352: The 352 designation is found on the driver-side front face of many of the FE blocks cast at Ford’s DIF foundry throughout the 1960s. This does not mean you have a 352 engine. Or anything else for that matter because most 390 and 428 engines as well as many 427s will have this marking.
The 352 designation is found on the driver-side front face of many of the FE blocks cast at Ford’s DIF foundry throughout the 1960s. This does not mean you have a 352 engine. Many other displacements have the 352 designation cast into the block.
The “DIF” casting often found on Ford FE blocks designates the Dearborn Iron Foundry where the blocks were poured. This location was in use through the early 1970s; therefore, a real 428 CJ block would likely have that DIF on it somewhere.
Similar to the “352” often found cast on the front face of the engine, the 352 designation in the bellhousing face does not guarantee you have a 352-ci engine.
This 427 marking that is often found in the lifter valley or the bellhousing face shown here is misleading. It can often be found on 390 engines as well.
66-427: This one is often found on the inner valley above the lifters or on the bellhousing face. It tends to get folks really excited for a few minutes, but means pretty much nothing. Often found on otherwise normal 390 engines.
C scratch: This is a good one to find. Found as a freehand letter “C” scratched in the bellhousing area of the block, this is considered a good indicator of the 1968 and later double-webbed 428 block as used in the 428 Cobra Jet engines.
A scratch: Another nice find. This is the letter “A” scratched freehand into the bellhousing-area casting. Normally associated with 1966–1967 non-CJ 428 engines.
Inside the water jackets: Proof positive of a 428. If you remove the center freeze plug you can often see the number “428” cast right into the base of the water jacket core. Similar casting identification can also be found by looking straight down through the water opening on the decks where the head gaskets go. You’ll need a flashlight.
Casting numbers such as C6MA-xx: These numbers are normally found cast upside down below the oil filter mounting pad. Unfortunately they don’t really mean all that much. While important for a restoration project, the fact is that Ford used the same casting number across a wide variety of engine sizes and levels. That means that these numbers do not help for identification other than for exclusion. You know that a D4TE (the “D4” indicates 1974 in Ford code) is not going to be a 352, which was stopped in 1966.
Date codes: Often, but not always, cast in place above the oil filter pad, the date codes tell you when the block was made. Like the casting number, these will not tell you anything about the engine itself other than by exclusion (e.g., a block cast in 1964 is not a Cobra Jet since those started in 1968). Date codes are the holy grail for restoration work, but have limited value for performance efforts.
Cross bolts: Probably a 427, unless they’ve been added by a racer somewhere in the block’s history.
Screw-in freeze plugs: Probably a 427, unless they’ve been added by a racer somewhere in the block’s history.
The Drill Bit Test
This one test is the single best way to quickly identify an assembled FE block. Credit for it goes to FE.com forum member David “Shoe” Schouweiler. You need only the simplest of measuring tools: drill bits. The following is paraphrased from several of Dave’s responses to block ID questions posed on the forum.
Remove the center freeze plug from the side of the engine block. Using common drill bits, try to slip the shank portion of the largest possible bit between the center cylinder cores through the freeze plug opening. The size of this largest drill bit will indicate which water jacket core was used to cast the block.
If you can fit only an 8/64-inch or 9/64-inch drill bit shank between the cylinders at the largest gap position on the block, and a 10/64-inch doesn’t fit anywhere, then they are 427 water jackets.
The 406/428/DIF361/DIF391 blocks will allow a 13/64-inch drill bit shank to fit into the gap at the largest position.
The MCC361FT/MCC391FT blocks (MCC = “mirror 105” marking) allow a 14/64-inch bit to fit between the cores.
Regular 360/390/410 blocks have about a 17/64-inch to 19/64-inch water jacket space at the largest position on the block.
These are approximations, but they tend to be close.
Even if you do have the good jackets, be sure to sonic map the cylinders before boring because core shift might cause problems. It is not at all unusual for FE engines to have considerable core shift, and the oft-raced and abused 427 engines seem to have some of the thinnest cylinders.
Once you bring your new jewel home (and/or remove your “old friend” from the car) the real work begins. You can learn a huge amount from the teardown process. The key is to avoid the temptation to fire up the impact wrenches and rip it apart as quickly as possible. Careful inspection of an old engine will carry a clear history of the conditions it ran with, and will avoid unnecessary expenses if problem areas are identified and quantified early on. I am going on the assumption that we are taking the engine completely apart before handing the major components over to a machine shop for reconditioning. Be prepared for the occasional surprise.
Be prepared for the occasional surprise when tearing down an engine with an unknown history. This 427 engine is a true barn find, and was filled with . . . mouse stuff.
In this chapter, I go through the basic teardown effort; details on each key component appear in the chapters that follow. We are going to work from the outside in as we go, removing external parts first. As you proceed, it’s a great idea to use a digital camera to record how things came apart, and use plenty of plastic sandwich bags to label and organize the fasteners and small parts as you go. When parts are oily it’s difficult to write on them; tag wire and paper tags are often useful. When labeling a box or a part for its location, I prefer to use the terms “driver-side” and “passenger-side” because they are less likely to be confused. In my shop we do almost nothing but FE engines; thus, we are quite comfortable with using just the Ford OEM cylinder numbering system with the cylinders on the passenger’s side as numbers one through four. However, in a shop that works on numerous engines from many manufacturers, a description of “driver-side second cylinder” could be less likely to cause confusion.
You will want a reasonably large area to work in, with plenty of workbench space to lay out the parts as they are removed. It’s a grimy process, so be prepared with lots of paper towels and rags. I find that covering the floor and work areas with newspaper or butcher paper goes a long way in controlling the inevitable oily mess.
Basic mechanic’s tools are