Looking For an Engine Donor For Your '53 Ford? Police Impound Auction!

Murilee Martin
by Murilee Martin

Rich, the mastermind behind the Rocket Surgery Racing mid-VW-engined Renault 4CV, just got hired to install a daily-driver-suitable modern drivetrain in a ’53 Ford coupe. The owner wanted to keep it all Ford, EFI makes for much better real-world drivability, and so a late 1980s or newer Ford 5.0 or 5.8 (aka 302 or 351W) V8 engine looked to be the best choice. Running donor cars and trucks that fit those requirements tend to go for four figures, so it was time to hit a Denver-area police-impound auction. Here’s what happened yesterday.

I used to buy cheap Civics, Sentras, and Tercels at the San Francisco towed-car auction, and the setup here is similar: the cars are lined up in a lot, none of them can be started, and most don’t have keys. You get an hour or so to inspect them (i.e., try to guess which ones are runners and which aren’t by sniffing engine oil, studying the paperwork inside to see if they were towed off after a DUI bust, warrant-check, or some other situation that indicated a functioning vehicle when it fell into John Law’s hands). The star of this auction was a 1968 Chevelle 2-door hardtop. Lots of Bondo, trashed interior, generic-looking small-block engine, but not much rust. It went for $1,800.

I was tempted to take a shot at this ’07 BMW 335i, because its 302-horse twin-turbo six and manual transmission would have been a fun swap for my 1941 Plymouth project. However, the bidding got way into the thousands in a hurry on this car and I wandered off to go look at potential Ford Windsor donors for Rich.

This ’83 Signature Series Mark VI Continental had a 302, but it was equipped with terrible throttle-body Late Malaise Era fuel injection, so no dice. Meanwhile, some vehicles were selling for surprisingly good money, e.g., a ’97 Volkswagen GTI with an obvious history of hoonage went for $1,900. A manual-trans-equipped Nissan Altima sold for $3,900.

This Honky Chateau Econoline camper had some flavor of Windsor— probably a 302— but it was carbureted, plus the scrapper typically knocks off 1,000 pounds of value from an RV due to all the wood and other non-valuable materials within.

Another friend was considering this Dodge RV, though he felt a little nervous about the prospect of driving it home with this sprayed across the back.

So, the best potential ’53 Ford engine donor of the bunch ended up being this 1991 Ford F-150.

It was some sort of custom conversion, complete with door badges, done by the apparently-now-defunct Centurion Vehicles in White Pigeon, Michigan.

“Sedona” badging, custom paint and stripes, not in great shape but pretty solid.

The 5.8 liter V8 has the tall truck EFI setup, but the ’53 Ford has plenty of engine-bay altitude. The oil looked good, and the truck was a confiscation victim, meaning the owner who was arrested with it would be prohibited from buying it back (and that it was probably running when it got towed off by the lawmen).

There was no arrest paperwork in the truck, but I was able to find evidence of some interesting stories in other auction vehicles. Say, this impressive septuafecta bust.

This truck came with a few full bottles of Negra Modelo (frozen, thanks to the 18-degree temperatures in Denver yesterday morning) and a fairly worn-out interior. No potential bidders seemed to be paying much attention to it, since the truck shoppers were mostly looking for ready-to-roll work trucks younger than 22 years of age.

A $750 bid took it away. That would have been a lot for something like this, five years ago, but these days it’s not a bad deal. The ignition key was on the seat, but the battery was dead. A quick jump-start and it fired up and drove home under its own power. Good engine, good transmission.

Rich will yank the engine and transmission, keep the tires, and scrap the rest at $240/ton.








Murilee Martin
Murilee Martin

Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.

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  • Maassauto Maassauto on Jan 31, 2013

    Having been present during Rich's purchase of this truck, I can attest to it's extra ratty condition. It photographs well but up close it's no prize and the right side is covered with dents. I followed Rich home on the Interstate and the truck accelerated up to 75mph fast enough that I was left in the dust. From the way Rich was weaving in and out of traffic I thought he may have actually drank the frozen beers before leaving the auction! In addition the truck had no functioning lights at all in the rear. I like to "save" cool old trucks but I'd have no issue crushing this one after it's given up it's drivetrain. It's a classic case of something being worth more in pieces than it is as a whole.

  • Hoser Hoser on Feb 01, 2013

    Impound auctions have some good deals. I picked up my 83 Turbo Coupe at one in 2005. Most vehicles were bringing less than scrap value, because the buyers had a truck and were going to haul for scrap, I remember prices being near $80-$90 on most stuff. After I won the TC at $120 I learned the guy I was bidding against was the PO. The car got towed for expired registration and he was hoping to buy it back for less than the penalty. Even though I outbid him on his own car, he went home and got the keys and left them in the ignition for me. I pumped up the tires (*BALD* TRX's) put in a battery and drove it home. Still have it, runs/drives great but interior has some missing parts, trunk got pried open to get to the PO's speakers he had. Front clip replaced for probable deer strike. Still gets the job done.

  • MaintenanceCosts It's not a Benz or a Jag / it's a 5-0 with a rag /And I don't wanna brag / but I could never be stag
  • 3-On-The-Tree Son has a 2016 Mustang GT 5.0 and I have a 2009 C6 Corvette LS3 6spd. And on paper they are pretty close.
  • 3-On-The-Tree Same as the Land Cruiser, emissions. I have a 1985 FJ60 Land Cruiser and it’s a beast off-roading.
  • CanadaCraig I would like for this anniversary special to be a bare-bones Plain-Jane model offered in Dynasty Green and Vintage Burgundy.
  • ToolGuy Ford is good at drifting all right... 😉
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