This book is targeted toward the more basic engine-building project. It could be a completely stock rebuild for a cruiser or daily driver, a restoration-style build for a muscle car, or a comparatively mild hot rod engine build. I anticipate the reader of this book to be working in his or her home shop or garage and to contract out the more sophisticated machine work. As your projects get more complex, or as performance needs grow, I suggest acquiring the Max Performance series of books for additional information.
At points in the building process you will be handing off the parts to a machine shop to cover work that you either cannot or should not try to handle at home. Discussions of the process with your chosen shop are important, and you will want to establish a good working relationship with them. How much of the work you have them take care of is predicated upon your budget and desired outcome. If you choose to do some of the work yourself using home-style techniques, just be cognizant of the potential impacts to your results. Throughout this book I list certain processes or products as “need to do,” “nice to do,” or “do if you wish.” Sometimes saving a few bucks simply is not worth it.
This book is dedicated and directed toward the rebuilding of the Ford FE series of engines, but many of the procedures and concepts can be applied to any engine-building project. Throughout the book I try to point out and compare some options in terms of relative need versus cost or benefit. Often, several different acceptable methods can lead to a successful end result. I usually use a couple simple euphemisms to describe and evaluate choices for the task at hand. The guys at my shop hear the following sayings frequently.
This book will illustrate the processes for rebuilding your FE engine, but at some point, you will need the help of a machine shop or engine builder to complete the task. While not a requirement, it is always best to try to find a shop that has experience in building the same type of engine that you are working on.
The first one is “good enough really is good enough.” I’ll use this phrase to indicate that certain parts, processes, or methods may be inarguably better than other choices while not being at all necessary for a given engine build. You can view this as being a “good, better, or best” selection process, or as insurance, or as an investment toward future plans.
Another frequently used comment I make is that a particular part represents “a solution looking for a problem.” In the world of marketing there will always be folks trying to differentiate their product by making claims of better cost, performance, or longevity. If you read claims of huge benefits from a rather mundane and well-established product, it’s usually a good bet that they are overstating their case to make the sale.
The last one I’ll mention here is my use of the concept of “risk versus reward” as applied to engine building. Risk can be viewed as excessive cost, missed opportunity, or inadequate parts for the intended use. The “reward” has to be viewed in the context of the engine we are working on. In the racing world, engines have been refined to the point that any incremental gains are coming in very small increments. A $1,200 piston ring set that delivers 4 hp more to a professional race team has no real significance to a guy freshening up the engine for his pickup truck.
FE Engine History
The following is largely taken from the Max Performance FE book published a few years ago, and serves as a useful introduction to the history of the Ford FE engine. Throughout these pages you will occasionally find a comment or photo from that book, which makes sense, given they share the same author and publisher.
The FE Ford engine was released into production in 1958. The earliest applications included use in the short-lived Edsel program. The FE was not a replacement for the Y block; it was a larger companion engine family sharing some design features. In 1958, the Y block was still considered a current design at only four years old.
Starting out at 330 ci, the FE quickly grew in displacement through its first five years of production, with 352-, 390-, and 406-inch variants followed by the now-famed 427 in 1963. By 1966, the release of the 428 and the short-lived 410 completed the variety of basic passenger car combinations. A lot of high-performance history was written in a very short time. The 352 and 410 were dropped after 1966, and the 390 and 428 continued as the only FE engines in passenger car production from 1968 through 1970.
The FE had been dropped from passenger car use by 1971, but the 360 and 390 versions remained extremely popular in pickup trucks through the 1976 model year. Some commercial applications, notably U-Haul trucks, had FE power through the 1978 model year. Throughout the 20-year production run, the FE saw use as a marine, commercial, and industrial engine as well.
While the high-performance factory engines were responsible for all the glory, most production was for more mundane applications. Certainly the most popular original FE vehicles were full-size family cars and pickup trucks; they serve as the source for most of the engine blocks we start with today.
The beginning of the FE performance program had its roots as Ford split the car lines during the late 1950s, going from one basic platform to many as the market developed. The emergence of the bigger cars coincided with a gain in popularity of motor racing. The NHRA U.S. Nationals were held at Detroit Dragway in 1959 and 1960, and auto executives were exposed to the rising popularity of the sport. At the same time, NASCAR began the transformation that would take it from the local circuit group to national popularity. Television was about to change the way cars were marketed, and motorsports was one of the beneficiaries.
Ford responded to the market opportunity with high-performance iterations of the 352, then the 390. This was still the era where a production-based engine could be equally successful in both drag racing and NASCAR.
The FE performance program started out as upgrades to passenger car engines, using strategies that had been employed by hot rodders for several years. Higher compression, multiple carburetion, and dual exhaust were initially enough to get attention. But as the rivalry between the Big Three heated up, they quickly evolved into performance-specific engines. The first of these was the 406, blessed with a larger bore than the 390, solid lifter cams, and optional multiple carbs. Within a couple years the 406 was replaced by the 427, with a still larger bore, cross-bolted main caps, and better cylinder heads. The 427 became the lead piece for all of Ford’s big-block race development and remained in that position through the end of direct factory involvement in 1970. When discussing professional racing and FE engines, you are almost always going to be talking about the 427.
The 428 was originally released in 1966 as a torque-oriented cruiser engine, but in the late 1960s somebody at Ford finally realized that the low-production, high-strung 427 was not reaching the masses. Ford had a good race program, but was getting a bad street rep. The more mundane 390-powered cars could not keep up with the big-blocks from GM or Chrysler. The response was to blend the readily available and bigger 428 block with higher-performance parts, including heads, cam, and intake. The 428 Cobra Jet package was available from late 1968 until 1970 and delivered on all points; it was reliable, strong, and still a competitive combination in NHRA-class racing.
Ford achieved incredible success with its FE-powered racing program, winning repeatedly at Le Mans, on the NASCAR circuit, and in the drag racing arena with their 427-powered Ford Thunderbolts, as well as the 1968½ 428 Cobra Jet Mustangs.
The 429-engine family was slated to be the replacement for the FE, but the factory programs surrounding the new engine were short lived, barely making it two years before performance development stopped. Eventually the potential for the “385” family engine was realized, but that is another book.
The Famous Cars
Ford’s initial platform for FE performance and racing was full-sized cars, the most popular being the higher-end Galaxie. Many FE engines were installed in full-size cars, most of them 352s and 390s. But the racers got the 427