• There seems to be an uptick in Political comments in recent months. Those of us who are long time members of the site know that Political and Religious content has been banned for years. Nothing has changed. Please leave all political and religious comments out of the forums.

    If you recently joined the forums you were not presented with this restriction in the terms of service. This was due to a conversion error when we went from vBulletin to Xenforo. We have updated our terms of service to reflect these corrections.

    Please note any post refering to a politician will be considered political even if it is intended to be humor. Our experience is these topics have a way of dividing the forums and causing deep resentment among members. It is a poison to the community. We appreciate compliance with the rules.

    The Staff of SOH

  • Server side Maintenance is done. We still have an update to the forum software to run but that one will have to wait for a better time.

What I do when I'm not simming...

fsxar177

fsxar177

Long-Time Enthusiast
Guys,

Been getting a new FE Engine for my 69 Ford truck (it's a worker). I've got it all put together, and it's almost ready to go in! It's a 390 core, bored to make a 406, with a super-low rpm torquer cam, for pulling.

Also watching a big fire, which is currently about 12 air miles from my place... Pretty scary...

What did you do today?

Joseph

406fe2.jpg

406fe1.jpg

trinityridgefire.jpg

trinityridgefire2.jpg
 
Joesph, that looks like a rather large fire. It gets scary when the smoke forms into clouds as it could turn into a thunderstorm as has happened here on several occasions.

As a person involved with firefighting, volunteer radio operator with aviation qualifications, in my local area I cam empathise with you watching that fire. We have had 2 very wet seasons here in NSW and the grass is curing very fast. Even though it is still winter here we have already had some activity. It is worrying as to what things will be like when the warmer weather hits us. I feel it is going to be a very busy summer here and I am thankful I am retired and can be available when needed without having to make arrangements with an employer.
 
Ok, I'm a Ford guy and I have a lot of respect for the old FE engines, but why? The Cleveland series, especially the 400, and the Lima series (429 and 460) engines weigh less, are more fuel efficient, and produce as much power as or more power the FE engines. Why did you opt for another FE engine instead of installing a different series engine?

By the way, that is a sweet looking FE and the aluminum intake manifold does save a lot of weight.
 
Joseph, Nice job on your engine. How much more do ya got left before you can install it.
 
stansdds said:
Ok, I'm a Ford guy and I have a lot of respect for the old FE engines, but why? The Cleveland series, especially the 400, and the Lima series (429 and 460) engines weigh less, are more fuel efficient, and produce as much power as or more power the FE engines. Why did you opt for another FE engine instead of installing a different series engine?

By the way, that is a sweet looking FE and the aluminum intake manifold does save a lot of weight.
Click to expand...
Don't know how to break it to you'but the cleveland series were just as heavy and were slugs compared to the FE motors.Just one example would be the side oiler 427.tThe 460s wasn't a bad truck motor but never saw one that got over ten miles to the gallon,and I've built ,raced ,and driven Fords all my life.
 
i liked fords when i was younger i had several galxies, ltds, torinos, cougars, mustang IIs, mavericks, and comets.
then one day i bought a 68 mustang. that mustang made me a pontiac man
 
stansdds said:
Ok, I'm a Ford guy and I have a lot of respect for the old FE engines, but why? The Cleveland series, especially the 400, and the Lima series (429 and 460) engines weigh less, are more fuel efficient, and produce as much power as or more power the FE engines. Why did you opt for another FE engine instead of installing a different series engine?

By the way, that is a sweet looking FE and the aluminum intake manifold does save a lot of weight.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the compliments fellas!

I've enjoyed the 2 FE's that I've had previously. Much more torque, and good fuel economy. I've had the old 360 in my 69 F-250 4x4. It was bone stock, with a 4bbl intake and carb/headers. Great pulling! I also had a semi-stock RV 390 in another 69 F-250 4x4. Both have been awesome runners. As much as 17mpg on the highway.

I've had a 400M in a 79 Lincoln. Torque wasn't too great, but it would wind-up. Went over 140mph a few times, and the engine loved it. I also got 17mpg out of it.

We have a '79 F-250 4x4, with a 400M. It runs...feels about 70% of what the 360 was.

Had a 67 1 ton dually Ford, we dropped a 460 in it. Didn't feel any better than the 390 in the 3/4 ton. And fuel economy was about half.

So, in my personal experience, going with the FE Big block is a no brainer.


Joseph
 
I had a 400 in my 1972 Gran Torino Sport. The stock 2 barrel carb and iron exhaust manifolds really restricted its performance. I rebuilt a 400 with a Holley 750 cfm vacuum secondary carb, hotter camshaft, ported heads, and steel tube headers, even had the heads and block deck milled to bump up the compression a bit. The result was less gas mileage, but that Torino was a rocket! Off the line it would smoke the tires for a solid 90 feet or more and that was with a 2.75:1 rear! I proved that the 400 can be a performance engine and you can build them to be torque monsters as well.

It's been so long since I've worked on car engines. I was thinking the FE's were really heavy, so I had to look up the specs on the Cleveland, FE, and Lima engines. The 351 Cleveland is 75 pounds lighter than the FE, the 351M-400 is only 50 pounds lighter than the FE, but the Lima engines are a whopping 100 pounds heavier. :icon_eek: Guess that's part of the reason that trucks with the 460 get poor gas mileage. Saving 50 pounds or so would certainly not be worth new motor mounts and possibly changing other drive train components.
 
for a while in the 80's you could buy old fairlanes and galaxies cheap, like $200 or less. i'd buy one, drive it till it broke down. then i'd grab my junk and abandon it, instead of fixing it. i've had every year fairlane or galaxy from 65 on out to 74 (for the galaxy) if i only knew what i had when i had it, eh?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top