Just to bring everyone up to date,

I bought my Barth sight unseen from a camping World lot in Alabama.Back in September 2013.

I had my daughter and son in law pick it up and drive it to their home in Georgia.

My son in law and his brother did some work on it to make it ready for me to drive it up to Long Island.

They replaced the lifters,changed the fluids, tune up,and brakes.

I flew down the end of October and drove it back, it ran O.K. but it definitely had a miss in the engine.

I worked on cleaning it up and doing some interior up grades, The stove top, stereo.

The end of February, 2014 I drove it to a friends house to investigate the miss in the engine.


To make a long story short we found a burnt valve.


Wile looking on Craigslist to find new Heads I stumbled across a deal on a Motor I couldn't refuse.










After doing a little research I found this motor was built from a Lincoln Block and was bored and stroked to 511 cubic inches.

well that's enough for tonight.

to be continued.

Awesome! Another hotrod Barth!

The stroker motor should be a great motor home hauler, lots of torque and cubic inches.

Having swapped out my 454 I know you've been working many hours. Hopefully the time will be well invested. I still haven't road tested much due to snowy roads, etc. (If you're eastern Long Island it looks like you're buried, too.) I will head to Florida in 2 weeks and we'll see.

Great photos, I'm hooked. Keep up the good work.

quote:

T

on March 2nd 2014, I started by unbolting all the bolt on's,
fan, pulleys, brackets,distributor.I also removed the driver side header and head.

On Monday March 3rd, I brought all the parts to work and cleaned them in the parts washer on my break and lunch hour.



The next day Tuesday March 4th, I dropped all the parts off at Dynacoat to have them powder coated.

On the following Saturday March 8, I removed the ac condenser, Oil coolers, radiator, the front cover,starter.



On Monday March 10, I dropped off more parts to the coater, radiator brackets, front cover and such.

The following Sat. March 15, I got a early start 4:30 am, I removed the front bumper, Grill door,front cross member with leveling jacks.



By noon I was ready to pull the motor.








The following Sat. March 22, I Pressure washed the engine bay, here are some before and after pictures.





I also removed all the hydraulic hoses and hard lines associated with the power steering and break boost systems.

On Monday 24th, I took the hard lines and hoses to Moreland hose To have them fab. new hoses.on the way back I stopped at Dyna coat and picked up my parts,They did a excellent job!






The rest of the week after work, I worked on cleaning and painting the engine bay and battery bay.




















Friday I picked up my hoses. and went to bed early so I could get a early start the next day.

Sat. March 29th, I worked on tidying up and wrapping the wiring, installed the hyd. lines and wrapped them also.

I cut up a fire blanket I bought from Harbor Freight and used some high temp tape to secure it.









I sent the transmission out to be rebuilt, to a friend of mine that is retired now, But he ran and operated his own shop for more then 40 years. He told me to take the torque converter to ProTorque here on Long Island to custom rebuild the T.C. for that torque monster motor I am using.

The next couple of weeks with yythe help of my friend Artie we worked on the house stuff, we went over the plubming the heaters, we decarbonized and tuned up the generator, Installed arowflow cover on the sky light Artie also fixed the mechanism that operated the sky light, wile I waited for the transmission and parts I ordered for the motor to come in.

After a well needed break over the Easter week end. I picked up my transmission and torque converter.



This is what it looks like after I painted it.




My parts came in so I started prepping the motor for installation.








April 26, It time to install the motor and Tranny.

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To be continued.

WOW! What a great job! I love the photos, well done.

The Ford/Oshkosh chassis looks easier to remove from the front. I had to go out the side with my GM rig. You obviously have the tools and skills to get the job done. The paint and powder coats look really nice!

You are as crazy as I am, maybe more.

Holy Cramoley!! I have neither the skills nor the tools for such an undertaking. Totally impressed.

If Steve VW and Dave R are going to attend a GTG, even if it's in Tibet, I'm going to be there just for that drag race.

Of course, if there's a drag race planned, one of them will show up supercharged...

Quinn

Thanks Steve, I seen your post, and how helpful it will be to anyone that decides to take on a project like this. I know most barth's are chevys, but I thought it would be helpful to post my dealings with the Ford /J.D. chassis .

I wished I could have posted as I was doing the upgrade,but at the time I was hard pressed for time to be finished before The Memorial day weekend. That and my typing skills, and being able to post the pictures didn't afford me the time to do it.

So here we are a year later, I am trying to be as accurate as my memory and notes I wrote on a calendar allow me. That being said I am shure that I could be mistaken on some of the sequences and actually dates of some of the minor aspects of the project, expecially toward the end when things really became chaotic and my notes took a back seat to finishing on time.

Thanks for the compliments Quinn, But don't get your hopes up for a drag race.

I am a chevy lover at heart so even if we were to race, I would have to sand bag and let up if I were winning. I could never be a part of a Ford beatting a Chevy!!!

So how do you like the torque monster 511 ? Someone put money and parts in that thing… crank, rods, manifold, etc. I wonder why they sold it?

I am so glad you chose to post here. As you said , there are more Chevys out there but it is interesting to see the variation with the Ford/JD chassis. All the cross members and frame parts on the GM are riveted or welded, that's why I pulled mine out the top.

I am impressed at how much extra stuff you did… cleaning, powder coating, painting, transmission work, etc. I had plans for more extensive cleanup but other things popped up and I stalled for 2 months before I finished late in the fall. Paying the price now, working on loose ends in the snow…

What paint did you use on the frame? I still have cleaning and painting to do on mine, whatever you used looks great!

Quinn a blower would be cool but I'd need another transmission, traction bars, bigger pipes and tires… well, maybe next year!

To answer your questions Steve, The Guy I bought the motor from had a pickup he was restoring for a tow vehicle He had the motor built by a company that specialized in the Ford 385 block, they mainly made tractor pull motors for competitions. This was his pride and joy and he spared no expense.





He had it built in Sept. 1991 and there it sat on a engine stand in his shop. I don't know what happened but it never got put in his truck that he no longer has.

His son is now grown and part of the family business That they are expanding and he talked his father in selling it because they needed the room.

When I went to pick it up his father came to make sure some kid wasn't going to get it and blow it up, You could see it was hard for him to part with it. I remember him saying "you know I never even heard it run".

Yes it has a ton of good parts and machining in it,

Venolia Racing Pistons

Crower Cam

Offenhauser Duel Plane Intake Manifold

Fully Ported Heads To Cobra Jet Specs

Blue Printed and Balance Engine

So you can see for $2400.00 I got one heck of a bargain.

I used Rust-Oleum Hammer tone paint I got at Home Depot.I was impressed how well it flowed even in the cool temperature.

Awesome motor! You got a lot for your money. I recognized the manifold, it's a good one. That engine would be more like 8K+ nowadays. I don't blame the guy for wanting an owner who wouldn't trash it. That thing must smoke 'em even in the coach!

I will be working on frame paint, wheel wells, basement compartments and undercoating next in prep for eventual full paint job.

Any comments on performance, i.e. overall power, idle quality? I notice you have 9.5:1 compression, does it tolerate today's "gasoline?" My 454HO has 8.75:1 and calls for 92 octane. I'm using regular garbage pump gas, so far no knocking but engine is still too new to load up real hard so it may appear when I do higher loads. Despite valve durations of 210 and 230 degrees it has surprisingly stable idle.

Thanks for your time, you have an awesome project going. Cool motor, beautiful workmanship.

quote:

My 454HO has 8.75:1 and calls for 92 octane.

That may be under the old rating system, using Research Octane Number. The new system uses the average of RON and Motor Octane Number; the latter always lower because of the more stringent parameters.

Anyway, you should check it out.

Getting Back to the story,

After installing the motor, the following week I took the radiator to a shop to have it boiled out and pressure tested because it had signs of weeping.

The owner of the shop said he could repair it, But strongly suggested recoring It. I agreed to a whopping $ 800.00 OOOuch !!

The the following Sat. May 3rd I started bolting Things
on the front of the engine.



and the headers



OOOuch again another curve ball, my headers that I put so much work into removing the smog ports, welding up and grinding smooth and spent money to have them sent out to be ceramic coated. Didn't match the new motor D*#&ed Fords that would of never happened if it was a Chevy!!

So now I only have 2 weekends left to finish and I have to find a new set of headers After reading all the post here and posting here on Barth mobile, I'm convinced the Doug Thorly's headers are the way to go.

So I call them The guy I spoke to was very helpful but he didn't have any in stock, But he gave me the part # I needed and suggested I try to find them on e-bay or amazon.

I found a guy who had a e-bay store that said they had them in stock , I even paid extra for express shipping cause they were coming from California.

So I pressed on, during the week I picked up the radiator during my lunch break and in my haste to get back in time I ended up getting a ticket in the mail by one of those red light cameras.

Then when I got back to the Barth after work to put it in, with all my rushing I carelessly knocked it over onto a rock I had holding my tarp down.That put a hole in two of the tubes, I felt like crying, and almost gave up

I put the radiator back in my truck and went home Thinking maybe God doesn't want me to go on this trip.

After sleeping on it I decided I came to far to give up, so I went to work and asked for the next 2 weeks off (the 14 through 28th, I was originally only going to take the 24th through the 28th).

They agreed as long as I finished up a project I was working on.

On the way home I stopped at the radiator shop to see what they could do with the radiator, the owner said he could fix it at no charge Things were looking up.

So I finished up my week staying late at work to get my project done.

Sat. May 10th, another early start working on the Barth. I installed the radiator and combo oil cooler.



swapped out the tranny pan, My Friend Artie did this for me



Wile I Hooked up all the cooling hoses and ran new transmission cooling lines with new gauge Tee's installed.

At the end of the day I realized that even with the extra time I took off I wasn't going to finish on time. So that night I called my Buddy Ed who lives in in Virginia Told him my dilemma, when all was said and done he told me he would leave in the morning .

Monday May 12, I started out early making a new list of every thing that had to be done, delegating things I will do and things Ed could do.Then I started at it.

I hooked up the Drive shaft.



Then attempted to install the new HEI distributor I bought off e-bay, But it's bigger Dia. interfered with the goose neeck for the top radiator hose. They said it would drop right in.

So I removed the goose neck to modify it so the distributor will work. I cut out and welded a peice of aluminium angle in its place where the interference was,






Problem solved. at that point Ed showed up at 10 am and I got him started on putting the leveling jacks with cross member,Grill door, Bumper and front bumper fascia, and head lights back on. I figured if he could accomplish that I could get the rest done in time.

I put the goose neck and distributor back on.
everything was going good.

Then I got a email saying the headers I ordered were on back order and to call them. The guy was apologetic and said he could get them in June. I opted for a refund, and spent most of the day tracking down another pair. I found them on Amazon @ $200.00 dollars more.Then finished the day helping Ed, I had to weld in the 2" sq. tube I cut out to make it easier to remove the motor.

The forecast called for Rain for the rest of the week.
so on Tuesday We set up a 10 x 10 easy up. in front, and my friend Artie brought over a huge white tarp he uses for camping That covered the Barth from the door all the way over the easy up.

From this point on I don't have a lot of pictures of the progress, urgency trumped picture taking, so I will improvise by taking pictures of the finished product and add them in. so don't be surprised if you see things already in place that I haven't gotten to in the story.

To be continued.

Wow Rusty, are these pictures too big, I updated my photo bucket to get rid of the adds and now this is happening ?

My Bad, wile I was posting I inadvertently zoomed in on my computer screen LOL.

To answer your other questions Steve.

Yes, I love this motor even if its a Ford.

It sounds like a off shore racing Boat going through the mountains and down the interstate. Or a lot like the NASCAR'S from the old era.

As far as pinging or knocking I have to work on that, I'm not sure if it's the octane, or I'm not getting enough fuel or maybe I don't have the timing quite right?

On our way to Indy and especially coming back through West Virginia Mountains, wile going up the long grades it would start to ping at 70 mph, I had to back peddle it to about 60,to stop it from pinging.

But it ran fine on the Flats with tons of torque around 1800 to 2000 rpm. It would definitely benefit from a gear vendors over drive.

I have only used hi test gas.

WOW… I'm still amazed how thorough the job was. It looks like you covered all bases.
I did not have a deadline for my engine swap as you did. Good news, less anxiety at the time. Bad news, it dragged out longer and I didn't finish completely… lots of loose ends to tie up.

I am curious about the knocking. You may not be able to tame it without more octane. 9.5:1 is on the high side for today's gas. (On the other hand, if it only knocks DOING 70 UPHILL(!) I wouldn't complain!)

You may be able to tame it with timing change. (Some spark units allow timing adjustment on the fly, you could just back it off a bit on the hills maybe.)

Sounds like a Gear Vendor unit would be cool. I may be looking for one soon if my 454HO can pull like it should at middle rpms.

BTW, I paid about $550 to have my radiator recored. Then it leaked from one end seam just in time to keep me from going to Milford. (poor workmanship) I had it resoldered by another shop for another $80…

Thanks again for the awesome documentation and the helpful discussion. Great stuff!