So this is the first ford i have ever owned or had the chance to work on for that matter. My first car was a POS 61 Bel Air and I loved that car. My buddy soon after bought a 60 Biscayne and we were so stoked seeing take up all the parking together. We leaned the basics with those cars and eventually his threw a rod so we pulled the engine and got it rebuilt and dropped it back in. A great overall experience. Through all this I was learning about chevy"s and talking to chevy guys and learning alot about swaps and so on and so forth. So Those cars are long gone and i bought a new "reliable" truck but just missed all the wrenching and weekends at the junkyard and all the dirty weekends associated with an oldie. So i picked up this 62 unibody shortbed as a roller
So now I bought a 78 ranchero that couldn't pass smog that supposedly had a fresh strong 351 cleveland/C6 combo in it. I didn't do my home work and the engine turns out to be either a 351M or a 400M. I'm gonna try and pull it this weekend but its a bit rainy so it may have to wait. I cant see the serial# with the engine in the car so im not gonna know if its a 351 or 400 till then. Either way im gonna stick with it because I have it, I know it runs and everything is there. I've already stripped all the AC, PS, smog eqipment and so on. Doe's anybody have any experiance dropping these motors into these trucks? I already have the proper cross member to install the engine but no guide lines as far as measurements or clearance issues. I guess my plan is to bolt the crossmember to the engine and drop it in the truck and position it as far back as I can. I'll keep y'all updated as I move along and please feel free to chime in with any advice. Thanks!
Only clearnace issue I can think of will be the oil pan. Otherwise nothing wrong with a 400. Had one in my 78 4x4, enough power, and good enough on gas to.
Good luck with the build!
62 short-uni, cv front swap, 4.6/auto
plus many other's!
Didn't really touch the truck this weekend but I did manage to pull this beast from the ranchero.
I'm a bit concerned about the front sump oil pan but I took some quick rough measurements and I think It'll be ok(famous last words).
Next I'm gonna focus on removing the front clip from the pickup so I can drop her in and see how she fits. I gave all the bolts a nice bath in nut buster in preparation:).
. Welcome to the club seems to be alot of Uni's showing up lately .
