That would have been a little before my time. The first big drag race I ever attended on my own would have been the inaugural 1975 Fall nationals in Seattle.
Uh, well, yea, sorta like chevy didn't back Jenkins... No, Ford wasn't doing the R&D, but they were sure handing out a lot of parts to teams like G&R & Nicholson that you or I never even got to know about. If it feels better, lets call it factory "support".
As to the early P/S cars and the competitiveness of (many) of them, some of the big problems were the unibody/subframe and horsepower/traction issues. That first tube frame Vega of Jenkins made everybody rethink their program.
Hey, Bud, welcome to the HUGE SBC crowd. To set things straight, I have been killing brain cells for 50+years, so we are almost even. The only problem with a 700R4 is making sure the TV cable is adjusted properly. The body is slightly wider than a TH350 toward the back of the pan on the right side which should be no problem in that cavernous engine bay. Ditto for the accessories. Our Father in HAMB, Ryan, has a '64 F100 and should be able to answer any questions about your truck. Just convince him you are installing a flathead and you will be in like Flynn. Good luck. Hopefully, that last sentence will self-destruct shortly after you read it. LOL
Sorry, we have digressed. One thing I agree with, unless you are towing with it, I would use a later OD trans over the T350.
Trying to find parts that bolt up to a Ford mill is one of the two main reasons we "simple" people go SBC.
People talk about it like Jenkins did something no-one else was doing, but Ted Spehar was really already WELL down that road on the Mopar Missile Challenger, its a little more subtle, but in some ways, the chassis on that car was actually "tricker" than Jenkins. There was a LOT to see on that car. And it was reflected in its performance, for most of '71, the car was a solid tenth quicker than everyone including Sox. They also did a WHOLE lot of testing with that car using primitive computer telemetry (sp), and a LOT of what they learned doing that testing went on to be the basis of the information in the DC manuals. In a lot of ways, it was really more influential, and gave more of a window into the direction of what the future held for door cars than Jenkins Vega did. A lot of guys also don't know that it often ran a clutchflite instead of the four speed.
Thanks all, even those of you who are asses. I was a day late on a one owner 97,000 mile 76 Granada 302/C4 for $1200.
Any thought to a late-model 300 Ford six with a AOD or a 5-speed? Add an Offie 4-bbl. intake with a 390 Holly or 500 Edelbrock carb, you'll have gobs of TORQUE, and be braggin about your mileage! Dress it up a little with chrome or aluminum valve and pushrod covers - you'll get LOTS of attention with the hood up. Split the exhaust manifold or run headers with duals... sounds BITCHIN!!! You see one SBC with a 4-bbl, you've seen them ALL...(yawn) -Tim
good idea, a good running small-block will have some HAMBers crapping in their Depends...Gotta keep it slow and safe...
Forgive me if it was already mentioned here, I didn't read all of the posts of people bitching about what engine you're putting in despite you not asking for their opinion and them not putting up any money towards your swap to make their opinion worth a shit. I swear, it would be like my neighbor walking into my house and telling me he doesn't like my curtains. If you can't make a hard linkage work, Lokar makes a cable shift conversion for a column shifter. It uses a push/pull cable that would hook to a brakect on the trans and the other on the sleeve of the steering column. This is nice in that it would give you flexibility in where you want to run your cable, potentially around exhaust, brake lines, etc. You can make the cable either push or pull the shift lever on the trans by either having it mount above or below the pivot center. You could also retain your Park detent in the column, but you'll have to get creative to have the pattern match with the 700R4, which has the P-R-N-OD-D-2-1 pattern. You could do it with a file, or just remove them entirely. I've never had a lockout in my shifter and it has never been an issue.
The Jalopy Journal
