54 F100 diesel

It runs, breathes, and drives, but need to get some things in the cab to keep track of things. What have you guys used for a programmable/calibrate-able speedometer and speed pickup sensor that is almost idiot proof? Would do the manual speedometer thing, but cleaning house the last few years i got rid of all my car-carcasses with extras like speedo cables in them. Pretty slim pickins now, and the electronic speedometer looks slick to me. In advance, thanks.

By the way, it is a C-6 transmission.

Cool

Sweet!

I,ve got about 3500 miles on it since completed, the only problem encountered was an engine thermostat that fell apart in the housing and slammed shut- boy, she got hot in a hurry. Coasted into the local carpenter's shop. We took the stat out, wedged it open with a small wedge of oak, and stuck it back together. It went another month before the new stat made it here.

Arieldouglas wrote:Sweet!

What he said.....And as far as a speedo goes, I use my garmin. (called redline to get the gage panel rebuilt in the 47, I'd have to win the lotto first.)

I got a mechanical speedometer in it now, it's off 10%, but I'm not going to send the ratio adapter box out for regearing until I'm done playing with rear gear ratios. I hope to put in a 2.47, and if that ain't enough, I hope to put an aod in it. In the meantime, for trips and "sensitive driving", I take the garmin, as you suggested.

looks great. Will be watching

It is a fun old hunk 'o junk to drive.

What did that diesel motor come out of and it looks like it would fit in my 37

That is out of a 1986 Isuzu NPR city delivery truck.  Kinda an over grown one ton cabover unit.  I'm sure you've seen them around.  I believe they GVW at around 10,000 lbs, just like a one ton.  It is a 3.9 liter, 239 cubes, just like the V-8 gasser that came out of it, only heavier.  I don't know how much heavier, but I would guess around 200lbs more than the V-8.  Maybe more.  I believe they were also used in the Chevy tiltmaster of the same vintage.  They usually have automatics behind them, a fairly heavy tranny too, but the drawback is that there is no load sensing in the trans.  Meaning, if you kick it in the a$$ for passing gear, there is no passing gear.  It will only shift into and out of each range at the speed it is programmed to.  (or so I am told)  In other words, low gear might be 0-12 MPH, 2nd might be 12- 27 MPH, 3rd might be 27- 40 mph, and OD would be over that.  Just numbers for sake of argument.  So when you start to climb a hill, it will stay in each gear till it gets to its low limit, then downshift.   And so on.  No amount of standing on the throttle, or letting up will get it to change its shift points.

So that's why I have a C-6 with an E-350 diesel vacuum control form the side of the Econoline injection pump.  Plus the Isuzu alternator has a vacuum pump piggybacked on the back of it. This provides a modulated vacuum signal to the modulator valve on the trans to give it load sensing, full throttle upshifts with line pressure boost for higher shift points.  I don't use the Ford kickdown, if I need manual control, I just grab the B&M ratchet shifter and haul it down one.  It is a tad sluggish on the first upshift series of the day in the AM (Iwould guess due to heavier viscosity fluid) so I usually manually shift it first thing out, helps me get up the hill right by my driveway.

If you are looking for an alternative engine, the cummins "B" 3.9 liter is the engine of choice for conversions, but they demand a premium price.  Especially the aftercooled models from UPS trucks and other similar applications.

The adapter for my truck is locally built, because of the bell pattern on the back of the engine.  My engine has a round pattern, similar to an SAE pattern with one major difference-  SAE bells have the bolt holes straddling the 12:00 position... mine has a bolt hole directly at 12:00...  this makes it a non SAE, and quite likely a japanese industrial pattern, nobody seemed to know what it is, we just made an adapter to fit.  The original depth of the industrial bell, along with a protruding Isuzu Torque convertor, left a rather large space between my Isuzu flywheel and the C-6 convertor, and that space needed to be filled to fasten the Ford flex plate to it so I could fasten the torque convertor to it.  This required a flywheel spacer that was drilled for the Isuzu pattern, and that sandwiched the Isuzu flywheel to the crank, plus it was drilled for the Ford flex plate pattern to fasten the ford flexplate to it.  It sounds like the engine has 2 flywheels on it-  yes it does.  The Isuzu wheel gives the ability to engage the starter, and the flexplate mounts the TC.  And those TC nuts are really hard to get on... I believe I "whittled" a hole in the bottom of the C-6 bell to get room to start and tighten the convertor nuts.  I believe the spacer is around 2 5/8 inch thick, Started from a billet piece of 3 inch stock, of fairly soft, easily machined material, definitely not 4340 or anything like that.... seems like 1060 was the alloy.  Cheap, and easy to fit the piece in a lunchbox to come through security at the local manufacturing facility.

It wasn't easy, but the mileage is fantastic, it draws attention wherever it goes, it's easy to drive, and if I had it to do over, ......    YES I would.