v10superduty wrote:
Here's my H.P.-Torque--gearing story..
Can any of you older timers here remember the 300 CID straight 6 Ford engine from the 70s-80s?
I don't know or recall the HP or torque ratings but we sold them in early 70s to a mining company in F350 dually cab n chassis config and they added heavy bodies to them.
They climbed daily up out of the open pit ore mine.
They had lotsa torque and not a lot of HP as I recall.
Fast forward to about 1978.
I am ordering an E150 cargo van to convert to a camping/hippy mobile for our family of 4...
I ordered the trusty 300 six, manual 4 speed with OD, and about a 2;25 axle ratio.
I figured with the torque that 6 had, this thing would go down the road at bout 1500 RPM and get decent mileage to boot.
DID NOT WORK. :@ Would loose speed once into OD.
Because the manual OD was all new, I didn't realize how bad it would affect final ratio.
Luckily a friend had opposite problem.
He had F150 302V8 with about a 3:75 gear ratio with 3 spd auto.
Lotsa power, no speed and high RPM
We switched gear balls and both our situation vastly improved.
Point of my story..
The torque don't matter..
The HP don't matter..
The final ratio don't matter..
UNLESS they are all matched properly
Agreed. Gearing, torque/hp, powerband, # of gears...and actual ratios of transmission are important. Having it all match is also imperative, for the type of performance you want.
I drove a '70 commercial Econoline E 300 (one ton) with the 300 inline six, many years ago. Think the payload was around 4300 lbs.
That big inline six, I felt had more low end and mid range torque than another Ford E 300 we had, that was equipped with a 302 V8.
That big Ford straight six, was as reliable as a Swiss watch and as durable as an anvil. Apologies to Uncle Tom McCahill. :B
We couldn't kill it and unfortunately it didn't get good maintenance, just hard service. A great engine. Think my '70 was rated at about 170 hp and around 270-280 lbs. ft. of torque. This was the old rating system.
