1970 F100 Frame and Powertrain Swap (to 07 CrownVic running gear)

[hfdco4]

Just keep driving it and if there are updates let us know.

[biggurn]

New shoes for Floyd! Those rear slicks just had to go! On a side note, to those who are running anything but Torque Thrust wheels on their C-Vic swapped F100: I'm sorry, we all make bad life decisions.

[biggurn]

I wasn't feeling overly motivated today, in fact I tried to find things that didn't require much effort. In the end, I decided putting the leather seats that my brother found for me in Floyd fit the bill for the afternoon. Made up a quick set of adapter bars, positioned the seats and welded it together. Floyd now has leather seats that provide 3.5" more leg room and sit about 2" lower.

[biggurn]

Did a little engine harvesting this week for my 1970 F100 CrownVic swap from a 2006 Tahoe... yep, putting a LS in my F100... so, before you get excited, keep in mind this is the heart and soul of hot rodding!

When the hotrod hobby started, it was all about cheap power and no one cared what the engine came from and what it went into. This truck is far from original and the current 4.6 MOD would cost nearly double of what the LS cost to get any type of performance out of. After 4 year of marginal performance, I'm ready for something different.

If I could get a Gozilla and transmission for what a 5.3/4L80E cost, I would. But I'm after cheap, reliable and MODERN power, and unfortunately there's just nothing under the blue Oval that currently competes with an LS across that board. I paid $900 for the Tahoe and $800 for a good 2wd 4L80E.

So far, I've sold about half the price of the Tahoe in parts and pieces, which will drive this swap down. I'll be able to sell the Holly HP EFI and MSD TCM I'm using with the current powertrain to cover the electronics for the LS.

Based off past experience with LS swaps into Jeeps and other vehicles, I'm comfortable with this powertrain and look forward to this build.

All the haters: no one needs your key board warrior negativity, so keep it to yourself. I'll continue to share updates as the work progresses on this truck if there's interest. I know this isn't a popular route with some, but it's my truck and its what I want. For those who want original, that great! I'll work on helping out the value of the myriad of original trucks.

[Fordkid68]

That is a beautiful truck!! I really like the torq thrust wheels on it. Looks awesome.
You're right about the ls swap, that is the true spirit of hot rodding! Keep up the good work.

[biggurn]

That is a beautiful truck!! I really like the torq thrust wheels on it. Looks awesome.

Thanks! I'm a huge fan of the wheels. Took a couple years to find a set.

While I'm waiting for parts to arrive for engine assembly, I decided I'd make the intake cover look a little retro (i.e. like an old F100 Air Filter lid)...

I traded my brother for the square top cover as I prefer it over the rounded. Fortunately, he likes the rounded one.

Sanded off the "Vortec" and put down a gloss black. Then masked and placed the vinyl stencils. Spray some Dark Ford Blue and let dry.

After pulling the mask, I have some touch up, but I'm pretty happy with it. I may paint the blue of the checker white by hand, once this has had a week or so to cure.

[biggurn]

In the shop and ready to go back under the knife:









The heart transplant is ready:
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[Fordkid68]

The engine looks great!!
You're really making fast progress, keep it up!

[biggurn]

Been a busy couple of days! The original powertrain is out!





And the new one has been installed. Today I'll have to grab some steel so that I can fabricate a new transmission crossmember, but but that won't take much. Pretty excited!

[biggurn]

New crossmember and transmission mount welded into the frame to support the 4L80E. The cross member Sits back just far enough that the transmission can come back and down.




While I was underneath, I addressed an issue with flexibility in the frame. Its all tied to gether now. Added bracing from the new cross member on back. It's really stiff now.






Next will be measuring for a drive line and mounting the radiator, so that I can get the front clip back together and start on the wiring while I wait for shifter parts, ECU, and the main engine harness.

[biggurn]

Decided I didn't like the CrownVic radiator fitment, so I ordered a double bypass LS swap radiator... add that to the wait list of parts

Since I'm pretty much stuck waiting on parts, I moved on to working through some of the small stuff. Reinstalled the core support and mounted the power steering cooler.


Then mounted the bumper and plumbed the fuel system


While working on the fuel system, I installed a float less sender in the fuel tank. I've never liked how the lever arm sender worked, hopefully this will be much more accurate.



I was able to reloom the chassis harness and wire in the starter and gauge senders.

Grabbed an extra ECU at the pick-a-part so that I could get mounting mocked up:


Hopefully, by my next day off, I'll have some parts so I can get back to work on getting it done!

[biggurn]

This afternoon I had some time to work on the truck, and since the radiator showed up, I rounded up some scrap aluminum and made up a shroud.

I'm using a two speed CrownVic fan, due to the 1800+ CFM on low and 3600+ CFM on high.


Used the shear and brake to make up the shroud, then cut out the hole with my plasma torch and circle jig.




Not sure what coating was on the aluminum, but even after cleaning it up before welding, it did not weld great... but I can clean it up and a coat of paint will hide all that! I'm off work Wednesday, so hopefully I can get the radiator mounted!






My adapter ujoint also arrived, so I was able to install the Ford axle flange on the drive line. I'll drop it off at the drive line shop Wednesday morning.

[Fordkid68]

Looking good!

[biggurn]

Looking good!

Thanks!

[biggurn]

Had a couple days this week to work on Floyd. Thanks to some aluminum sourced from a good friend, I was able to make a shroud to mount the CrownVic fan to my new radiator.




Since the radiator now had a shroud, today I built a new core support and mounted the radiator and transmission cooler.










The fan shroud works great. It'll suck paper right up to the corners.


It looks like I'll be able to use the Tahoe Air box, which was been a goal to ease maintenance. Pretty happy about that!


I'll work on getting the intake squared away next week, along with the remaining wiring.