hi guys some wisdom needed here...im thinkin' of buyin' a '59 ford wagon.it needs an engine.clean car but the block is crap..???..i can get it at a good deal..just wondering what its like to replace the engine?pain in the ass?or not that bad?i was also wonderin' what type of tranny they have in these wagons..its a car from cali so its clean..i have always wanted one...thanks guys and lemme know.....craig
I took a nasty 6 out and put a real fine 292 in my 59. It seems the Ford automatics are impossible to get parts for and no repair, so I used a manual 3 spd with overdrive. Dual straight pipes, sweet car! This car is for my son to drive so I kept it simple and all 59 so he can ask for 59 parts. What would you like to know?
FE series engines should be a slam dunk for ya. Plenty of old 390s and C6s around. Looking for some extra grunt, find a 67-68 T-Bird 428!
Here you go, it`s a 57 but it`s right down your alley!!! You`ll love it! http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2437628779&category=6230
El p, hit it rite on the head. 390 C6 Slam Dunk...you can do it with all stock Ford parts. A big old station wagon parts car would help, one of them gas burners they sell cheap.......OLDBEET
If you really want to confuse some a 430/462 MEL is also a drop in. Next choice would be the 352/390 FE. I love Y Blocks but a 59 wagon aint no lightweight. Check Sept 99 SRM for an in depth how to mate a CruiseOmatic and a FMX if you do decide on a Y Block. Same concept may apply to the MEL and the pre C6 FE's.
I remember asking a co-worker how hard it was to swap out the engines he used in his street/strip Chevy, and he just shrugged and said "Righty tighty...lefty loosey!". In other words...it's a bolt-in deal! 352 and 390 engines will be cheapest, as well as the 360 that came in some trucks of the 70s. But there are many FE engines out there...including 406, 427 and 428 monsters if you're so inclined. Just be sure to get a tranny that matches the engine you choose, Ford V8s have different bellhousing patterns. If you go with an FE engine, you'll need a C6 auto with an FE bellhousing, or a Top Loader manual tranny with the correct bellhousing for an FE as well. Motor mounts, exhaust system parts, radiators, hoses and other related swap items are parts store items and shouldn't be hard to come by. Rent an engine picker and make a weekend project out of it!!
If ya go Y-block, I'd advise against following the '99 Street Rodder FMX tran swap. I tried it and I my case it was not a slam dunk like Doc made it out to be. Maybe it was because I have a steel truck crank, mybe not. But I had to have a torque convertor custom built on to get it to mate up properly. Go with a C-4 adapter or put in a 4spd toploader. PS. That custom convertor wasn't cheap but Phoenix transmission in TX did a great job. Check them out if anyone needs a custom convertor.
Id be interested in hearing more about the problems with that FMX conversion. Doc has offered me the tranny in the article at a great price and says it will be a complete bolt up to my 56 312.
I like this one.... Put a Y-block back in and the two speed trannys always lasted for me. I love the way you can rev those engines up in first gear.
I'm with everyone else, the FE is a shoein. If your Ford had an automajic it had a Ford-o-Matic. Not you best choice for trannies, but doable if you have one. With the Ford, ya gotta have the tranny that goes with the motor, so if it still has the original tranny and it wasn't an FE from the factory than the tranny won't bolt up. If you're gonna do an automajic, I'd look for a 390 or 428 with a C-6 behind it (the C-6 is a '66 or later tranny). A 352 is OK if that's what ya find, but I would avoid the 360 like the plague, they won't rev and get awful gas milage. Of course if you want to pull a big sailboat slow then the 360 is the way to go. You can of course change a 360 to a 390 by changing the crank and rods, but why bother there are still a lot of 390s out there. Your other most bitchin' choice is the Merc or Lincoln (MEL) 430. Had one in a 59 Merc and loved it, of course that was almost 35 years ago and parts could still be bought anywhere. if it don't make ya dirty it aint yours
A couple of years ago I had A&W Machine in Irwindale rebuild the Ford-O-Matic in my '57. He charged me about a grand to take it out, rebuild and reinstall it. It runs great. The car has a 292 with good heads and a little Clay Smith cam and it's bulletproof. Runs like stink. Love it.
If your going to put in an FE motor, don't overlook the 410 Merc. Nice torque-y motor. I have a friend who put one in a 56 Ford, was almost a bolt in.
gotta 302 in mine.plenty enough power for me.its suprisingly peppy.who was it talking about taking the path of least resistance?thats what i wanted to do.
286merc, The problem that I had with the FMX is that when I tried to bolt the trans with convertor up to the engine, the snout of the convertor bottomed out in the end of the crank before the bellhousing met the engine block. I can't remember exactly, but I think it was a good .250" gap. I had my trans shop check around to see if maybe there were two types of FMX convertors produced, but they couldn't find any indication of dimensional differences. I even talked to Doc personally, and at the time he said he honestly hadn't tried bolting his trans up yet to see if it fit. His sources said it could be done with just the shim mentioned in his article. Hell, I even tried to have the torque convertor dude he used in the article make me a convertor but that bozo kept feeding me a line of bull that he'd do it next week (for a good 6 mos) The only thing that I can think might have been different in my case is that I used a steel big truck crank. Possibly those truck cranks were machined a little different on the end pocket because they were only going to be used on manual trans vehicles. I dunno. Anyway, I had to measure and draft up what I needed for a new, shorter snout on my convertor, then had Phoenix Trans in TX (they advertise in Goodguys) custom fab/modify an FMX convertor for me. They did an awesome job real quick and actually very reasonalble considering what they had to do. But, I would have ended up spending about he same on the whole FMX rigamaroll as I woulda if I had just bought a C4 adapter. Then i woulda had a better trans and coulda used a modern starter instead of the old Y-block starter. Long story short: If Doc can prove his works and it's pretty cheap, go for it. If he can't prove it, don't buy into a potential nightmare like I had.
thanks guys...i havent messed with big block stuff before..or much ford stuff anyway...my buddy..{lil jimmy} found me a rebuilt'59 352 short block build buy a respectable rebuilder for the "good guy price"...2 hundy!!will rebuild my heads and like fat hack says i hope to make a weekend or two weekend out of it..but more feed back is welcome,and im sure i will have more questions when the time comes..thanks again...craig
Hey Corn Fed, Which Convertor/front pump did you use? Was Jim Pacquet the expert Doc recommended? I was probably headed that direction but nmeed to know what problems I might encounter. Thanks Charles in Pensacola
Darkman, I'm not sure what the convertor I initially had came out of. It was just the one that was listed in my trans shop's rebuilt parts catalog as fitting an FMX. I also don't know what Phoenix Trans used to build mine. The pump was whatever was on the junkyard trans that I used. I'm guessing it was a late 70's car. And yes, Paquette was the guy that I talked with for months on building me a convertor before I finally got fed up and called Phoenix. The only cool part about using the FMX was that the shift arm from the Ford-o-matic that was in my car was a direct swap into the FMX, allowing me to not need any column shifter modification. My trans mount was in a different place though. Note: This went into a '57 Ford.
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