52 Motor in 46 Truck Water Pump Problem

J

junkyard junky

Senior Member
Bought a 52 V8 car engine to put in my 46 ford 1.5 ton truck. Engine mount pads on the 46 engine are flat and on the 52 engine are at angle. Pulleys on the 52 engine use the narrow belts. What is the best way to mount the 52 back in the factory 46 location? Been doing some research and about the pull my hair out. Been a while since I worked on a V8 Flathead. I'll try to get some pictures. Thanks!
 
just done the opposite, you will need truck water pumps, wide belt crank pulley, wide belt fan and of course wide belt gen or alternator. also you will need to adapt the water outlets on the heads to size of radiator hose connections, easy to do with small hose inside of the larger hose.
 
'49-'53 Truck pumps. They are readily available. You will also have to find a truck crank pulley and do something with the generator/alternator; wide pulleys for GM alternators are a common part.
 
You need 8rt truck pumps which are wide belt. Easy to come by. But you need a wide belt crank pulley and generator/alternator pulley as well as others have said. Another solution is to have Skip Haney rebuild/modify a set of truck pumps with narrow belt pulleys. Or if you can find a set of 51/52 Merc narrow belt pumps you wouldn't have to change pulleys. They have the same mounting ears as a truck pump. BUT the mounting height is different on the Merc pump as compared to a truck pump. If you use the narrow belt Merc pumps you need a U shaped spacer between the pump and the mount rubber biscuit. The use of these pumps/spacers has been discussed on other threads here and or the HAMB.
Not sure but you may need a rear sump truck oil pan as well.
 
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Found a new wide belt crank pulley and new truck water pumps. I'm assuming that the 52 style truck pumps are at the correct height for 46 truck frame?
 
The 8BA style engines are very easy to mount in any EFV8. providing you use the right combination of parts.
To start with you need bellhousing/flywheel and starter from a 48-53 8BA engine. There is nothing wrong with the narrow belt setup in lieu of the wide belts, Ford used both in the 48-53 trucks.
You will need truck water pumps or 49-50 Merc. You will also need the 49-50 Merc U shaped motor mount spacers. These spacers allow for the offset between the frame cross member and water pump. Use EFV8 motor mounts, however you will need two bolts per mount due to the offset.
Attached is a pix of an 8BA style engine in a 37 Ford pickup.
 

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If radiator spacing permits, it's easiest to go with blucar's suggestion as long as your fan will still "clear" the upper radiator hoses and the radiator. That way you can still use the stock narrow belt configuration with one pump being driven by its own belt.
 
The correct bellhousing came with the engine. Thought the 46 flywheel would work on the 52 motor. My 46 engine is locked up due to a little antifreeze leaking into one cylinder. I thought about making brackets for the car water pumps so I could use the pumps on the 52 engine.
 
46 flywheel won't work on an 8ba. If you have truck pumps and a wide belt crank pulley your problem is solved. No need to make a bracket to use car pumps (my '39 p/u with an 8ba had that set up when I bought it. I changed over to narrow belt Merc pumps with the U shaped spacers since I had a set of the Merc pumps but they are difficult to find and aren't repopped.
 
C & G Early Ford Parts in Escondido, CA has the Merc type motor mount spaces, shown on page 73 of their catalog.
 
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