Guess it's a 262, blessing/curse

61 UNI

New member
In 2014 I purchased a 1961 unibody. Pretty good shape. Been sitting 18 years according to previous owner. I have put about 20 miles on it in the last 3 years. Just putting around the neighborhood and whatnot. This winter I decided to remove the engine and trans and clean it up/fresh paint. I began collecting all the parts I would need for what I intended.
MSD controller
Duraspark dizzy
'64 oil pump and shaft
New camshaft/timing set/lifters
Full gasket set
Clutch kit
Alternator conversion
TFI coil
Starter/ring gear
Seal kit for transmission
Water pump

I am a Ford technician by trade. Brought the power train to work and began with the trans. It's a T98A four speed. Everything looked great and sealed and painted nicely. Helps having $100000 paint booth in the building.
Monday of this week I began tearing the motor down. I knew the cam distributor drive gear teeth were chipped. When I pulled the front cover I realized I had collected $500 bucks in worthless parts..... timing gears. Steel crank. No fuel pump lobe. Cast iron timing cover. 262.

I have since located a cam, water pump and hopefully have a line on the last part I needed which was crank damper repair.
I've read that these engines were standard option in 64 and other than that they were HD, well this is a light duty version with single groove balancer. Could this have been dealer installed option?
 
I'd say "curse" just cuz it's a 4 yr product (this site goes frm '60 - '96) truck & indust. motor/engine:

" The Hollander exchange manual says the 262 was made from 1961 to 1964.It will replace a 215 or 223 by switching some parts depending what the motor is going into. 223 heads can be used on the 262,but different years use different temp. sending units. Also early 223 heads will have to have the head bolt holes in the head drilled out so the 1/2-inch head bolts can be used. Intakes interchange, as will exhaust manifolds, but check the header pipe size and location where it fits on the manifold. Rocker arms of all types interchange. Three types of connecting rods were used.1961 to 1963 had heavy-duty cranks (steel)? And 1964 had both light duty (cast?) cranks and heavy duty cranks same as 1961 to 1963.Oil pans should interchange, but may have a larger capacity or a different sump location. I would pickup a Ford master parts catalog for more information.
- The Jan 96 12 Port news has a brief article on the 3 heavy truck engines: Chevy 261, Ford 262, and Mopar 265. It mentions that the Ford has an extra massive cast rib on the left side above the oil pan; 3.72 bore and 4.03 stroke; and full low oil filtration.
Other info:
This series of motors were last produced in 1964, though info from truck manuals suggests that they were produced till '67 for truck/industrial applications. These motors differ from most ford I6s in that the intake & exhaust are on the left (driver's) side, much like the GM I6. Some parts will interchange with the Y-blocks, though the bell housings are different. A 240/300 distributor can be used on the '64 and later blocks with the 5/16" oil pump shaft. Earlier motors can be upgraded with this equipment, but may need machining of the distributor hole & the oil pump will need to be changed to the later style."
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on-line - may B our '300/240' or 'orphan forum', also "HAMB" ?
Come back, there's more help here...
 
It's a blessing these engines are quite hard to come by now days, I looked for one for severial years to build a vintage drag race car years ago and never could find one. None of the 262 six's were ever offered by Ford in the light duty pickups during 1961 to 1963, 1964 was the only year you could get one in the F100 to 350's trucks. I can't say if a dealer would have ever installed a 262 as an option though I would kind of doubt that. There have likely been many that have been swapped into any of the other years Fords or Mercurys that came with a 223 six by backyard mechanics though. To know what you have you will need to decode the block and head casting / design numbers and the casting date codes. Good luck :nod:
 
luv 2 C the tq/hp graph~
Keep us informed as U progress !
8)
 
Thank you. The block is decoded comes up as a 1962. Crank is definitely steel not cast. The distributor gear teeth on cam and dizzy were chipped. Found a cam for it with little trouble, the dizzy gear wound up being identical to old ford 4cyl tractor so lucked out with that one. Water pump was broken and from a 223, also there was a fuel pump mounted to block with no lobe on cam. I believe this engine has been misread as a 223 for many years. All bearings and cyl walls look great. Gonna be a simple cam swap and reseal with some modern ignition upgrades. Also found a glass bowl Holley for it. I have a perfect exhaust manifold but would consider shelving it if I knew I could use the stock intake with headers. Anyone with experience in that regard?
 
"...this engine has been misread as a 223 for many years…"
so it is the 262 by casting on head and block?

Again, this is our most active forum but other forums here may be more specific
to this motor (also FTE & maybe HAMB) have more specific info 4 U?
 
61 UNI":3qku3jhv said:
Thank you. The block is decoded comes up as a 1962. Crank is definitely steel not cast. The distributor gear teeth on cam and dizzy were chipped. Found a cam for it with little trouble, the dizzy gear wound up being identical to old ford 4cyl tractor so lucked out with that one. Water pump was broken and from a 223, also there was a fuel pump mounted to block with no lobe on cam. I believe this engine has been misread as a 223 for many years. All bearings and cyl walls look great. Gonna be a simple cam swap and reseal with some modern ignition upgrades. Also found a glass bowl Holley for it. I have a perfect exhaust manifold but would consider shelving it if I knew I could use the stock intake with headers. Anyone with experience in that regard?

For the 1961 to 63 Heavy Duty big truck applications 262's had the fuel pump mounted on the front timing cover they also used a gear drive for the cam too. You could use a 1964 262 cam to use the fuel pump mounted on the side of block or with some parts swapping work the 223 cam. The Stock cams can be in some cases be repaired and or also reground into more of a performance version by number of cam companies one good one is Schneider Racing Cams in San Diego, Calif. http://schneidercams.com/regrindform.aspx

These big truck engines also used duel pulleys to drive the water pump and generator, so that's probally why they used a 223 water pump when it was installed in your pickup. A Ford 240 / 300 point distributor or the better 300 DuraSpark II electronic version can be adapted with a bit of work. The 223 headers and aftermarket intakes like the Offy or Fenton 2 X 1V, 3 X 1V, or Clifford Ram Flow 4V intake will swap on too. I would think the headers could fit with the stock intake though the carb heat feature would not work without some custom parts to adapt warm air to the bottom of the intake. Good luck :nod:
 
The truck will only operate in warm weather so not too concerned with intake heating. The block casting is 262 and the head has larger valve springs and rotating caps. The front cover is cast iron and has no mount for fuel pump. The block has third rib above dipstick hole. The freeze plugs are reinforced. Gear drive timing. The crank is steel. Def a 262.
The water pump, generator, and crank pulleys are all 1 groove. What's interesting is the incorrect cam in the engine. Someone had to have messed with this engine and realized what it was at some point.
 
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