Mud Trucks?.....yeah, we can do that

[NITMARE]

Drug home this gem today. One of Ford's crowning design achievements....an early 80's F-series ;D

3/4 Ton, 6 inches of lift, and 36" mudders. Was a 460 truck but has no motor at the moment. Getting my warmed up Windsor dropped in and a hit of nitrous. Eventually going to need a dana 60 1 ton front swapped in but I'll run the IFS till it lets go. So why you ask? My racing roots actually started in high school....in the Guthrie Center (Iowa) Mud Drags. I used to run a 74 Ford 1 ton with a built 460 and 38's....I loved that truck and had a blast with it but after buying the Cobra it sat so much that I ended up letting it go. And I have regretted it ever since! Building another mud truck has been a "maybe next year" project for me for the past 7-8 years. Well, this is the year. I have a very capable motor, a few extra bucks, and found a great deal. And it matches the Super Dually. Win, win.

[Bamfster]

Re: Mud Trucks?.....yeah, we can do that

I wouldn't be so quick to dump the TTB....they can be made to handle the abuse fairly inexpensively...

Of course if you find a deal on a 60, throw that thing in the dumpster!

[milner351]

Re: Mud Trucks?.....yeah, we can do that

The 80 - 86 is probably my second favorite body style - nice score - looks like a good solid truck to start with.... and buckets of fun to come!

I'm sure you're going to want to go the other direction with gearing, but I have a set of 3.55 gears out of a '96 F250, the ring and pinion for the front, and the entire pig and stub shaft set up for the IFS Front.... gonna put it on craigslist or ebay one of these days - my thought was to increase hwy mpg on my 4.10 truck, which I just sold.

[yogreasygramma]

Re: Mud Trucks?.....yeah, we can do that

Yep, that's a cool project, and very nearly what I want to do next, after the van is finished. After this winter's snow (which left us stranded many times in our little Focus wagon, floating on the snow not being able to get traction, tearing up the underside valances and mudflaps, etc), I'm bound and determined to get something that will drive through the snow and not get us stranded on CITY streets like the Focus. Something like a mudder but a winter snow vehicle.

So I will definitely be following this build for ideas. I'm interested in the previous generation F-250 4WD as a starter truck, however. John, don't throw away those parts just yet! I might need them if I can get my van finished and move on to the truck project.

[NITMARE]

Re: Mud Trucks?.....yeah, we can do that

Got the new motor picked up last night. Actually found a guy that took the 460 out of his 84 F-250 with 120k original miles out so he could swap in a 351 ???.....worked out for me though. 200 bucks later I have a complete carb to pan motor ready to drop in with all the right brackets. Gonna throw some headers on and swap out the intake and carb and run it as is for now.

No new pics of the motor but I snapped one yesterday of the amusing (to me) generation gap sitting outside

[Brian Lohnes]

Re: Mud Trucks?.....yeah, we can do that

Super Duty: "I'm bigger"

F-250 Mud Truck: "I'll whip your ass"

:D

Scott, that truck is bad ass.

Brian

[mustang13]

Re: Mud Trucks?.....yeah, we can do that

Nice purchase Scott!

Out of the 8 Ford pick-ups I've had, my 86 F-150 4x4 was my favorite (who misses wing windows and floor vents besides me?)

TTB front ends are pretty tough, I abused a 93 F-250 4x4 pretty bad, with no prob's.

Put Miller (or whatever kind of welder you have lol) lockers in both ends, and beat it till it breaks.

IMO, stock Lima motor with a good intake, carb, headers, maybe a better bumpstick too, I think will work as good or better than a warm Windsor. As you know, grunt works in the mud. Either way, I'd put an 8" converter in the trans, then let that mother eat!

Can't wait to see it muddy ;D

[NITMARE]

Re: Mud Trucks?.....yeah, we can do that

Finally getting around to posting up some progress on the old 84. It was one of those projects picked up in haste during my busiest time of year. Fortunately (and I use the term sarcastically) I have had SO MANY back orders and delay in parts showing up for the the 3 other priority jobs sitting in the shop that I figured I had better take a week to knock this thing out before it becomes another ride that sits in the back room next to the 57 F100 and Triumph chop with a long list of "some day" mods.

This truck has progressed pretty much like every other thing I start building. The original plan was to drop in a warmed up Windsor....that turned into a stock 460.....and after picking up a stock 84 460 motor that I was told ran fine a week ago and turned out to have standing water in the cylinders things changed again. So I picked up a FREE 460 off of a buddy and began piecing together what I have now. The new combo goes like this.


- 70's 460 truck shortblock with a rebuild
- DOVE heads
- Summit flat tappet cam 540ish something or other lift
- New lifters
- Billet timing set
- Edelbrock Victor intake (waaay to big for this motor but I have a stroker and nitrous in the future ;). So buy big, buy once
- Edelbrock 750 carb (this will also get ditched when the stroker comes along)
- Hedman Headers
- Recurved stock distributor
- MSD 6AL box mounted in glove box
- Spec clutch
- New slave cylinder
- New starter


Threw it all together and started dropping it in last night. I think it looks like a fairly unexpected sight to see under the hood of a sleepy old 84. The hood just BARELY clears the air cleaner with the Outerwears cover in place to keep the big chunks of mud out. Also replaced the shocks all the way around and the U-joints.

I'll try and get a vid up tomorrow of the new motor idling through the open long tubes.

[Brian Lohnes]

Re: Mud Trucks?.....yeah, we can do that

There will be pants pooped when you drop the hammer on that bad boy at the mud bogs!

Awesome mud sleeper!

Brian

[milner351]

Re: Mud Trucks?.....yeah, we can do that

sweet mother of displacement.
I hope that intake doesn't kill the bottom end entirely...

[NITMARE]

Re: Mud Trucks?.....yeah, we can do that

There will be pants pooped when you drop the hammer on that bad boy at the mud bogs!

Awesome mud sleeper!

Brian

It may surprise some people but there are some pretty heavy hitters at these things! None the less I look forward to thrashing on the thing!

sweet mother of displacement.
I hope that intake doesn't kill the bottom end entirely...

It's low end will still be more then adequate. Between the bump from 8.5:1 to 9.4:1 with the 30cc smaller chambers of the DOVE heads and the wide lobe separation of the cam to build cylinder pressure the motor should breath pretty deep even for being such a mild setup. I've ran a big Weiand Super G single plane intake on a cammed 429 before and it still had loads of torque down low. Like I said, it's not IDEAL for this kind of combo. But I don't want to have to buy another intake this winter for it ;)

[ford141]

Re: Mud Trucks?.....yeah, we can do that

Friggin cool man, that old truck will take a ton of abuse in stock form, even with the TTB. You might start to have problems with the frame cracking around the TTB beam pivots beams before you blow the axles apart. If it has the heavy-duty front end, then it already has 1 ton hubs and lockouts on it.

Now that you started this thread, you are obligated to post vidoes of that thing getting dirty. Lovin' me some old Fords getting dirty!

[milkovich]

Re: Mud Trucks?.....yeah, we can do that

I'm loving the paintjob on that 460. Sinister!

[NITMARE]

Re: Mud Trucks?.....yeah, we can do that

Friggin cool man, that old truck will take a ton of abuse in stock form, even with the TTB. You might start to have problems with the frame cracking around the TTB beam pivots beams before you blow the axles apart. If it has the heavy-duty front end, then it already has 1 ton hubs and lockouts on it.

Now that you started this thread, you are obligated to post vidoes of that thing getting dirty. Lovin' me some old Fords getting dirty!

It does indeed have the HD front end. The more I've buffed up on the TTB the more I think I initially under estimated it. Going to need some new balljoints but aside from that it should take some abuse. I will definitely get some muddy vids up asap!

I'm loving the paintjob on that 460. Sinister!

Thanks man. I do blacked out motors on all my personal stuff. I just always think they end up looking cleaner and meaner that way. Always preferred understated bad ass-ed-ness over chrome, have since I was in highschool and as of the past few years blacked out everything has become trendy....but I'll keep doing when the next fad comes. Here's a couple other setups I've done recently with my personal touch