FE second thoughts???

[montana_hiboy]

Run whatever motor you want, show me a motor that can take more abuse than an FE and still be a dependable daily driver, your list would be very short, sure they suck when it comes to mpg's but they were developed when gas was 20 cents a gallon, not 3.20 a gallon, they're a great truck motor with gobs of low rpm torque.

[averagef250]

Run whatever motor you want, show me a motor that can take more abuse than an FE and still be a dependable daily driver, your list would be very short, sure they suck when it comes to mpg's but they were developed when gas was 20 cents a gallon, not 3.20 a gallon, they're a great truck motor with gobs of low rpm torque.

Very well said. If they are good at one thing it's laughing in the face of abuse for 40 years straight that'd kill most anything else in a few days.

[sideoilerfe]

Run whatever motor you want, show me a motor that can take more abuse than an FE and still be a dependable daily driver, your list would be very short, sure they suck when it comes to mpg's but they were developed when gas was 20 cents a gallon, not 3.20 a gallon, they're a great truck motor with gobs of low rpm torque.

Very well said. If they are good at one thing it's laughing in the face of abuse for 40 years straight that'd kill most anything else in a few days.

Even better said. I've had 5 FE's that I've beat pretty hard. They don't die easy. When I was 18, I bought a truck with a 352 in it and wasn't aware of how bad the oil leak was and ran it out of oil doing 95 on the freeway. I got off the freeway and it sounded bad. Pulled into the 7-11 and checked the oil and there was nothing on the stick. I then bought 3 quarts and dumped them in and fired it up and after about 15-20 seconds, it quieted down and was good to go. That engine was abused everyday I drove it and it never let me down.

[OldRedFord]

360+iron 4 barrel+ comp 260+MSD 6-al+headers+3.31 gears+c6+carter 650 in a two-wheel drive longbed 76 with 28" tires= 17 city 19-22 hiway

No way. Thats pretty dang impressive. I get 15 in my 2002 Ranger.

[Brokenarrow]

360+iron 4 barrel+ comp 260+MSD 6-al+headers+3.31 gears+c6+carter 650 in a two-wheel drive longbed 76 with 28" tires= 17 city 19-22 hiway

FEs Rock!!! My old '65 f100 would get that kind of mileage. With a 390, tweaked Q-jet carb & 2.75 rear-gear (1800rpm @ 70 mph). Most won't believe it though because they haven't seen it, they settle for 12mpg. I replied to another post some time ago about FE gas-mileage and was literally called a liar for posting numbers similar to yours. Guys, it IS possible, FEs can be pretty efficient engines.

[court1100f]

It occurs to me that this should be possible because these engines aren't being smothered with emmissions crap & on top of that atleast in alot of cases they aren't suffering from much parasitic power loss from pulley driven accessories.......Factor that in with the natural tendency for a Quote on Quote RV-Cam to improve both torque and horse power & fuel economy,going from a 2 barrel to a 4 barrel with smaller primaries,dual exhaust and balancing out the cylinder bank exhaust pressures with a H or X pipe,Converting to more efficient Electronic ignition with a hotter coil with a MSD 6AL-2 Digital Ignition computer,and a 2.80:1 or 2.73:1 or slightly numerically higher rear axle ratio it would seem like theres alotta leeway for allowing these engines to get better fuel economy

[Jarred Hodges]

To be honest I don't care for them at all. When I got my truck it never ran right. The first time I put it to the floor it broke the rocker arm shaft. After having the heads rebuilt it did pretty good for a while. I niticed the fuel pump was weak and the timing chain was strethched so I put a holley red fuel pump on it and a new timing chain. I got it all back together and it did great for about 10 minutes. I went to get breakfast and a lifter started tapping. I have a line on a 390 from a 66 or 67 fairlane I believe. I am going to get it and freshen it up and swap in because I figure mine don't have much left in it. I would take a 429 or 460 anyday

[averagef250]

To be honest I don't care for them at all. When I got my truck it never ran right. The first time I put it to the floor it broke the rocker arm shaft. After having the heads rebuilt it did pretty good for a while. I niticed the fuel pump was weak and the timing chain was strethched so I put a holley red fuel pump on it and a new timing chain. I got it all back together and it did great for about 10 minutes. I went to get breakfast and a lifter started tapping. I have a line on a 390 from a 66 or 67 fairlane I believe. I am going to get it and freshen it up and swap in because I figure mine don't have much left in it. I would take a 429 or 460 anyday

So you have a mystery engine that came in your truck, you ran the crap out of it and it had some minor issues with a rocker shaft and a lifter tick? I'd have to completely agree that FE's are utter crap then. Along those same lines the first FE I ever owned and drove was a bone stock original 66 merc 4V 390 that had 250K+ on it never being opened up and ran like a r*ped ape minus the quirks that an engine developes from 250K miles of abuse. I slapped a used timing chain in it and a 600 holley and duraspark and that engine smoked, rattled, banged, popped, pinged past 1/2 throttle on 87 octane and had a rock solid 23 PSI oil pressure at 6000 RPM valve float and a gauranteed 1-2 PSI at hot idle. That engine is the only thing I tried mercilessly to scatter it's guts in mudholes held wide open at valve float for 5 minutes+ solid all the time and never missed a beat. I ran it out, I mean completely out of oil and held it wide open in a 6500 lifted 4x4 for an hour straight, 4500 RPM and ZERO oil pressure on a mechanical gauge going 90 or so MPH and the engine literally suffered no damage. It got me where I had to be, I shut it down, came back from sea in 2 weeks put 5.5 quarts in it to get to the full mark and it ran like it always did. I pulled that engine when I finally saved enough to build a nice truck 390 to replace it with a best estimate of 295,000 rediculously abusive miles on it and only having had a single timing chain replacement with a used chain. The next 390 that was built with regard to common sense and it's use a truck engine got great mileage in the same truck and would flat out tow ANY 460 powered truck I've driven, ridden in or owned. I put 140,000 daily driver and heavy, heavy tow miles on that engine with a few issues all related to sh*t valvetrain parts from DSC that came apart in the motor. That engine had 190 PSI compression within a week of installing it and seating the rings and had 190 PSI on every cylinder the day I pulled and sold it to replace it with a diesel. I later saw it with the heads off and lower end disassembled and the bores, journals and bearings looked exactly the same as the day I put it together. Not to mention it also managed to pull 34,500 pounds up a 10 mile 6% grade at 60 MPH and 2500 RPM. Show me a 460 that will actually do that and I'll eat every word. That same engine is still going 5 years later with no new machine work, a lopey cam and performer RPM running 13 flat in a local galaxy.

[Jarred Hodges]

To be honest I don't care for them at all. When I got my truck it never ran right. The first time I put it to the floor it broke the rocker arm shaft. After having the heads rebuilt it did pretty good for a while. I niticed the fuel pump was weak and the timing chain was strethched so I put a holley red fuel pump on it and a new timing chain. I got it all back together and it did great for about 10 minutes. I went to get breakfast and a lifter started tapping. I have a line on a 390 from a 66 or 67 fairlane I believe. I am going to get it and freshen it up and swap in because I figure mine don't have much left in it. I would take a 429 or 460 anyday

So you have a mystery engine that came in your truck, you ran the crap out of it and it had some minor issues with a rocker shaft and a lifter tick? I'd have to completely agree that FE's are utter crap then. Along those same lines the first FE I ever owned and drove was a bone stock original 66 merc 4V 390 that had 250K+ on it never being opened up and ran like a r*ped ape minus the quirks that an engine developes from 250K miles of abuse. I slapped a used timing chain in it and a 600 holley and duraspark and that engine smoked, rattled, banged, popped, pinged past 1/2 throttle on 87 octane and had a rock solid 23 PSI oil pressure at 6000 RPM valve float and a gauranteed 1-2 PSI at hot idle. That engine is the only thing I tried mercilessly to scatter it's guts in mudholes held wide open at valve float for 5 minutes+ solid all the time and never missed a beat. I ran it out, I mean completely out of oil and held it wide open in a 6500 lifted 4x4 for an hour straight, 4500 RPM and ZERO oil pressure on a mechanical gauge going 90 or so MPH and the engine literally suffered no damage. It got me where I had to be, I shut it down, came back from sea in 2 weeks put 5.5 quarts in it to get to the full mark and it ran like it always did. I pulled that engine when I finally saved enough to build a nice truck 390 to replace it with a best estimate of 295,000 rediculously abusive miles on it and only having had a single timing chain replacement with a used chain. The next 390 that was built with regard to common sense and it's use a truck engine got great mileage in the same truck and would flat out tow ANY 460 powered truck I've driven, ridden in or owned. I put 140,000 daily driver and heavy, heavy tow miles on that engine with a few issues all related to sh*t valvetrain parts from DSC that came apart in the motor. That engine had 190 PSI compression within a week of installing it and seating the rings and had 190 PSI on every cylinder the day I pulled and sold it to replace it with a diesel. I later saw it with the heads off and lower end disassembled and the bores, journals and bearings looked exactly the same as the day I put it together. Not to mention it also managed to pull 34,500 pounds up a 10 mile 6% grade at 60 MPH and 2500 RPM. Show me a 460 that will actually do that and I'll eat every word. That same engine is still going 5 years later with no new machine work, a lopey cam and performer RPM running 13 flat in a local galaxy.

I am not going to argue on this but at 18 it gets expensive trying to constantly keep a motor together. I have not ran this motor hard. I spun it up hard once and it broke. After about $400 I got it back together and it never gets reved over 3,000 rpm. It might just be the one I have but powerwise and dependabilty I am not at all impressed with this engine. I am going to patch it back together but it gets old constantly having to work on a motor

[Brokenarrow]

[I am not going to argue on this but at 18 it gets expensive trying to constantly keep a motor together. I have not ran this motor hard. I spun it up hard once and it broke. After about $400 I got it back together and it never gets reved over 3,000 rpm. It might just be the one I have but powerwise and dependabilty I am not at all impressed with this engine. I am going to patch it back together but it gets old constantly having to work on a motor

The others are right, there is nothing tougher, or more dependable than a well-built Ford FE. Sorry 'bout your bad luck, but yours is the exception, not the norm.

[Jarred Hodges]

[I am not going to argue on this but at 18 it gets expensive trying to constantly keep a motor together. I have not ran this motor hard. I spun it up hard once and it broke. After about $400 I got it back together and it never gets reved over 3,000 rpm. It might just be the one I have but powerwise and dependabilty I am not at all impressed with this engine. I am going to patch it back together but it gets old constantly having to work on a motor

The others are right, there is nothing tougher, or more dependable than a well-built Ford FE. Sorry 'bout your bad luck, but yours is the exception, not the norm.

Hopefully your right. I guess mine was built on friday evening. I have a line on one from a 66 or 67 fairlane for $200 what was running when pulled. I am thinking of getting it for a spare

[averagef250]

In regard to the issues you had here's some food for thought-

FE valvetrain is some of the toughest stock stuff out there. These engines have pretty low lift in stock form, shaft mount high ratio rockers and pretty light spring pressures for the truck motors.

This is what I've seen with FE's- I've put an entire truck 360 together with an impact gun in a gravel driveway and reusing all the old gaskets using two cans of aluminum spray paint (makes headgaskets seal) and a few tubes of RTV. The engine ran perfect. Not recommending this, but it was what I had to do at the time.

At the same time I've seen snapped rocker shaft bolts and broken rocker shafts in engines that were "rebuilt" with very low miles on them. If I had to guess what happened my best theory is whoever worked on it was an idiot and overtorqued under tightened the rocker shaft bolts or tightened them one at a time.

FE's have quirks. If you own one for awhile, especially a worn out one you'll learn them. They are a pretty darn great motor when you get right down to it, they definitely have more character and are funner to work on than any 385 series IMO.

I've had dozens of FE's torn apart in my shop, done many "backyard" rebuilds on truck FE's and know them pretty well. One of the most memorable FE moments for me (second only to pulling 5 ton over legal limit over a steep pass with 390 power) was seeing a 74 F250 4x4 owned by a local farm that I re-ringed the 360 in on the local news. It was stolen by some tweakers who were running a meth lab, when the cops raided the meth lab that was out in the woods some of the tweakers jumped in the truck and went into the woods with news and police choppers overhead. They bounced it off trees, plowed through anything in thier way, made it to the Molalla river where they went through the 3-4 feet or so deep water, up the bank on the other side and finally rolled the truck off the side of a railroad bridge and stuck it between two big firs. You want tough? Seeing what that thing went through without missing a beat is a good testament. Don't knock FE's. If you have one in your truck and it keeps breaking you're doing something really wrong. Educate yourself and fix it right.

[GSequoia]

...and have thier own slightly unique burly exhaust note. You can almost always pick a healthy FE sound out from the crowd.

By the *tick tick tick* of the required exhaust manifold leak?

[Steve75]

My 1968 F-100 has what I think is a 360. When I got it the person told me it had 300,000 miles on it. I don't place a whole lot of confidence in his estimate. I know that I easily racked up 70,000 on it before I parked it. For its age and the miles on it the old girl could still break traction. When I really got after it the shift improver kit caused it to break traction with each shift. The rear end would literally hop with each shift. When I parked it I knew it was time for a rebuild when I parked it some 6 years ago. Even at that she could still give a rice burner a run for its money off the line. It still has the two barrel Ford carb and breaker point ignition.

The new an improved version will have an Isky .480/.480 lift cam with an advertised duration of 262, Mallory Unilite ignition, and a 4 barrel. Of course I also plan on stroking it to 390. I plan on working with a local machine shop known for producing performance engines to get the most out of my engine. The transmission will be overhauled and the valve body modified. I look forward tormenting the rice burners locally. The only question left to answer is what intake to run.