Lets face it, we live in a lemming mentality society. Just look at the number of rods with Chevy engines and tweed interior. Chevys are Pleantiful, cheap, and require no imagination or creative engineering to swap. If you want to follow the trends rather than challange yourself, go Chevy. "You can make a Chevy work in a Ford but it just aint natural."
Ok, so dumb Mopar guy looking at Ford options question.... Is an FE 361 (Edsel) different than the FE 360 Ford Truck engine? Additionally, I read in some other posts where Tbird intakes may cant too much to the rear due to the angle they were installed, is that true? If so, would I not want to use one on a 361 in a T bucket style ride? And, someone mentioned early cams being different, since the engine is pre 62 (being out of an Edsel) is that one of the different cams? Would the factory one have to be reground instead? I'm sure I'll think of more later... but that's all I got for now. Thanks! JK
Brother had a 390 with 428 crank and some fairly decent heads. It had a 427 alum intake and some other goodies. They had shaft rockers from the factory, distributor up front, what more could you want?
Ok, I'll play on this older post too. Years ago my uncle had a 62 Ford short bed unibody pickup. It was customized and 'hotrodded' by DST with a T-bird dash, custom seat and door panels, and a 430 Lincoln engine. In those days all of our trucks were Fords with either 390 or 429 Cadillac motors. It got to a point where my brother, Dad and I could get 1 in and running in a weekend including the driveshaft and exhaust. Every truck he had got the Caddy treatment. Along comes my uncle with this 62 and insisted on a race. This particular truck of Dads had been used hard and accumulated over 100K miles on an already used engine. It went through a quart of oil per week but it had lots of power left in it. Short story was that the 62 just barely eeked a fender on the wheezin old Caddy. Dad needed new plugs and just hadn't done it yet (they were on the seat ready to do) but raced anyway on the agreement that they go again when he changed em out. 2nd race was a joke. He layed a major smackdown on the 62. A week later my uncle had a secret 'expert' on those motors do a tune, new distributor and 750 Holley, even a gear change. While hauling an excessive load of broken concrete in Dad's my uncle had seen us and made a fast U-turn to catch up for a race. Dad raced him anyways (full of concrete) and lost by a 1/2 truck length. We were followed to the dumping site for the concrete and there was a nice long 2 mile stretch of road with no lights or traffic and we lined up. The 62 was in the rear view the whole time, getting smaller and smaller, my uncle getting madder and madder. That afternoon following several complaints and a few kicks on the truck a 63 Cadillac was located with 38,000 miles and a sad overall condition. It had a turbo-hydramatic (late 63) and a 390 with the newer valve covers and in 3 days the 62 had a Cadillac in it. He scraped the 430 calling it the sorriest piece of shit for a motor, blah, blah, blah. On the other hand, Dad ran a 427 side-oiler in a circle track car that had enough power to break the tires loose in every turn on short tracks and it turned out to be experimental. I also owned a Shelby GT500KR with a 4spd and a 3.55 gear. It was sheer excitement to drive with torque that felt endless. These days most FE hot rod motors are pretty expensive and some worth more in parts than as a whole...but any FE fan knows that. For my money, for a dollar to HP ratio, and good looks, the tried and true BBC is it (sorry) and for nostalgia the Cad/Olds/Buick motors that were the power kings at the end of the flathead days still rule. Given the choice I'd run an early Cad with a bunch of carbs on it and lots of chrome.
Yep. My dad raced his 1960 Ford with the hipo 352. He told me that the Fremont drag strip made the stock FE Fords move up a class to even out the competition where they were dominating.
F.E. Specialties in Sacramento, CA is da BOMB!!!! they built up one hell of a 390 for my 72 F250. Runs like a champ and can tow a battleship... as long as there is a fuel tanker feeding the F250 about 9mpg... but you get 9mpg no matter what. TONS of low end torque. I went with a MILD cam, alum intake and 650 carb. I will likely add aftermarket headers as getting the stock iron logs to A. completely seal B. not crack the ears off is a little bit of a chore. No matter how tight the header bolts are there is ALWAYS an exhaust leak and if you overtighten it will crack the iron header. Plus the headers will make a little more Hp and sound better. Even at that I've beed told that one needs to split the flange on aftermarket headers to help them seal up. Dont know why...something about the head design at the exhaust port surface is a little funky I guess.
Edsel 361 is a different animal than the later truck motors. It's high compression, and as I understand the heads are fairly decent. There are some differences between early and late. I asked about that in the FE social group and got some really good info. Here's the link http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/group.php?do=discuss&group=&discussionid=2438. You may need to join before you can read it, not sure. As for the angle on the Tbird intake, if it's different, couldn't you mount the engine at the appropriate angle and use it anyway?
That would likely screw up your driveline angle. Might be easier to build a angled carb spacer. I haven't read the whole thread so it might be said previously, but a lot of 70's smog era 360's get passed off as 390's. Pull a spark plug and turn the engine over by hand with a pencil, plastic straw, or similar and measure the stroke. A 352/360 stroke is about 3.5", a 390 is a shade over 3.75"
check out the Utube for 2009 optima Cobra, autox and road race video's. My old friend, Bruce Cambern, retired director of Ford racing, whipped em' In 4 events he scored 3 first places and one second , they invited him to not bring it back , ONE SUPER FAST FE. 2010 he brought his 05 GT and ended up 3 rd, despite having a sway bar disconnect. and handling problems.
I got some funny comments from a machinist I use about FE's...he says, "only problem with them is, that by the time they get to me, they need everything, since they've been running on 6 cylinders out of 8 for years and just keep going!" I've built many of them over the years from 390 to 428 and all have run hard and had no issues. It does pay to invest in good valve train parts if running big lift camshafts and do the oiling mods. Know your part numbers...there are some good pieces still out there cheap if you know what to look for.
bar none the BEST motor ever built i have 300,000 on a 69 model car 390 in a 73 ford car hauler! it`s been through 2 sets of rockers and push rods and a broke oil pump drive that i fished out with a magnot has never had the pan off . still has 25-50 pounds of oil pressure. pulls like a beast. my 2 cents
My merc is getting a 68 390, I have a set of 4bbl heads and the 4bbl intake from a bird to go on the engine, will get updated ignition system, and headers. I am pretty sure my old merc will get right down the road even though it is a big car.
I have a fondness for F.E motors...have 7 myself and oodles of parts ,one in a 65 galaxie...but keep having sbc,s thrown my way,my 27 track roadster has a 327/t350 and runs great,I dont see the need to change it .I am currantly building a 350/350 powered 27 highboy,but I think Ill have to swing an ol 390 between the rails if not only for pictures sake.Its not the small block chevies that are the problem but the idiots that talk all the pro chevy crap. p/s my 327 is painted ford blue(makes it run cooler)
I have a 390 in my 1955 F100. I had two experienced drag racers (formerly sponsored by Ford) teach me how to build my motor. It was an education of a life time!! We did all the oil mods, switched to adjustable rockers, worked with comp cams to design a cam, and switched from the steel heads to Edelbrock aluminum heads. It was awesome to work with guys that were sooo knowledgeable and willing to teach a young kid a thing or two. I have had the engine done for over a year and everywhere I drive the truck people always ask, "What's in that thing!" It sounds so mean. I believe that is just how a FE engine sounds. Fityfive
The FE is by no means a rare engine as it was bulit from 58 to 76 and put in every thing from T-Birds to F-350s. Still plenty of them on the road and plenty of demand for parts. Hell, I get a lot of the parts for my 58 at NAPA! Summit and Jegs have a good selection of aftermarket parts.
I have a 360 in a 70 F100 that needs to become a 390 and actually have some compression in it. I'll add a little bit of cam and a 4bbl, maybe headers and call it a day. Devin
people can knock them, I love them. If you dont like them let me get any FE parts you have. Ive got two 352s, one of them in my F100 that I DD and then a very slow in the works 390 build.
The Cobra LeMans valve covers reminded me that the gutless,over weight boat anchor FE engine was used in the GT 40 when it kicked Ferrari's ass at LeMans and changed automotive history!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Il0gIgevtms 527ci SOHC 427 870hp @ 7K rpm. Makes my old 390 FE look pretty tame.
For me its the engine so much as the transmission being an issue. Its not like the sbc's where just about any t340/t400 will bolt up. You need to have a transmission that goes to an FE, I know that sounds petty but It costs a bit more to have a C6 rebuilt. I have one in the garage, just saving for the trans rebuild.
I should have all the parts for the conversion out in the shop, and several complete 390-4V's How fast do you want to go?
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