The most common Ford FE engines by far are the 352, 360, and 390. Used in hundreds of thousands of passenger cars and trucks, these are the engines you will most likely find in cars, barns, and salvage yards. Less likely although still possible are 391 and 361 medium-duty truck engines. It’s also possible to find 428 blocks since they were used in full-sized cars and Thunderbirds, as well as in irrigation and industrial applications. The odds are very much against finding a 427 or 406 engine anywhere outside of the performance and restoration marketplace. The acquisition cost of those engines pushes them to the outside of this book’s budget-oriented focus, but all the concepts and processes described still apply.
The 352 starts out life with a 4.00-inch bore and a 3.50-inch stroke. The 360 starts out with a 4.05-inch bore and the same 3.50-inch stroke. A 390 has a 4.05-inch bore and a 3.78-inch stroke. With that noted, I tend to turn any 352 or 360 into a 390 almost by default. The cost of a 390 crankshaft and rods is very low, and the gains from the additional 30 or 40 ci are significant. A true winner in that risk versus reward equation.
The 428 is a special case with a 4.13-inch bore and a 3.98-inch stroke. Despite what you may see on the Internet it is best to assume that you cannot overbore a 390 block to 428 dimensions. These are thin-wall castings, and odds are you will eventually split a cylinder even if you get it running. More 428 crankshafts seem to be available than there are blocks, likely a testament to the crank’s durability when other parts failed in racing efforts. The 390 block and 428 crankshaft combination will yield a 410-inch engine, a factory package used in a very few Mercury cars for a year or so. If you already own a 428 crank this is worth doing, but piston availability is limited and often pretty expensive, putting your build cost into the realm of a stroker kit.
The engine we are primarily concentrating on rebuilding for this book is a cool 428 CJ out of a 1969 Shelby GT500. The processes and machining are the same as we would find in rebuilding a more common 390 for a pickup truck or Galaxie, or any FE engine for that matter. I use other engine images where necessary to illustrate a particular process or concept.
I am going to make some assumptions here. The first is that you intend to build and assemble the engine yourself; hence the purchase of this book. The next is that, as part of this task, you will take the engine components to a machine shop at certain points in the build to get things done that are not possible in the average home shop.
Every engine-building project requires decision-making over a wide range of options. One very important series of decisions revolves around selecting the level of build quality. For some folks the decision is entirely based upon economics, and any way to save on costs is key. For others it’s always going to be around quality, with a focus on having and doing things in the best possible way regardless of expense. Throughout this book I present a few options in both product and labor that range from “must do or have” to “a nice thing to consider.” I assume the reader is not building a professional-level race engine and not working with his (or her) own fully equipped machine shop.
The lowest-cost option for a chosen process frequently will deliver a perfectly good result, simply trading time for expense. Other times, nothing but professional tools and talent will deliver the needed outcomes. Some tasks can be bypassed with minimal risk for a budget-oriented build, and others simply must be addressed in every effort for any realistic chance of success.
I use a single engine for most pictures and build process documentation throughout the book, and follow it along as we go. While this engine is a rather “cool” one (a 1969 428 Cobra Jet destined for a Shelby GT500), the processes and machining are exactly the same as found in rebuilding a more common 390 for a pickup truck or Galaxie. Most of the photos in this book are following the rebuild of the 428 Cobra Jet, but other engine images are sometimes used to illustrate various components or processes. Some photos were “posed” for better visibility, and may not reflect normal or proper machine shop practices.
We will follow this engine through teardown, inspection, cleaning, machining, and reassembly. During the teardown and inspection phases we will be “hands on” until handoff to the machine shop. At that point we will become spectators, watching the shop handle its tasks. I do not detail how to run an SV-10 Sunnen cylinder hone, but I do explain what it is doing and why. Once the machined parts are completed, we will then resume our firsthand position as the builder doing the actual measurement and assembly work.
Choosing and Qualification of Your Core
This is when the fun begins. By definition, a “core” is the engine you start out with. It may be complete and running or a collection of parts gathered over time. Acquiring a non-running engine with an unknown history is like buying a lottery ticket, but you can tip the odds in your direction a bit.
My favorite type of core is old, greasy, and unmolested. Something still mounted in the vehicle is almost always more desirable than one that has been laying out open to the elements. When working with stock or nearly stock engines, the fewer indications of modification or prior internal work the better off you are likely to be in terms of internal condition. The 390 in a rotted-out pickup with an aftermarket Holley carb and some glass packs has likely had the snot run out of it, while the 2-barrel unit in an old LTD probably ran smoothly until the car fell apart around it.
Blocks cast in 1964 and earlier have a two-bolt motor mount. Blocks cast later have a four-bolt motor mount. The later blocks can be mounted easily into an older vehicle, but putting an old casting into the later application will require creativity and fabrication.
Look for obvious signs of distress. A prior owner trying to diagnose an engine problem will pull one valve cover and/or the oil pan chasing a knock. He may have removed a few spark plugs looking for coolant, or he could have pulled the distributor looking for a twisted-off oil pump driveshaft. Pushed-out core plugs or coolant in the oil might be signs of freeze damage in northern states. Fresh gaskets on timing covers or heads are a giveaway of recent repair work. A coat of inexpensive paint on an otherwise unremarkable engine might be as simple as a cosmetic sales pitch, or a tip-off to recent fix-up attempts.
Just remember to keep your eyes wide open and realize that the odds are very, very much against finding any sort of super deal on a 427 or 428. Pretty much everything you find will be a 360 or a 390, and those two are nearly impossible to identify externally. If you are able to turn the engine over with a socket on the damper bolt, you can use a wooden dowel stuck through the spark plug hole to identify the stroke by marking it at the top and bottom of the piston’s travel. If it has about 3.5 inches from top to bottom, you’re looking at a 352 or a 360. If you get a reading of around 3.75 inches you’re onto a 390.
Block Markings
A good place to start your identification search, and a way to eliminate certain possibilities, is with the casting marks on the block. FE engine blocks usually have a number of casting numbers, both formal and sand scratches, on various areas of the block. Some of these marks are good for identification, but unfortunately many other markings were used almost at random and have little if any meaning for actual identification. I cover the most common ones below, but remember that nothing on an FE is to be taken for granted. We’ve seen actual non-cross-bolted 427 industrial engines as well as paper-thin