I did my 1966 Ford F600 dirty when I called it “a hodgepodge of Blue Oval trucks” a few weeks back. In reality, the 300-cubic-inch inline-six that I thought was a transplant actually came with the ton-and-a-half rig from the factory, turning my argument to mush. I’m okay with that, though, and I’m here to right that wrong, as well as explain a few other interesting nuggets of info I’ve uncovered about my beloved workhorse.
First off, the straight-six under the hood isn’t all that common. I’ve not been able to pin down an exact number of production units at this point, but according to my door plaque, it’s a heavy-duty 300 that came in a select few F600s at the time. Most who opted to upgrade from the standard 240-cubic-inch six went up to the 330 V8, though this came at the expense of fuel economy. Meanwhile, the heavy-duty 300 delivered both increased power and solid gas mileage, which is ideal when you’ve got to keep production high and costs low.
This special engine came with special parts too, most of which it still wears some 54 years (to the month!) after rolling off the production line in Kansas City, just three or so hours from my home. Based on what I know about the truck’s previous owners, it’s lived in this area for essentially its entire life.
Let’s look at the heavy-duty exhaust manifold, which has a slightly larger outlet size of 2.5 inches. They’re known to be stronger than those found in more ordinary one-ton and smaller trucks, and they can handle higher revs for extended periods of time—like when you’re hauling a load of gravel uphill, both ways. Hot-rodders also try to source these manifolds when building turbo setups as they can push a higher volume of air without blowing them to pieces.
Another component I suspect my F600 to sport is a forged steel crankshaft. From what I can tell, this part—labeled no. C6TE-G or C5TE-F—came equipped on all HD applications of the big-boy inline-six. I’m not 100 percent sure my truck has retained its stock crank over the years, though I’d have to pull the current one out to check and, as much as I love providing you all with neat info like that, I simply don’t have the time to tear it apart at this very moment.
According to the aforementioned door plaque, the engine is said to produce 150 net horsepower at a whopping 3,600 RPM. No torque figures are provided, and various sources across the internet claim wildly different numbers that range from 222 pound-feet to 260 pound-feet. Luckily, the folks at Ford’s archive were able to lend a hand here, providing me with not only these fantastic old-school power graphs but over 50 pages of info on 1966 model-year F-Series trucks.