<!-- / icon and ***le --> <!-- message -->I enjoy the wisdom, experience, ideas, and humor posted on the H.A.M.B. forum. I would like to tap these resources on my 1st post here. I'm in the process of re-doing a 1950 Ford F1 with everything dismantled and ready to start the rebuild. Here's what I have for parts & pieces so far; a 3" dropped front axle with discs, new leaf springs front & rear, '94 explorer rear 3.73, toyota PS, 700R4 ******. This is where I need opinions pro & con on engine choice of what I have laying around. I have a lightly warmed-up rebuilt 454. A 307 that runs, prolly needs rebuilt. A L99 fully equiped with TPI system, CPU box, ECU, harness, alternator, AC, exhaust manifold, supposedly runs good. LT1 5.7 long block, condition unknown. The 454 would be a hoot, but is the F1 the right project with the other components I've listed? Or for a unit granny could drive would the 307 be worth rebuilding? Or should a person go with the L99 (keeping in mind my electronic skills are 0 to none). Or rebuild the 5.7 and carburate it. Or junk the whole works and just get a crate 350. Thanks in advance for your thoughts and comments.
HAMB Humor? Work with me here on both the question and the humor. You could, put a flathead in it. It's been done......and it seems to work. As to all that electronic **** you're asking about, you joined in 2008. Surely at some point you discovered that the HAMB is about traditional hot rods and customs...yes? Not a whole lot of traditional L99's, LT1's 307s, crate 350's and 454's(I said not a lot).
Well you ask, frist I would dumb all the new stuff, sell the 700R4. Go out and get your self a good 390 FE and Trans, keep it all ford, you'll be happy you did.
There ya go, pretty simple, an FE, Y-block, or a 289-351 is way more interesting than a belly-****on Chebbie- and the vehicle is not a Chebbie, so why do you immediately and only go to Boringsville/ ******* City? If you like Chebbies so much, why not just get a Chebbie pickup and use your Chebbie engines, and save a nice F-1 for someone who'll appreciate it more and not *******ize it with justanotherboringchebbie- it deserves better
of all the options go with the l99 the truck will be good but not traditional and not hamb material. good luck
1) What do you expect the truck to do? I'd ask myself that question, before I chose the engine. If you have more than one answer- say, a cruiser with some drag racing time on the weekends- then I would try to rank them by importance, or percentage of time. 2) Next: what's the budget? Keep in mind, while you answer this, that ** every ** swap will cost more than you think; the little stuff really adds up at the end. Look at it that way, and the correct engine will become obvious. Until we know your answers to those two questions, anything we say is just guessin'. Given what you've said so far, and guessing that you mostly want a reliable cruiser that will see a fair amount of highway miles, (from your description of the other parts) and using ONLY your five choices, I'd opt for a carefully selected crate 350. The L99 is too small for the weight it will be hauling (my view; I would want more power myself); to rebuild the 307 will cost almost as much as rebuilding the LT1; the LT1 as you have described it would be considered a core only, conversion manifolds are pricey and harder to find used, and I don't care much for that gen of SBC anyway; and the 454 is neither fish nor fowl for this application. (A "light warmup" to me is intake/carb/cam/headers....for the mileage and weight/handling penalty you'll pay, I don't think you'll see enough bad-*** from the 454 to make it worth it...but that's me.) If budget is a consideration my second choice would be a simple rebuild of the 307 with some additional work, or, better yet, find a cheap Gen I 350 to rebuild. Like I said, all this is idle guessing without more info.
Thanks Homespun91, your idle guessing based on the generic info was excellent. Your response was in good taste, unlike some pinheaded comments a person might see!
Well I'm a chevy guy....so I say rock the big block or build yourself a screaming small block out of that 5.7. Other may disagree....to some, putting a chevy powerplant in a ford is sacrilegious!
Buy an off the shelf 383 Stroker and let'er rip. Turn key for $4k and you'll be going down the road happy and plenty fast.
Well...if it was mine...I'd opt for a 351W...but that wasn't one of the choices. As some of the other guys mentioned, the forum is directed towards traditional, and there is something of a growing "bias" towards Chevy-swapping; but, it's your money and truck; there are plenty of Chevy swaps here as well. One question I would have for you is this: how firm are you on the 700R4? As a corollary, how much of a need do you have for an OD transmission? If you already own it, that makes a difference too...the entry cost for the OD conversion is hefty.
In my opinion you build it just how you want to build it and if you have a budget work to it as best you can. If you need to keep other Forum members here happy build it to look traditional but under the bonnet can be what you like.... No one has to agree with you. If it was mine it would be traditional to look at but my choice of engine would be untraditional just to stir others. After all I put a 6BT ***mins in my 1948 truck.
Homespun's answer is about the best one so far. Just want to add to the qualifiers: How much work do you want to do, and can you do? A Chevy swap is much easier than doing a Ford swap. Adding to that, an earlier SBC can be dressed up in traditional garb, quite easily and economically. And it will run almost as good as with fuel inj. be cheaper to build and repair. And you can drive the wheels off of it, and fix it on the road, almost anywhere. Me, personally, I'd go with an early Olds, or Caddy, I was never a big fan of Flatties.
If you are going to run a 3.73 gear and a 700R4 you do not want an engine that is warmed over you want an engine that runs well at low RPM. Eventually I am going to say this enough that someone gets it. The 454 with a 400 turbo and your rear would work or maybe a slightly higher geared rear if you run short tires. If you want to build something fun take your 307 crank and rods and mate them to your 350 block. That will net you 327 inches if you don't overbore on the overhaul. Good revs without a lot of major tweeking and clthough built with modern parts a closer to traditional build. O you could sell everything and either by or build a flatty if HP is not an issue or buy yourself an Olds or Buick mill and go from there. but if you must build with what you have the 454 and a non OD ****** will make you a good hauler or the afore mentioned 327. Again if you want to run the OD you will need a deeper gear or build a low RPM engine. The reason that the late model engines work so well with OD is that they have variable cam, ignition timing along with the EFI that is given as much or as little fuel as it take to run at a given RPM.
If it were me, and I didn't want a Flathead, my choices would be: Sml Blk Ford Cadillac Buick Oldsmobile I like Sml Blk Chevies, just not for this application.
Actually you are correct on the SBC and SBc has been my eigine of choice for a very long time. In an F-1 the SBC looks like a pea in a tin can. From an astetic point of view an engine bay that is not full just looks wrong. One of my favorite F-1 builds of all time was our shop truck when I was i young. We stuffed an an olds backed by a hydro in our '49 F-1. It was an easy swap and made lots of grunt. It also looked like it was supposed to be that way. The one thing to remember is that these swaps are not as cheap as they were when i was a kid. It was easy to find a wrecked olds with a good engine and ****** back then. But those old engines are still to be had and if you shop around you can usually find one worth the money. I got mine current olds engine from Bobwop cheap and delivered.
I have a rebuilt 700R4, with the 3.74 rear turning 255/70R15's, I figured to get 75 mph @ 2300-2500 engine rpm. What is your choice of ******'s?
Keep a ford in a ford, Y-block, flathead etc, but if you wanna be different try a 364 nailhead gotta be one of the best looking engines around.
If you didn't already have it, the choice of engines might change a bit...but since you already have made the investment, it makes the most sense to use a SBC/BBC with it...you are probably not wanting to spend the extra $$ on an adapter to use it with, say, a Nailhead. The 700R4 is a good transmission, and owning it already, you probably understand the importance of adjusting the TV cable before you run it. I'd also suggest using the proper bracket on the carb, as the cable "geometry" is as important as the travel. I agree to a large extent with what the ****** said, but I think you will do fine with a properly built 350. Even the 307 has a fairly long stroke, and as he mentioned, you can always use the 307 crank to build a large-journal 327 if you want a "traditional" engine size.
Using the Explorer 3.73 rear, and starting from scratch, what would your engine/trans selection be? I've only ever worked with SBC engines. I've got the Flattie but wanted something that would be pretty quick at the stop light. Gas mileage and 100 mph are not primary considerations.
What's the budget, and what, if anything, do you plan to do to the back suspension? If mpg really isn't much of an issue, then I might think about the 454, depending on what you have done to it. Maybe. If you are going from scratch, and you have a fairly decent budget, I'd probably build a 383 or 406. With a truck like yours, you have some interesting characteristics that tend to work against each other...you have a fairly heavy vehicle (by hot rod standards) with semi-poor aerodynamics, so you try to concentrate on low-speed performance; but on the other hand, the weight is mostly on the front end and the stock rear suspensions are really not designed with traction in mind, at least not traction for launches....they tend to suffer from wheel hop. There are some ways to get around this. With all that in mind, adding a BBC to the front end just makes the handling worse, unless you start messing around with different springs, or even monos....now you've got that in the budget too, instead of just taking a couple of leaves out of the stock front spring packs. Been there, done that. (Aluminum heads on the BBC might help...more $$.) In this particular case, again, I'd still look at a 350; but since it sounds as if stoplight performance is more of a priority than I first thought, a 383 might be a better idea (same cost to build, more or less), or better yet, a 406, if you can find a good 400 block. (I'm still ***uming that you are probably not interested in, say, buying a $2400 Dart block. ) I'd possibly still use the 700R4, not so much from a mileage standpoint, but to keep highway rpm at a nice, engine-preserving level, as you were thinking.
If cash is not an option and a good 400 block is available a short stroke 350 can be built with the 307 crank. A good set of aluminum heads and a mdederate cam can easily net you 400 HP and run on pump gas. One of my dream engines. I have most of the parts with the exception of the ever elusive good 400 block. Most of them around here have been used up by the low buck roundy round racers. But alas now we are way off topic or at least i am with the whole dream engine thing. Cheapest route would be the already slightly warmed over 454. Not totally trad but available and they make good torque.
Find a '70 +/- Lincoln or Tbird with a 390 or 460 and a C-4. Sell the 9" if you don't need it to just about break even.
The Jalopy Journal
