Been thinking of a reply to all of the above now for a day, but also understood that it would be a long reply,,, sorry but a LOT of points to cover.
Firstly,, I was not able to view your walk around yet,, as been very busy with Mom and orders, but think I need to say a few things here to help.
As yours is a 64 it is an early, however at the cusp of all the improvements for the lates. That year being the ONLY year with two transmission mounting holes in the frame member. It was the ONLY year for a donout mount case fill small six C4 with its one year only special dropped sheet metal engine hangers. The reason being that you also had NO hump in the back of your doghouse from the factory, so they had to drop the engine height down, both in the front and in the back.
You make some statements that I find a bit confusing as to the strength of the C4 and its input shaft spline count. 1st of all the C4 is a very fine transmission by itself and actually the most effecient. The C6 with a 15% parasitic loss of power over the C4. In regards to the input shafts there were some 70/s models that had a larger spline input shaft as well as the different front pump to match, also SOME with hardened shafts.
Some thing you need to realize is that your engine has the cast iron heads of which you will only be able to get a certain amount of horse power from. UNLESS you go all the way with that motor, take it apart and check some things out, you basically have a 2bbl 302!!!! There are a lot of other things that you need to do in order to support a larger intake and carb. One is a camshaft to let it breathe, headers, a roller chain, higher compression and better breathing heads and most importantly a real distributor!!!
Right now you dont even know what cam is in there AND OR if the chain is sloppy creating some timing issues and or lax gas pedal????????????????
In regards to the C4 handling it,, YES, ,it is a very strong and good transmisison,, HOWEVER we are back at your engine height and your tranmission mount. The 6 cylinder breaks the stock donout mount and it is expensive and only one person making a replacement mount.
I have done a lot of V8 conversions and have seen and fixed many that were shoe horned in place. At least the frame thickness of youre 64 is thicker than the earlier years, however I am very curious as to how the engine was installed??? IF YOU DO NOT have a real cross member going under the motor from one frame rail to the other frame rail you will be able to watch your passengers seat move up and down as it flexs and tries to break the frame rails.. I make V8 cross members and also transmission cross members for other transmissions and tail stocks that I will get into in a minute.....
There are some heating and cooling issues to address as well as increasing the doghouse size for BOTH breathing as well as spark plug and wire access.
Regrards to the 8.8 it will handle the horse power and the T bird clip axle rear end is weak. There are two issues with the rear end you have now, firstly,,, you WILL TWIST IT,, its not strong enough, it also has 2" wide brake shoes, and the wrong gearing. In order to change the gearing, you need to rebuild it, and it will still not be strong enough. Youre BEST BET is an Econoline 9" rear axle,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,It is a BOLT IN AND IT HAS 2 1/2" BRAKE SHOES. More than enough for your needs. Also, a subject you have not talked about yet besides radiators and alternators is brakes. NO SENSE in gong fast if you cannot stop!!!!! So, you need to consider front disc brakes at the very least, and far more important that rear disc brakes. Especially if you put in the Econoliner 9" rear axle with larger brakes.
In regards to the all of the other transmissions that you are talking about,, NONE HAVE A TAIL STOCK that will allow you to bolt into your donout mount. There are some combinations for the C4 that are much easier. REGARDLESS of all of them,, you do not want a long tail stock with a sliding yoke drive shaft which makes a short drive shaft and alignment issues more critical. On the C4 there are three short tail stocks that are made. One is the one year only donout mount C4 (case fill) short solid output yoke tailstock, the 65 to 67 Econoline short solid output yoke tail stock, and the later year solid output yoke, short tail stock with an under transmission type mount. Of this last one the transmission mounting location is identical to the car type under transmisson tail stock, but using the strongest mount.
Of the C4 tail stocks they are ALL interchangeable and all interchangeable onto the car type C4 with the long tail stock and the sliding yoke drive shaft.
Of the C6 there are two types of short solid output yoke tail stocks made in additiion to the weaker and longer tail stock transmissions, and these also will interchange.
Of the AOD by far the best to use is from a late 80's THUNDERBIRD or Mustang as it has the SHORT tail stock. Of the AOD'S there are NO SOLID OUTPUT YOKE tail stocks, they are ALL sliding yoke tail stocks. Of the AOD's,, you want the NON COMPUTOR controlled lock up transmissions to use with your carb and no computor. AND of these there are two versions. The highly sought after models with the LOW 1ST AND 2ND GEAR PLANETARIES,, or the standard geared planetarie transmisisons. Of these if you do not adjust the line pressure in the transmisson correctly YOU WILL FRY IT in about 5 miles, so be carefull.
In order to use any of these transmissions EXCEPT for installlng a donout mount onto your C4 you will need and under transmisision type mount cross member. I make and have them in stock and with all the bugs worked out for you already. BEWARE,,, that the sides of the frame rails ARE NOT AT 90 DEGREES!!!!!! SO you CANNOT simply use a 90degree piece of angle iron to construct your frame mounts. I weld them in using two pieces to construct them and then have the bottom part parralel with the bottom flat side of the frame.
MUCH MORE TO SAY,, however,,, youre 64 with a 2bbl and a 9" rear axle will easily use 3:00 gearing, will go much faster than you realize and there are a lot of other issues to deal with also. You will need to upgrade your alternator right off the bat in order to support all the new fans and electrical,,, the stock one will not put out enough amperage at idle, which is when the truck is most susceptable to over heating. Your doghouse will not have a hump in the back of it for bell housing clearance, and not big enough for headers and such,, you will only get so much out of those cast iron heads, and doubtfull you will twist up a C4, you will need a larger radiator and better brakes for sure.
I sell 9" ECONOLINE rear axles here for $500 drum to drum (new drums included), I make disc brakes, I make automatic steering columns, shift rod to shift cable conversions, 67 master cylinders and remote reservoir conversions kits, V8 cross members, transmission cross members and much more.
I knew this would be a long post,, but,, had to do it.....LOL,, and much more I can help with,,,
vic ((Old Skool)
by EcoPU Mon Sep 02, 2013 10:25 am
