I have to agree with your view of the "log" style manifolds, which is what I currently have on this '56. I will have to make a concerted effort to correct this issue in the future. Thanks, Bob
If your lucky enough to have the 58-59 manifold on the Driver side at least your not Cooking the steering box, Those are however known to eat head gaskets from restricted flow and excesive heat on the rear cyl. The Wizzard
I started paying a lot more attention to the FEs when original cars wearing these started showing up in the shop !! With the right combo of parts and the right machine work the FEs will haul some serious ass. I still hear people saying that they are too heavy and take up too much room but I like em >>>>.
I have a 390 in my 65 country squire and it gets about 16 on the highway with 3.00 gears,electronic ignition helps get better gas mileage as it got about 13 before the duraspark conversion plus some carb tuning.
I run a 390 with the edelbrock aluminum intake, and i dang near got the hernia from lifting the cast one out. the exhaust work i had put into it: mandrel bend 2 1/2 didn't do much good without the headers which have to be a one off custom build. someday i hope to have stimulous check from our obamanation and maybe get a set built. i still have a hard time figuring out carburation. have ran the q-jet, holley 650 double pumper, 750 with vac secondaries, edelbrock 600, coupled with the delivery, mechanical vs. electrical. currently running the 750 Holley and 390 truck mechanical pump (larger than the car pump) also have a 1" wood spacer because the gas was getting too hot. trial and error.....and i still love looking under the hood of my car!
.....the 390 crank, although it may have smaller main bearings, is definitely NOT lighter than a 351W crankshaft. -Bigchief.
Way going to 460 my 64 But tripped across a 67 428. I have the heads on the bench for some bowl work and the block is getting decked and the block bored for next year. Love them FE engines. I have 2 more to build for friends.
I like them FE's man. My daughters 66 F100 has a 352 and a 4 speed innit. She can't kill it and damnit I think shes tryin! She bought a 69 LTD to swap into her pickup cause she wanted an auto. So the pick em up will get the front suspension and the 390/c6 from the LTD! And I'm keepin the 352 for a hot rod!
Stick an FE in your ride, and you'll find out what C.Shelby knew. Even slightly modified, they produce a stunning amount of power. Those sbfs were running on the ragged edge in the race cars, he had Ken Miles stuff a 390 in an early car and the difference was astounding. Ford jumped on the bandwagon and by the time they got through working those things through all their permutations (end-all was the SOHC), the hotrodding hobby was left with a wide array of parts and great ideas. Check out a 428SCJ sometime...it's no sideoiler of course, but it isn't as finicky either and even Shelby acknowledged that from a dead start, the 428 was a substantially better power egg - the sideoiler's forte was high rpm (ie: LeMans, et al). I can personally assure you that if blindfolded and seated in a Cobra roadster, when that clutch comes out, you won't know the difference between the two engines. In fact, the 428 has a slight edge to about 70mph or so. "hit 'em again, Liberty" dj
So a '76 F-250 probably came from the factory with a 360, huh? What did a '68 probably come with? My son just got a '68 for chasing parts, and he can't tell whether it has a 360 or 390.
fe's are nearly indestructible,i grew up in a farm and my dad and uncles had 67-72 ford trucks never let them down,even when those trucks got a tune up like once a year if lt happen,thats why i am droping an fe in my 51 merc...
Definetly should be more FE love. I have a 1962 Thunderbird with a 390 and i live in a town where lifted trucks are the in thing i love to race down the main drag. I'll destroy a small block and will beat a 6.0 LS Silverado no problem. I like to stretch the wings and do 120 on the freeway without hessitation deffinitley good times.
Where's Feder and Old Beet in this discussion!?! LOL I'm a long time FE guy, mostly in 60's-70's Ford trucks. I've owned more FEs than any other motor. Great, reliable, torquey motor. The reason they are not in more hot rods? Weight? After market support? Nope. Timing. They were the last in the game (the Y block never earned much favor in racing circles, despite it's devoted following) and by the time they came out the SBC and it's GM variants were well into the game, and the Hemi was THE motor to go drag racing with. The FE really didn't hit it's stride until the mid 60's with Cobras, GT40s and the like. By then, the muscle car era was in full effect. Hot rodding was more about drag racing (as in at the strip) and show rods by that time. The FE is a fine motor, but due to timing it never really caught on IMO. You can make any motor faster and the FE has probably more potential than most from stock form to full race, but people had moved on from hot rods as we know it by the time the FE started gaining traction.
My 68 F100 had a 360 w/2bbl in it, gutless, and only got 8 MPG (even after a rebuild, and duraspark conversion), I put a stock rebuild 69 302 w/2bbl in it, lot's more power, and 15 MPG. A stock FE cast iron intake weighs around a 100 LBS. The FarmEngine oils the cam, and head then lastly the crankshaft which is why most people don't run them, and that's why the side oiler block is so sought after.
You could have fooled me. I have handled both in the last few months. The 351W ('80's truck) one was pretty heavy. The 390 one out in the shed seemed lighter to me. Not saying you are definitely wrong because I can't scale them, if you have access to both or at least 351W one I would be curious to know what they do weigh. My son is deer hunting, but when he gets back I'll try to get him to weigh the 390 one for me.
A 360 is about 7.5:1 CR, a 352 or 390 at 9:1-9.5:1 CR would have made a better showing. A SBC oils the same way an FE does as far as the mains go, there's a groove behind the cam bearings that supplies the mains on both. The FE oils the rocker shafts off of the cam feed, where the Chevy uses pushrod oiling, otherwise they are pretty much the same. I have spun the FE up to 7500 rpms regularly using stock rods with ARP bolts and the engine is still ticking after 9 years. Details in building, like any other engine, make this possible.
my dad got bored one day and put a 427 sohc into a 94 ford eplorer sport its hilariously fast and sleeper ish ill see if i cant find some pics
I have run a about every one you can think of in the cars I have built, 360,352,390,406,427,428,428 SCJ and currently have 3 390's an even built one for my shop truck. I love the look on the mustang guys face when I show them torque and horsepower in the same package. when I stand on it that old shop truck comes to life and when the tire smoke clears they are still thinking that grumpy ol man is nuts. It is a 68 390 punched 40 over, demon carb headers msd crane cam, c-6 350 gear 17 inch americans and some ol fashoin build em know how. Love them FE's.
Mercdeuceman, we will get that stroker FE in the 'ol Galaxie pretty soon. It won't turn quarter mile times like your chevelle but it should be a blast on the strip!! If anyone is interested the motor is a 390 FE stroked out to 445 cubes. A little over 500 h.p. with about 515 ft. lbs. of torque. I'm running a t10 four speed and a 4:71 posi 9 in. It's going in a '63 boxtop Galaxie. Pretty heavy at about 4000# but should be in the 12's once we get it sorted out at the strip. I had it at the hamb drags this year but only made one pass because of problems with the old engine. It should run a lot better with the stroker motor and yeah it will be at Mokan in '09.
Very nice, those Mercury baldy valve covers are really nice. I am running the Mercury pent roof ones on my '65 Galaxie 352, engine black with gold valve covers. That old original 352 in it is worn out, I and my son are building a 390 to take its place, but that thing will still surprise you how well it runs.
FE should mean For Ever. I've never heard of one really failing that wsn't due to severe use or neglect.
I've got about a 1000.00 dollars in this freshly rebuilt 352 as it sits...carbs and all. Yeah it's not a 427 or a 390 but I ain't racin' nobody. You just have to be a smart shopper.
tommy, that's a great looking 352 you've got there! We need to see more like that. I've got a 352 just hibernating in my shed waiting for someday.....
I had a 352 in my '67 Ford pickup with a 10.5 foot slide in camper. I was in the mountains in CO. and was probably about 10k high. I went down in a hole just to have lunch with the family. I got ready to leave and I couldn't get out. I thought I was gonna have to homestead that hole. After lettin' it cool down so it wouldn't vapor lock I backed up as far as I could go, against a creek, and had the family out of the truck. I gave it all it had and it huffed and puffed and right at the top it gave one last umph and got out. That winter after getting back to FL I put a 429 with a reworked C6. The next summer I went back to CO and straight back to that hole. No problem this time, stopped ON the hill and powered out. Myself, I don't have much use for a 352 but the big inchers will do the job! A 390 would have probably got me out of the hole, a 428 definately would have.
Is anyone running Mickey Thompson valve covers i have a set on my Thunderbird and i would post a picture but im out of town. Any pics please
I remember those monster campers, my dad had one on a '67 F100 with a 300 six and 3-speed. Man that poor thing, he flogged it to death and we were just around Branson, Forsyth in the Ozarks. I shudder to think what it would have been at 10,000 ft. He got a '69 C-10 Chevy with a 350 three speed and it seemed to pull it a little better, but even it would be huffing it on some hills. It had a higher rear gear, I can't remember for sure, but it would bog down and that Qjet would be singing while you watched the gas gauge go down. I put a car 9.5:1 390 2V in that old '67 F100 with a C-6 and kept the 3.70 gears in it. I never a put a camper to it but I loaded it up with firewood a lot , it was really good pulling with that gear. A 352 at 9:1 at 10,000 ft would be over matched for sure. A truck 390 might have been hurting pulling that because they were only about 8:1. The 429's were all 10.5:1, and they were a hoss. At that elevation it was probably happy as could be. The car 390 like I had would probably have done pretty good. What did you have to change to put a 429 in?
The Jalopy Journal
