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Hello everyone, I'm new to ford's and trucks in general so all of this will be new to me. I picked up this truck from a friend who was helping me to try to find a diesel Truck for a few months then just offered to sell me one of his. The truck is in great shape for the year and was swapped to a gmc 478 when he got it, it also has a 72 rear end for the better gear ratio. Planned upgrades / repairs for the truck include new transmission (old one has bad bearings), installing a Pto winch, possibly redoing wiring harness (I saw some wire twist connectors connecting some rear wiring), possibly a disk brake conversion, overdrive bolt-on on the transmission, possibly a gas tank modification, not sure how much gas it will use but depending on range in might want to add more capacity.
That's a GM Toro-Flow diesel, the first attempt at converting a gas to diesel. It didn't play well and parts are hard to get.
Tell me about it. Even trying to figure out what transmissions were used in it or what flywheel works with it is a major dive into old forums. Apparently the main issues with them are blown headgaskets and a bad injector pump.
The 478 Toroflow was used in a lot of trucks and buses from 1965 to 1974, and came with many different transmissions. I work at a museum that has a running Toroflow with an early Allison automatic in a bus. The best source for Toroflow information is the 6066 GMC Guy . The engine wasn't really all that bad, it was comparable to the V-6 Cummins, International DV549, and Ford Dagenham/Dorsett diesel in output and reliability at the time it was manufactured. Biggest problem is that parts are not hard to find, they are pretty much non-existent now. Occasionally complete engines show up on Ebay, often marine take-outs (the Toroflow was a fairly popular marine engine). Used parts might be all that is available, and gaskets would have to be custom made. If that was my truck I think I would look for a different engine unless that Toroflow ran well. Maybe an Isuzu or Cummins 4 cylinder?
Truck's body looks clean and has the big back window!
The 478 Toroflow was used in a lot of trucks and buses from 1965 to 1974, and came with many different transmissions. I work at a museum that has a running Toroflow with an early Allison automatic in a bus. The best source for Toroflow information is the 6066 GMC Guy . The engine wasn't really all that bad, it was comparable to the V-6 Cummins, International DV549, and Ford Dagenham/Dorsett diesel in output and reliability at the time it was manufactured. Biggest problem is that parts are not hard to find, they are pretty much non-existent now. Occasionally complete engines show up on Ebay, often marine take-outs (the Toroflow was a fairly popular marine engine). Used parts might be all that is available, and gaskets would have to be custom made. If that was my truck I think I would look for a different engine unless that Toroflow ran well. Maybe an Isuzu or Cummins 4 cylinder?
Truck's body looks clean and has the big back window!
I'm also on the 6066 forum as well and I've noticed the parts scarcity. Just yesterday I was looking at headgaskets and was probably going to have to get them made. I was told the engine ran really well and I trust him, but it is a little scary knowing the truck could be down for months at a time tracking down oddball parts. Funnily enough he has an isuzu 4 cylinder diesel that we are using to build a snow blower.
Transmission is crated up waiting to be sent off and rebuilt. Decided to keep the current trans, turns out the bellhousing bolts to the 2 rear motor mounts for the engine so it's not worth it to try to find something else and have to fab up a different motor mounting system.
Got the flywheel resurfaced, transmission will be picked up tomorrow and I have exhaust and clutch parts coming in over the weekend. I'm still trying to decide where I want to mount my pto winch. I also have to decide how I want to mount my extra fuel tank. These f250's had "side tanks" for their camper edition that would be pretty easy to install but my plan was to run dual exhaust dumps out in front of the rear wheel so I feel like they would be really close to each other. Other options are a 70's mustang tank that I see a lot of people put in the rear. Not sure yet.
Do they make aftermarket "big back windows"? I was looking to replace the rubber seal but didn't want to if there's a chance I couldn't find a replacement.
I just picked up some A606 steel to rebuild the rusted out cab mounts. Turns out they don't make an overdrive bolt on for the GM np435 so I'll either have to go with a divorced unit, put in a Ford np435 or go with a sm465. I've ordered new rubber everything as the rubber is either missing or really hard. Biggest thing will be trying to tackle the rear window, hoping I don't break it and have to pay for a new one. I also ordered replacement parts for some other rust I found in the passagnger door step, and under the front door hinge. I also have plans to install an rpm gauge and Pyrometer. Old rpm gauge from a boat
Rust on passenger side
Rusted out cab mounts
Has been a little while and I haven't been able to do too much with the truck. The trans I sent out I ended up having sent back. $400 down the tubes. I have to pull the bellhousing out now and figure out If it's an sae #2 bellhousing. The only problem being that the bellhousing is also the 2 rear motor mounts for the engine so I can't pull it until I get an engine hoist to support the engine. In other news, I found a 33 gallon fuel tank that I will be putting under the bed to add extra range, it looks like it will fit with minimal frame modifications Hopefully. I also have the steel to build a gooseneck mount for the bed but I'll have to lift the body off the frame to mess with it. So at some point I'm going to be ripping off the body and hopefully doing an undercoating on the underside of the body. I also worked on the front bumper, I'm planning on putting a winch in the front. The original idea was to make it removable but currently it's about 150lbs so I'm thinking I'll leave it bolted on. Other things I need to do is check if the rims I have lying around will fit this Truck as the ones on it right now are 16.5" radius I believe so won't be easy to find tires for.
I haven't had much opportunity to get things on the truck done, but I started doing small side projects like making a hidden cassette player in the dashboard speaker grill and modifying the gas tank to be a speaker box and a storage box.
The deck I am using is a Realistic 12-1803, it is a cassette player only and it is tiny so it just fits in under the speaker grill. The plan is to have it spring up when needed and remain closed when not. Prototype is working okay. I just need to find an actual spring that will hold it.
For the storage box I used part that I cut out to reinforce the center and make it 2 separate storage areas. Then I put the speakers in, I still need to box the speakers. I added a door to one side for larger items and made it so it can be held open. I only did one side because I didn't want to have to pull the seat fully down to access the storage but also wanted to be able to hold larger items without issues. Besides that I almost finished the winch mount and will be trying to finish the bumper at some point but I haven't had much time to do anything on the truck.
