So I pulled the '66 (I think) 352 out of my '55 Merc (my avatar) for a few reasons- It leaked alot of oil so I'm replacing gaskets and seals, it was painted stupid colors, engine bay was nasty, and the four-on-the-floor was stuck in 3rd gear. And I was also very curious to know if it had ever been bored out, what the cylinder walls looked like, and what I had for a camshaft. I bought it in 2020 and drove it, but never opened anything up until now. I started a thread about the camshaft, which started off the same way (except for the year of the motor, which I have learned a little about since), a little over a week ago here- Technical - cam question Ford 352 | The H.A.M.B. That question was answered thanks to the vast knowledge and willingness to help from the guys on this site. The purpose of this thread, due to popular request (OK one guy asked me to do it) is to document the rebuild, and I'm sure I will have questions for you guys, as I have never rebuilt an FE. Right now it's down to the block and rotating assembly. This baby ran awesome when I yanked it a couple weeks ago, but it leaked oil like crazy, the engine bay was yucky, and smoke would come out of the breather at a stoplight. Oh, and the toploader 4 spd is stuck in 3rd gear. So I pulled it all out to fix that stuff. I'll post some pics of the highlights here, but every single pic will be here- https://link.shutterfly.com/btKEuamnQSb If you do go to the Shutterfly album, the dude in the dark shirt is the PO, and I am in the white shirt, the day I bought it in May of 2020. Not sure why the pic of me is under 2/25, but it was 5/20. Neither one of us wore masks on the test drive and we both lived to tell about it. Because this ran great when I pulled it and I am not made of money, this is going to be a super low budget, take measurements, hone, new rings, and change the seals and gaskets type of rebuild. Here are some pics so far, I hope you enjoy, I will post more as it progresses- When I bought it in 2020- And here we are 5 years later-
I have bored two of them out to stock 390 bore.... don't know how much farther I could have gone..... On both of those engines I also used a 428 crank.... Good running 410's for a '68 F250.... LynnW corrected truck year
The early ones ('58-61, maybe as late as '62) are thick wall and there have been credible reports of boring one all the way to the 428 size (.130" over!), but by '66 Ford had switched to thinwall casting and .030" over was generally all you should go unless you do sonic checking. Getting the compression ratio up is the single best thing you can do for one.
I had one like that, belched oil from the breather, for some reason it didn't foul the plugs. I ran straight #50 racing oil and good old Alemite CD2.
Did my 352 a couple of years ago, just like you; new cam, rings and bearings. Change the core plugs even if you think they’re ok. I didn’t and had to pull the motor after a couple of months to do them.
The Edsel E-400 was a .040 over bore on a 352 block. Came out to 361 cid. If it were mine I always over bore the minimum, if bores the can cleanup at .020 that’s what I’d do.
A common point for an FE to leak a lot of oil is the seal at the back of the intake. When I worked at the Lincoln/Mercury dealership we did a good number of valve jobs on FE's as part of the old 5/50 warranty. We would use yellow 3M weatherstrip adhesive to glue on the rear seal, a good glob of Permatex sealer at the corners and then use chassis grease on top of the cork seal. The grease was because you had to lift the 10 ton intake, align the bypass hose and slide it forward as you dropped it down. It's hard to tell from the pictures, but do you have a PCV valve for crankcase ventilation? If you do not, that could be part of the oil leak problem along with the blow-by from the breather.
It's been over 30 years since I have been into an FE. The first thing I noticed was flattops with valve reliefs. Mmmmmmmm. I'm more familiar with the 289-302 but flattops? I would expect dished pistons on a '66 352 but I could be wrong. You need to measure the stroke. I could be wrong. Also, the pistons may have been replaced.
Cut the heads off of two long bolts put them in the front and back intake bolts on the same head use them slide the intake in place
Are seeing the casting in front of you block numbers 352 and thinking it is 352 cu in ? What I’m seeing looks a bit more performance than a 352 . Time to check more in depth to determine what you have . Remember to put rocker stand long bolt back in the correct location when reinstalling shafts
Ford wasn't big on dished pistons in the FE. They had a lot of different head castings to choose from and also would run the pistons down in the bore to adjust compression ratio. No need to measure the stroke with the heads off, just measure the bore; if it's smaller than 4.05", it's a 352. In the early-mid '60s the '58-61 300HP 'Interceptor' 352 was a popular swap into the '55-57 Ford cars. These had a 9.8 compression ratio with a factory 4V carb. Their main flaw was the hydraulic valvetrain of the day would float the valves past about 5500 RPM. The usual fix was a solid cam with proper valve springs and a set of adjustable rockers. That would wake them right up; 350 HP wasn't hard to hit. But as Ford introduced ever-larger versions, the 352 got relegated to grocery-getter status; the 4V was gone and compression dropped. The 390 and larger motors were greener pastures, the 352 was forgotten. Today, there are no high-compression pistons available for a 352 application unless you order up a set of customs. Everything I've seen is 9:1, the wrong direction for more HP, lower than even the factory car offerings (the trucks were lower yet). All of the stroker kits are designed around the larger 360/390 bore, as are the aftermarket heads. So back to the OPs lo-buck intentions. If it's a car motor, it will have the higher compression ratio (compared to the truck version; check how far the piston is down in the bore at TDC. For some interesting reading about that and 'other' piston choices, look here: How Did The 352 1.816 Pin Height Come Into Existence? - 332-428 Ford FE Engine Forum ) If he has a car version and the OEM pistons are still usable, milling the heads some (and the intake) will bump compression up. He may need shorter pushrods with the milled heads, talk to the cam/lifter supplier about that. He will need better valve springs however. These motors can make big power, but as always with a FE, it ain't cheap.... LOL How about 433 HP with OEM heads? Engines Bret did more development work after this, got north of 500 HP!
Wow, lots of good replies and advice here, you guys are awesome! I'll start off with yes, it is a 352 for sure. 4.000" bore and 3.5" stroke. The pistons may have been replaced at some point, I have no idea. I have no history of the motor at all. Sunbeam, thanks for the link but that's a little beyond the scope here, LOL! I just finished measuring the bores, top, middle, bottom, both in line and perpendicular to the motor, so six measurements each cylinder. The results are on one of the pics below. They are also in much better shape than I expected. I can still see crosshatch patterns in most places and no real scoring to speak of. So with new rings would you guys suggest a quick hone just enough to freshen it up? The water passageways are also amazingly clean which was a nice surprise. Steve, what values for the measurement from the deck to piston at TDC would suggest a car or truck motor? I have .065". I'm hoping you give me good news! Where/what brand do you guys recommend for rings? Thanks very much.
Minor point, but for the sake of posterity, the 2 barrel was dropped from the 352 after 1963. 64- 66, the last year for car 352s, the 352 had a four barrel Autolite 4150 carb. The 4 barrel 352 engines from 1964 and up were rated at 250 hp. Trucks had a 2 barrel from introduction in 1965 till the 352 was replaced by the 360 in 1968.
Loved the 352 in my 67 f100 Actually got around 16 mpg Lots of torque. lost oiling to the top end. Bent a valve. Pulled a valve cover and the engine was almost completely stopped up. Wished I had checked that when I bought it. Could have easily pulled it and cleaned it up. A hone and go, check the crank and put it back together
Just did a re-seal on a 282 Chevy. After the 352 incident, we inspected this one much better. It had great oil pressure and compression. We found a broke rocker arm that explained a slight miss and that it had a hole in the timing cover from a bad harmonic dampener Good running engines are cheaper to fix than when they break something
I would pull a piston out and check the ring lands before I went ant further, if the lands are bad then new pistons would be in order and I would really like a new bore for a new piston.
Got the timing chain cover off and pistons out today. I will check the lands, thanks Saltflats. Is about 1/2" deflection normal for a timing chain? It all looks to be in great shape with no noticeable wear on the chain or sprockets, and it seems to have almost zero backlash when turning the crank back and forth, but I would have thought the chain would be tighter. On the intake manifold, LOL jaracer on the 10 ton intake! That is a big intake, but mine has the aluminum Edelbrock Streetmaster 390. Doesn't weigh much at all. I will still take the advice here on making it easier to install! Lastly for the day, total end play at the connecting rods on the crank is .018" on all four journals, if there are any comments on that.
Well, after looking at this chart for a while... Ford "FE" Engine Specifications ... you have the low compression pistons. Ford used basically two piston-to-deck heights: .010-.030" for hydraulic cams and .035-.060" for the HiPo solid lifter motors... but there's one exception. Yep, you guessed it. The '61-66 352 has this increased to .046-.066" to lower compression (adding about 10 CC to total combustion volume). If you look at the 'head volume' line, you'll see that the hydraulic motor volumes run about 70-74 CC (give or take) while the solid cam heads are about 10 CC less (again, give or take) to compensate for the piston being lower in the bore. So if you can reduce the total combustion chamber volume (piston down the bore + head gasket + head volume) by that amount you can 'restore' that lost compression. There are thinner head gaskets available including steel shim types that will get you some of it. A lot of guys don't like the steel shim gaskets, but a trick I learned was to use cheap silver paint that uses powdered aluminum for pigment, spray the gasket with the paint until it's dripping off it, then immediately install/torque the head. I never had one leak. Milling the head should get you the rest, but you'll have to talk to somebody more familiar with that process than me to know how much to cut a specific head. Good luck!
Thanks for the replies. I wouldn't mind trying the steel shim gaskets if I could find some. I've been searching for a while and only see ones for 390-428. If I do find some, do you think the Napa copper coat spray would work?
Copper spray works nicely on any head gasket tbh. It's allowed me to reuse head gaskets multiple times. Even on a boosted high compression engine
I prefer copper coat for a head and block in good shape but I’ve used the silver spray paint trick when pits or minor scratches were present with good results YMMV Dan
Life has gotten in the way, as they say, for the last week, but today I got the crank and the cam out, so it is down to the bare block except for the #3 main bearing (how do I get that out? It's not coming out as easy as the others, and I don't want to damage anything) and the cam bearings (I don't plan on taking them out). Now it's (quite) a few hours of cleaning, honing, and measuring everything, and then the "positive work" of putting it back together. A couple questions: What is the best way for the average DIYer like me to clean the block when I'm done honing? Can I spray it all with degreaser, hose it all down and then spray with something oil soluble? Or do I protect everything I can while honing, then do my best to clean by hand/spray with oil soluble stuff? I would love to spray and clean the whole thing, but water is the only way I can think to do it with what I have on hand. Or a ton of brake cleaner. Obviously I would have to dry and protect everything immediately after. What do you guys recommend?
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