supply replacements for any of this, and their catalog has some great exploded assembly drawings that show where everything goes. (have you called their toll free # and requested a catalog yet? If not stop right here and do so, it's the best reference you can get especially for FREE!)
Once the search functin starts working do a search on my user name + front sheet metal alignment to find several explanations of the process I posted over the last couple years.