Rusty, the 1970 F-100

[redstone65]

Please don't tell me you're anywhere near Richmond, VA...

Gah! I hate to hear that. I'm in Birmingham, AL though, so I guess it's a little far.

I actually found a running 360 near Nashville that I just sent the money for. Nice guy who is pulling it out of a '74 F100. I'm going to drop that one in just to get this truck moving. That'll give me time to rebuild ol' dirt dauber.

This is a father/son build for his first car, so it'll be good for him to have the experience of an engine swap and rebuild.

Yes, I'm definitely keeping the FE. My son really wants to keep it original. I told him he'd have to work 2 jobs to pay for the gas.

[Manny]

Crazy mess for a just built engine. It looks like a re ringer at best. You get her out and cleaned up you will know better. Like whitsend said the world is your oyster for building a simple driver to a monster engine.

[Manny]

Please don't tell me you're anywhere near Richmond, VA...

Gah! I hate to hear that. I'm in Birmingham, AL though, so I guess it's a little far.

I actually found a running 360 near Nashville that I just sent the money for. Nice guy who is pulling it out of a '74 F100. I'm going to drop that one in just to get this truck moving. That'll give me time to rebuild ol' dirt dauber.

This is a father/son build for his first car, so it'll be good for him to have the experience of an engine swap and rebuild.

Yes, I'm definitely keeping the FE. My son really wants to keep it original. I told him he'd have to work 2 jobs to pay for the gas.

I've got a 390 crank in Atlanta. Also if your going up to nashville you could stop a little short in a town of lawrenceburg. Know a guy there with some motors as well.

[redstone65]

I've got a 390 crank in Atlanta

Thanks for the info on that. If going from 360 to 390 does the flex plate have to be balanced to the new crank or would any 360/390 plate work.

[hfdco4]

360 and 390 flexplates should be the same. I upgraded my 360 to a 390 and have a manual trans.

[Joshgt87]

I like your truck so far! I had a similar experience with an FE. I scrapped the FE and went with a windsor. I do have a 390 crank, it’s a little rusty and it’s been turned once, but I’m sure a machine shop could clean it up.it was in good shape when I pulled it. The motor had 2 wrist pins comes loose and they dug a hole in the cylinder walls. I’m in Northeast Arkansas. Let me know if you need it.

[redstone65]

Let me know if you need it.

Thanks Josh! You guys are amazing. We actually picked up the "new" running 360 yesterday from a great guy up near Nashville that does a lot of rebuilds. It rained pretty hard on the way home, but I think we had all holes duct-taped up tight.

Pics:




Also got a C6 and torque converter from him. Condition of it is unknown at this point, but I figure if I'm going to have to break into the one I have anyway, might as well have an extra one for spare parts. It was a no-brainer for $50.

Maybe between two mystery C6's I can come out with one that works. Or, who knows - they may both work. We'll see.

Pic:



Next step is to get ol' dirt dauber out of the truck and then drop the C6 to inspect what's going on with it. Also need to ensure that every possible hole is plugged in the new 360. Don't want anymore critters in there.

Anyone have advice for how deep to get into this new, running 360 gasketwise? At a minimum I plan to change the oil pan gasket because it's so hard to do once it's in. It will also need exhaust flange gaskets. The only other thing I can think of to do while it's out is rear main seal. Any other advice?

[hfdco4]

Well based on looking at your new engine I would say the heads have been off and it has an aluminum intake. These are both good things. Do the oil pan and maybe pull the oil pump pick-up tube and make sure it's clean. Also I see that the previous owner had trouble with the exhaust bolts. Some of then are now nut and bolts. Apply generous amount of heat to those bolts before trying to remove the exhaust manifolds.

[redstone65]

We dropped the new 360 in on Saturday. I've never swapped an engine before, so this was a magical moment. And by magical, I mean exhausting.

First things being first, we chained up the old block to get it out. Attached it to a rear driver side trans bolt hole and a front passenger bolt hole. Just used the trans bolts to attach:







And out she comes! Seemed very light with the heads, intake and accessories off.





Work dog hung out with us and kept an eye on squirrels.



For the moment, we just dropped the old block in the back of the '65. It groaned a little but it likes to work, so no worries.



My boy is doing a good job working the hoist.



We can now drive it out of the way and bring the new one around on the trailer. This is all being done on the street since I have no garage or driveway. Creativity is the key here.

Took this opportunity to inspect the torque converter and transmission. I re-seated the TC and went through all the gear selector positions. All seemed as it should be. The mystery of why it would roll only forwards, not backwards continues. My best guess is that the engine/trans connection seemed ****-eyed, since there was a 2x4 between trans cross-member and the pan. Maybe the TC was binding against the input shaft or something. The trans wasn't actually bolted up to the block. The bolts were just loosely in there. Still doesn't make sense though. More dirt daubers. This time on the TC.



Got the new engine pulled around and hoisted up:





Now we just had to go through getting the trailer out from under it so we could roll Rusty down the street to meet it. Finally got that done. It was a pain:



Come on baby, just a little bit more:



Bingo!



Now, it just took 2 hours of fiddling to get it to mate up with the trans and drop in the motor mounts.



The exhaust just wouldn't bolt up correctly. I could never get both sides to line up.





Finally figured out that whoever welded this exhaust crossover didn't leave enough room behind the trans mount, so it would never pull up tight:



And, This is some exquisite booger welding:



It literally had pieces of flux-core wire stuck in it. .

I wasn't planning on having to do exhaust work, so that was depressing. Also, I evidently didn't seat the TC all the way in because it's binding against the flex plate when I spin it. [sigh] I could have sworn that thing dropped in twice when I was seating it, but I guess not. I'll be pulling the trans out I guess. At least the engine is in.

[WhitsEnd]

Progress!

Certainly, you took the 3 minutes to change out the front pump seal behind that torque converter......right?

[redstone65]

Certainly, you took the 3 minutes to change out the front pump seal behind that torque converter......right?

No, I didn't change the seal because I knew there would be a 99.9% chance I'd be pulling the trans out before it gets road worthy anyway. I really just wanted to see if it even shifted or functioned properly with a drive around the block. Based on the condition of the rest of the drivetrain (and that issue of only rolling forwards, not backwards), I just didn't think it'd be any good. I actually got a spare C6 from the same guy I bought the engine from. That's how much I don't trust this tranny.

It doesn't seem hard to pull out (other than the weight) so not too big of a deal I guess. I'll go ahead and replace front and rear seals this time though, just in case we get lucky and it actually does work well.

BTW, I'm reading through your build thread right now. That's such a sweet truck.

[WhitsEnd]

Certainly, you took the 3 minutes to change out the front pump seal behind that torque converter......right?

BTW, I'm reading through your build thread right now. That's such a sweet truck.

Thank you.

You may find it easier to pull the motor and tranny together if the time comes, since the frame crossmember below the trans is riveted in. I removed the rivets and replaced them with bolts, as many do.

[hfdco4]

Great job. Can't believe you did all that work in the road.

[redstone65]

Great job. Can't believe you did all that work in the road.

Thanks! Yeah it stinks not having a garage or even a driveway. Oh well. You play the hand you’re dealt I guess.

[redstone65]

There was a change of plans away from the drivetrain to some body work (ugh) because I realized how bad the passenger drip rail section was. The chrome trim made it hard to get an accurate picture of what was going on in there. It was much worse than I thought.

I was able to stop the bleeding enough for now to get back to work on the engine. I’ll post pics of the drip rails once I get them sorted. I have lots of thoughts on it.