Posted by Tom in Indiana [172.69.90.19] on Monday, July 01, 2019 at 15:45:20 :
I found a Ford Dana with a Power-Lok from a '79 that is a direct(ish) bolt-in for my '53, but it has 3.54 gears. With the 11.00-16s we're putting on the truck and figured in with the NP435 transmission, that comes out to doing around 1750 RPM at 55 MPH. The camshaft in the 360 doesn't start really pulling until around 2500, so I'm thinking I really need something more like 4.56s or even 4.88s if I go the Dana route. Should I spring for the 3.54s anyway and see what happens? Finding 4.10s would be tougher, and 4.56s almost impossible without them having been changed by a previous owner. My '84 D100 has basically the same cam and does okay on the street, but it is a much lighter vehicle and still doesn't have much low-end grunt at all... to the point that I would much rather have went with a smaller cam (this one is 223/232 @ .050" with .518"/.523" lift. I ran a 219/219 @ .050" with .489"/.489" in a near-identical 360 that pulled like mad from 1800 RPM and sounded even better than the engines in the '84 and '53 trucks do now). The old cam was a custom grind, and I had heard so many good reviews of the Hughes Whiplash cam that I settled for two of them instead of went with what I knew was a solid-running cam in each engine. Anyway, the new clutch kit will be here tomorrow, and I'll post an update on THAT debacle Wednesday, once it gets installed. So, what do you guys think?
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