Like a baby picture, this was the T53 when I first brought it home. It was funny how excited you can get from just building an engine stand.
Using the engine stand as a base, the next step was wiring and plumbing so I could do test starts. Get out your ear protection!!
Now all you 454SS lovers, don't get excited. This truck will be built from a donor stock V6 pick up and new parts. Cutting up a real 454SS would have been unnecessary and expensive.
This is all that I saved from the donor and more was to be trimmed off real soon.
This is the cab all cleaned up & trimmed, ready for chassis work. Yep, even the floor had to go.
A quick trip to the sandblasters got the frame ready!
Cab is mounted and the cage is now tied into the newly built rear frame. The truck will run a narrowed 9" Ford housing with ladder bars.
Roll cage all finished! There is a lot of pipe in there!
After testing, I found a couple of leaks. I decided it was a good idea to tear the motor down and check everything over before I continue. This picture is of the "hot end" being removed.
With the hot end split, we could now see this T53 had some hours on it!
After a good polish job on the compressor blades, things were starting to look better.
Glass beading the compressor halves and applying some epoxy primer took care of the corrosion that had formed deep inside the compressor body.
Now, I could not post ALL the steps and pics in the overhaul process, so I just gave you the highlights. After completing the re-assembly, we gave it a good test run. It is now ready for final mock-up and detailing.
This is the gear box that will be used to reverse the rotation and point the shaft towards the rear end. It will use (4) 6" gears with heavy duty custom made shafts.
This is one of the gears and the shaft that will eventually drive the transmission.
More pictures coming soon!
Here is the 1/2" thick aluminum plate that will bolt to the frame and drop box. This plate also mounts the transmission in its correct location.
Transmission plate mounted to the drop box.
This is the killer Ultra Case and Ultra Bell supplied by J & W Transmission.
A quick check shows all parts line up on the center line!
Everything looks good, time for a dry fit to the turbine output shaft collar.
Finally, you can see how everything fits together, kinda close !
The trans came a bit too close to the bottom of the gear box, so a small .200" deep cut was made so there would be no contact issues
J.W. Trans told us the case was over .500" thick at this area, so we don't anticipate any problems in machining a releif.
A little CNC text milling by DieVerse sure looks good on the otherwise boring gear box mounts
This page was last updated: March 21, 2011
