Projects 348 powered 40 Ford sedan

Hello,
Nice set up on your car... and you are on your way to a fast, cool looking 40. When I saw your photos, it instantly flashed back to: In 1960-61, there was a red/orange 40 Ford Sedan Delivery that ran around our cruising grounds in Long Beach with a 348 Chevy in it. The sedan delivery was very fast and sounded very mean. He gave me a ride in it and I was so impressed it was love at first/second/ and third sight… I wanted that car for my first surf wagon, but the cost was out of my reach. So, after several months, I saw the delivery again and offered to buy it. The owner did not want to sell it with the 348 in it because he needed a motor for his next project. But, he offered me the complete 40 Ford Sedan Delivery with a Flathead/3 speed LaSalle in it at a much lower cost and I bought it.

One sore spot for the owner was that although at night, it looked orange, but during the day, the paint looked salmon pink. That was one reason he wanted to sell it to me. He sprayed the sedan delivery in his backyard one day and got the color mixture screwed up and the result was salmon pink...but, he was the first to tell you that it was "racer orange." I guess he got tired of everyone telling him if it was salmon pink.

Jnaki

Your motor reminds me of that motor compartment in that original red/orange 40 sedan delivery back in 1960. The orange paint was standard on the 348s from the factory. (looked the same as the 348 in my black 58 impala) It was certainly impressive, but I got the low power flathead in the 40 sedan delivery that gave me thousands of miles of fun, regardless of what color it was. At the surf movies showing at the local HS/ college auditoriums, when we drove up, it was racer orange and stood out among all of the other cars. It was a big hit.

I just found out that the previous owner passed away and can’t be reached for verification.
But, I believe if memory serves me, he had a 3 speed floor shift transmission with that 348. But at the speed of which the 40 sedan delivery was sold to me with the flathead and LaSalle transmission, I thought he used the LaSalle hooked up to the 348. Probably a stock Chevy 3 speed…CRSA.

 

So, was gonna post a couple of little updates, but Photobucket has turned nasty, and wants money off me for hosting pics. What is everyone else using instead?? Not that I'm looking forward to reloading this lot..

 

Hey Neil,
Go out and get a 3-4 tb external hard drive (small size). Samples are shown:
HAMB post #21

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/photobucket-alternatives.1068559/#post-12127895

Unless you are a fanatic that stores everything you see on the internet as jpegs,(why?) these 3-4 tb hard drives will keep you happy and have instant access to your photos. In an emergency and you have to evacuate, just grab the small hard drives and you are all set. In separate folders, you can even store you own family archives and important papers. Everything else is expendable.

Jnaki
You will not fill up a 3tb hard drive with photos and movies for quite some time...and you have instant access. So, why pay someone to store what you can do yourself...spend that money on yourself , car, or wife/girlfriend...results are much better.

Oh yeah, we also have a 2tb small format hard drive with important photos and papers on it in a safe deposit box. It is extra security. We update it once a month. with all of the scanned stuff on that including photos and movies, it is not even close to getting full.

I would like to see that 348 in your 40 with all of the details...

 

I host all my photo for threads directly
On the hamb. Should see an upload file button, click that.

 

So, trying to update all the old posts, not going so well. Pictures onmy laptop, thats easy, but trying to repost is a PITA. HAMB is not loading the uploaded images correctly, but reloading the first few over and over agian. Tried using the 'link code' from the HAMB, but all that does is add a link to the picture in the text, any ideas?

 

Hey Neil,
The HAMB is good for posting jpegs. Sometimes loading multiple photos are mixing up the computer/server, so, one photo or two is the easiest. If you have a photo, make sure they are jpegs. Sometimes when you save a photo, it gets saved as a PNG ...portable network graphic. Just "gobbilydook" for saving a photo. Sometimes the png works and sometimes it does not. So, be safe and save as a jpeg.

Just copy and paste onto a post. Wait until the little black thingy quits moving and lo an behold, below the box you photo is posted, but as a png. What the %$##. But, at least it is on the post with your writings.

Jnaki
I am sure those off site "cloud" companies save your photos as jpegs, but you can save monthly money and save it to your own external hard drive. Why not just save to your built in hard drive on your computer? Well, if you are not versed into exchanging and reloading all of the functions of a computer onto a new internal hard drive, why overwork it by loading all of your zillion photos on that internal drive?

The hard drives does go kaput sooner or later...But, if it is external and you have your own external back up...It is a simple order from Amazon and delivered to your door the next day if needed.

By saving on your own hard drive, it does save the HAMB servers extra work and taxing space. Plus, you have access immediately. Like I have been saying all along...you can take the external hard drive and run if necessary in an emergency...We all have emergencies at one time or another.

 

So, think i've sussed that...for now, so a few little updates..sorry Ryan, you're now hosting from here in.. I dropped the hood of at Marco's to be punched, getting it back tomorrow, so i'll take it to my local blasters for stripping and etch. Marco had to split it to get it in his press, so i'll be able to get all those seams and behind all those braces blasted and etched.

 

..and after wondering what to use for air filters, I found thes on an english forum. Made by Dragmaster, they look the nads on the tri power, i just need to polish them to match the rocker covers, and get a filter of some sort in there...any ideas?

 

Ive also stripped out all the front suspension, and just about have it all in paint, ready to go back in FOR THE LAST TIME, which feels pretty good. I should mention that i've decided not to persue the 'intermediate custom' route, and i'm going the originaly intended Hot Rod route, so Caddy caps have been sold, as will the fender skirts. I'm also not now using the spacer on the front spring, so its hopefully going to be low at the front. My Kidney Bean rep front wheels are at Shane Powells for re drilling to 5.5. on 5 pcd for the 40 drums, and I have 8 inch steels for the back. The back is sitting a little high for my liking, so I've got a 2" narrower A main leaf lined up for the back end, Thanks to Miles at Jackhammer, which should drop the rear approx 2"...oh, and the rad is off at the Rad shop being modded for the 348, so, although I haven't actually done much myself, stuff is being done...I still haven't got that pesky linkage sussed though.

 

I am liking every thing you have done ! Thanks for sharing your build with us.

 

Thanks Kan.
Having recently found 'the Tuesday night special' 40 build on here, I was inspired to 'find time' to work on my 40. (https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...surrection-the-tuesday-night-special.1078209/)
So my next job is headers. I was looking at using the speedway fat fender fenderwells, but apart from them needing a reasonable amount of modification for my W, there is nothing like the room of a sbc in there.

 

So I decided to make my own, and to try and avoid cutting the inner fenders too much, I decided on Try Y's, as I would hopefully only need two pipes exiting the engine bay into the inner arches. I posted on the 348/409 forum for tips, and a very nice chap ran my stock motor specs through a 'pipemax' program, and came up with 19 inch primaries, secondaries and 22inch collector, which seemed very long, but after reading alot, 30inch plus overall before collector seems to be the magic number for bottom end torque, which will be what my motor is about, nothing hi revving about this old boat anchor.
I hadn't realised just how tight it is on the drivers side, the head on that side is a little further forward, the inner fender line hugs the frame, and there's steering box and brake lines to take into account.

 

First job was to make the 1.75 inch tube fit the square holes in the flanges I bought from Showcars.com. I made a couple of different formers, and used my flypress to stretch the pipe, then tacked the stubbs to the flanges

 

Next I started on what I think will be the toughest side, the Drivers. With a true tri y, the front and third port primaries should join, and the second and fourth should join, then the secondaries join each other. My first attempt was to take the front/first port out to the inner fender, and try and squeeze two and three behind it, but it soon became apparent that there wasn't enough room

 

Change of plan, and a little instagraming, and I found this header on the iceengineworks page, a really nice header crammed in to a tight space, i thought I might be able to use the waay the pipes tuck in behind each other on my tri y setup

 

So i took the front pipe out and down against the block to try and give myself plenty of room, thats about 17 inches of pipe, I guessed at two inches in the head, so 19 overall. As you can see, there's not a lot of room. this isn't helped by my choice of tube, apparently tight bends in 1.75 aren't easy to get. I chose this based on an article I read about headers for the W. hindsight, 1.5 would have been fine, and tight bends available..

 

That tube has to connect with the 3rd outlet, so that one was next. I've managed to get this one to 19 overall as well, when it meets the end of the first one, and just about have room to get to the exhaust manifold bolt..

 

Next step is to try and get the second pipe out of there and back to meet number four. I think I'm going to take it down and forward, then up and over number three, towards the firewall, then maybe run four down, forwards and back to meet it, we'll see how it goes..hopefuly a bit more playing later this week.

 

should be a cool bundle of snakes

 

This little bunch of pics shows roughly whats been happening, a lot of tiny adjustments and redesigns, and I have the primaries in, with their collectors, and ready to run the secondaries in the fenderwell. I had to split the header at the firewall because its just so tight, its the only way it can go in and out of the engine bay, and even now its 'fag paper' tight. ('fag' is old uk slang for cigarette, in this case a roll up, just in case...)
I wanted to keep stock inner fenders, but have resigned myself to the fact that it is going to need some 'wriggle room' back there, so i've cut a section out to make the headers, and will refit it to its new 'adjusted' proportions, but hopefully looking pretty stock.
I wasn't able to go with equal length on the primary's, with no 5 being a bit short, there just isnt enough room without getting really close to the brake pipe, which isn't good. I may come back to this later, but it aint no race car. jpg 6906 is where i'm currently at.

 

Crazy work on those headers! Be prepared for some movement when you weld them all fully. Don't ask me how I know this

Chris

 

Hi Chris, yep, it is a concern, I know stainless loves to move around when its welded, not sure how to stop that, or what the 'pro's' do, there must be a 'trick' to it.

 

Neil, you have more patients than I! Great looking job. that 348 is looking good.

 

That is some very nice work, yes sir very nice.

 

I've now got to this. Out of the engine bay, down the inner fender and out, under the running board. It will 'T' off from the end of the 2.5" collector under the chassis and into the muffler. To the muffler, and including the inside of the muffler will be 2.5" as well, then 2" fronm the muffler back, the same as Chevy ran from '59 on the 348's. I had to remove the inner fender to modify it for the secondaries, so good photo op..

 

Because I want to keep the inner fenders 'looking' stock, I had to sympathetically alter the back edge where the secondaries come through. First pic is the stock inner fender with a piece cut out, to allow me to make the secondaries. The rest are how I modified the inner fender, hammering the remaining half of the factory strengthening bead flat so that I get an extra 3/4 inch of room around the the flanges where the primary and secondary pipes connect, and then the wire template I made with the inner fender in the car, so I could make the new piece the correct profile to miss the pipes. You can see from the large nut holding it up that its not a lot more bigger, but it had to be done. Making this little infill piece took about 5 hours, as it bends all over the place, and took some doing by hand.. I had to tack it in with my MIG, not enough hands to manipulate it, hold it and tack, but I will finish it with my TIG.

 

Next job to get the header to the muffler. As I'm running 2.5 inch mufflers, but this steps down to 2 inch, so I had to modify the mufflers in readiness.
I'm lucky in that i have access to various tools at my forge. So I popped a couple of lengths of 2 inch tube in my gas forge, got them nice and hot, then stretched them over my small cone.
Next I cut off the outlet end off the muffler, trimmed the cone down, then welded it and a flange on, plus added a larger flange to the inlet.

 

Quick update, it’s been a while, but I spent some of my Xmas break finishing the drivers side header! I reworked the no 6 primary to get more length, which also meant moving no 8 from the back of the y to the front, simple right! I also had laser cut stainless head flanges made, but with correct/equal size ports, which makes the center ports smaller, which in turn doubles the sealing surface on the top of the centre tubes to the head( the original steel ones had about 2mm!). This little mod meant I had to redo the start of the centre primaries on both headers. The passenger side one is tacked and will be finished soon, fingers crossed.
I’ve also moved the front brake hard lines, now running from the master in side the chassis rail, tons ‘T’ in front of the steering box, where it splits to come thru the chassis rail and up to the modified ford mounting bracket. I did this because the new 6 primary was too close to the brake line for my liking.
I’ve done a few other things as well, and will update later

 

Holy Spaghetti ! that's some serious pipe tuning going on there!