What's needed to install a 49 Ford V* into a Carrier?

rob love · #1 18-05-09, 22:42

I picked up an old 1949 F155 grain truck the other day that has a good engine in it. My hope is to install it into my carrier until I can get around to rebuilding the original engine. One of the problems I foresee and have heard others talk about is the oil pan. I have heard of guys cutting the floor of their carrier to allow the truck oil pan to fit; this is not an option as far as I am concerned. But the 49 Ford engine uses a full circle bellhousing adapter, where the carrier had a half circle bellhousing cast as part of the block. Does anyone know if I can merely cut the bellhousing adapter in half and use the original carrier oilpan? Or should I cut off the tin bellhousing cover from the carrier oilpan?

I guess what it all boils down to, is what have others done to install the later engines into the carrier?

Tony Smith · #2 19-05-09, 04:05

I don't know of any depth clearance issues with the '49-53 truck pan in a carrier, but the truck version of that year is the ideal version to replace earlier engines, as it has the "Feet" on the water pumps and as you noted, it has the adapter ring to mount up to the 4 speed truck gearboxes. The '49-53 Mercury car also had an adapter bellhousing made of stamped steel, but this will only clear a 9 1/2" clutch, while the cast adapter found on trucks will clear an 11" clutch (as found on Carriers and CMPs).

I think the only clearance issue you will find with the truck pan is that the oil drain plug might not line up with the plate on the bottom of the carrier's hull, making oil changes messy. Does your pan have a small drain bung in the middle of a large (6" dia app) plate bolted on to the bottom of the pan? This was fitted to some truck motors to remove and clean the oil pick-up screen on the oil pump without removing the whole sump. If your drain plug doesn't line up with your hull opening, there are always a variety of '49-53 car style pans on E-bay. If you were to re-sell your truck pan with the bolt-on plate on E-bay, you'd find it much more sought after than the car-style!

ron · #3 19-05-09, 05:05

Hello Tony & Rob,
The truck pan will sit on the floor of the carrier and not allow the engine to sit down on the front mounts in fact when the engine is in place its quite easy to rock it from side to side the reason being that it rides on the bolt heads that hold the sump plate in place, I have just recently had the same problem simply change the sump pan and its all go then.
Regards Ron

rob love · #4 19-05-09, 05:14

My engine has the drain plug in the middle of the removable plate. So is the problem just with the bolt heads on this plate? Any other Ford oil pan will fit into the carrier? I would rather not modify my original carrier oil pan as these have been hard to come by in this neck of the woods lately.

jeff davis · #5 20-05-09, 07:31

The pan in my carrier was 1/2 inch to high Ibanged it with a hammer and then used a drain plug re and re plug moved the plug to accomidate the old drain in the bottom of the hull
Jeff

Pedr · #6 20-05-09, 15:16

G'day Gents,

I think that Ron is talking about the two piece truck pan. the type that you can unbolt the forward flywheel section of the sump, without opening the "wet" section of the sump.

This style of sump has a further flange and bolts lower than the usual type of sump in a carrier, and as a result will not sit in the correct position. A member of this forum slotted the floor of his carrier so that he could fit this style of pan. It does however, have an entirely usual sump drain plug. Not one that allows access to the pump pickup point for ease of service.

The sump pan with the ability to service the oil pump pickup with the bolt on plate must be a third type.

Pedr

cantankrs · #7 21-05-09, 04:40

See pics (first time hope it works) below for a few sump styles. Hope they help a little.

The Pics 1of2 and 2of2 are the same sump unfortunately can't get a better view and in shadow a bit. 1of2 is looking at the bottom near the rear (motor on its side of course). The rear shot shows the pinch starting around the left side and it progresses anticlockwise around to the right side - it's just that the shadow hides a section of it.

The other two are explained by the picture names.

I don't seem to have a shot of a sump with the square or rectangular access plate with the plug inserted.

So that seems like 4 styles of sump?

Regards

Alex
--
M3 Grant, Val, Ferrets, WM20, CMP's

ron · #8 21-05-09, 12:11

Hi Alex Pedr & rob,
I was talking of a one piece truck sump that has the rectangular cover plate, the problem, is caused by the bolts that hold this plate in place with the bolt heads resting on the carrier floor and not allowing the engine to settle down on its mounts therefore ithe engine is not fully supported on its mounts, and as I said earlier its very easy to rock the engine from side to side,not exactly the ideal situation,simply change the sump and its all go from there,
Good luck Ron

rob love · #9 01-06-10, 05:20

I thought I would follow up with what I had to do to get this engine to fit into the carrier nicely. The pan was way too deep to fit, as others noted. I cut the bottom 1-1/2" off the pan and welded on a flat plate of tin to re-close it. I also welded on a drain plug in the correct position for a carrier.

During installation, it became evident that the engine still was not going to fit in place. I am using the cast bell housing adapter, and it also hit the floor. I solved this by grinding away some of the lower bell housing, and also by removing about 4" of the strip of metal that runs underneath it on the floor of the carrier. The engine fit's like a glove now. I also installed the early carrier exhaust manifolds so that I could keep the exhaust stock.

Other problems are that the carrier generator/fan will not work with the later water pumps, as the later pumps are too far forward. The reason for this is because of the raised timing gear cover which allows the distributor to be placed on top of the engine. By what I have read, the early pumps and distributor can be installed on this later engine by changing the cam to the earlier one, along with the timing cover which would accept the front distributor. The coolant bypass holes at the top of the later pump must be tapped and plugged, then the early water pumps can be installed.

This engine is just a temporary fix to get my carrier running this summer, and I will rebuild the original carrier engine through the winter. Perhaps next summer I will further modify this 8BA engine as described above to make it appear as an early version. I'll keep it for a spare. I believe it is possible to also modify the oil passages over to full flow so as to allow the oil cooler to be hooked up.