[sky44]

i'm thinking a 70's to 80's chevy pickup would probably be the way to go. i may want a 4wd. if i do end up with 4wd, it'll be a solid front axle.

the 4bt is designed to bolt in place of a 350 right?

would the manual tranny out of an old chevy hold up to the 4bt's torque ok?

 

[Altered_Auto]

Perfect Truck

I am in the process of putting one in my 53 M37 power wagon. The chevy truck sounds good but watch out for the weight of the engine, it is a heavy son of a bitch. The tranny should hold up fine. I am going to put an SM465 in my 6000# M37. Many people use this tranny in the swap and have no issues so your pick up should have no issues.

 

[Altered_Auto]

More perfect truck

Sorry, I forgot to answer the question. From all of my resrarch the 4BT will bolt directly to any SBC tranny.

 

[sky44]

I am in the process of putting one in my 53 M37 power wagon. The chevy truck sounds good but watch out for the weight of the engine, it is a heavy son of a bitch. The tranny should hold up fine. I am going to put an SM465 in my 6000# M37. Many people use this tranny in the swap and have no issues so your pick up should have no issues.

so will an add a leaf or something up front take care of the weight issues?

what are we looking at? an extra 150 lbs or so over a small block?

i'm hoping i can get a truck for about 2000, an engine for 2500, and planning on 1000 bucks for little parts.

this should be a really reliable, efficient daily driver right? i might run it on bio/WVO in the future as well. :beer:

 

[KP Texan]

Yeah, I've got sort of the same idea: 70's Chevrolet truck w/SM465. I'm just getting started with the research on this project so it's a long way off.

-Wes

 

[sky44]

Yeah, I've got sort of the same idea: 70's Chevrolet truck w/SM465. I'm just getting started with the research on this project so it's a long way off.

-Wes

yeah same here.

there's so few diesel options in the US.

ideally i'd just buy a 4wd diesel mini pickup. but there just aren't any.

this should actually be a little cooler though. full size trucks are fun.

 

[beck]

No - The 4bt doesn't just bolt in in place of the 350. The motor mounts need to be home built. They are harder to fab than they appear to be. Check out the motor mount posts here. The easiest setup is to use the mounts from the P-30 Chevy chassis. This eliminates the easy mounting of the A/C unit if you wanted to run air. If you want to run A/C and have a low passanger side mount you need to make mounts for mid motor mounting.
The crossmember in the Chevy chassis gets real close to the oil pan. If you try to lift the motor the transmission wants to hit the floor. A body lift on a 4x4 would help the problem I think. Mine is 2wd. I have the motor slid back so the pan clears my '84 Chevy crossmember. I do not have the exhaust in the truck yet. It is not going to clear my firewall.
If you are using an automatic transmission it has to have a "diesel" converter. The 350 turbo will probably not hold up unless you are really soft on the gas pedal. Many of the "bread trucks" have the turbo 400 style transmissions in them. This is a 2wd transmission so if it were used on a 4x4 it would need a divorced transfer case. The manual transmissions need to be pretty tough too. If you are going to get serious about putting the torque to the ground you need to have a serious transmission. The same goes for axles. I expect my combination to break axles. I already have a spare pair. I am using the stock GM 10 bolt truck rear axle.

 

[IHWillys]

T...
I can't speak with experience of the Ford autos holding up (I doubt they would)...

A C6 will provide service similar to a TH400.

Ken

 

[sky44]

No - The 4bt doesn't just bolt in in place of the 350. The motor mounts need to be home built. They are harder to fab than they appear to be. Check out the motor mount posts here. The easiest setup is to use the mounts from the P-30 Chevy chassis. This eliminates the easy mounting of the A/C unit if you wanted to run air. If you want to run A/C and have a low passanger side mount you need to make mounts for mid motor mounting.
The crossmember in the Chevy chassis gets real close to the oil pan. If you try to lift the motor the transmission wants to hit the floor. A body lift on a 4x4 would help the problem I think. Mine is 2wd. I have the motor slid back so the pan clears my '84 Chevy crossmember. I do not have the exhaust in the truck yet. It is not going to clear my firewall.
If you are using an automatic transmission it has to have a "diesel" converter. The 350 turbo will probably not hold up unless you are really soft on the gas pedal. Many of the "bread trucks" have the turbo 400 style transmissions in them. This is a 2wd transmission so if it were used on a 4x4 it would need a divorced transfer case. The manual transmissions need to be pretty tough too. If you are going to get serious about putting the torque to the ground you need to have a serious transmission. The same goes for axles. I expect my combination to break axles. I already have a spare pair. I am using the stock GM 10 bolt truck rear axle.

so you're telling me this thing will actually break a dana 60 rear end?

i was reading somewhere that the K series trucks were an easier swap than C. i work for a metal shop, so motor mount fabrication shouldn't be too big of a deal.
what manual tranny would you recommend? i don't really want an auto for a variety of reasons.

 

[Driverswanted]

The easiest/best swap is a 4BT into any 1980 to '97 Ford truck. If you get the 4BT from a Ford chassis van with the SBF bellhousing it bolts in with very little modification to any small block/six ford truck.

My boy is wanting to do up a 4bt truck now. I've also been thinking about what may be easiest swap. Mine certainly was not. Which Fritos vans were FORD Chasis?
Anyone using the SM465 with success and good fuel mileage?

 

[Driverswanted]

so will an add a leaf or something up front take care of the weight issues?

what are we looking at? an extra 150 lbs or so over a small block?

My Dodge W150 has an extra leaf up front and does fine with that weight. I think it only lowered everything about 2-2.5" when I set the engine weight down.