FE FORDS, why dont more use them?

Im lookin forward to building a 410 FE out of my 352 for my 66 f100.....It was either that or a 302/351 or a Navi 5.4 DOHC.... I first wanted to go all out balls to the walls. But after thinking things over, I want to keep it fairly ole skool with a hit of new skool!

 

I don't know,have you ever weighed either of them in similar trim? I assume you were being sarcastic

 

I've had a bunch of FE's, mostly in trucks. They run well but I doubt they would keep up with a built 460 Ford. Most of all, the crappy exhaust flanges on the heads were always an issue with broken bolts and cracked off ears. Just not a great design.

 

The top bolts on the exhaust ports are not blind holes and thus the engine is a poor design...reallly???

 

I have one set back in a 1950 ford sedan Its a 64 390 & its great.The reason we dont see them too often in rodz i think is because of the oil filter location . Its on the lower left side on the front of the engine. Its pretty much in the way of all crossmembers & suspention . My father made a adapter to put hydralic lines from the block to a remote location & the problem was solved! Been working flawlessly since `92.

 

The FE Ford has a bore spacing of 4.63" which puts it between traditional "small block" and "big block" territory. The deck height is 10.17 which is decent but by far not huge. This is a medium sized engine physically. I know of no sanctioned racing body which pitted FE Fords against small block Chevy's on an equal playing field. One without some sort of handicap to "even" things out. FE Fords have always been paired against gen 2 hemis and bbc's etc. Small block Chevy's could not compete in terms of easily available cubes and cylinder head flow with factory parts. Ford had tons of development work done on the FE compared to the aftermarket help the sbc's got. In fact FE Fords made such an impression you'll see many shared designed characteristics between the FE and today's Sbc the LS. So I don't know if the "I got outrun by the smallblocks" statements are really not disingenuous.

Just an FYI, combine any 332 or 352 engine with the commonly available SCAT 4.25" stroker kit and viola' you get the magic 427 cubic inches. Mind you this is a sub $2000.00 lower end lot with very high quality and well designed parts.

 

I found a 406 block that has had the block welded (professionally) on the outside where it cracked do to freezing.If repair properly,is it safe to use for a 60's gasser project? Not all out racing?

 

If it's a real 406 block and usable, just sell it to someone with a 406 car, and build a 390/445 stroker for the fake-gasser street car- it'll be faster than a 406, make a lotta noise, and the money from the block will help pay for the very inexpensive stroker package- some mildly-ported Ebock heads, decent intake and a 294S cam and you've got a cheeeep 500/500 engine

 

Look at the wieghts you listed from your buddy. Think about it.

 

Ok, lets do the math. Wieghts according to your buddy, right?

6-550#---408 windsor Ford with aluminum heads, Edelbrock EFI intake, aluminum water pump & pulleys, flexplate.

7-562#---390 FE Ford with stock cast iron heads, aluminum manifold, carburetor & air filter, distributor, water pump, fuel pump, flexplate---no
starter, no exhaust.

So we take 550lbs for the aluminum head 408, and add another 40lbs for iron heads, we get 590lbs, right?

Now we take 562Lbs for the FE with no starter, and add 20lbs for a starter, which is probablu unfair, as the 408 probably had a mini-starter, but lets go with it for now. So the FE with a starter wieghs 582, or 8 lbs less than the 408 with iron heads. Now lets say it was a mini-starter, ball-parkish around 10lbs? Fair? Now the FE wieghs in at 572lbs. Either way you slice it, according to your buddies wieghts, the FE is lighter than the 408.

 

Buddy ,as in online,not a personal friend. It's on, Speed Talk Forum, thread about engine weights. You're a member there,ask him for credentials
The weights seem odd to me too,but since I have never weighed any of those engines I can't dispute it really. I ,like others,thought an FE was very heavy because that's what people say...

 

Really. It's got nothing to do with being blind or not - it's an issue of the holes being threaded into a tab that sticks up into the air, supported by very little. Do they all break? No. But I'll bet their incidence of breakage is not even close to being matched by any other period V8 engine. It's easy to sit at your computer and say that's no big deal but when you have a car that you can't drive without shame, or get inspected, due to the constant exhaust leak then it's a real problem.

 

Here is my sideoiler with a filter setup and a homebuilt air bonnet. Also 1964 cop car 390/330 going in the Falcon

 

Awesome cars Hyper!!

Check out the link to the event I'm helping with....

http://www.fairlanet.com/FE/

We'd love to see you there...

There will be tons of overweight FE's there....

 

Between my father and I we've built FE's for over 50 years. Neither one of us have seen a broken exhaust port flange. Not saying it doesn't happen but I don't believe it to be even close to a common problem. Stripped threads can happen at this location but usually that is caused by over tightening in an attempt to correct an exhaust leak. That is more of an abuse problem than a design issue in my opinion.

 

Ive built a few FE's myself over the years, and I believe whoever is breaking those exh. ports is over tightening their exhaust bolts! And their always the first ones to force blame on everyone/everything else, but them selfs!

 

Another FE powered '67 falcon on the HAMB?? Jeez, I thought I was the only one. Thats gonna be cool.

 

I've never broken one. But then I usually dont use a 1/2" drive breaker bar to tighten my header bolts either.

 

Yep, 4/27/13 already marked on the calendar, going to Carlisle Spring meet and then over to your show. Is this a great country or what! Jim M

 

The word's out, this swap as simple as they get.

 

Now that's what I'm talkin' about!!! Awesome!! See you there.

 

Hope to have the Falcon ready for that meet, I might get lucky and have the 428/482 bullet Blair Patrick is finishing up for me in there for some shakedown runs. We'll see what happens. Jim

 

I wouldn't be surprised if the weights are correct, and I own an FE. The stock iron FE heads wiegh about the same as a small-block head.

 

yup, same as putting one in a '66/'67 Fairlane.

 

I may have overlooked it on here already, but, a 428 crank will fit in any FE block. If I remember right, a 428 crank into a 390 block makes it a 406? and if you punch out the cylinders a little you'll have a 410? I can say for certian that I run an all stock 66 410 Maruader in my 62 Merc Monterey and it moves just fine!

 

Very close, a 410 Merc is a 4.05 bore block, common to the 360/390/410, with the 3.98 crank, common to the 410 and 428. A 406 is 4.13 x 3.78, and the 428 used the 4.13 bore size of the 406. 427 is 4.23 x 3.78, and with the 3.98 crank you get a 447, + .030 bore gets you the 454, .050 is a 458

 

Good to know!! Thanks MeanGene427! So in theory, I could bore my block to make it a 454 with the crank I already have? Given the block can safely bore out that much of course.

 

If it's a 390, not even close. A 4.05 bore 390 block will give you the 410, + .030 is a 416. Quit thinking about it, ain't gonna happen- but a 416 fells just about the same as a 428 when you kick it- and you can cheeeply stroke it to 445 at the + .030 bore

 

We probably had 6-8 Ford's with FE engines - 352's and 390's - in station wagons and trucks. We also knew plenty of other people who had them. It was almost to be expected to see those flanges in trouble when you popped the hood for the first time. These were not new vehicles, but the typical used vehicle of 5+ years and with 75,000+ miles.

Were the bolts overtightened? Possibly - who knows what was done to them before we saw them, and hardly anyone in the 70's used torque wrenches on non-racing vehicles. Regardless, it was what it was. It was a common failure that had little to do with over-torquing as they usually first gave trouble when someone tried to remove the rusted-in bolt and it snapped off.

If you wrenched on FE's for 50 years and never saw one broken off or with a bolt snapped off you must have been working on near-new stuff.

 

This keeps coming up over and over again, There are lots of 390's out there that will go 4.13. I have found two without even looking very hard. One of the two I found (and the next block to go in my car) is thick enough to be .140 in the thinnest bore at 4.16. Sonic testing tells the tale.