85pig

Guess I'll just pull the parts and hang onto them. I've not had a mechanical clutch fail on me (yet), but I'll stick with the hydraulic for the time being.

Here's an odd question: I know many have converted to a hydraulic clutch, but has anyone actually gone the other way? I'm a "keep it simple" kind of guy, and to me the more simple, the more reliable. I haven't had any trouble with the hydraulic setup in my 85, but just like the simplicity of mechanical everything. I recently picked up a parts truck (82) that has a manual clutch, so that's one system I'm going to scavenge out of it, and keep. Anyone ever convert away from hydraulic? I do realize the repair parts for these mechanical setups are getting harder to come by, so any bushings, etc., will likely have to be improvised if they are excessively worn. This isn't something that's on the current to-do list, but I just think that if the hydraulic system ever does start giving me trouble, it gives me the option to ditch it altogether. More pressing is the fixed steering column this truck has. That one IS on the list.

Amen, brother! Anyway, a Vega with a 215 Buick sounds like fun! Light & lighter = fast. And a Pantera would be fun as well, but I guess I didn't realize they had a ZF five speed. If that's a ZF5 then that might take some of the fun away. I've not driven a ZF5 that I really liked - including mine. Kind of mispoke - ZF TRANSAXLE. And old Miss Margarite would have corrected me, too! Closest I've been to a Shelby really was a ride in a 67 GT500; grew up in a military town, and some idiot GI traded it in at the local Chevy dealership. One of the town collectors snapped it up, and gave me a ride in it. Ran like crap - spark knock, etc. Car was beautiful, white with the blue skunks. He ended up blowing it up, and had the 428 rebuilt, and had a correct dual quad setup put on it. Never got to ride in it after that, sorry to say. Don't know if he still owns it. My Pantera now resides in Germany; Margarite's only son (engineer) had it shipped over to him.

Nothing wrong with a Comet or Torino. I remember being in the Mercury dealer in Ft. Wayne, IN and looking at a Pantera. My dad told me they had them stacked up and couldn't give them away. I always thought a first series Lotus Cortina would be a fun ride. Or, stuffing a Cosworth BDA into a first generation Fiesta.... I come from a line of Ford parts monkeys; my dad worked in Ford parts from the early 50s to around 1980 or so. Had a guy in town that had two Panteras, and my dad said he would cringe every time one of them rolled up. He hated looking up parts for them. That's how we were with Probes in the 80s. Oddballs with non-Ford numbers on the fiche, etc. He totaled one of the Panteras, and years later my mom was friends with his widow. She set up a time for me to come look at the surviving car, man was it nice (I rode in it once on the sly, but that's another story). What was cool was having a 70+ year old woman with a thick German accent step into her garage, and start with "it has a 351 Cleveland and ZF five speed transmission". God rest her soul. On that note, I'm a Holley hater. Never had one that I could get to run right for any length of time. I've seen guys online say that "you just don't know how to tune them". My dad also hated Holleys, my brother drug one home one day in the mid-80s with the intention of putting it on his 68 Torino. My dad said something along the lines of "what did you buy that piece of ---- for?" He said they were always junk, and I'd guess working the back counter of a Ford dealership all through the muscle car era where Ford put them on lots of engines, they must have always been problematic. And if the Ford mechanics struggled with them, then it's not just me. Some guys just have the touch, I guess. As for me, I go with Dirty Harry: "a man's got to know his limitations".

LOL - I wish. I've been mostly relegated to Mercury Comets and Ford Torinos. My "give up an organ" car is the DeTomaso Pantera. If I ever win the lottery.... Always wanted a Sunbeam Tiger as a kid, until I sat in one as an adult. At 6'-5", it was never meant to be.

Looks like an 8.8 to me, and as you said, 3.08 is an 8.8 ratio.

That's doable with the 300. Obviously kind of a pain (and guiding that 10 foot long cam back into the block would be fun), but it's an option. If a guy was to do that, he could also see if the previous owner used an offset cam key to bump the timing up as well.

The 268H isn't a terribly large cam, but the Comp grinds are known for detonation in the 300 (their timing events raise the dynamic compression pretty high). Why I'm surprised your engine doesn't ping under load. As Jim mentioned, the stock cam should bring back good drivability.

Makes me wonder if the kid that worked on the engine may have installed a multi-position timing set, along with a cam that was ground "straight up". Ford retarded the cam timing of the 300 4 degrees, so setting the timing set at the 4 advanced position plus a cam ground straight up might cause some issues, depending on cam timing events. Does it spark knock under load when you have it where it runs good?

Any idea on the width? If they're 15x8, you can get 33s on them, maybe 35s. And I agree - I'd love to have a couple of those caps.

I may have been steering you wrong. ***After further review, I'll need to look into that more; the six may in fact have perches that mount on the crossmember. There is a hole in the crossmember that is covered by the 300's perches, that looks to be an access hole for the V8's oil filter? If so, then yes - you'll need to remove the 300 perches too. And that sucks.

You're going to need the engine perches that bolt/rivet to the frame to go with the 400 motor mounts. The 300 bolted directly to the crossmember on the Bullnose trucks, the V8s got engine family-specific perches that were riveted to the backside of the crossmember. They can be changed out by grinding/cutting the rivet heads off, and then bolting to the crossmember and frame. If you're running the Duraspark II ignition setup, you'll likely need the 351M/400 harness that runs from the cab to the ignition module, distributor, and coil. With the correct junkyard harness, that should be a plug & play situation. Only minor snag will be if your truck has a tach or not. Not 100% certain, but I don't see why any of the V8 harnesses wouldn't work, as long as the length is adequate. If you're running a carb on that 400 (and you most likely will be), you won't need to worry about any of that ECM stuff.

I'm on "team Gary". No Holleys for me.

Seems they're both easy to install, I just prefer the Ford stuff. Mine's on a 300 as well. Junkyard harness, "blue grommet" box, and the DSII distributor - maybe $100. Even the later (85-86) Ford cab harnesses are still set up for DSII, so it's plug & play.

I'm with you - I wouldn't have one of those gargantuan GM abominations in my Ford. Too easy to wire up a DSII to me. I've run several DSII conversions, and never had a problem.