Graham's '68 F-100 - Engine swap week

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motzingg
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Re: Graham's '68 F-100 "Buck" the truck

Post by motzingg »

wow, thats cool, i read through that about 5 times but for some reason missed the short bed part, i was thinking that was for a long bed.

i might be able to dig one up local, thats great, thanks!
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Re: Graham's '68 F-100 "Buck" the truck

Post by sargentrs »

:doh: I missed the short box point too. Interestingly, though, I saw other references on car-part to drive shaft-front and drive shaft-rear in reference to the same part search. Could they have had a 2 PC drive shaft too? Anyone?
Randy
1970 F100 Sport Custom Limited LWB, 302cid, 3 on the tree. NO A/C, NO P/S, NO P/B. Currently in 1000 pcs while rebuilding. Project thread: http://www.fordification.com/forum/view ... 22&t=59995 Plan: 351w, C4, LSD, pwr front disc, p/s, a/c, bucket seats, new interior and paint.
1987 F-150 XLT Lariat, 5.0/C6 auto.
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Re: Graham's '68 F-100 "Buck" the truck

Post by motzingg »

hmm, thats interesting. i'll try for rock auto

the pick and pull near me is listing an '82 LTD which should be pretty close. I've got to go pick up my wheels on that side of town tomorrow anyhow so i'll stop in and measure/pull the driveshaft then, if it is correct.

the output on the M5R2 has a slip yoke, but it doesn't have as much travel as the one on the 3.03. Its only about 3-4 inches travel, whereas the 3.03 looks like 5-7 inches of travel.

its tough, with leaf springs, to even know how much it moves. with a 4 bar or something you could do the math, with leaf springs i don't think so. The donor truck had a 3 piece with a carrier bearing and a slip shaft and everything.
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Re: Graham's '68 F-100 "Buck" the truck

Post by motzingg »

Another weekend shot and not much progress on the bump! Bummer...

She has been holding up pretty well to daily driver duties, the brakes are constantly leaking (drivers rear wheel cylinder is completely gone now), the weather stripping being gone is kinda grating on my ears, the slop in the steering is pretty evident whenever i hit the brakes and she pulls into the next lane, the transmission is only jamming every couple days, she's pissing out about a quart of oil a week and i'm pretty sure the rear-end is going to go one of these days...

but so far so good!

Its been tough balancing family and shop time, i'm trying to get my new 'workshop' set up, get a couple bikes running to be ready to sell when it warms up, and keep the truck on the road, but cash is tight and time is tighter. I've managed to get together a lot of the stuff I need for the next couple upgrades, but it will be a little while before all the pieces come together.

The short term plan is to get the brake lines all done and the booster installed first, that should be a saturday give or take and cost about 50 bucks in line and fittings.

Next attack the rear axle, that's going to be a bit pricy, maybe 200 depending on what it costs to cut the splines and shorten the 31 spline axles. I spent a lot of time going back and forth with the practical costs of rebuilding my own 3rd member or swapping in the donor 3rd and getting axles cut. By the time i spend the 150+ dollars for all new carrier bearings and do a halfway credible job of rebuilding my own 28-spline 3rd member with the 3:1 gears, i'll be in the same money and i'll still only have the 28 spline axles... plus the risk of screwing up the rebuild and having whiny gears that destroy themselves. I'll trust FoMoCo to get it right and use their pumpkin complete.

So this is the 'workshop' in reality a crummy, overpriced self storage unit, powered by a 600w honda suitcase genset. Lights and a radio, turn them off if you want to use the angle grinder...
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The 'new' brake booster finally came in, a friendly fordification member sent it to me, it appears to be in pretty good shape. I'm getting the stuff together to make all new stainless lines and install this.
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This is the flaring kit that i bought. I spent a while going through the different options for these, from a 5 dollar harbor freight special all the way to a 160 dollar snap on set. I've used enough of these to know that a bad one isn't worth the scrap metal its made out of, and i like buying heirloom quality tools, but 160 bucks for the red plastic case that says 'snap on' is kinda absurd.

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This is the cheapest and nicest one i could find made in USA. It was $40 shipped on Feebay and the quality is about what i expected, No frills but its made out of real forged steel, the machining and finishing on it is really nice. It feels like the clamp bar piece might even be tool steel or something, either way its nice. You can hold off buying one until i get a chance to use it, but just by looking at it, it seems to be a high quality tool.
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Hmm what else?

Got the 1991 F-150 wheels finally. They are 4 inch backspaced, and they look like 7.5 wide as advertised, haven't pulled tires off to measure. Problem is, thats what i currently have on my one gimpy odd-sized rim and it looks stupid, I was hoping they would match my other rims, which, upon closer inspection, appear to be wider, 8 inches maybe. My current rims are about 6" dished in from the outside, which if they were 8" rims would be like 2" backspace. Not sure what to do about this one.

I'm pretty sure i'm going to go with a 30x9.5 tire, 31x10 is a little too monster-truck looking for me, but i do like the tall sidewall tire stuffed in the wheel well look on these trucks, since they have such large wheel wells.

Either way a decision is a long way off, as saving up the 500-700 for new tires will probably take a month or two at this rate.

on that note, any ideas what this wheel might have come from? I have 3 that match and one mis-match, if i could find a 4th i'd consider just sandblasting them and sticking with them, they look good backspacing/size wise.

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Re: Graham's '68 F-100 "Buck" the truck

Post by motzingg »

Not much progress on the truck lately, working out of a storage unit has me pretty much shut down as far as being able to get the trans swap completed.

Still trying to figure out this wheel and tire thing. ehhh...

so the '91 wheels that i got, which are plane jane steelies have like 2 inches backspace, and the weird star pattern rims that are on there now are like 4.5" maybe?

I ran into a guy at the grocery store the other day, who i've seen driving around, who has the late model shallow dish steelie on front and the deep dish identical to mine on the back. He bought the truck that way... it looks ok. Its made worse by the fact that he is running low profile racey tires.

I'm set on a set of 30x9, they are pretty cheap from discount tire and give the right size and aspect ratio for that tall and narrow 'old school' farm truck look i'm going for

Maybe the mismatch wheels will be less noticeable setup like that? or maybe i should just run the matching shallow dish wheels until i can afford something better.


I keep seeing early 90's f-150's with those 'Alcoa' style solid aluminum wheels with the holes drilled in them... that would be perfect, tough part finding them on craigslist or in a junkyard, i cant seem to find any.
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Re: Graham's '68 F-100 "Buck" the truck

Post by motzingg »

Updates, updates... its been a while since I bumped this thread. The truck has been a victim of its own success. She just keeps running and running and other projects have taken precedent, so she hasn't got much attention.

The biggest development was the loss of one cylinder around early march. I was driving down the road going into work one morning and copious smoke started pouring out everywhere. I expected to find a fire under the hood, but it turned out to just be blowby coming out of every hole possible.

It took about 3 quarts of oil to make it into work, blowing out the breather and everywhere else. It was running really well until i shut it down (blowing smoke) but then when i restarted, it was obviously running on 5. A compression check told me the #2 cylinder was stone dead. I weighed my options and decided to simply pull two rockers and two pushrods and keep driving on 5 cylinders. She starts good, runs good, obviously vibrates alot and is down on power, but surprising how well it actually does run.

I got a moto running to do daily driver duty, and bought back the 4.9 motor that i had previously sold after getting the transmission.

Also moved into a new house and getting ready to rebuild the 4.9. Got all the stuff to do it just gotta find some time.

Hood latch broke and Taco'd my hood. Got a new hood, nicer shape than the old one, and got one of these with the package deal. Started rebuilding it but ran into a snafu trying to replace some bad fittings... i'll detail more when i get around to finishing the project!

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and, after removing about 20 lbs of mud wasp nest:
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Re: Graham's '68 F-100 "Buck" the truck

Post by motzingg »

It certainly has been a while since I 'bumped' this thread, I'm almost embarassed to say that she has been running on 5/6 cylinders for months now (although she is only being used for occasional hauling) and the new engine is still not done.

Trying to combine parts from '68. '83 and 91 engines all into one running motor has proven much more frustrating than i thought, and, lets face it I'm just not set up for this kind of work in my tiny garage (not that i'm complaining, others do much more with much less) stuff like engine hoists, etc. And having to DD the truck to drop my son off at daycare every morning M-F makes it real tough.

I've been reminded on more than one occasion what my buddy (a confirmed chevy loving degenerate) used to tell me: "Any part you swap on a ford will be a half inch off" :?

anyhow.

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some pics of the engine build in progress

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oh, what's that little guy doing there? :hmm:

Redid the rear brakes, turned drums (1 new one), new slave cylinders, new pads and all new adjusters... boring... got done at 11 am so no pictures.

Been spending most of my 'forum time' over on 'fordsix' lately bugging those dudes for help with the engine project... Once that is in and buttoned up I'll be back to buggin' y'all about dumb stuff like brakes and getting ready to paint. Maybe over the long thanksgiving weekend if all goes well.
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Re: Graham's '68 F-100 "Buck" the truck

Post by Petewrench »

Them's sum gnarly ridges at the tops of the cylinders! Might consider Boring it if you are going to turbo it. improper ring seal WILL result in more Oil outside the engine than in! :2cents:
"WARNING! Being Hit with The "Brick Of Life", is just a hint that you are about to be run over by the "Boulder Of Being"!"
:bdh: :hn: :rant: :wf: :drive:
1967 F-100 Base Long bed. 390 4Bbl, NP435 4Spd, Manual Steering, Manual Brakes, A/C. (BlueBeast).FOR SALE-NOT!
1967 F-350 C&C, 159"WB.(Donor Truck)
1967 Mercury Cougar Standard. 5.0 HO, RUG-E 4 Speed, Factory Triple Black, Console Car.(SOLD)
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Re: Graham's '68 F-100 "Buck" the truck

Post by motzingg »

hmm yeah they look much worse in the photo than in reality, but we'll see how it holds. there is no discernible ridge, just a darker region that didn't have as much material removed.

stock cast (hypereutectic) slugs and a more-or-less stock rebuild/re-ring with the 240 intake (2v) and the '83 (maybe '85 i dunno) carb head.

turbo is 'phase 2' of the engine build, planning on getting to that over the winter, we'll see how it holds. If i blow it up, i've only got about $500 in this engine, and the original 240 will get broken down and scavenged for the next build as soon as it comes out.
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Re: Graham's '68 F-100 "Buck" the truck

Post by Heirloom »

motzingg wrote:hmm yeah they look much worse in the photo than in reality, but we'll see how it holds. there is no discernible ridge, just a darker region that didn't have as much material removed.

stock cast (hypereutectic) slugs and a more-or-less stock rebuild/re-ring with the 240 intake (2v) and the '83 (maybe '85 i dunno) carb head.

turbo is 'phase 2' of the engine build, planning on getting to that over the winter, we'll see how it holds. If i blow it up, i've only got about $500 in this engine, and the original 240 will get broken down and scavenged for the next build as soon as it comes out.
Nothing more fun than applying boost to a worn out motor you're not to worried about. So your doing a blow-thru carb set up? I never messed with that, just EFI turbo Dodges.

Here's a pic my old turbo car... 1987 Shelby GLHS #232 :D

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~Heirloom

'68 F250 360, 4 spd Project Thread!
Plans are for a stout 400, C6, 3.54 gears, 33" BFG AT's, bucket seats and custom console. Final assembly, nearing start up...


"Those who hammer their guns into plows will plow for those who do not."
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"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
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Re: Graham's '68 F-100 "Buck" the truck

Post by motzingg »

boy that GLH shelby is badass, i've always kinda wanted one of those, or an Omni hatchback...

yeah the guys over on Fordsix have done some really cool stuff. The 'big six' is a natural for turbocharging. Its a strong motor with poor head flow, good low end, and should have no problem taking the pressure. I did some testing/r+d a couple years ago for some guys who build huge turbocharged low speed piston engines (pumps, generators, etc) and their recipe for extreme fuel economy is low speed, high pressure and high temp. I'm going to try to replicate that without shooting my eye out. Based on what others have done i don't think that 200-250 hp and 300+ ft-lbs from 2000-3500 rpm is an unrealistic goal or that it will damage the hard parts, hopefully all while staying totally driveable and getting pretty good gas mileage when i'm not giving her the beans.

the carb thing is part because i'm cheap and that is what i have laying around, and part because i've never build a carb'd turbo before and i'm intrigued by it, should be an interesting challenge. I've already figured out how to mod the power valve and reference it to the turbo inlet so it opens under boost. The 2100 carbs are a natural for this kinda thing since there is only one power valve and the passage is easy to plug and tap.

I also have the head, intake, ecm and complete wiring harness from the EFI motor so if the carb is too hard to make driveable that becomes my 'stage 3' build. But enough bench racing for now!



Parts have been showing up all week but i've been getting pounded hard at work. Should be a good update on monday with head porting, head assembly and maybe even some shiny black paint.
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Re: Graham's '68 F-100 "Buck" the truck

Post by Heirloom »

motzingg wrote:boy that GLH shelby is badass, i've always kinda wanted one of those, or an Omni hatchback...
That car was a blast. It ate Mustangs for lunch. Most fun I had was filling it up one very cold night with race gas and meeting a street race group out in the middle of no where. We took my car and a 2004 Z06 Vette (with secret NOx). No one wanted to race the vette so I got most of the action. I raced a Honda, with predictable results. Then a guy with a new 350Z wanted a go. 3 in a row. I beat him off the line twice and caught him once after a botched launch. That Shelby was awesome. They had no idea what it was, no one did. Everyone always thought it was a funny year Mustang :lol:

Good luck with your set up! It will be a learning experience at the very least!
~Heirloom

'68 F250 360, 4 spd Project Thread!
Plans are for a stout 400, C6, 3.54 gears, 33" BFG AT's, bucket seats and custom console. Final assembly, nearing start up...


"Those who hammer their guns into plows will plow for those who do not."
~ Thomas Jefferson

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
~ Abraham Lincoln
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Re: Graham's '68 F-100 "Buck" the truck

Post by motzingg »

Head ported and valves installed!!

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I had to use a bottoming tap on the rocker bolt holes because the '85 head must have used shorter bolts... I think ford went longer for a good reason, at 5/16" those bolts are pretty heavily loaded. Next step is to torque down all the rockers and install the head, sometime this week.

spent saturday getting the truck inspected.

basically just went down the list and made sure everything was 'textbook' ... all lights working ... parking brake barely works... had to replace the high beam indicator light and license plate light. Took it in, it PASSED!! Good thing there is no inspection criteria for 'not running on all cylinders' 'leaking/blowby tons of oil' or 'totally sketchy'

I was concerned that they would flag me for the yellowed, hazy gauge lens. I used a '3M headlight restoration kit' ... originally cost about 30 bucks but i've used it now on 2 cars worth of headlights and it worked great. There is a very slight white haze still, but totally readable and very good with the backlight on, whereas before it was totally unreadable with the backlight.

If i had to do it again, i'd take more time with the original sanding steps (removing the oxidation) and go deeper, probably would have totally cleared it up. I know the replacement bezel is only like 10 bucks, but that is like a 12-pack of Pabst right there! Seeing as I only spent about 15 minutes on it, it was a good move in my book. This is about the 3rd time over that '3m' kit has paid for itself!
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Re: Graham's '68 F-100 - Engine swap week

Post by motzingg »

She couldn't wait any longer. Despite hanging in there on 5 cylinders for the last 6 months, the old girl finally told me she had enough. Last Friday it was raining and i drove her to work, it was to be the last excursion for the tired 240. On the way home I noticed a marked drop in power combined with a lot more blowby and smoke than usual. Pulling one particularly large hill she couldn't hold speed and i could feel the un-even-ness of the torque pulses change... indicating another cylinder starting to loose power.

I was mostly ready for the swap with the 1991 4.9L motor built up in my garage. I had the short block sorted and the head built but i was waiting on the 240 to give up her intake manifold so i could dry fit before installing the head.

I started bright and early (for a saturday) on saturday morning. Got the house cleaned up and went over to the carwash in a coat, hat and safety glasses around 10 am. It had warmed up to about 40 by then. After 20 minutes of cold, wet, dirty work I got the engine bay looking like this:

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Doesn't look like much, but seeing as you couldn't see hardly any blue paint before, it was a pretty big difference.

After about 2 hours of fighting rusty bolts and a half can of B'laster, I managed to remove a large bin full of body bolts and extract the radiator support.

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This would explain why my alternator belt never could stay tight.

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Some excellent wire splicing, the previous owner must have worked for Duke energy (East coast folks will get that one!)

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Stripped down and ready to pull. Seeing as its still light out in this picture, this is probably before my epic battle with the clutch linkage. Woof... The trick to the mechanical clutch linkage, which took me way too long to figure out, is to remove it first under the dash of the truck, that part is easy to get at. Then, once the rod is free disconnect the clutch throwout fork (its just pressed against the rod and held by a spring... mine was broken) and unbolt the bracket that holds the pivot arm to the frame, and pull out the whole works.

I spent a good hour fighting with rusty cotter pins and assorted BS.

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Starting to get dark and the engine is free!

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Cleaned up some things and removed some other random brackets and crap, and ended the night feeling pretty good. Parked the old motor off in the weeds where i'll tear it down and move it in pieces.


Started Sunday morning feeling pretty good. Fighting the front end of the truck and watching my son burned up a lot of time on saturday and I was hopeful that I could get it all back together Sunday.

After test fitting the old manifold to the new head and chasing all the threads, and cleaning them all out, I placed the new Fel-Pro head gasket in place and set the new head on. I was moving pretty fast and not taking pictures.

The head went on clean and all the head bolts snugged down nicely. Two of them had some resistance and showed signs of corrosion, but i ran them in and out a couple times with plenty of oil and they were smooth by the time i torqued them. I had ran a brush in all the head bolt holes but didn't chase them as i didn't have the proper tap.

The rockers fought me. I had to tap the rocker stud holes deeper... the '91 rocker hold down bolts were longer than the thread depth on the '85 head. I think that was for a reason, my guess would be that the early ones were pulling out so they put longer bolts in there. They are only 5/16 which is pretty small for a rocker stud.

I had brushed the holes out and sprayed them out with carb cleaner, but apparently a couple of them still had a few chips down in the bottom. The soft bolts and the soft cast iron got a bit torn up and i had to pull them out, clean them all, and do the best i could to spray the chips out of the hole without washing them down in to the lifter galley. I think i got it pretty clean and they all installed and torqued down nicely. I made a note to myself to re-torque them when i re-torque the head studs after break in.

With the head bolted down and the pushrods all in, I was ready to turn the engine over to make sure all the valves were articulating correctly and check the lifters, valves, etc.

This is always a somewhat tense time, I'm used to OHC motors where this step is where you figure out if you measured piston to valve clearances correctly, ha ha. You cant go back without scrapping your ($60!!) head gasket. Also checking proper function of loaded lifters and valves, springs, etc.

My heart sank when I turned it half a turn and was met with a hard metallic CRUNCH. Oh no. What happened? Did i leave a nut or something sitting on a piston?

I turned it back and forth a couple times. The stop happened about 270 degrees apart, it was consistent and hard, not crunchy. The valves were articulating correctly and I couldn't see anything outwardly wrong. Then i noticed the oil pan buckling on the side when it hit. I was bummed but simultaneously relieved when it occured to me that the oil-return bung that i had welded into the oil pain for the turbocharger, was making contact with one of the crank webs. Whoops!

All in all, it was a pretty minor mistake and an easy one to fix. I was super glad to not have to scrap that expensive head gasket. Bonus round- my gasket kit had originally come with the crappy 3-piece gasket and i had glued it in place, which i wasn't real happy about. This gave me a chance to get the correct 1-piece gasket which is a much much nicer piece of kit.

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I cut the oil bung off flush and even finish-welded the inside. Much much nicer. There was also a big splinter of steel that had got left in the pan somehow so I'm extra glad I pulled it off.

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My wife was out running errands so I couldn't get the gasket right away. That wasted an hour or so but I cleaned up and did some other odds and ends stuff... surfaced and chased threads in the flywheel, cleaned up some manifold hardware, etc.

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Bonus round: The pan came with these nifty hold up clips.

The output shaft seal on the M5R2 got torn when i was removing it, plus it was 23 years old, so I pried it out and pressed in a new one. Had to special order it from a Trans parts supply place, $4.50 part cost 10 bucks to ship, ouch! Oh well, better than having your trans run out of oil and melt or spray ATF all over the bottom of your truck.

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This is a very fuzzy picture of the Duraspark system i built. It was originally meant to be temporary, I used spade connectors and never bundled or protected the wires, i was going to build it, get it running and replace it with a nice harness. Well, over a year later and I still haven't got around to it. I'm probably going to put it back in like this, but I'm working on totally redoing the electrical system.

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I wanted to get the clutch figured out on Sunday night so I could get the hardware I needed from Fastenal. I did some very rough measurements and removed this bracket from the pedal linkage.

The clutch/brake pedal box is kinda confusing. To be honest, i had no idea how it all worked just from looking at it. I started taking it apart by removing the castle nut on the end of the clutch shaft. The clutch shaft goes from the clutch pedal, through the bracket, through an outer tube that holds the brake pedal, through the other side of the bracket, and has a 'stub plane' engagement to this arm, held in place by a castle nut on the right hand side of the assembly. This lever pulls the rod straight up through the hole in the floor. Groovy.

I did a bit of quick measurement and figured that this arm could get cut off and re-welded back onto itself at a 90 deg. angle so instead of articulating up/down, it would articulate front to back.

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Wow, did this ever work out cool! I cut the arm off, and tack welded it back in place. Measured about 1.5" over (for a shoulder screw) and drilled a hole for the master cylinder in the firewall. I drilled the holes for the MC bolts and made a plate to go on the inside to spread the load out over a large area and sandwich the firewall sheet metal.

When i went to fastenal, I bought a 1/2" by 2" shoulder screw (3/8 pitch thread) and nuts and washers to bolt through the old hole in the arm that the linkage rod went through. It articulates about 2.5".. the MC itself has a total throw of about 3.5 inches but i don't think you need to use the whole throw to engage the clutch. We'll see. If i have to, i can make a new arm and weld it on for a longer throw, but I don't think it will be necessary. I'll probably do a thread or sticky on the 5 speed/clutch conversion.


Blah blah so now we've become 'unstuck in time' and skipped around. Its still sunday night and I've painted the engine (VHT engine enamel, Black what else?) And all the accessory drives.

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I ended Sunday kinda bummed. The engine wasn't in, but i was confident I'd be able to get it done Monday after work. Plus the extra day for paint to dry... eh.


So Monday after work I was jammin out. The guy who I borrowed the engine hoist from needed it back on Tuesday. Its pretty funny because a couple weeks ago I was going to swap the engine, picked up the hoist from him, and had to give it back right away because he got a shipment... Then it turns out the mill he bought was broken in shipping, fast forward a month, I borrow the engine hoist again and guess what shows up!! The replacement broken mill... what are the chances. The funniest part is, the guy hasn't used this hoist in months.

It seems like everything wanted to fight me. I was going to take the engine off the stand, replace pilot bearing, bolt on flywheel, bolt on clutch, slip on transmission, bolt on starter and put it in the truck. Thats no more than 2 hours max, right? Well the pilot bearing wanted to suck. It was jammed in like nobody's business and when i tried to pull it, the bearing itself came out but not the bearing holder. The Sachs clutch i bought came with the bearing in the holder already, and i didn't want to take it out.

It took me about an hour but i ended up having to weld a nut into the pilot bearing holder and turn a bolt through down into the block. It worked... should have done that to begin with, but wasted a good hour, hour and a half.

I was hesitant to re-use the throwout cylinder... as i've heard they can be problematic, but they cost 160 bucks and that's an awful lot to spend. If it leaks, oh well, splitting this engine/trans wouldn't be that bad if i had to do it.

I didn't take any pictures except for this. For anyone else planning this swap, FYI:

THE M5R2 TRANSMISSION WILL NOT FIT BETWEEN THE CROSSMEMBER AND THE CAB FLOOR WITHOUT REMOVING THE SHIFTER

holy crap, i spent at least 45 minutes fighting this thing, thinking it has to go... it was so close, literally a half inch clearance front/back/top/bottom would have got it done. The main problem is it is so much longer than the 3 speed that the clearance/hump in the '68 is just not far enough back to get things past the crossmember.

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I assure you that i had a rag over the open trans for the actual install, i just took a picture after pulling the cover with it still open.

Good news, the M5R2 is beautiful inside not even the slightest sign of wear. Very very clean, and much sturdier/better designed than i expected. Its just a really well thought out, simple and efficient design.


So I concluded Monday at about 9 pm with the engine set in place. Too dark for pictures, so i took one Tuesday morning of the engine in place.
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Re: Graham's '68 F-100 - Engine swap week

Post by motzingg »

More Progress... slow but steady at this point.

I get home after dark these days. Then after a couple hours of sorting out dinner, doing stuff with my son, I'm able to finally hit the shop for an hour or two after he goes to bed. I was able to work from about 8-10 last night and get the carb installed, throttle linkage, distributor, clutch line, and spend a minute puzzling over the driveshaft/crossmember conundrum.

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The alternator bracket is installed, and the 64_7/8" belt works (63" was too short) but the exhaust manifold is contacting the back of the aluminum bracket and causing the alternator to be out of alignment. Probably enough to throw belts. It will have to be clearanced with an angle grinder sometime that isn't at 10 pm.

This is a very fuzzy picture of the clutch throwout mechanisim... I honestly couldn't believe it was this easy... well, we'll see if it works or not. The shoulder screw is 1/2x2" and i'm planning on cutting some hose into 'bushings' to keep the pushrod centered on it. The tutorial says 'the lever needs to be 90 degrees to the pushrod at full stroke' but that would have been hard. I don't think this clutch needs the entire 3" of stroke, but if it does I can easily rig up a longer arm. The pushrod was the perfect length... literally. I made a big 3/8" thick plate of aluminum to distribute the load over a bigger area on the firewall and i'll probably gasket the MC on both sides of the firewall, eventually, maybe when i paint the cab and redo the firewall pad.

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The guy that wrote the tutorial also chose to mount the MC closer to the pedal box and cut the pedal box. I'm pretty confident in the strength of that big shoulder screw and I wanted to make sure there was enough clearance to open the cap, so i mounted it, somewhat arbitrarily, towards the engine. Maybe wait to see how it works... i'm running a heavy duty 11" sachs clutch so it will really test it. My buddy has the same clutch in his 7.3L and says it is noticably hard to push... of course he is used to his daily driver honda prelude, so maybe not so bad compared to an old truck.


The crossmember is really giving me fits. I just dont see how this is going to work. I used a jack to lift the trans within about 1/2" of hitting the cab floor. My rubber cab mount bushings are squished down pretty good, but the steel in the cab itself is sturdy... There is just no way this crossmember will fit under the rear trans mount without significant modification.

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You can just barely make out the 'scratch' lines in the grime where i traced out the trans mount.

Its about 3/4" below the current mounting surface and way the heck off to the passenger side. The old engine and trans was a good bit off to the side, but this one being moved 7" further back is way way over. I think the engine itself is angled more in the truck than before but i cant be sure since i didn't measure it. It looks to me like the motor mounts are slightly different, but one of my old motor mounts was completely sheared off so I cant really compare the true stud locations.

I know there is some consideration for driveline angle that goes into the alignment of the slip yoke being perpendicular to the axle. The old trans was slightly off, but this one is pretty significant. I'm not sure if i should be trying to figure out a better way to align the engine and trans before modding the crossmember or what.

Also, i'm not sure that the 302 in the example is the same length... in fact i know its shorter than the 300, but is the bellhousing/flywheel in the same place? The guy who wrote the tutorial said he had to move the crossmember back 3" relative tot he c6, which is a huge long trans compared to the 3.03, but my calculations show the yoke position has moved back 7-7.5" compared to the 3.03.

As for the driveshaft. I've got a couple options... I'd like to have it professionally shortened but A) i'm not 100% confindent that i'll get it right the first time and B) my driveshaft is already kinda beat up with a couple dents in it. I might just do it myself with angle grinder and welder and once i'm sure its the right length get a new one made. No idea what that should cost.

Current length is 61 inches from eye to eye on the u-joint yokes. Measuring the axle yoke to the trans yoke i'm seeing 55.5" and the old trans had about 1.5" of stickout on the yoke so my new length would be 54 inches, which lines up to the 7 inch difference between trans lengths... assuming small angle.


I have no idea how far the cast u joint piece slips inside the tube. Depending on how long it is, it could be either really easy or really hard to get the thing welded on perfect-o. I think i can probably DIY and at least get it good enough to drive around the block and check articulation... hmm any advice?
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