1949 Ford F-3 "old red truck"

I've still been plugging away at the old girl, just nothing super exciting. Even so, why not throw up an update.

I've been mostly been getting the engine ready to stab into the truck. I'll be taking it into the school and have the ag kids throw on a fresh coat of paint in the next couple weeks.

One of the tough parts of swapping a fuel injected (converted to carb) engine from 1996 into a truck from 1949 that doesn't need all the accessories.
This is what it looks like when you remove the smog pump, power steering and AC and adapt a chevy 1 wire alternator. Had to do some finessing to the factory alternator mount and make a custom tensioner bracket, but it now takes an easy to source 60.75" serpentine belt.
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I also picked up a pretty rad older offenhauser c series intake manifold. It'll allow me to mount up a 390 or 450 cfm 4 barrel (still looking for one if y'all have anything collecting dust on the shelf). Also nabbed a somewhat desirable "powered by ford" valve cover from the 70's from the same guy. Not a need, but it's awful cool.
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I also found a rebuilt head on fb marketplace. It is from a 76 carb model truck engine, which will play a little nicer than the efi head. Also not a need, but for $150 while it's apart for a fresh head seemed worth it.
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I also fabricated a custom crossmember that will bolt to the f3 frame and retain the use of factory 96 motor mounts. It's a bit on the heavy side, made from 5/16 plate, but it's what I had a big enough scrap of, so that's what I used.
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Luugo86 said:
That offenhauser intake is bad to the bone
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I was pretty happy to get it. An old dude on a Facebook page offered it up and I grabbed it on the way to the Garage Brewed show in Cincinnati a few weeks back. You can still buy 2 variations of the intake to this day, a "C series" or a "dual Port". After looking at this one and trying to narrow things down, I realized that this one was a bit different than either availible. Again, through the network of wonders of Facebook groups, the current owner of Offenhauser chimed in and said that it is an EARLY version of their "equiflow 5886" intake, this is what he said:

"This intake predates the C series, ultimately what is now the C series match plate used to be the Equaflow, when Offy introduced the Dual Port they decided to retire the equaflow and make it into the Competition. The intake you have is the original 240/300 offy intake part number 5886. This wood pattern was used to make all of them."
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Based on the info, the 5886 was replaced in the 1975 1/2 catalog with the c series and dual port. This one did not have the casting numbers in it, which makes it very early in the run. likely late 1960's or early 1970's. All that nerdy info to say, its pretty impressive that a first run intake will still fit on a last year of the same engine (1996) to covert it from FI to carb.
 
Very cool history. I ran Clifford Performance parts on my 65 F100 "race truck". Back in those dark ages, that was about the only thing available. The 300 six is noted as the most reliable engine built by Ford. Since this was also my daily driver I needed reliable more than speed. It doesn't produce a lot of horsepower but makes up for it with torque. My 65 used an 600 CFM carb based on recommendations from Clifford. Supposedly the L6 has about 34% more cylinder volume than a comparable V8. I'm not sure 600 CFM was the be all/do all. I wanted to try a 500 CFM carb but before I could make any changes I went to Desert Storm. When I got back I had an immediate PCS (Permanent Change of Station) so I sold the truck to a local racer. I used the Clifford headers but if I built the same truck today I would use the late stock exhaust manifold.
 
Rider52 said:
Very cool history. I ran Clifford Performance parts on my 65 F100 "race truck". Back in those dark ages, that was about the only thing available. The 300 six is noted as the most reliable engine built by Ford. Since this was also my daily driver I needed reliable more than speed. It doesn't produce a lot of horsepower but makes up for it with torque. My 65 used an 600 CFM carb based on recommendations from Clifford. Supposedly the L6 has about 34% more cylinder volume than a comparable V8. I'm not sure 600 CFM was the be all/do all. I wanted to try a 500 CFM carb but before I could make any changes I went to Desert Storm. When I got back I had an immediate PCS (Permanent Change of Station) so I sold the truck to a local racer. I used the Clifford headers but if I built the same truck today I would use the late stock exhaust manifold.
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That is really cool! From what I've read so far, Clifford 6=8 stuff is still really the "go to" performance equipment. If I had a bigger budget, and hadn't found the Offey "cheap" second hand, I would have run the Clifford dual weber down draft setup:

cliffordperformance.net

08-7001F300 Dual Weber Fuel Delivery System W/O Headers

TORQUE MONSTER 6=8 Weber 38 DGES Dual Weber Kit. Twin Water Heated Intake Manifold W/two Weber 38/38 DGES Carbs (2) Air Cleaners Fuel Regulator Linkage Kit (2) 08-1013 Weber Carb Adaptors Header Gasket Have no worries, your kit is set up and bolted to your new 6=8 dual Intake, ready to start...
cliffordperformance.net cliffordperformance.net

As far as a carb, I'm going with a Holley 390 4 barrel with vacuum secondaries. Like you said, these engines seem known for low end torque, and as the truck is already a heavy 3/4 ton (some also called it a light 1 ton) I would much rather have low end anyways. Drum brakes and no power steering leads me a to want torque over top end for both usability and fun. All that said, without a cam and rocker set to take advantage of the ability to use the top end of a 500 cfm carb it has been said to be a moot point. All this is also 100% regurgitated info from a bunch of recent reading, and in no way been tested by myself lol
 
Hurco550 said:
That is really cool! From what I've read so far, Clifford 6=8 stuff is still really the "go to" performance equipment. If I had a bigger budget, and hadn't found the Offey "cheap" second hand, I would have run the Clifford dual weber down draft setup:

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As far as a carb, I'm going with a Holley 390 4 barrel with vacuum secondaries. Like you said, these engines seem known for low end torque, and as the truck is already a heavy 3/4 ton (some also called it a light 1 ton) I would much rather have low end anyways. Drum brakes and no power steering leads me a to want torque over top end for both usability and fun. All that said, without a cam and rocker set to take advantage of the ability to use the top end of a 500 cfm carb it has been said to be a moot point. All this is also 100% regurgitated info from a bunch of recent reading, and in no way been tested by myself lol
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Half the reason I want a Japanese mini truck is to run Webers. LOL
 
And speak of the devil, marketplace saves the day again. @Deviant1 found a seller in Sarasota Florida with a used holley 390 for what ended up being $188 shipped. Sure beats $800 for a new one!
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One of the guys I raced against had a L6 in a 60s Mustang with 6 Mikuni carbs. He spent a lot of time getting them in sync. He changed to Webers and had the same problem getting the mixture correct.
 
That sounds like a nightmare to try to get 6 mikunis all working together, but if it couldve been made to work, it would have been pretty legit awesome. I had a moment of thinking about trying to work up 3 of the FCR39 MX carbs that I have on the shelf up on a custom manifold, but luckily I got that thought out of my head.

Last night I took advantage of the 65 degree February day and loaded the motor up to take it in to the school. The boys in the ag and diesel class are gonna do a once over on the motor, put fresh gaskets on it and a coat of paint. I'm going to take the truck in to our welding and fab lab once the motor is done and mount the engine and trans in. It will be much easier to make the motor mounts and stuff there, plus use the crane to set it in. The kids will dig it too.
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And what better way to nurse a slipping clutch on the car than to haul a 500 lb engine behind it lol
 
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