does anyone know of or has anyone attempted to hot rod one of these beasts.. Not cause its financially responsible, nor are parts easy to find, but because it would be cool. i've been thinking of this for a while. found a 534 in an old truck. i have "performance improved" a few 385 series engines..currently have a 429, a 460, and a 514.

 

Well, maybe you can save these from the scrappy and polish them up:

Ford-Truck Enthusiasts Classifieds - two twin turbo & intercooled 534 engines--all or parts - Powered by PhotoPost Classifieds

 

Note it's hard to get love when you talk about hot rodding a 534:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/4...emensions.html

 

Yeah i saw those....bit too far away to be worth my while. Clearly it is hard to get love about hot rodding a 534.. oh well.. maybe i'll get one FREE, then slowly take apart and measure things up.. Build Custom Crank, Rods, Pistons, Sheet metal intake, Spend Thousands on the Heads, Block and such, custom Cam, lifters and such.. NO PRoblem, just need an investor.

 

I was one of the posters who was a little hard on a guy trying to build up a 534. Perhaps a little too hard. Maybe I was just being a little too realistic, I don't know.
Just remember one thing though. The guys who try to hot rod a 534 on these forums are SO energetic......and then they just disappear.
I can just imagine all these disassembled 534 engines that eventually get sold for scrap iron. Of course, as much as these things weigh, they probably get a lot of money for them!

 

I'm still worried the guy is trapped under the fallen hood of that F900 he had with his legs kicking out there in the back yard. Or worse, killed in an engine hoist explosion while trying to lift the 534...

 

I really can't imagine trying to hotrod a 534..... as was said in the other topic.. the sheer engineering and mechanics involved would be astronomical. Having driven a couple of fire trucks with 534's in them I can tell you that they shouldn't have been operated at what they were governed at.... I can't imagine taking it past the governed rpms... it would blow apart into many, many pieces. If you are still considering it, I wish you good luck.. .maybe you will be able to pull this off and create something magical.... but I fear it will just be something dangerous.... could ya imagine a 534 poking up through the hood of a vehicle though??? Good conversation piece!!

Dave

 

yeah.. it would cost a kings ransom to get all the rotating assembly custom made. obvioulsy making things lighter would be the thing. maybe someday when i win the lottery

 

I am thinkin that maybe just a little tweaking would be sufficient. These engines are monsters, so build on the positives. A little more low end torque, maybe get the engine breathing a little better. Upgrading the ignition, and carb might help. It will be a lot of expensive experimentation, but the gains would be wicked!

 

I agree, a 460 or stroker version of a 460 would be easier. 1-800-visa card, and wait for the UPS man, but...

On paper the Roll Royce Merlin 'suffers' from several of the negatives that are mentioned when discussing the Ford SD engines. Plank head with no turbulence - yup. Low compression ratio - yup. Rods that limit revs to just over 3000 - yup. Yet nobody calls a Merlin gutless.

Like Dustin Hoffman in 'The Graduate'; "One word... Boost".

The SD motor has a big tough block, big tough crank, tough rods, tough pistons, and sodium cooled exhaust valves. Build on those positives. Follow in the foot steps of the WWII fighter V-12s, and design for for serious boost at 3000 or 3200 rpm. Late war Merlins were cleared to run 35 psi !!!! boost during 'war emergency' conditions. As long as there is no knock or detonation keep pushing the boost up. Bolt on a big turbo or two big turbos. For even more power pipe the charge through an big intercooler and/or install water injection. Go for racing gas or 100LL from the local airport. With intercooling, water injection, and good gas these engines might be able to take the sort of boost where turbos in series might be needed.

If you need instant throttle response without turbo spool up delay (aka turbo lag), make a blower manifold in the basement and bolt on a 8-71 blower with plenty of overdrive. Not nearly the power of a turbo set up though. Way too much of the power at the crank gets used to turn the blower, high charge temperature limits allowable boost pressure, and the blower itself is limited in its ablity. Nothing like a big GMC blower to wow a crowd though.

Warning. This is a thought/paper exercise. I have not tried any of this on a real Ford SD engine. Not responsible for blown up engine nor depleted bank account.

Piper106

 

I have lots off experience with the 534. We had on on a irrigation well for years. Its a tough dependable motor. But hot rodding it. Nah I dont think so. These motors were made for work an were built like my signature says Ford Tough. An were a slow RPM motor not made for high RPMs. We now have a 460 on there an it actually seems to have more power then the 534. Off course the 460 is legendary in terms off boring an stroking for power. Nothing beats them in my opinion for the serious high performance Ford guy. The 534 is alright in its own special way but hot rodding one no.

 

get your oxy propane torch out and add some hillbilly nitrous

 

Well you could put twin turbos on it, the seamaster 534 came with twin turbos, im not sure what they used, but I was thinking somthing along the lines of two fat shaft 62s, you can put those on a 302 and it runs great, wont last long but runs good for a while, i would suggest somthing a little smaller than fat shaft 62s for it if you want it to last. I know im going to put a f534 in an old 1960 or 1972 ford with twin turbos some day, and they came with 7, 10 and 13 speed eatons behind them, that should hold up.

 

I drove a ready -mix truck that had one in the late 70's it had a 5 speed main with a 4 speed browning "reverse in browning" kinda slow loaded 7yrds 1 yrd wieghs 2 tons empty would fly.Put aux tranny in reverse & have 5 gears for backn up great for FLYN through mud holes.

 

Ya know, with all this talk about turbo's I got to thinking about it. Ya know it just might work. Really, even if you doubled your gas mileage to say....9 MPG, your gonna pay yourself back. Then I found an article talking about a guy by the name of A.K. Miller out of CA. I am not sure about this, but I think he turbocharged engines that ran on propane. I wonder how a setup like that would work on a for SD engine.

Like I said, just an idea.