Projects The 40 stake truck and the 283, 350, 283, and a 350!

Back in 2012, I took over as the caretaker of the 40 Ford 1/2 ton stake truck from my great aunt. Over the past 5 years, I've put over 20,000 miles on the odometer with the stock 221 flathead, and have had lots of fun in the truck. Unfortunately, the old flatty is really needing some attention, as the truck really struggles to get up the hills around where I live.

I've got a bored and stroked flatty that I had been planning on putting in the truck, but due to at least one of the cylinders needing bored and sleeved, I'm opting for plan B. Plan B is the old 283 that I pulled out of the 40 coupe back in 2002.

 

Watching! Love your truck!

 

Any motor would be good as long as you keep driving it. nice truck.

 

I scored a Wilcap adapter on that electronic auction site, to mate the 283 to the stock transmission.
Ford Blue just didn't seem right for the truck, so I opted for Ivory.
Out came the 30/30 solid lifter cam.
New matching valve springs for the new cam on the left. Quite a bit beefier than the old ones.

Cleaned up and back together.
Due to using the Speedy Bill alternator bracket that mounts to the water pump and intake, and using the old cast iron intake with the oil filler hose, the center facing and the other common thermostat housing wouldn't work. I didn't want to be forced to use one of the goofy looking billet ones, so I went with a '57 Vette style outlet. Still needs to be painted.

The truck and 283 sitting in the shop, waiting for the "real" work to start.

 

plan B would have been my planA..........
good looking truck.

 

Back when I was running the 283 in my coupe, I had an old Edelbrock Streetmaster intake and an Edelbrock 600 carb on it. I used the intake on the 40 MorDor project, last summer, and the carb stayed with the coupe. After doing some research on the HAMB, I decided to use the stock iron intake and rebuild the Rochester 4gc carb.

While reading about the Rochesters, I saw a number of reference to guys running them backwards on flatheads, and using slightly modified throttle stock linkage, with success.

The carb rebuild kit and electronic choke conversion kit came in the mail, earlier this week, so I'm planning to do that rebuild this weekend.

 

a SBC is the only way to go

 

I've got an array of different engines, some built and some ready to assemble. (FEs, 460 Ford 'Dove', 455 Olds, Chrys and Desoto hemis, and some flatheads.
But the one in my F100 is a SBC, and the 'backup' engine I'm building now is a 283. (actually, 2 of them)
When it's time to drive one of my '27s, if the flathead isn't finished...well, in goes the 'backup'!

 

I can see the 283 has 1958 Power Pack heads on it; kind of a one year only deal ( the "X 58" on the outside, and one end of the heads having bosses that could be machined to hold the air suspension pump- option that year). I'd probably left the engine "FORD blue", and maybe even used a Ford decal or two on it. Don't forget to install a pilot bushing in that old 283, that obviously has a transamatic automission bolted to it. Nice old truck. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

A bit of trivia I encountered when making a similar conversion on my AVATAR is that the adapter is designed for the early SBC starter (like they used in the mid fifties) and not the later one. The flywheel ring gear also needs to be correct but I don't remember the details. I think Speedway sells the conversion and might be able to help with parts and information. If it was me I would leave the flathead in there.

Charlie Stephens

 

Yeah, I have the early 3 bolt starter that bolted to the transmission ring adapter. I should be in good shape with all that stuff. I did a similar adapter thing when I put the 3 speed in my coupe, back in November.

LOL. Good eye, spotting the X 58 on the head. Since I swapped the 283 out of the coupe for a 350, I painted the 350 Ford Blue. And, no, it wasn't a transamatic, but it was a Powerglide behind it originally. I used up the Powerglide adapter when I put the 3 speed in the coupe.

 

You have the engine in the wrong end of your truck.

 

LOL. I had posted a pic in the 40 Ford anniversary thread about taking the truck for a ride with the 283 in it and not noticing ANY performance improvement.

I stopped by the shop, on the way home from the office, and unloaded the 283.

 

Cool as the bottom side of the pillow.

 

Progress has been slow, this past weekend. I had a funeral to attend, visitation on Friday and service on Saturday, so that kept me from being motivated to get anything done.

Yesterday, I did take time to rebuild the Rochester 4GC. I'm still trying to figure out how to do my linkage. Measurements look great, however, the hole that I was planning on using is right in the way of the idle adjusting screw, so that throws a new kink into my plan.

I knocked off of work a little early today, and ran down to mock some stuff up with the transmission. Bolted up the flywheel, clutch/pressure plate, Wilcap Adapter, and bolted up an empty transmission. Everything looks great, with plenty of clearance.

Tomorrow, I only have until about 2 to work on the truck, so I'm planning on busting out early to pull off the hood, grill, radiator, undo the trans tunnel, and get everything ready to pull the flatty out of the truck. I'd love to be able to set the 283 in, but dunno if I can work that fast.

 

Only had enough time to get the flatty pulled out today. Doug did a little degreasing of the inner fender panels and firewall while I was getting other stuff ready. Tomorrow, after work, I'm planning to rattle can the inner fender panels and frame. Hopefully we can set the 283 in the next day or few. Would love to break in the new cam this coming weekend.

 

Cool pic with the old flatly on the ground and the SBC ready to go in. Wonder how many times this has happened since 1955?

 

I love this truck

 

Go man Go!!

 

Suddenly thought I was in the "rear engine pickup?" thread that's also neat the top..

 

Stopped by the shop with the agenda to rattle can the inner fender panels and frame rails. One thing led to another, and, well...this happened.
I've got some throttle linkage stuff to sort out, figure out a new battery location, and a few other minor details before I can fire it up and break in the new cam.

 

Nice truck you have there!

 

Bailed out of work a little early today and went to the shop to mess around with the truck. Alternator is mocked up but needs a little spacing adjustment to get it to line up with the pulleys.

I bent the gas pedal arm towards the passenger side, just enough to clear the distributor. I set the carb on, backwards, connected the linkage to where the transmission lockdown would normally attach, and didn't have to adjust anything.
Hoping to get some time on Saturday to reroute some wires and take care of fuel fittings, installing an electric fuel pump, and trying to figure out where in the heck I'm going to relocate the battery to.

Any 40 pickup guys have any suggestions on that, I'd be interested to hear.

 

Put the battery inside the right front fender. Just me, but I would use a six blade fan.

 

I'm at the point where all the "visible progress" work is done. Now is all the little detail things that take up a lot of thought and time. If I can keep focused, I can get a lot of these things knocked out over the next week and hopefully fire it up and break in the cam as early as next weekend.


Due to my swap funds being depleted, I'm scrounging for some parts. The air cleaner is one. This one came off of Dad's 34 sedan.

And this 70's era snorkel isn't exactly what I had in mind, but it was loaned to me for until I can find an earlier version at the same time that I have available funds for one.

Sometimes a guy gets lucky and picks the right hose the FIRST time. With using the water neck that I chose, and needing a 1 3/4 fitting at the radiator, I spent some research time in the Gates molded hose catalog. Out of a list of possible hoses, I stopped buy the local O'Reilly store, grabbed this one, lopped off a 90 degree bend on the water neck side, and it went right into place.

 

Here are some pictures that olscrounger posted up for me a few years ago. He has used it on several 40's.

 

That is a slick setup, but because I use this thing like a truck, I am wanting to mount it a little higher.
I'm going to put it behind the cab, under the bed. I will be able to access the battery posts through the opening here.

It will bolt to the bed bracket at the top, the frame x member at the bottom, and I'll run a carriage bolt through the wood, up high for the back support.

Doug welded up a crude bracket for me that should do the trick quite nicely.

 

Ran a lower radiator hose last night and used some plumbing pipe and some scrap hose to plug the "extra" openings on the radiator. Also rattle canned the battery tray and mounted it under the bed. While I had a little initial concern about the exhaust, I thought about where the battery was in its stock location...right next to the passenger side exhaust manifold. It should be fine here.

Swapped a working starter solenoid onto my early Chevy starter and bolted that up.

Began running new fuel lines, but ran out time.

 

You could always put some insulation or Dynamat under the battery.

 

LOL. enloe, I'm too cheap for Dynamat, but a piece of peel and seal will more than likely find it's way under the battery.