Granddad's 215

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Hello!
I'm new to this forum. My mission is to restore my grandfather's 1953 F100 equipped with the 215. I can handle the body and mechanical work myself, but I have little experience with the 215 six. This one is a low mileage(<20K) Jasper long block. Cranked well with good oil pressure and no smoke after sitting in the barn for 22 years. My question(s) is: Is it worth my time to look for a 2x1bbl setup to get a little more power? And are the highlift rockers worth trying. I don't want anything radical, just a reliable, nice sounding 215. There doesn't seem to be much out there anyway in performance parts. The electronic ignition would be nice, but it appears to be something that must be modified from other applications. A header,maybe dual exhaust would be nice if I can find a manufacturer. I am going to replace the 4:27 rear gear with something in the 3:50 range. I'd like to keep the highway cruising rpm around 3000. Won't be hauling any more cattle. It's working days are over. I'm also unsure if 223 components-manifolds,carbs,ets will work on this engine. Any opinions or info would be greatly appreciated.
 
My opinion -
The best thing you can do is install a factory option overdrive and leave everything else stock. You are not going to have a drag strip burner with a 215 no matter what you do, so keep it stock. The 4.27 rear is very low, but with overdrive it is manageable. If this combo is still a bit low, install a 3.92 axle.
 
The installation of an overdrive transmission is a good idea. The od ratio is about .73 to one which would give an overall ratio of about 3.12. It might be a little high geared for the little engine to pull. High lift rocker arms will help the power a little, maybe 4 or 5 horsepower. Those engines were rated at 101 horsepower if I remember right, on the dynomometer they put out about 90 hp. The electronic ignition situation could be solved by installing a pertronix system in place of the points, they work well and cost about $85.00. Dual carb manifolds, high lift rocker arms and fenton cast iron headers show up on ebay sometimes. Recently there was a three carb manifold for sale. There may be a size change in the intake manifold locating rings between the 215 and 223. A very important thing to check is the vacuum advance diaphragm on the distributor. These engines have only vacuum advance, no centrifugal advance and if the diaphragm is torn or the vacuum line is plugged or the holes in the carb are plugged or the breaker plate cannot rotate you will have little or no advance other than the initial advance. Most of these old engines I have worked on have faulty vacuum advance dialphragms. New ones are still available. Check first with a timing light. There is a good article in the April, 1954 issue of Hot Rod magazine about modifying this engine. It was written by Racer Brown of camshaft grinding fame. He got about 140 Hp out of it. This was about a 50 hp gain and a more than 50% increase. There is also an article in the July, 1953 issue of Hot Rod entitled '132 Easy Horses for Ford Six. Good luck, and please post your results.
 
Thanks for the your input. I hope to complete this project within the next year. Just a moderate increase in output is fine with me. I don't expect it to light the tires. Gotta be reliable too! I'll probably play with the induction and exhaust system first. I've seen new Offy 2x1 intake manifolds for sale online. I'm not familiar with Fenton, but I'll check it out. That pertronix system sounds good. I hope they make one that will drop in with no mod. to the distributor or oil pump drive. Engine internal is probably on the back burner until last. I did find one of the Holley 1204(?) glass bowl carbs. It has a power valve unlike the one currently installed. Any problem with that? Guessing it is for a later year model. It's hard to know how much gear this thing will pull. The 90hp might be questionable under 3000 rpm with too tall a gear.
I appreciate your help!
 
The 215 in my '53 sedan runs very well with overdrive. The rear axle is 3.73 and the overdrive ratio is 0.70 . I can run comfortably at 75. If you have a column shift three speed the overdrive is basically a bolt in deal. Unless you plan to drive the pickup daily I don't see a reason to ditch the points. Pertronix have a spotty history. If you do decide to swap to a pertronix, keep the the points and condensor in your glove box. This is not a slam agianst Pertronix, I have one in my '66 300, but if you arn't going to wear the points out every year or two there is no reason to change; and when points go bad you can usually limp the vehicle home unlike electronic ignition.
 
What do you think the availibility of the overdrive transmission is? The truck currently has the three speed column shift. Was the one in the cars the same? Assuming the '54 and up had a 12v solemoid, does everything else swap out up to a '56? It's all new to me! I will probably run the stock distributor for a while after checking the advance diaphragm and condition of the points,etc. My assumption that the Pertronix was an upgrade might be premature. You are right about having spare points/condensor. They don't take up much room in the glove box.
 
Wow, Fred, that is a really high ratio, by my calculation 2.61 to one but if your engine will pull it it should work for J. N. also. I once had a 53 merc v8 with 3 speed and od with a 4.11 rear and that worked well. One thing to check, J. N. some of the early 215 engined vehicles used an early style SAE pattern round trans attachment instead of the later 4 bolt trans. If you have this, you will have to look up a 49 to 51 merc od trans or change the bell housing. I think I have one of those somewhere. I'm not sure about this, its been a long time, but it seems to me that the 4 bolt bell housing on pickups was thicker than the cars and that required a longer pickup specific input shaft on the trans. Some pickups had 1 3/8 inch ten spline inputs instead of the 1 inch by ten spline inputs on cars. Maybe Fred can help you on this. The change to an od trans is in my opinion a better option than a high gear rear end because it will preserve your acceleration from a standing start. As to Fenton equipment, they made a nice set of cast iron two outlet exhaust manifolds which have probably been out of production for years but show up on ebay ocasionally. There are pictures of these on some of the other posts. Clifford equipment sells headers for these engines I think. Speaking of ebay, there are currently two sets (of 6 each) of Barker high lift rocker arms on ebay auction now. Look under 223 Ford. If you change to two carbs the advance curve will be changed because the airflow will be divided between two carbs instead of one and your engine will not be getting the correct advance it needs for maximum power or economy.
The distributor will think that the engine is receiving half the air flow that it is actually getting. Ford made the changeover to twelve volts with the 56 models. The solenoids interchange and must be used with the matching relay switch which mounts on the firewall. The three speed with od transmissions also show up on ebay often, sometimes under flathead ford. Let us know how you do with all this
 
Great info! I suspected that there was some interchange between these late 40s and early to mid 50s vehicles. I'll just have to start looking. Do you know what is involved in changing the distributor curve? Highly technicle or simple. Guess it helps to know what you're doing. The transmission should be coming out within the next few weeks and I can see what type of input I have.
 
I think flatford6 is correct on all his information. The pickup trans has a longer input shaft than the car trans according to my memory. Unless someone has done something odd with your truck you will have the trans with four bell housing to trans mounting bolts. Ford switched from the round trans bell when the '53 was brought out. In the passenger cars Ford switched to top loaded manual transmissions in 1955. I am not familiar with what Ford did with pickup transmissions after 1953. What you need to do is measure the distance from the back of the main transmission case to the centerline of your transmission mount bolt holes and find a Ford overdrive transmission with the same measurement. It is not that difficult to disassemble the overdrive trans and your original trans and build a trans that will bolt into your truck.

As far as controls for the overdrive go - I don't use any of the factory electrical system other than the solinoid itself. You do need a lock out cable, but a reproduction is available for that if you can't find an acceptable original.

flatford6 - yes it is a high ratio, but we have high speed limits in Texas. Acceleration is not astounding, but cruising down the highwy is impressive. If I hit a really steep hill I drop back out of overdrive at about 60 m.p.h. Running I-10 toward Houston out of Seguin I can maintain a "healthy" 70 m.p.h. throught the gentle hills with no problem.
 
Thanks for those transmission dimensions. One just went off ebay which was, according to someone else, a '49-51 with a shorter overall length(?). Not sure what that means, but I feel better having some dimensions to go by. Any idea if that Holley 1904 I purchased with a power valve will work in place of a non-power valve 1904?
 
This falls into the forgot to ask last post catagory. Is installing an overdrive transmission going to affect the driveshaft length? That just popped into my head. Sometimes the overdrive unit looks longer that the extension housing of the non-overdrive unit. Is there anything to look for as far as "things that fail in overdrive transmissions" go? What to look for? What gives up first? Care and feeding?
 
Concerning transmissions the ideal thing would be to find an overdrive trans mission out of a pickup, either 215-223 six or 272-292 v8 which are mostly all the same up into the middle 60s. There are some early three speed top loader over drives (not all synchro) with nine bolt top covers (not the good 4 speeds) with shift arms on the side which are very weak. Avoid these. The most common is the square bottom side cover three speed with overdrive. Not too strong but ok if you are carefull not to make full throttle bang shifts. After 1957 you may also find the T85 round bottom side cover with or without od which is heavier duty. These all came in pickup versions with the longer 1 3/8 ten spline input shafts. If you find a doner pickup, you can get everything off it to make the switch. Good luck they are getting old and rare. If you go to an older wrecking yard you can check out interchanges in the Hollander interchange book. You will definitly need a different drive shaft, as non od pickup transmissions were very short. Its better to buy a complete driveshaft with a yoke to fit the transmission and then have it lengthened or shortened to fit. Preserve the old drive shaft in case you want to restore the pickup to original. I measured a 6 cylinder bell lhousing for a car and for a pickup and there is about 7/8 inch difference in thickness, which corresponds to the difference in imput shaft length. One other option you might want to consider is the later model SROD toploader 4 spd od. They used them in Mustangs with the stick shift about 15 inches back from the front mounting surface of the transmission. Another version was used in Ford pickups with the stick about 9 inches back from the front face. These are a version of the famous toploader 4 speed, not as strong but sufficient for 302 mustangs. They have aluminum cases, no external linkage, and are very light. They would be much easier to find than the older 50s and 60s types. The ones used for small blocks have longer imput shafts possibly suitable for your use. Your pickup should have a removable floor plate right over the transmission which extends back about 16 inches from the back of the bell housing. Removing it makes everything very visable. The trans case will have to be redrilled for the small 4 bolt mounting used on your pickup and the throwout bearing sleeve will have to be turned down to fit the back of the bell housing and the clutch disk changed. These were used up to the middle 1980s and then replaced by the T5. I have bought several of these 4 speeds for about $50.00. Good luck. Please post any questions
 
Sounds like I need to go to some of the older salvage yards out in the boonies. I lean towards finding a later model pickup with the complete setup in it as you mentioned. Since I'm not as familiar with this equipment as you guys, that might help keep me out of trouble. With the knowledge and creativity that you guys have, it seems like almost anything is possible concerning interchange and upgrades! I'll keep you posted on the progress. And I'm sure questions will arise. Thanks to everyone for sharing your experience and knowledge. It's a huge help.
 
I had a 58 pickup 262 3speed. a t85od car trans. the trans. shop took both input sharts made one to put the od in my tk. had 40000+ when the engin gave up, junk the tk. rust.
 
Wow! Something to be said for durability. Finding something that fits is just part of the puzzle. Finding something that is mechancally sound is something else. It seems easy enough to pull the side cover or top off the main box and check gears,syncros,sliding clutches,etc. I'd hate to buy a transmission with a used up O/D unit.
 
Now I will disagree with flatford6.

The side loaded three speed transmissions are plenty strong for a 215. First gear is not synchronized, but that is the way the truck is currently anyway. I would not consider a transmission that doesn't bolt right in. Why ask for headaches? The correct overdrive transmission will require no modification to your bell housing, driveshaft, transmission mount, shift linkage, clutch linkage, clutch, throwout bearing, etc. The reason the tail housing on your transmission looks as long as it does is so Ford could use one driveshaft for all pickups with automatic, straight three, or three speed overdrive thransmissions. Before you buy an overdrive measure the length of your current transmission. The overdrive transmission needs to be the same lenght. The transmission mount usually needs to be installed facing the rear of the vehicle instead of the front.

I currently have two top loaded overdrives from mid fifties Fords, two T85 overdrives, and a top loader four speed / overdrive (fourth gear is overdrive) sitting in my dad's garage. I would not consider any of them to install in a stock '53 pickup. Correct overdrives are not that hard to find. Parts for R10 overdrives are not hard to find. I like good factory engineering. Trying to install a later transmission may work with good results, but you are going to get to reengineer more stuff than it is worth in my opinion.
 
So Fred, is the R10 the designation for the correct transmission that would have come in this '53 model? Sometimes people who have them for sale identify them by model #-as in R10, while others list a Ford part number. If the R10 is the Ford model designation for their '53 overdrive 3 speed, that will help in my search. I appreciate and respect everyone who knows what will interchange and what can be modified to work. I'm just not quite there yet and a bolt in unit with minimal modification is appealing to the rookie in me.
 
Fred. I forgot to ask if the overdrive unit in your "53 customline is the same unit as would be found in an F100? Or was it a different unit with a different designation? Thanks
 
Some additional notes on Grandpa's 215: All my recommendations were just that, possible suggestions you might want to do or not or ways to avoid problems. I looked at 4 or 5 1953 to 1956 ford pickups with three speeds. All of them had very short tailshafts. You probably have one of these and any older style od trans you use will be longer. Hence if you find a stock od trans, try to get the driveshaft with it. The easy part is that the pickups do not use a mount on the transmission. The bell housing has ears on both sides for mounts and the trans just hangs on the back. There is a single mount on the front of the motor. You can make the whole swap without touching anything forward of the 4 trans mounting bolts. Some of the later 3 speed with od t-85 such as the blue one in Fred's post have eight bolt holes, 4 wide late model and 4 narrow early model, and can fit both early and late bell housings. Check the diameter of the throwout bearing carrier that alligns the trans with the bell housing, there were at least two diameters. One other thing, If I remember right, the old square bottom side cover od transmissions had a rod that extended through the back of the case which engaged the low reverse slider shift lever to shift the od unit into direct when the trans was shifted into reverse. I don't remember if the standard 3 spd case has this hole. The rod was part of the od unit and the part on the cover that holds the yoke may be diffeent from non od covers. Fred: years ago I had a 61 falcon sedan with 312 and 3spd and od 1953 Ford trans. I used an electrical system similar to yours except that I used a 3 position switch and full stock electrical system: 1 position operated as stock with governor action, kick down and automatic od engagement, 2nd position locked in od, and 3rd position od locked out. Worked real good, never blew an od unit, but destroyed several transmissions. Full power 1-2 shift first time at 6000 would take the teeth off the 2nd speed gear on the cluster all the way around. 1st gear was stronger. That was when I was a hot rod kid. The Mustang 4spd od that I mentioned in my last post has the four wide mount bolt holes, it would need to be drilled for the 4 narrow bolt pattern that you now have on your belllhousing. They are aluminum and easy to drill. Good luck There is a picture of the same trans that is probably in your pickup listed in ebay as number 180043936146 category flathead ford
 
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