1957 M62 Wrecker New Owner, Engine Swap and Mech Q

[JohnSemperFi]

Hello All,

New member here, happy to join you. I just picked up a 1957 M62 wrecker on craigslist for what I thought was a reasonable price, $4000 plus delivery. We drove it around and tried all the power equipment for a few hours before I bought it. Pretty much everything works. Brakes didn't work; I bled them, now they seem to be working. (1 gallon of DOT 5 = $100 lol)

I uploaded a bunch of pics in my album; if they don't work you can see full-size 8MP pics at my blog myscrumptious.wordpress.com.

I got it a week ago, so far:

• changed oil
• cut a gallon of 15w-40 with some diesel and put it into a garden sprayer. lubed everything I could find, all the knobs and switches, but especially the outriggers
• bled the brakes
• built that silly plywood roof
• took the carb apart, soaked everything in carb cleaner and cleared out everything with a compressor w/ rubber nozzle (the thing only seemed happy with the choke on, even when hot) Not sure if that resolved things yet; the muffler fell off and I don't want to make a ton of noise, so waiting on a replacement muffler.
• drained fuel tank, dismount, put 6 gals of vinegar, let sit a few days, repeat, ran new fuel line w/ soft copper tubing through (what seems to be) and aftermarket fuel filter setup.
• soaked fuel level sender in vinegar for a week and now moves freely, ohms move around with the lever, and seems to accurately indicate fuel level. (when we drove the vehicle around, we had a two-gallon container of gas strung up under the front wheel well.)
• greased all the grease fittings I could find, some seem frozen, but went through four tubes of grease, waiting on air-powered grease gun to do some more (some fittings, the two at the base of the rotating boom, for example, seem like they could take gallons of grease lol)

So anyway, we have what I think may be the Continental R6602, or just 602 for short: the large straight-six, gasoline engine. That's fine for moving things around in my yard, but I was also thinking of perhaps towing my backhoe around with this thing on a 10 ton trailer. I've been reading about the apocalyptic fuel economy on these things, and thinking about swapping to a diesel powerplant. But I would like to keep the existing trans and front winch. I have a five speed, I think the Spicer???

So Here's the Question

How would I know if a diesel engine on craigslist would bolt right up to my existing trans?

Is it realistic to pick up a good running diesel for a grand and bolt it in over a weekend?

Again, feel free to ask any questions from the pics.

Thank You for your time!

John

 

[USMC 00-08]

Neat truck!! Looks like it might have been in Desert Storm.

Welcome to the forum!

 

[WV New Guy]

Nice unit there .

 

[Tracer]

Welcome aboard from Nevada. Neat truck.

 

[theeDIZ]

Welcome from MD!

 

[red]

Your transmission uses the standard SAE #2 bellhousing. Most medium and heavy duty engines use that bellhousing.

 

[gimpyrobb]

Your kinda limited by the size of bay under the hood. The newer 6cta cummins should probably work, I know the nhc250 won't. I have a 1953 M62 thats been converted to multifuel, its still pretty slow.

Welcome to the hooker club!

 

[Ferroequinologist]

Welcome to the sickness and nice truck! Sounds like you are well on the way to making it a reliable, very useful vehicle.

Might I humbly suggest not planning to use it to pull your backhoe any real distance? The truck is very heavy to begin with. Most of the power plant swaps that are easily done won't net much better speed or mpg towing the heavy trailer and backhoe. I used a 12ton trailer to pick up a nonrunning JD450 track loader from 200 miles away. It took half a day to get there and 3/4 a day to get back.

As Gimpy said, a multifuel from a 5 ton will practically bolt right in. But you won't see much of any towing improvement. The benefit of the multi would then be the 'free' fuel you can scroung up for it.

Again welcome and we look forward to helping and watching whatever you do to the truck.

 

[JohnSemperFi]

Thanks for the welcome and thanks for the input Red, Gimpy, and Ferro.

I read somewhere that my massive engine makes something like 220 hp, which I think is better than any other engine from that era. My thinking would be to investigate the cost and benefit of going with a newer diesel unit with better power and better fuel economy. Not sure if that is realistic or not.

I think my max realistic radius for offering backhoe services would be something like 40 miles or so.

What would a good 6CTA swap cost? Is that the best option? I think it only makes sense for me if I can pull it off for a grand or so, unless I get more serious about the whole idea.

Backhoe is a 1981 Case 580D.

Thanks Again,

John

 

[123mack]

Some 5tons of that period had a Mack ENDT672 the (M52a1 tractor for one). The trucks with the mack engine also had a 5 speed trans with 5th gear being overdrive. The mack engine will go in and has plenty of power, but will be slow with no overdrive. I believe the trans that was hooked to the mack is the same as the 5 ton multifuels. Some of these conversions were done by the Army to M62s, so it is something that will work.

 

[JohnSemperFi]

And on another note,

(not to high-jack my own thread)

What's the best way to pull out the rear winch with one person?

 

[JohnSemperFi]

Thanks 123mack.

Yes I've read that, I suppose the lack of an overdrive would be a hurdle for any diesel on top speed, but mpg should be much better if one can stomach a top speed around 45 mph.

Also partially hoping other newer diesel options would have a higher RPM range to address that.

Any thoughts on source and cost on the Mack strategy?

Thanks,

John

 

[red]

If you want to keep it original the Mack will pull better than the 6602 and multifuel, parts for it are getting difficult to find.

For more modern with much higher power capabilities a Cummins 8.3L or a International DT466 would be great upgrades.

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[simp5782]

A DT466 swap is practical. More power. Cheaper parts. Easier to find. Go school bus shopping online. You can net a whole bus for two thousand. Snag the engine, Air ride seat (major plus), fuel tank , and anything else practical. It is hooked to an allison 1545 via an SAE 2 adapter. Choice is. Keep your manual. Or swap to the 1545 or some other type. U can find a medium truck yard that will have dt466s mated to manual direct 5 speeds. I think there is a threat around here on a dt swap. I did a 7.3 IDI Navistar swap into my older m54 series. I think after i bought the bus and sold everything off i was +$200. Than i started with. You will even shed a few lbs as well.

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[simp5782]

Also make sure you find a pre 97 DT466 as they have no electronics. Pre 87 are rotary pumps and can't be turned up as much

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[dmetalmiki]

And on another note,

(not to high-jack my own thread)

What's the best way to pull out the rear winch with one person?

Answer. Let it pull "itself out"!. Read up The The T.M. for the truck. The winch powers in and out. If you meant remove it, You can actually lift it off with the crane hoist. And, very welcome to site and hobby. Pity, I could not find the pictures though, Can you post them up directly to this site and forum.

 

[painter paul]

You really need "soldier #2" to pull out cable while you run the controls on the bed. I have run mine in 2nd or 1st gear, jumped off the bed,pulled cable, then jumped back up and shut it off. BUT I DONT RECOMMEND IT. It's a real job for 2 people, let alone 1.
However I am on my 7th 5 ton wrecker in my towing business and I still love the way they winch out semis, etc. It's nice to have a 5 speed drag winch. And the newer M936's with the hydraulic conversion drag winch is pitifully under powered. You can rig up a 24 volt MRAP winch on the back and use it to pull the cable thru a snatch block and out to the vehicle you want to winch. That's the way the Army M88 tracked recovery vehicle works. I had one friend that could pull 100-150' of cable thru a muddy field and keep up, but those guys are hard to find! Have fun, be careful!

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[paradeduty]

Hey painter paul - The M1070 HET did and still does use a "pony winch" to drag out the 1" rear winch cables. A good idea for any "heavy" winches. Might be able to find one off of a HET that someone has made into a camper or grain hauler!

 

[JohnSemperFi]

Thank you red, simp, painterpaul, and others for the input and suggestions.

Good call on school bus shopping for DT466 and Cummins engines, that seems reasonable - pricing them out on CL...

And a smaller pony winch with snatchblock may be just the ticket! So that game would be to find a good 24V winch for not too much $$$. Looking at 24 to 12V transformers, a winch will pull way too much power for a transformer, you think?

Thanks Again,

John

 

[painter paul]

I wouldn't try a transformer, but you could get by with 12 volt Harbor Freight winch hooked to the center of the batteries to get 12 volt. Those winches are great for the money and its not too hard to pull a cable out, just important to have a steady pull.

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