DT360 or 466 into a 76 F-250

I just joined looking for a good forum for this subject, hope to find out you all are as friendly as the folks over at the 7.3 forum on Ford-Trucks.com.:D

I have a 76 F-250 CamperSpecial, regular cab long box, 2wd, with a dana 80 rear axle. It came with a 390 and a four spd w/grany(T-18?).

What I was originally going to do was put a John Deere 6068 diesel in under the hood, but then figured the cross flow head flows the wrong direction for that. I started looking again and I came across the DT series International engines and they check out to be pretty tested and durable.

The truck will NOT be used for towing anything other than a small bumper hitch snowmobile trailer. It will be used mainly for fun, show, racing, and highway travel. The whole idea here is to be big enough to have near stock reliability with out going un-godly heavy.

The questions that I have are: (and some of them have been partially answered once or more by me but I would like some extra input and someone with some experience with this kind of subject to give me some constructive dissagreements)(OH, and the firewall and floor pan will probably be disected whatever I do anyway)

I've been looking into transmissions(manual) to use the NV4500HD being one, the ZF 6-spd being another, and the Spicer ESO-65-7a or ESO-66-7b as an option. Lets dream that the engine will be (some day) putting out 1200 lb-ft of torque, what kind of a transmission COULD I use?

As for an axle I've been thinking about swaping in a Sterling 10.5" with 3.08 or 3.55 gearing. What else could I use that I could get an axle made for the 8 bolt 99.5 to 2003 FORD SD wheels?

Paul T

Welcome aboard!

A DT360? Maybe. Very heavy. DT466? No way, without SERIOUS modification to space and suspension. VERY, VERY heavy (several hundred pounds heavier than the DT360, or the Cummins 5.9). In any case, neither engine would be at all practical for a daily driver. They are what they are....Medium duty commercial class engines. A novelty or competition truck, perhaps.

For a tranny, that's a tough question. I doubt you'll be able to use any pickup type tranny. You'll be better off looking into a medium duty Allison, like a 545+, etc, or an Eaton or Browning for a manual. Other things to consider is the rest of the drivetrain. The shafts, U-joints and axles are designed for half the power output at double the RPM range of these engines. The low speed torque will make pretzels of the shafts and axles.