Vintage tractor hauler - F-700

[AlanAtwood]

I'm looking at a '68 F-700 flatbed as a toy to haul tractors to shows. It has a 390 v-8, 5 speed manual, and 2-speed rear-end.

Would that be an automotive bell housing on it or a SAE-2 or SAE-3? I recently came across a DT360, and had a wild idea that it might make a good re-power for such a rig.

Thanks,

Alan
 

[Jim.ME]

I believe it was Ford proprietary, not SAE.
 

[the tractor vet]

It is Ford's but heavier then in a car our pick up . Now as for the 390 is it a 391 or just the straight 390 two bbl. The 391 uses a Holley four bl with governor , a heavier duty engine with a steel crank and other things . Now as to a trans plant i am sure you can find a bellhousing for the 360 as they used probable the same transmissions across the board on Medium duty trucks . Could be a Clark, a New process and one more this old mind can't think of Oh OH Fuller yea that's it . In days gone by i worked on the Ford Truck line up back when that truck was new . No9w one thing you have to think about going from a gas to a diesel is rear end ratio as the gasser will be lower geared and makes up ground speed by RPM where as a diesel will have a higher gear ration . in other words if it will run 65-70 with the gas you may find that your against the pump on the diesel and only making 50 . Case in point there Many years back while helping the OLD guys make the change on the B 60 Mack that i drove pulling a low boy and pulling the bg inline 6 gas engine out and dropping in a 7-11 with a turbo the one thing nobody thought of was road speed , with the gas empty she would fly and peg the speedometer at 80 in fifth high split , One the 7-11 was in the road test out old U S 224 flat on the floor in fifth high split was now 52 MPH Whole new world 2150 flat o the floor verses 3850 , to get some better ground speed we had to swap out the rearends and now we could get 68 out of her flat on the floor with a little pump tweaking to get 2450 and at that it sounded like it was going to come apart. Same with my 95 350 Dodge with the 5.9 , Some bright engineer thought they needed 4.10's in them , let me tell you how great 4.10's are o a 31 inch tire in fourth gear Direct at 2650 flat on the floor board up against the pump is 56 MPH , in over drive ya can get about 74 out of it flat on the floor , just and outstanding gear choice for open road travel . Now on a med duty truck with 20 inch rubber a good rear end with the two speed would be something like a 4.56 on the high side and a 5.13 on the low . I think the DT and the DTA 360's run like 2850 , but ya don't want to run them flat out to keep them happy running inn the 21- 2500 range and not lug them down below like 1750 .