Thread: A little, er, lotta' help please!!!

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First off, sorry for the long posting.

Alright. For those of you patient enough to teach a n00b, here goes...

I have an old '75 Ford pickup with the 390. The truck is in awful shape, but it runs. The owner (father-in-law) knows very little, if anything about it's history (he thought it was a 360). I'm assuming it's a 390 due to a paper label on the engine stating that it's a 390.

I basically want to rebuild the engine from top to bottom. But while I'm in it, I may as well make it a runner. I would like to make it get up and go, but not for racing. Just something that I can have fun with around the town. Eventually, I want to drop it into an older car (get to that later).

I've started disconnecting the motor from the truck and the only thing left is the motor mounts. I can't seem to get them to break loose but I can't fit a long-handle in there to give me more leverage.

I've read a good number of postings that talk about building the motor up (which I wanna' do). The postings suggest certain cams, cranks, carbs, ect. This currently isn't a engine that I rely on, so there's no hurry on getting the motor back together quickly. And because I can do this over time (6-12 months), I can justify spending a little more on the project ($2.5-3.5K).

I know that there are cheaper alternatives to get a good motor, but I want to find out what my automotive repair limitations are.

This may be a wierd question but how do I figure out what I want to do? How do I determine what I'll need before I do it?

Bottom line: I want an engine that will make the passenger say, "Whoa! What do you have in this thing!?" I don't plan on taking the car on the freeway's too often. I'm also planning on keeping whatever car this engine goes into stored, not really a daily runner. Ah-ha! That's what I want, a weekend car.

I'd appreciate any suggestions that you guys/gals have. And I'm sure I'll have many more questions for you.

Thanks.

I know what you're saying about the upkeep, but I've prepared myself if this doesn't work out.

Thanks for the input on the classes.

Anyone else have any ideas?

Don't worry about your mechanical limitations! Don't measure them by what you know now, but what you'll know when your finished! You will make mistakes but you'll learn from them. Its sounds like you have the perfect vehicle, time frame and amount of cash for learning and experimenting. HAVE FUN!!

I too have a rusty (Formally rusty) old ford P/U. Although I have 25 years of ford experience, a pile of parts,an all ford Garage in the SW and a fair amount of resources, I was in a similar predicament a couple of years ago with my 78 ford F-150 4x4. I wanted to turn my daily driver into a mobile service truck with some advertising appeal. After trial and much error I found the combo I needed. 525 H.P daily driver w/ E.T s of 13.35, 13.56 and 13.59. When experience and resources failed, I went with my drive to accomplish something I’ve never done, and it paid off. You might try the same.

P.S.

People DO ask whats under the hood !

Home schooling will work just fine on Hot Rod Stuff, there is a wealth of information on motors, tin work and everything automotive available in libraries, book stores, and on line. An easy way to answer the techy questions on motor rebuilds is to talk to an automotive machinist. Ask around the rodders in your area and find the machinists they know and trust, talk to them about your specific performance goals. The school of "been there, done that" is very alive and well right here in this forum. As far as advice on particular parts to use, just ask around in all of these resources, do some studying, build it. You'll be surprised at the results.

Three words .... "buy a Chev"
He he he, nah good luck, and dont let the limitations stop you, just dont be afraid to ask/read/beg for advice, and simply expiriment. There is no substitue for trying. Before I built up my first rod (a '34 Plymouth with 350), I was a white coller lawyer who barely knew how to change the oil!!!

Kia kaha

Not to get off subject but I believe Crites has the parts needed to swap a FE into a fox body and Canton makes the oil pan for that combo also. I think Shawn LeBlanc is campaigning a FE powered fox body Mustang, and Rory McNeil is running a 428 powered Fairmont up in Canada.

If it's the original engine for the truck it should be a D4TE casting (possibly a 501/105 mirror) which can be either a 360 or a 390. Same bore, just a different reciprocating assembly. Some of these blocks can handle the .080 overbore to turn it into a 428 with the right crank but the only way to know is having a sonic test done on the cylinders.

If your block can't take the .080 overbore, Scat imports a cast stroker crank that turns the 360 and 390 into a 422.

The heads D2-AA or D4-AA should have the bosses on the exhaust side so they can be drilled and tapped for the 14 bolt exhaust manifolds if this engine winds up in an intermediate body (Torino/Fairlane) or a Mustang.

OK, Im not a big ford person, but there are a few sights that may help get you what you want on parts for a basic build/Swap. Rebuiltautoengines.com carries a good healthy selection of engines with a 7/70000 warranty. It looks like a 460 rebuilt from them will cost 1169$. However, if you want to rebuild the origional engine, Flatlander racing Carries the rebuid kit for both the 360 and the 390. Both are 299$ Personally, If I had the time/money, I would probably go with the 460. But, if you lack the vash and truct your rebuilding skills, a rebuild may work out fine and give you a good solid engine. Its your call.

I thought "FE" ia an acronym for FORD EDSEL

not Fairlane Engine.

Last I checked it's Ford Edsel. But i suppose it could make some sense to call it a Fairlane Engine since it was debuted in the '58 Fairlane to replace the Y blocks. Or did it come out sooner in a full size model???

hello; first off if it has a two bbl carb it's a 360, all 390's from 67 up had four bbl carbs. they're right buy a rebuild book on FE's, read the hole book first, then decide what you want to do. it's best to bore the cylinders to straighten them up. if you only go to the next size you'll be able to rebuild it again if you ever need to. buy all your parts first so that the machine shop can bore and fit everything for you. turn the crank unless it's perfect and have everything balanced and cleaned good. good cast pistons and stock rods will be fine in a street motor. same with the stock cast crank. have someone with experiance do the heads, go a little bigger on the exhaust valves and open up the ports on the exhaust side only. use headers or free flowing exhaust manifolds and a GT 390 cam sence you'll probably be using an automatic. go with late model electronic ign and a good 650 or 700 cfm carb on a daul plane intake. you should be able to do this for about $1000 or less. good luck, wayne.

The book I have says that 360's weren't made after the early 70's and the 75 would have either the 390 or 351/400m.

FE stands for Ford Edsel, Ford bought the design fro Edsel.

My 1975 has an original 360, so they were made then.