351 ford cleveland into 1976 G60 cab/chassis.

[1boofa1]

Hello outerlimits, love you guys & im just seeking advice on an engine swap (351 clevo into 1976 nissan G60 tray)- what dramas am I gonna run into, do I have to run straight LPG? What are the weak links on an 1976 nissan G60 tray? Its running a 3sp manual & nissan clutch? Is auto the way to go? what are G60 diffs like? is diff ratios available? Is "lokka" front & rear available? Any help people please?

[1boofa1]

Anyone Please?

[300WinMag]

Auto would be best option, adapted to a GQ transfer case. Not many people modify these old G60 thats why you wont get many replies.
You will have to enquire about Lockas from a dealer and if you cant get one, GQ Diffs and housings will save all problems.
Will be a weapon with a 351. Enjoy your build mate.

[1boofa1]

Thanks for your advice 300WinMag - It sounds very good advice & I will follow it

[chris_stoffa]

Thanks for your advice 300WinMag - It sounds very good advice & I will follow it

Boofa,

I did a Holden 308 into a 79 ragtop -

It ran gas rather than petrol - couple of simple reasons ,
gas was then 5-10cents per litre
I got the V8 super cheap - ( $100 bucks and it had been fully reco'd - guy just wanted to get rid of it out of his shed)
It sucked petrol at an alarming rate - got less than 8 mpg ( 30 litres per 100 km ) with the 4barrel - eventually changed it to a 2 barrel and still rarely used petrol - 3speed & diff gear ratios were the root cause.

Dellows ( sydney ) did the conversion kit for it.
Marks ( Melbourne ) used to do a 5 speed box conversion - don't know if its still available - you will need it due to the fuel consumption problem.

First don't use a cleveland - it has a wider V than a chev ( 90 v's 45 I think, anyway its too wide to fit in there without MAJOR work )
And there is major work in getting any V8 in there -
With a Cleveland you are going to have to cut away 20% of each foot well JUST to fit the motor in there - use a Chev block
With the Chev removing the rear plugs of each bank was via a small panel cut in from the footwell anyway.
And you still have to remove a 50mm width from each footwell with the chev block
The motor sits way back in comparison to the 6 - a belt driven fan isn't an option unless you install some serious ducting back to the fan - extending the fan just gets into balance issues.
Twin Thermatics fixed the cooling - eventually - the radiator is certainly big enough for anything over 10 km per hour, in traffic you must have the fans,
You will need custom exhaust system UNLESS you just reverse / upside down each manifold and then loop the pipe back under. I used a custom system
Engine mounts are welded to the chassis - Engineering problem now I would suspect.

Diffs and gear box could take the power - Brakes couldn't , they will need a major upgrade - maybe an engineering issue also
I would think that the whole project will run into major engineering issues now days
I'm going to suggest there are far better options for the money.

The unit could pull from 2kph (Two) - 100kph in 3rd -never used 1st unless in 4WD.
At 100 kph it was spinning at about 3800 - too high - so I cruised at about 85k to save fuel
I could drive the old Black Spur road (Vic) in 3rd and accelerate at any time, even towing a loaded trailer - it had crazy torque.
Used it once to tow a 3.5 tonne trailer load 80 kms - once rolling it wasn't a problem
By the same token it could did a hole for itself in a heart beat with too much throttle.

I had it for about 3years after the conversion , used it for a heap of hunting - fuel was cheap then .
It was stacked by the next owner - he flipped it - added just a little too much throttle on a sweeping right handed - it wasnt the most stable road handling unit around, handled like a dog at times - swapped ends on wet roads a little too easily really ( it had Yokohama SuperDiggers 31x12's on Sunraysia rims ) it just had too much power / torque at times
- it was sold and rebuilt by someone in the Melb Eastern burbs area - saw it maybe 5 years later

Still sounded really nice , which is really the only good thing about it - Don't do it , wasn't worth it.

Cheers

[1boofa1]

a huge thanks chris_stoffa, your advice is great & thanks for such an indepth reply. There is a complete roller w/ engine not running available to it has the 351 clevo in it , so just thought It would be the easiest option- huge thanks guys

[limited slip]

i swapped all the running gear in my 76 ute to mq running gear. the build thread is on the rocky mountain and off road forum (mods if were not allowed to mention other forums feel free to delete this)
my best mate has a similar ute with a 308 in it. the whole lot really did need mounting about 8 inches further forwards of where it ended up, it would have solved a lot of issues. the only real way to do this is to adapt a longer gearbox to the existing transfer case, -to my mind an auto would be great- the 3 speed is quite short, though its almost indestructible too. the marks 5 speeds are not available except as the odd one that turns up well loved, these usually go for a minimum of 2k regardless of if they are stuffed or not. they were made from nissan cabal/ cab star truck gearboxes.
cheers

[1boofa1]

A big thanks to limited slip for all your hugely valuable advice