Projects 40 Ford Sedan "The Varmit" IS DONE! Successfully completed a Reliability Run

You have a great start on a very desirable car. Your son will appreciate it in the future. I have had a couple of these with large motors and trannys. You don't have to split the bones for most swaps and they can be lowered an inch for extra clearance . Have fun!

 

Thanks Gary, I emailed that to you today.

I'm having fun, but that first drive is going to be amazing!

 

Is that cutout in the dash above the radio supposed to be there? I have a dash that had that exact same cutout, kinda hacked up, and I filled it back to stock. It fits my '40 Ford Philco radio now. I just wondered if that cutout in yours looks to be factory or was it chopped up like mine. Strange that they would be modified exactly the same way.

 

My dash is a hack job too. My guess is there was an aftermarket radio that was popular in the 50's so both owners of our cars upgraded?


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What exactly does it take to get the sweet wife to manhandle a broom. I have only been married since '70, so I am still experimenting, but so far no solution. I sure hope she doesn't read this stuff.

 

Hey, Dan. I bought a Posies' rear spring for my '40 several months ago, and together with 2" longer shackles, dropped the rear almost right. Any lower will require C'ing the frame. Tires are 29" tall.

 

So, the HAMB was down, I got work done!
I went ahead and assembled the motor/trans, and then slid it in the chassis. It feels like I've met a major milestone in this build.



I used the spacers that speedway says to use for a 35-40 ford frame. But I think it could come down a little and still not be touching the crossmember... Here are some pics of the clearances... the distributor cap just kisses the firewall, and it doesn't seem to be impeded at all. I barely got the bolts in the tranny mount. It's sitting about a 1/2 inch too far forward on the tranny mount, but as you can see, there is no more room to go back, the motor could come forward a bit, but I'm not sure if it'll bolt up to the trans mount.... thoughts?

Should I shim the radiator up some? I don't really want to use an electric fan, but in this position, a mech. fan seems like it wouldn't work well.


You can see the top bell housing bolt touching the transmission. I would move it forward, but I'm not sure if the transmission would bolt up to it's mount..

 

If you replace those Speedway spacers with something half as high (or maybe even less), could the pan still clear the crossmember? Then you'd have more clearance at the firewall and maybe your trans mount would fit better. Remember, if the trans is a bit too far forward, so will be the rearend. Maybe you need a smaller diameter distributor like a two-piece-cap Mallory.

 

That's a good word about the rear end. I didn't put the u joint housing on the trans because the rear end is coming out shortly. I'll test fit the clam shell cover and see if it fits.

And, yes, there is some room for the motor to come down before it's into the crossmember, and there is plenty of room between the pan and the drag link/tie rod.

 

Looks like fun. I like the standard 40s. It doesn't matter how long it takes to build as long as you're having fun....

 

Looking good Dan. Looks like yours can come down some. I didn't think there was that much difference in the 40 cross member, but there must be. I'm using the CE rubber donut pads (maybe they are a little shorter than what you are using?) with the speedway spacers like you have and I had to shim an additional 3/8" or so for the mount to clear the spring u-bolts.

 

Clay, could you measure your rubber donuts top to bottom? That would be an easy fix If the rubber mounts are shorter.

 

Lots of different Chevy oil pans out there. Maybe a different pan would get you even more clearance. I'd think the early pans would give the most clearance, since the reason Chevy designed the engines the way they did was to fit into old Fords. They test fitted many year Fords to get the most cross-compatibility with the new '55 V8.

 

Ha.. that gave me a chuckle. In my case the saddle motor mount will hit the spring u bolts before the pan will.

 

looking good Dan ,i have been following your progress on fb

 

Looks good Dan.

 

I'll measure them tonight.

 

A uninstalled CE cushion measures just a hair over 1-1/4" tall, don't know the height with weight on it tho.
If you have Speedway cushions, it has been my experience that they will settle quite a bit under the weight of the engine.

 

Thanks Rich, I'll have to get the tape measure out tonight and see what I got. From memory it seems like the speedway mounts are more than that.. probably closer to 2".

 

Dan, unless you need the additional height to clear the oil pan, I'd ditch those spacers. If I remember correctly, an EARLY SBC pan is small enough, in the area that is over the crossmember, that you shouldn't need them. That should also help out the mechanical fan angle issue. I ran a mechanical fan, on the coupe, until I replaced the stock radiator with a Walker, with an internal trans cooler. The additional heat from the transmission oil cooler required more cooling, so now I went to the dark side and added the electric fan.

BTW...Dad just dropped off 2 '40 Ford tranny's at my house, in case you get a little crazy and blow yours up.

 

I don't really like the spacers either, but without them, the hurst mount is resting on the U bolts for the spring. If the CE donuts are shorter, that should bring it down to it's lowest point, but I will still have to use the spacers.

 

Hmmm. I loaned my Hurst mount to a buddy, in the StL area. I just left him a voicemail and sent him an e-mail, to see if he still has it, and if he can take a measurement of the depth of the dip in it. When I had the 283 in my coupe, I had used that mount, with just biscuits, and it cleared the spring u-bolts.

Jerry was gonna make a template from that mount, but I don't know if he ever did or if he just used it in one of his builds. I'll let you know what I find out.

 

Well, the is a Speedway Motors copy of a hurst mount. They advertise it for a universal application. That's why they have the spacers to use in this frame. So, I'm sure that the hurst mount that was originally designed for this application was an exact fit. I should've called mind a hurst-like mount..

 

Can you section a little off the bottom chin of the Hurst-like mount? Obviously replacing the flange, just up a little? I'd think most of the work is being done by the outer wings of the mount, and the bolts holding them to the front of the block. The chin is just connecting the two halves together.

If you can get that engine lower it should fit in there just like the Chevrolet Brothers intended.

 

Looked at a pic of my CM vs. yours, and I now see why mine needed the additional spacers. The earlier CMs dip down inside the frame rails about the same dimension as the 40s rise - you can kind of see it in the below pic.

I have an original small journal Hurst Mount at home that I can measure, but like you, I am using the same hurst-like mount on a large journal motor. It would definitely fit better without the spacers, but it looks like you would need a different pan, and you would need to trim the bottom of your mount. That's why Deuce Lover cut his in half.... I'm sure that will probably work fine, but I feel better with the connection between the two sides to reduce the shear on the bolts.

 

One more tip with that mount..... you are going to need to notch it for your lower radiator hose. It would have be been much easier to mark it and do it off the car, that the way that I did it.

 

I switched the spacer around... It's down a bunch and nothing is hitting the crossmember. This may be the answer. Any lower and I'd have to cut the mount or do something different.


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Dan, great work and it had to be nice to see an engine sitting in between those rails. From your pics, it sure looks like you could get a short hub clutch fan from a corvette to fit on your water pump. My 40 just had a flex fan and it wouldn't cut it. I ended up putting a single electric fan on it and it worked great.

 

I think I'm going to space the radiator up a couple inches. I looked at another 40 over the weekend and it had the radiator spaced up. It didn't look bad. Clutch fan is a good idea...

 

Looking good Dan, My pan is sitting a little closer to the cross member than that but I'm using the CE mounts, my distributor is pretty much the same as yours at the firewall.