I'm getting all my parts ready to have a Fe Ford engine rebuilt. The original engine for my 58 Ford is the 352 Interceptor with solid lifters. I wanted to build a 390 or this 428 I have if its any good, and possibly put the solid lifters in that. Is there any real merit to the solid lifter setup of FE engines? Stay hydraulic? Next question. Depending on the setup of choice above, would you go with a factory tripower, or just a aluminum 4 barrel and Edelbrock carb? I have the parts to do it either way. I like the look of the tripower, and would like to go that route. But I dont want to have to be playing with carburetors every time I take it for a drive..
you arent building a drag car, so whats the point of adding another thing to "tune"? the amount of pull that pig of a motor will make with a hydraulic cam and maybe 10:1 compression is going to be plenty, (i say 10:1 because i know you wont be driving it beyond the sandbox!). same thing with the 4bl,, less maintenance, but at the end of the day a hot rod has everything to do with looks... run the tripower!
It figures you would say that.. You just dont want to get spanked by a station wagon at LACR. The solid lifter setup was in production cars, so I cant imagine it being too much extra tinkering. I just want to see if it makes enough difference in performance to go through the extra adjusting. I'm looking to have somewhere around 400 hp out of this thing.
Roller cam conversion. Crane makes 2 for FE's. A custom cam could probably be made too. This may be of interest to you..... "In the January '03 issue of HOT ROD magazine, we reviewed the parts needed to build a pump-gas, 9.68:1-compression 390 Ford that makes 450 hp at 5,600 rpm and 460 lb-ft at 3,900. The combo included out-of-the-box Edelbrock Performer FE cylinder heads, an Edelbrock Performer RPM intake manifold, and a Crane hydraulic roller cam with 222/228 degrees of duration at 0.050 and 0.584/0.604 lift." From: http://www.hotrod.com/webonly_january/
Cool article, thanks. I F'd up and p***ed on a set of those heads at Pomona that had a few runs on them...the guy wanted $700. I'm gonna try 400 hp with iron heads.
I have my tri-power off now, runnin a Holley 4bbl. Its like loseing about 50 Horsepower!!!!................OLDBEET
A nice bonus with the roller cam conversion is no oil worries like regular ol' flat tappet cams can suffer. As an aside....no engine sounds as nice as a FE. They have a sound all their own and they make really nice mechanical noises. IMO
not to be picky but i beleive the "big" motor in 58 was a 332.... could be wrong,though. either way, if i was to build one, it'd be a 428 w/ the tripower and hydraulics. nothing like inches, ask yer ol' lady....
Nothing sounds like the induction noise from a tripowered FE. If you need to tinker with tripower checkout the HPtrends site he is a wizz with tripower setups...Craig
The factory ***embled FE solid lifter engines came from the factory with modified oil galleys to limit the amount of oil sent to the valvetrain. You would have to modify a hydraulic block. The 58 352 Interceptor cam is very much outdated. Price a roller setup before you go any further. The flat tappet hydraulic is cheap and reliable, just make sure you use the correct engine oil.
Tomslik I believe you are right 332 in 58 also had a strange solid lifter they were hollow, pushrods sat in the bottom of lifter & are longer than 352 thru 428, was only 1 that had adj. rockers til 406. If memory (old) serves me right.
I'd go to a number of great lengths to get my hands on a tripower!!! RUN THE DAMN THING!!!! This was an easy answer. And use the 428. I'm in the process of building my 390 up, wish it was a little bigger, though. Maybe one day..... I just put a new 4 barrel on, but there's nothing like a tri-power setup. Well worth it. And the cam thing is entirely up to you. I'd run the tripower and the hydraulic cam. Spend your time adjusting carbs, not lashing valves. And as for the comments about the sound of an FE, I agree. I was a small-block-chevy-or-nuthin' guy for a long time. That's what I saw at the drag strip, so I thought it was the best sound in the world. Then I bought an FE, and I'm wondering where that chevy is, 'cause I can't hear it anymore!
i have a 406 with bored .060 over, 428 crank tripower setup and a holman-moody solid lifter cam, i never really have to 'tinker' with it the thing runs really good. it took some time at first to get the carbs right and i check the lash whenever i change the oil (prob too often but thats just me) i never really have any problems with the tri power i have put about 2000 miles on the car and not had any problems go for it solid lifters and tripower its not a hot rod unless it makes tons of valvetrain noise from your lifters and has 3 air cleaners on top of it
the 361 in the 58 Edsel... which is FE, was 303 hp and 400 Lb ft of torque. they were montsers of motors. the FE was the most powerful Motor ford produced for a long time. the 427 Was an FE design. it shouldent take much to make 400hp. the Motoro in my edsel is a 361 with 390 Innards. so its a stock bore 390 pretty much. it has a 352 Police Interceptor aluminum 4bbl intake on it. and it pulls that station wagon around like its nothing. and it idles at 800 RPM. I will be building a new motor for it eventually, but for now its more motor than i really need.
Oh yea.. go Hydraulic. or ROller. Solid is just not worth the effort. Especially when there is soooo much better available these days.
Did a bit of research out of curiosity. The Crane roller cam and ***ociated parts... Roller cam = about $415 (Summit CRN-349521) Valve springs for application = about $215 (Summit CRN-99896) Roller lifters = about $490/set of 16 (Summit CRN-35532-16) Total = about $1120 Plus you will need a steel distributor gear and of course proper length push rods.
I gotta a buddy 66ish galaxie with a 4 speed solid lift. It has the most bad*** sound ever. those clattering lifters are super cool. I'd go solid. If you can run a stud girdle helps out with the solid cams I hear.
For reasons I don't understand, some people just don't like the noises solid lifters make. Think long and hard about how much you like constant clicking noises.
Some of the roller stuff can sound good too , my friend has a mustang with a stroked 302 with a roller cam, roller rockers, stud girdles, whole nine yards and it has a ton of mechanical noise to it, it sounds bad ***. I cant wait to get started on my FE project.
I'd probably go hydraulic unless I was going to use the original cam from the 352. I never run used lifters against a new cam. I'd probably go with the single four unless I was building an open hood car then the tri power is going to be more impressive. I probably wouldn't use the edelbrock carb, but that's entirely up to you.
uuhhhh, roller cams/lifters are either hydraulic OR solid. "roller" only applies to the contac surface btw, a "stud girdle" won't be happening on a FE motor. they have shafts and stands...
Harland Sharp roller rockers, heavy duty rocker arm shafts AND the rocker arm end support stands. Cam type is optional, but the hydraulic roller is supposed to be the "hot set-up". Those end support stands are a must to be bullet proof. AND ........... I read the HOT ROD Mag article. They mentioned oil drain back to the pan wasn't adequate. No wonder why!!!! They increased, rather than decreasing the oil flow to the rockers. I had the same problem, except mine blew because the sump was pumped dry, even with an 8 quart pan. I don't think the previous owner's engine builder plugged the hydraulic lifter oil p***ages when he went to the mechanical lifter cam. I tossed the whole "holed block" before I found out the way it's supposed to be done.
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