Love my lil' Econo, Its got a 170ci 6r, and 3 on the tree. But she is pissed when I make her go 60 on the freeway. I have been a chevy guy all my life, and confess I dont know for sure what other ******s will bolt to the **** of this thing that will help the revs flatten out a bit when i am crusing on the freeway. I am going to swap the rear gears, but I think a ****** swap would help too. Any suggestions ?
I have a friend who has an 66 chevy with a straight six with a late 80s S10 manual 5 speed and my other friend has a 59 apachie with a 91 S10 5 speed and they are a completly different truck with those ******s!!! Hope that helps!!
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=178391&highlight=econoline+madness I would swap a 200ci and a C4 trans maybe even diff rear end gears. Norton
I would swap the motor if the 170 did not have only 30k on it. Are you saying the C4 will not bolt to a 170 ? "Hotrodkid": Thats the beauty of Chevy, but now I am in Ford land
I would bet you could use that three speed, plus OD used in many late 70's/early 80's Ford cars and light pickups. Not good for power, but would be great on a lightweight like yours. They are top loaders, so you may need to get creative with the linkage. You may be able to shift all four gears with the column shifter, then have a second lever to actuate reverse.
mid 60's falcons n mustangs had small block six's w/c-4's it's the bellhousing you need but you'll also need the tailhousing from an econoline, or fab a lower mount.
Those are called SROD's -- single rail OD's. Couple of flavors -- check this ID chart. The shifter is a problem tho.
Bellhousing pattern is different between the 170 and the later motors. Unless you putzing around town and do not plan on much over the road use its a GREAT idea to look for a later 200/C4 ('66-'67 and up) combo and drop it in there along with some 3.25's in the rearend. The 200's are SOOO much better than the 170's on many levels and well worth the effort if you are really planning on driving this thing on the open roads at modern highway speeds. Start by searching the Falcon sites and Googling 170-200 swap....you'll get some needed info from out there. Mustangs, Falcons, Mavericks all had them. The 250/C4 would be fine too but they are bigger and may not fit where the 170 is in that early van. -Bigchief.
Just blow that weezer 170 up and put in the engine of your choice. That little 6 holer doesn't have enough power to pull the hat off of a bald man's head.
144, 170,200, 250 all have the same bellhousing. The big 300 I-6 were different. I agree the 200 w/ a C4 would work nicely more torque. Planning this for my Ranchero in the future.
Still Stick'n with the 170, It will light 'em up in 1st, and even in 3rd its snappy. My best ****** option would probably be the O/D 3 speed, except for the linkage. Thanks alot ford. I am just gonna swap the gears and hope for the best, I will post if its eveything I been dream'n of. Thanks for the Help
Be real careful with those burnouts in that Econoline. The yokes on those things are TINY and break very easily. When they do replacements are very hard to find. Ask me how i know Seriously, it can be a real problem. My Econoline pickup also didn't like much over about 65, but I did put an 8' chopper in the back and deliver it to its new owner in Las Vegas. Baker grade was about 35-40 mph! But we made it.
if you are doing burnouts with that tiny motor ,,, i'd say its geared too low..go up in the rear end gears and you will get it up to 70-75 without hurting the take off too bad......but as it is right now,, you could probably move a ton of bricks inside ,,, just not too fast....
An Econoline with a 170 is snappy? Ok, but at 60 mph it's gonna be a knife fight for that 170 to push that barn door through the wind with fewer rpm's and less power available with an OD gear.
even with stock engines and trans from the 30's you can cruise at freeway speeds with the right rear end check this out for dimensions so you know your options http://www.carnut.com/specs/rear.html
That's weird. My Econoline had a 170, 3 speed and the small 7" rear end and I regularly pulled 70-80mph on the Chicago freeways. Maybe you have some other problem. As has been said, the 144, 170, and 200s share the same bell/trans bolt pattern. The 240, 300 and SBF v8s have a different pattern, so you're stuck with a trans that fits the small 6, or you need some sort of adapter. Maybe you could get a 4-speed from a 2nd Generation Econo? I'm not sure of the motor/trans combos of those things.
No kidding! Here's a 144/170 drive shaft (top) and the "heavy duty" 240 shaft (bottom; minus yoke). Believe it or not, the 240 shaft will take the abuse of a 351w.
I broke the rear end yoke right off the little 7" rear end (Dana 44 based if I remember). The reason they do burn outs so easy is NO weight over the rear end. Purportedly Ford added 125 over the rear of the truck in 1963, but I don't know for sure if that is fact or not. I'd be a little weary of adding much rear end gear as they are already pretty doggy in first, especially if you have any weight in it. Known to be hard on clutches from people slipping them to get going.
Not to hijack this post, but is that avatar your car, bobjob55? Got any more photos of it? I am intrigued!
That's what PMs are for, Atomic. Yeah, Econolines have a big chunk of iron bolted between the rails above the gas tank. I'm not sure what year they were added, but I thought all of them left the factory with a weight. I replaced by 7" with a 9" POSI with 3.5 gears to go with my v8. I'll let you know how that works when I get it wired and driveable.
Yeah, I noticed that big old chunk O steel when I installed my new gas tank. The 170 has good power due to a decked head, higher compression pistons, and over bore with only 30k on it. Well, thats what the owner said, but I got the paper work from "Waterhouse", so it seems to check out. Anyway.. Yeah I got that dinky 7" 8 bolt something or another (fill me in if you know) and I cant really find anyone who makes gears for it. "Hellfish" Was that 9" an easy swap? what mods did you have to make?
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