I hear these comments a lot about Gas Milage and Build costs. About the only way to avoid either or both is go small or used and not have what you want/need in the end. Like I said when I first posted, my workhorse is a 96 F-250 Club Wagon 460-AOD and it does everything at 16 to 18 mpg. I call that a Good Deal. The reason I have a nice 390 and all the pieces to install it in any F-100 is because a good 460 will out run it and out work it. That said and being I want to open the hood on my 57 H.T, I choose a Tri-Power 4 speed FE for it. The 460 F.I. motor just wouldn't look right in it. Screw Gas Milage. Fun cost more $$$ today than yesterday every day. How much fun do you need? Where are you going and how do you want to get there?
My son just bought this 65K mile camper to pull the 460 C6 out of to put into our '55 F100. It ran good on the 90 mile trip to get it home, so we plan to just clean it up and use it as is. (leaving pic as a thumbnail so it hopefully doesn't distract from the thread)
Hello, At the time of our hot rod/drag race/speed shop adventures, we definitely needed a truck. There were times when we had to tow a small trailer to get very large axle housings back to our small speed shop garage and/or a set of tires/rims, etc. The trunk of the 58 Impala worked for the most part, but after a couple of wheels and tires inside the trunk, that was the allowed space. No old, oily parts were going inside of the upholstered back seat area. We did cover the tires and rims with a blanket for the back seat area and then then canvas tarp was put in the trunk for the larger item or items. A truck definitely would have helped with ease of transportation of old stuff we used. We looked at our neighbor’s 1955-56 Ford truck. It was a “go to” truck for a lot of folks to use as daily drivers and work trucks with the necessary space in the back. Since we knew SBC motors well, that was going to be the motor of choice, if we got a truck or station wagon later on in our builds and business. We kept telling our selves that the open bed truck was coming soon and kept doing our parts run and searching, using the 58 Impala. We even got the sturdy tow hitch welded in place to tow a small trailer for the stuff that was too large for the trunk… like a 283 SBC long block for our first Willys Coupe motor. As far as money would take us, if we had the funds, there were completed SBC motors already assembled at the local speed shops, Reath Automotive and Joe Mailliard Long Beach shops came to mind. But, we learned to plan out our future as much as we could. Jnaki So, we did not have time or the money to buy a separate truck just to haul big parts. After the motor/trans/rear end, as well as new suspension parts, everything else was small enough to put in the trunk of the Impala. But, we did tell ourselves that we definitely would need a truck or station wagon for our long distance towing to other local dragstrips in So Cal and into northern California/Arizona when the time came to race elsewhere. YRMV One thought was a custom 1959 El Camino. We had seen plenty of them at the dragstrip cleaning up in the S/S classes with 335hp + 4 speed, so, it could have been our choice for a speed shop truck. plenty of power and we were familiar with the 348 motor for longevity and reliability. But, there is nothing wrong with a SBC motor for long distance towing, either...
I still don't have a decision. I was heading down the FE vein, but I have had a hard time locating a good core. I'm in no hurry because I am in the middle of building the "Big Barn Theory" (TM).
The Jalopy Journal
