1960 F100 Restoration Update

 "Even when it is not fully attained, we become better by striving for a higher goal." - Viktor Frankl

 This is not the post that I had intended to put up.  That post will require a great deal more thought and time that I have available at the moment.  Instead you get this one, and apologies for the lack of posts.  I've been a bit busy recently.

A good buddy (and protoge) of mine from California recently came by for a visit, and we spent quite a bit of time on the old F100 ford truck.  It's been about 1-1/2 years since he was last here, when we got the engine sort of running on ether.  I've not messed with the truck much since then, because a lot of the up-front restoration work is a two-man job - and he's the one with the knowledge of where to begin.

This is just a truck status update where I can post a bunch of images without too much commentary.  Quick and dirty!

Below:  I purchased an engine hoist and an engine lift plate that goes in place of the carburetor.  Who knew you could lift an entire engine and transmission assembly from the tiny carburetor hold-down studs?  I sure didn't!

 Below:  As it was before work began.

Below:  New engine hoist, freshly assembled, hood is now off to one side.

 Below:  Checking the bolt pattern of the carburetor vs that of the engine lift plate.

 Below:  Removing the front clutter - the radiator, the fan, power steering pump, and alternator to provide room to remove the engine and transmission.  Carb has been removed, and the engine lifting plate has been installed.  All of that old junk went into the trash, and it will be replaced with new equipment.  

They make a very nice belt, bracket, alternator and pulley set to replace all that stuff.  It's only money:

 There was a lot of work to do under the truck as well.  Engine mounts, transmission mounts, and left and right exhausts to uncouple.  The drive shaft had to come out, and then the front bumper had to come off - to allow the engine hoist to get close enough to get the hook over the engine.  

Note about the old engine mounts:  They bracketed the engine in place left and right, but did not actually hold it down onto the frame.  Had I driven the truck and hit a big bump, the engine would have been able to jump upwards and out of the slot that it had been lowered into.

Below:  Beginning of the pick.

 Below:  The engine and transmission are mostly clear of the interference.

 

 Below: Engine and transmission free and clear of the truck!

Below:  Transmission split from the engine.  This process was incredibly messy.  In fact, it took nearly half a day with absorbents, degreaser, a floor scrubber broom, and a mop to get the shop floor clean.

 Below:  Engine safe and sound on the engine stand.  Note the corrosion on the valve cover and exhaust manifold.  The battery fell out during the trip to Idaho, and dumped mild sulfuric acid on everything.

 

It was time to do a bit of engine research.  This vehicle was originally equipped with an inline 6 cylinder engine (From Wikipedia):

The 215 grew to 223 cu in (3.7 L) for the 1954 F-Series. Output was now 115 hp (86 kW) in the trucks and 120 hp (89 kW) in the 1954 Ford cars. Power was up to 137 hp (102 kW) in the 1956 trucks. While not the popular engine option, the 223 was the only inline-six offered in the Fairlane (until 1961), Galaxie, and F-Series trucks between 1955 and 1964, causing it to be not quite a rarity, but not easy to come across. The 223 was also used in 1963–1964 Ford trucks

The current engine is a V-8, and I was told long ago - by the guy who did the engine swap - that the donor vehicle was a Ford Thunderbird.   The "EOAE"  below is a clue.

 

We probably have an engine that came out of one of the top left 3 vehicles.  It's not a performance engine, by any stretch of the imagination - it's an early emissions-era engine, so low compression, and low horsepower.  This is fine because it's going back into an old truck.

These T-Birds were unattractive and under-powered vehicles, and it would probably have been better had they not even been built.  The sales numbers on this generation of T-Bird were horrific.

Transmission Fun:  I wanted to have the transmission gone through to fix leaks, check belt tension, and basically to ensure that it would be 'good to go' for a while without needing major repair.  It's a pain to remove and install a transmission, so it's best to have a clean bill of health before re-installing it - especially since I know nothing of its history.  So it took some research on that.

The transmission has "RF-E3SP-7006" cast into it, which translates into an AOD transmission.  AOD stands for "Automatic with Overdrive", so it's a 4 speed transmission (3 gear reductions plus an overdrive), for cruising highway speeds at low engine RPM.  Probably also typical for the early low-budget approach to the emission-era.

I made some phone calls about freshening up the AOD transmission, and the two quotes I got were $2300 and $2500.  I was shocked - I had been expecting to pay well under $1000 for a shop to have a look around, tune it up, and maybe replace a few worn parts and replace the leaking gaskets.   Nope.  The quotes were ridiculously expensive.  So I looked around for alternatives, and found this built and tested performance transmission for $500-$700 less than a local rebuild.  The economy has gotten weird when it's less expensive to purchase a second transmission than to freshen up an old one.

We rolled the truck outdoors and I pressure-washed the engine, the transmission, and the the engine bay of the truck.  It took a bit of effort to get rid of decades of caked on grime and oil.

I removed the exhaust manifolds and old mechanical distributor from the engine, then drained the oil and did some light cleaning on the engine.

 

 

The acid-etched valve covers could probably be salvaged, with many hours of scrubbing and polishing, but I'd rather just replace them with a nicer set.  The block I will re-spray Ford Blue once it's fully de-greased.

The cross-member where the transmission is mounted is a home-made rig, and it's a bit sketchy, just like the engine mounts were, so I placed an order for a new cross-member and transmission mount.  I also ordered new shift cables for the transmission.

Below: New transmission mount and cross-member, plus mounting bracket hardware.

 Below:  The correct shift and kickdown cable kit.  Previously shifting was done using a long piece of heavy wire - not OK.

 

 One other thing that needed to be done was to have the radiator checked out.  Another thing you don't want to discover has issues after you've already put the truck together...

So I started making phone calls, and there's only one radiator shop remaining in the area.  Nowadays they are all disposable, like the transmission apparently is.  So I loaded the radiator into the Subaru and headed over to a sketchy neighborhood in Spokane, where the radiator shop is located. 

  

I had to park in the alley.  Fine view!

Pretty cool shop though!  I liked the owner.

 He took one look and said that it needed to be replaced, because the bottom row had been crushed at some point.  LOL.  What's another $500 between friends, right?  So that's on the way.

Next steps:  Get the engine compartment free of dirt and de-greased.  Spray it black with either a spray can or the paint gun.  Flip the engine over and replace the main seals and the oil pan gaskets.   Remove all the old wiring from the truck and then wait for the next time my buddy can be here to tell me what comes next!