Off-Road Magazine 85 ford 6bt swap

[Will24]

Good writeup in Off-Road on swapping an intercooled 92 ram motor into an 85 4wd one ton ford, good pics etc, they said it runs awesome

 

[backroad]

Which issue is the article in?



With the holidays upon us, I have off until the New Year. It looks as if I'll be able to spend the whole time working on MY Ford/Cummins swap. Time to fire up the Woodstove in the shop and forget about the snow outside.



Backroad...

 

[Will24]

February '03

 

[1 ALC]

Backroad,



I'm going to look at a '80 F350 with 351 windsor 4 speed. If I buy it (and can swing it money wise ) I want to swap in a 12v 5 speed.



Other than labor whats some average prices of parts to convert these trucks?

 

[backroad]

1 ALC, you did not mention whether the '80 ford was a 2wd or a 4wd? The best thing that you can do is find a donor vehicle to take as much as possible from. Prefabbed motor mounts are available from Reliable Diesel in Mesa, Az. Most everything else can be thought out as you go. Hopefully, you've done some conversion projects before. Let me know if I can be of help.



Backroad...

 

[tarussell]

1 ALC - I looked at some older F-350 trucks for a while and found some disturbing news on the 1980,81,82 trucks. It seems that when Henry and the boy's redisigned the F series for the eighties they had frame quality issues for the first few years. I don't know what all changed in 1983 but I have been told by some knowledgable peole to avoid the first three years of that body style because of weak frames. I would imagine that the Cummins will find the weak spot so be careful. Thomas

 

[JFitzgerald]

Originally posted by will24

Good writeup in Off-Road on swapping an intercooled 92 ram motor into an 85 4wd one ton ford, good pics etc, they said it runs awesome

It was good to see such a swap covered, but they had some quirky things in the article. Been a while since I read it, but here's what I remember.



1. They left out the Cummins oil cooler, saying it was scary if the oil and coolant were to combine. True, but has anyone heard of this actually happening? I've never read anything about that before. Seems to me they may be spouting off an opinion and making people worry about nothing. This is an important item that "I" would leave on the engine.



2. They left out the cold start system (intake heater), which may be fine for the Southwest.



3. They bought a Banks system, when they could have done most of the BOMBs themselves for free (since it was a first gen engine), with better results possible. Typical magazine pushing the advertising vendors.



Just my opinions, probably not worth 2 cents.

 

[dshockley]

Too bad that they did not know the difference between a flexplate and flywheel. They did not explain why their 1992 CTD came with a A618 instead of the A518. I thought that they had lots of good information, but generally, I don't think that Off Road publishes very well thought out or researched techinical articles. Good pictures though!



Dan