We love older trucks. Between the square bodies and the raw nature of them, they are just plain cool. Judging by the traffic on some of our stories, you guys love them too. A while ago we featured Jesse Mowrey’s 1970 Ford F-350 with a Detroit Diesel 3-53T under the hood. His father purchased it back in 1979 and the two of them have been caring for the truck ever since.

Well, we just came across this video of a 1977 Detroit Diesel powered Ford F-350 and thought we would share. The owner did a great job with the engine conversion. If you didn’t know better, you might actually think that it came that way from the factory.

The engine he chose is a 4-53T. So, it is a four cylinder with each cylinder having a displacement of 53 cubic inches.  It is a 212 cubic inch two stroke engine with a turbocharger on one side and a supercharger on the other.

The owner installed an intercooler in the truck to cool down the pressurized air and he, also, installed a blower bypass valve. The blower bypass valve basically opens once the turbochargers gets on boost. This allows the boosted air to bypass the blower, which reduces the stress on the blower, resulting in more power. Very few people have installed them on 4-53T’s.

Behind the engine is a 13 speed double overdrive Road Ranger transmission that can certainly handle any RPM short falls of the 4-53T.

Overall, this is a very cool and clean build. If you have a clean truck or know where there is one, let us know. We would love to share it!