you florida guys and your flat topography....
The time came once again for one of our project car test days at the Florida International Rally and Motorsports Park. With the track almost two hours away from our office, we decided towing most of our projects would be the most responsible decision. And what better to tow with than another one of our projects.
The ramp truck had only recently been fully repaired from its perilous trip home, but we fired it up nonetheless. This trip would add another level of difficulty for the ‘70s hardware to endure. We would carry one car on the back of the truck and tow a second car on a trailer behind it.
So how did it do? Pretty well, actually. Nothing broke and it carried both cars to the track and back safely. However, the truck is very noticeably underpowered. Other than that, we have no complaints when towing with this long rig.
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you florida guys and your flat topography....
[cough]powerstroke[cough]
In reply to RossD:
[cough]Detroit[cough]
4bt cummins out of a bread van.... Sure you'd lose some fillings and the whole front end would need to be beefed up...
On second thought, how about just a better v8.
How come you haven't done a project update for the 390 engine rebuild yet?
Fueled by Caffeine wrote: 4bt cummins out of a bread van.... Sure you'd lose some fillings and the whole front end would need to be beefed up... On second thought, how about just a better v8.
Or a proper straight six Cummins, although I'm not cool enough for the engine code. The classic 12 valve 5.9, I think that's the beast. Still, it's a heavy bastard.
I'm thinking an 454 or 502 HO crate from GMPP is the right answer. Yeah, it's a Chevy, I don't care. I have a GMPP catalog on my desk and not a Ford one 
I'm sure there's a Ford equivalent. I mean, you could go all Car Craft and build something crazy for about $500 - but this ramp truck is a tool. Tools don't need to be projects. Just stuff a new engine in there with a two-year warranty and spend your time on the Spitfire.
Keith Tanner wrote: Or a proper straight six Cummins, although I'm not cool enough for the engine code. The classic 12 valve 5.9, I think that's the beast. Still, it's a heavy bastard.
That would be the 6BT (6 cylinder, B series, Turbocharged). The 4BT is basically the same thing cut down to 4 cylinders.
Or you could step up a size category and run the bigger 8.3 liter wet-liner Cummins 6CTA (6 cyl, C series, Turbo / Aftercooled) or a DT466, etc.
Call frpp and order a nice 460 for it.
rslifkin wrote:Keith Tanner wrote: Or a proper straight six Cummins, although I'm not cool enough for the engine code. The classic 12 valve 5.9, I think that's the beast. Still, it's a heavy bastard.That would be the 6BT (6 cylinder, B series, Turbocharged). The 4BT is basically the same thing cut down to 4 cylinders. Or you could step up a size category and run the bigger 8.3 liter wet-liner Cummins 6CTA (6 cyl, C series, Turbo / Aftercooled) or a DT466, etc.
So you can't tell a 12-valve 5.9 apart from a 6.7 from the code? Weird. I know of the 4BT, but I'd never dissected the code.
If you're gonna do an engine swap, you might as well go for the iconic one. A 5.9 should provide enough motive power, an 8.3 might be slight overkill 
Bonus points for finding a way to keep it from rolling coal.
But really, a big block V8 should do the trick just fine because it'll never meet the Rockies.
Keith Tanner wrote: Bonus points for finding a way to keep it from rolling coal.
I don't know exactly how the injection pump on the 6BT handles it, but I most have a way to limit fueling as the turbo spools. Ideally if you get that set right and don't have it over-fueled in general, you'd end up with just a little light smoke when you first punch it from a stop while it spools and then pretty clean after that (very light haze if you're really pushing the limits of power without adding more boost).
I've seen people turn up the 12v a good bit without them getting particularly smoky, so it's definitely possible.
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