I guess I'll be the odd one out at this point. I can't post any pictures of my truck until I get it out from under the tarp. Won't happen for a few days yet.
It's a '63 F-100 ICB Shortbed. Bought it 22 years ago, with the thought of making it a long-term project. I'm the fourth owner, and it has something north of 300K miles on it.
From the trim, and other hard parts, it started out as a six, and with an automatic trans, and came from West Virginia where it put in many miles as a common work truck.
The second owner swapped-in a 289 and a C-4. That was the combination in it when the third owner got it. And that third owner was my brother's fellow worker. I kept hearing about the things he did and finally heard that he might be willing to sell it. I bought it for $1700.00.
When I got it, it had a four-speed toploader in it, and a '64 390 Police Interceptor engine with some improvements. (I also sorta knew the guy who was the original owner of the '64 Galaxie from which the engine came. It had been 'improved' to the tune of an aftermarket solid-lifter cam, a set of '64 long 427 exhaust manifold/headers, and the triple two-barrel factory set-up that came on some 406 engines.
I drove it that way for a couple of years, sometimes using it daily and at other times letting it set for a couple of months at a time. But the engine had a documented 80K+ miles on it and had had a hard life before I ever got it. I decided to replace it before there was a problem that would damage the most valuable engine components.
So I scrounged for parts in order to put together something to keep it running until I got around to going through the 390 PI. I gathered a 390 short-block and put it together with the sort of parts that tend to accumulate in the far corners of your garage. The end result was a solid cam of unknown details, a spare set of early 406 heads, and the rest of the outer 'dress' from the PI engine. I did go to a 428 PI intake manifold, and sold the triple set-up.
Although the intent had been to go through the PI engine over the summer after I pulled it out, other projects got in the way for several years. In fact the next thing about the truck that had to have attention was the front suspension. I ultimately did a Volare front stub conversion, including the use of an Omni GLH R&P.
It's too long a story to tell here, but briefly, I agreed to do a series of stories for Mustang Illustrated Magazine on the build-up of the 390 PI. This resulted in a dozen articles---actually 14 monthly installments if you count two on the work we did on the C-6. The work was all done in Jack Roush's Prototype Engine Shop which is about a mile-and-a-half from my house.
We used Dove heads and intake manifold, and such other components as a Comp Cams solid roller cam, Larson headers that were originally built for a '64 light-weight Galaxie factory drag car, Ross pistons and Eagle interior pieces. At 397 inches, it made 501 HP and equivalent torque at 6000 RPM and was capable of turning a safe 7500 if necessary.
The engine is torn-down for some conversion work, and setting in my garage. Present plans are to re-do it, add a couple of turbos to increase torque, and use the truck as the tow vehicle for my current land speed racing effort.
And when I go over the truck body, I'll probably chop the top!
KS
It's a '63 F-100 ICB Shortbed. Bought it 22 years ago, with the thought of making it a long-term project. I'm the fourth owner, and it has something north of 300K miles on it.
From the trim, and other hard parts, it started out as a six, and with an automatic trans, and came from West Virginia where it put in many miles as a common work truck.
The second owner swapped-in a 289 and a C-4. That was the combination in it when the third owner got it. And that third owner was my brother's fellow worker. I kept hearing about the things he did and finally heard that he might be willing to sell it. I bought it for $1700.00.
When I got it, it had a four-speed toploader in it, and a '64 390 Police Interceptor engine with some improvements. (I also sorta knew the guy who was the original owner of the '64 Galaxie from which the engine came. It had been 'improved' to the tune of an aftermarket solid-lifter cam, a set of '64 long 427 exhaust manifold/headers, and the triple two-barrel factory set-up that came on some 406 engines.
I drove it that way for a couple of years, sometimes using it daily and at other times letting it set for a couple of months at a time. But the engine had a documented 80K+ miles on it and had had a hard life before I ever got it. I decided to replace it before there was a problem that would damage the most valuable engine components.
So I scrounged for parts in order to put together something to keep it running until I got around to going through the 390 PI. I gathered a 390 short-block and put it together with the sort of parts that tend to accumulate in the far corners of your garage. The end result was a solid cam of unknown details, a spare set of early 406 heads, and the rest of the outer 'dress' from the PI engine. I did go to a 428 PI intake manifold, and sold the triple set-up.
Although the intent had been to go through the PI engine over the summer after I pulled it out, other projects got in the way for several years. In fact the next thing about the truck that had to have attention was the front suspension. I ultimately did a Volare front stub conversion, including the use of an Omni GLH R&P.
It's too long a story to tell here, but briefly, I agreed to do a series of stories for Mustang Illustrated Magazine on the build-up of the 390 PI. This resulted in a dozen articles---actually 14 monthly installments if you count two on the work we did on the C-6. The work was all done in Jack Roush's Prototype Engine Shop which is about a mile-and-a-half from my house.
We used Dove heads and intake manifold, and such other components as a Comp Cams solid roller cam, Larson headers that were originally built for a '64 light-weight Galaxie factory drag car, Ross pistons and Eagle interior pieces. At 397 inches, it made 501 HP and equivalent torque at 6000 RPM and was capable of turning a safe 7500 if necessary.
The engine is torn-down for some conversion work, and setting in my garage. Present plans are to re-do it, add a couple of turbos to increase torque, and use the truck as the tow vehicle for my current land speed racing effort.
And when I go over the truck body, I'll probably chop the top!
KS
