Diesel Swap to 67 -77 ford

[84TD]

I have been thinking about dropping a 6.9 in a vintage crew cab F350 ever since I got my truck. I found one out in Cali so maybe I should start brainstorming. What I dont know is what the differences in the frame of those year trucks. Any gurus in the house? Could I just get mounts and drop it in? Would I have to cut the crossmember or firewall? Maybe a body lift would be needed? I know a few here have done the 78-79 bodys so any input would help. It would be a great Summer Project!!!

 

[DeepRoots]

i was thinking about this sorta thing.
There was a 4bt with trans, radiator, and all the accesories (drop in pretty much) at a junkyard for $1500.
It was mounted to an old ford boxvan, motor mounts were already ford as it was on a ford frame, blah blah. Would be an easy swap.

 

[greg_a_morton]

Im working on getting all the parts right now to put my extra 6.9 in my 72f350
It seems like Im the only one on here doing this to a 2wd. the 4wd should be easier because of not having the crossmember under engine like on my 2wd. The 6.9 is about the same size as the 460 that came out of it. only thing I dont like is the factory 6.9 motor mounts are really hard to get to and work on so I will just make mounts with plate steel and square tubing.

 

[adam g]

I want to do the same kind of swap. For my donor truck I want to take a 92 to 94 7.3 with a 5 spd 4 wheel drive. That would give me a serp belt system. I would like to have a 79 crew cab. I am sure it will be a pain. I need to get a place in the country with a shop before I can do any real projects.

 

[CSARebel916]

I have done this swap!! I put an old 6.9 in my 79 F-150. It does take some fab skills.I had to make frame mounts along with motor mounts. Also had to install a 3in bl to clear the valve covers. I dont know how you will use a hydo clutch. I just shaved my bellhousing and made my manual clutch work. Actuall workd out pretty good! Here are the pics of my truck out playing!

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[subway]

Nice mud running I like the earlier body style of 67-72 personally but the 73-79 style would be a better set up mechanically. they newer stuff has disk brakes stonger open knuckle axles and the tanks are in the frame not the cab to name a few improvements. they are also cheeper adn easier to find. not saying it cant be done at all I just think you would be ahead on a fairly large project to begin with to start there.

 

[cleithau]

Wow, I thought this was my idea. I was just looking for a donor crew cab last night. Not that I have the money for it but its aways fun to dream. I don't know if you already had an extra 6.9 engine but if you didn't wouldn't it be easier to find a crewcab with the 6.9 that had a rusty/dented body and then just make new cab mounts for the older crew cab.

 

[Agnem]

Hate to tell you, but your probably down pretty far in the list. We've had at least 2 others post sucessfull conversions in the past. In addition to CSARebel (nice shots by the way), IDIeselman did it, and I know of one or two older and forgotten conversions including a Cat 3208 install.

 

[greg_a_morton]

I would like to know where every body is getting these crewcab trucks at. I have had up to 25 67-79 trucks at one time. I use to buy any of these trucks I could find for parts to have in the future. I only come across one crewcab and it was a 69 4wd 3/4 ton. I tryed to buy it for over a year. latter on I met a guy who bought this truck. He gave over $2000 for it. He cut the truck up and made a rock crawler out of it. The only thing good about the truck when he was done with it was that it had a 5.9 cummins in it. I sure did want that truck! But im still curious to know if there are any other 2wd older trucks that have been converted on this site?

 

[84TD]

I would like to know where every body is getting these crewcab trucks at. I have had up to 25 67-79 trucks at one time. I use to buy any of these trucks I could find for parts to have in the future. I only come across one crewcab and it was a 69 4wd 3/4 ton. I tryed to buy it for over a year. latter on I met a guy who bought this truck. He gave over $2000 for it. He cut the truck up and made a rock crawler out of it. The only thing good about the truck when he was done with it was that it had a 5.9 cummins in it. I sure did want that truck! But im still curious to know if there are any other 2wd older trucks that have been converted on this site?

Since I have been looking I have found quite a few. There is a 67 4x4 crew in SoCal right now for 4K, if it was closer I would have bought it already. They are out there, just hard to find. Last one I found was in Oregon. When I find one on the east coast I will buy it if I can. I dont want to go nuts, just a re-ring, bearings, studs, turbo and moose pump with a ZF-5. What I really want to know is will it bolt up with some Diesel mounts? I am no fabricator(welding). I can use a sawzall and a hammer

Greg would you mind measuring your frame width so I can compare it with my 84? Also If someone has a 78-79 they could measure that would be help full.

 

[greg_a_morton]

My dually is not here now but I went out and measured my 67 shortbed.
from top of each side on frame is 29.5 and 11 to 12 inches at the botom of the crossmember. on the newer trucks with the 6.9s and gas motors the cross member is not u shaped it has a hump it which is what im having the issue with the mounts and stands.

cross members

l l l l
l l l l
l l l l
lllllllll lllllllll
my 72 newer truck

now thats a good discription aint it!

 

[greg_a_morton]

my drawing didnt work!!
also forgot that the 73-79 frames are the same width on the front thats the reason you can swap the 460 mounts and stands from the newer model to the older.

 

[77f250diesel]

You will have to fabricate new mounts, weld a tube to your fill neck for return and depending on what your doing as far as turbo and body lift you might have to fab. a downpipe.
I think it was 429cjford that did a post with a fairly complete writeup on what's involved.
It's not a hard swap but don't try to compare a 460 to a 6.9/7.3 size wise, these motors are big and heavy.

Dennis

 

[CSARebel916]

The weight was deff. a really big factor for my truck! I had 9 inch lift coils in the front and with the weight of the diesel they became 7in coils, lol. If I was gonna do it again, I would stick to a leaf sprung front end.

Im thinking of doing another truck here soon, and when I do I will be sure to make a complete write up on it!

 

[Agnem]

Do that! I'll post it as a tech article.