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

typo41 I had a 62 Buick Electria .I had painted the top white and then the rest of the car metallic blue. My cat back then {Cleo} some how got in the shop and walked on the blue paint {didn't do anything to the blue paint} but left a couple of Blue foot prints on the white top. That was always a hit at the car shows. LOL. Bruce.

 

I took the new battery out of the coupe, moved my ground to the starter, made a new negative cable to the frame, cleaned up the spark plugs, and shot some oil in the cylinders.

Got it running, broke in the cam, changed the oil, and shot this quick video. Sorry it's small, but my camera settings were messed up.

 

Now we need a ride along-

 

Sounds great. Nice and deep

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Thanks. The mufflers back were what I used on the flatty, which are Walker 24041 14" bodied glasspacks, with 1 3/4" tail pipes. Mark ran 2" out of the exhaust manifolds, down to 1 3/4" to the mufflers.

The 283 has been sitting, neglected, in the corner of the garage since I yanked it from the coupe. Other than draining the coolant out of it, I never shot any oil into the cylinders until I started the cam swap, so I'm sure that is part of the smoking, but also I'm sure that the rings need some time to clean themselves up with some run time. Once I get the clutch adjusted, I'll be sure to dump some seafoam in the crank case and in the gas tank and let it do it's magic.

Besides the initial cam break in, I have only fired it up a couple of short intervals to test clutch adjustments, so far. So far, I am pleased with the decision to rebuild the Rochester 4gc, and the way that it is behaving, since I mounted it backwards. We'll see how it does once I start driving it again.

 

Sounds NICE!!! Bruce.

 

I've mounted the Carb turned around since my first early Ford to GM swap back in the 60's. There has never yet been an issue with it. I guess the Carb don't know if it's going forward or just Backing up a very long ways.
The Wizzard

 

Sounds good Bret!

 

I'll probably get flamed pretty hard for this, but: the best two days in the 44 years I've owned Clarence were the day we fired it up with the 283 in '92 after pulling the 239 inch flatty and the day we fired it up in '15 after replacing the tired 283 with a crate 350.

Well; after the places we've been and the people we've met in him of course.

 

Atch, I kinda figured I'd catch a few flames on this one, besides the ones I've already gotten from @gonmad , for putting in a SBC, even though it is a 1958 vintage.

Hoping to stop by the shop to do some clutch adjusting tonight after work.

 

Maybe this time when I pass you on my way to the hamb drags it won't be so easy!

 

Got by the shop this evening and spent some time working on the clutch adjustment. I think I might need to take a half turn back out of it, but it DOES work now.

Now that it has run a bit, and stirred up all the rust from inside the water passages, I believe I am going to go ahead and flush the cooling system and put some fresh antifreeze and water back in it. I did cause it to puke out the radiator cap, since I had it REALLY full. I also want to take my temperature gun down to the shop and see what it tells me that the temperature of the motor is, so I know where the 190 degree, or so, range is on my gauge. The flatty seemed to run a little cooler, but it also had a bigger fan that was crank driven and down lower on the radiator.

The little cooling fan that is on the motor, currently, is only 13 1/2", and I knew it was too small, but it was one that we had lying around that would clear the radiator hoses. I think a 16" fan is about the maximum I can go and still clear the upper radiator hoses.

The grill and bumper are back on, I need to stop by O'Reilly and see if the air filter element that they ordered will fit the old air cleaner that I have, and I need to put the hood back on, but I think I am nearly ready to start putting some miles on the old truck again!

 

great old truck you have just made so much more fun to drive with out any damage to trucks body etc , ive had a 283 in my 35 for a long time it looks like it came that way

 

No cutting is necessary to plant the 283. If unhappy, you can go back to a flathead, but you won't. Fine looking stake.

 

You did good, Bud. It's a natural occurrence.

 

Just a side note, regarding the radiator. While talking to @cvstl about how to block off the now unneeded radiator ports, he suggested using some plumbing plugs inside a piece of hose and clamp it with a hose clamp. Cost about $7, and used the scrap ends off of my lower hose.

 

Nothing wrong with your plug idea but another way to do this is to use a copper cap ( solder type. It has no threads to provide a possible leak path in the future. Dang picture is huge!

I have been enjoying you conversion project!

 

I was looking for something like that but couldn't figure out where to find one locally.

 

The one pictured is from the Home Depot site. It is 1 1/2" I think you can also get 1 1/4" but I am not certain. Of course if you access to lathe you can just turn a plug to the dimension you need.

 

Stopped by the shop, on the way home from Branson, and put the hood back on the truck. Traded parking spaces with the coupe and drive the truck home. Gonna have to upgrade the positive battery cable, as I bought some 2ga, hoping it would work. It works fine when the engine is cold, but I need more amperage capacity when the engine is hot.

That didn't stop me from driving it 45 miles to work this morning, tho. I had an interesting experience. I finally realized that I could pass other cars and maintain speed going up hills!

 

LOVING THE TRUCK !!!!!!

 

Gonna need a ride in this to put to bed the idea of weather or not I need a 40/1 ford truck or not

 

We can make that happen! I'd bet you could even take it for a spin! I mean, after all...i let @gonmad take his missus for a ride in it.

 

Here is a picture of the flathead pressure plate. Check out the heads of the finger adjusting screws. I'm sure that not all of that wear happened in the last 20,000 miles that I put on the truck. What's crazy is i never heard any noise from it.

 

Whoa!

 

In an effort to resolve the starting issue, this morning, I went ahead and ordered 11 feet of 2/0 cable from the Irish parts store, using my online "shop discount" account. Since it had to be ordered from the warehouse, I figured I'd just swing by and grab it on the way home, whip up a new positive cable and climb under the truck to swap out the 2ga one tonight.

I was getting ready to pay, when the kid looked in the box and asked me if I wanted to double check the measurement. I told him to go ahead, and that is when I got a pretty good laugh, and a slight irritation, all at the same time. It turns out that they hire regular geniuses to work in the warehouse. I did get the ordered 11 feet, however, they chose to give it to me as a 7' and a 4' section. There is a store within a few miles that has enough contiguous footage that I will swing by in the morning before work to pick up.

On a positive note, I did score a air filter that fits inside the vintage housing that provides adequate CFM for the engine, and allows me to keep the perforated chrome ring around it to conceal the paper filter, so I got that going for me.

The drive to work and back caused a bit of concern, when my stock oil pressure gauge started going nuts. I'm thinking that I'll add a T fitting to the plumbing and add a mechanical gauge and have both for a while. The 283 ran great, didn't overheat, or develop any strange noises, and the oil level was still rather normal, so I'm thinking I may have a wonky voltage reducer on that gauge, as it has done that before, when I had the flatty in the truck.

Due to my nephew's wedding, this weekend, most of my garage time is shot, but I'm hoping to give the clutch a little more adjustment, swap that battery cable, and add the mechanical gauge all Sunday afternoon, rather than watch the NASCAR race (which usually results in me watching the backs of my eyelids)

 

I too am leery of the galvanized pipe plugs, what about using brass freeze plugs or soft plugs in the necks. Also what sending units did you use for the stock gauges to the 283 (oil and water).

 

Hey matey, that truck looks great and sounds awesome. Great job.


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Gotta write again to say how awesome the ride along video is. She seems to hustle along nicely. You must be very happy with the result.


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Well, since @bchrismer mentioned that I made the suggestion........ I recently pulled the original radiator from my '37 that had old pipe plugs for block-offs, held in by some old, petrified rubber hoses that were likely put on there in the late 50s when the flathead was liberated and replaced with a solid lifter 265 sbc. Maybe they weren't quite that old, but I'm sure they were at least 50 years old, and did not leak. It was the top tank that split and I got a smokin deal on a Walker, so I swapped it out. I seriously doubt tho that my plugs were made in China, so you may be right.