Here is a few pics of the transmission. I was told that this and the intake were out of another build that did not get completed.
That is the lighter duty three speed transmission commonly found behind six cylinder engines and the smaller V-8s. Also has the “ narrow “ Ford bolt pattern. Would not recommend it behind an FE. The heavier duty transmissions had a curved bottom on the side plate or were top loaders. Bones
The “heavier duty” trans was the Borg Warner T-85 which was the basis for the later T-10 four speed. T-85’s were also available with the R11 overdrive.
Thanks for the numbers!In my old age I get some of the numbers wrong, but remember the general info.... so I refer to “ heavy duty...light duty” you know generic terms that fit a lot of things! Lol Bones
Does anyone know why Ford engineers decided to build the FE's with the intake comprising of part of the heads?
Story goes, that you could change the nature of the induction, by changing to different intake manifolds. Like the low riser, medium riser, and the famed high riser, that Ford introduced in the sixties. The “ tunnel” port required a change of heads, but most folks have never even seen a set of those, in person. Bones
Yes it does! But....... you didn’t give us a picture of the intake manifold ports! Where those heads got there famous name from! The heads are actually named “ tunnel port” because of the intake! The push rods had to go through a “ tunnel” in the port of the intake, because the port was so large! Go figure! How about one more pic, please! Bones
I found an FE manifold oddity when building my Mysterion clone. Seems the Edelbrock tri-power part #F380 came in two versions as shown below. The one in the top picture has the little vacuum port on runner 6 that the bottom one is missing. Otherwise they are identical. Of course the two I found on ebaY for my car was missing the ports so I had to add them since Ed Roth used them for the distributor vacuum advance. I welded a slug onto the manifold, shaped, drilled and tapped it for a pipe fitting. If you look closely you can see the vac line going into that port.
The car that the intake was originally installed on came with either a T-85 or T-85 OD,there is a remote possibility that the car was delivered with a T-10 kit in the trunk for dealer installation,a 61 car ordered with tripower and 4 speed when it became available literally had a trunk full of equipment for dealer installation.
a freind of mine bought a new 1961 Starliner with the 375 horse 390 and overdrive. the local Highway patrol guy was a ford nut, so he set up his speed gun south of town on a 12 mile flat section of highway 59. It clocked the Starliner at 152 MPH! that was stock off the showroom floor.
If I'm not mistaken, that was the base transmission for those. The Cruisomatic wasn't available as it wouldn't take the power, and most were equipped with 4.11 rear gears so the OD insured they'd have some highway legs.
The base transmission was the T-85 without OD and optional was T-85 OD,those were the only 2 available with the HP engine until mid year when the T-10 became a dealer installed option.The standard rear gear ratio was 3.50 with lower gears optional,the 4.11 may have been standard with the OD trans but I'm not sure about that,it may have been 3.70.I do know that with the non OD it was special order.
The intake and heads enable them to easily use different height intakes on the early low riser type heads for hood clearance- the 58 Bird came out at the same time, and the very low hoodline could be accommodated with intake runners that swooped down and back up, but not necessary on a Galaxie. Also why the Bird 3x2 has level carb pads while the Gal units were stepped, the engine in the Birds were mounted as low as possible for hood clearance, which changed the angle of the engine
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