300 Ford best engine ever for daily worked pickup. Notice I did not daily driven. Have had 12 of them in f.150s ftomn1981s to 96s. I prefer the fuel injected backed by c6 trans.
Cool to see an FE build, we built a 390 for my truck using mostly ford parts, with a few aftermarket upgrades, 390 std rotating assembly, ported c8ae-h iron heads, upgraded valve springs, comp thumper cam, Holley street dominator intake, Holley 750cfm 4bbl, long tube headers. HV oil pump with restrictions in the heads, oem non adjustable rocker assembly, hydraulic flat tappet lifters from summit. Turned out exactly as desired, a reliable torque monster with a really nice sounding idle.
I did pretty much the same thing building a replacement 390 engine for my 4 door galaxie, more of a daily driver car. 4.080" bore 390, L2291F pistons, zero decked block, I spent a lot of money on the machine work so that was all right instead of just slapping aftermarket parts on it "trying to make it faster". I used a set of nicely rebuilt C1AE heads with my stock original 352 4V intake (ports matched perfectly) didn't even bother with headers, I resurfaced those on a large belt sander and sand blasted them clean, just a good custom exhaust system. 10:1 compression, comp cams XE262H cam, machine shop did the oiling mods to the block for me free of charge, used a HV pump. Stock non adjustable rocker arms. That thing runs pretty damn good, especially with the 3.70 gear and 2200 stall torque converter I have. Never would have guessed it would have been so powerful for all of the stock components, and how fast and freely it revs to the 5500-6000 RPM range, with a stock single point distributor at that!
Awesome to see these Ford Fe beasts!! From marine blocks in boats to 428s in industrial irrigation pumps, to 427 all out racing engines at the track. These engines have a lot of history and heritage. I’m currently building a 428 with the 3 deuces setup in a 64 galaxie but I’m sure “grandpas truck” did a lot of burnouts back in the day hahaha
Hey Omar, you are getting to be a hoarder with all of those 428s, have you thought of maybe sharing the wealth? 😂. I am glad that you have one for the Galaxie and the Torino! I really like the color on the Torino. A 428 would be really good!
@@OmarRamirezGalaxie I saw a picture of one with a BBC that was painted pink with these stripes it was surrounded by a bunch of dudes wearing makeup like that guy from Smashing Pumpkins that made you want to look the other way? I n not one to judge but I don’t preach on street corners or anything….
I've had several of these FE moters over the years, a 66 t bird, 70 wagon, a few trucks, didn't baby them, never hurt one. Impressive performance on the cheap, now I have one in my slammed 70 F 250, just headers, 4:11s, plenty of power with a 2 bbl.
You almost sound like me. Have had an Edsel w/332, 65 wagon w/352, 67 wagon w390, 66 t-bird w/428. Cars fell apart( after being hit 4 times, ) but motors kept running. Still have the last 2
Reminds me of the "old days" In 1966 I was driving a 59 Galaxie with a 352" and three speed with O.D. I was taking engine rebuilding at our local JC when I met a man on the street who offered me a 427 FE block outof a drag car....$75.00 with a broken rod wrapped around it's neighbor wedged between the counter weights..took a chance and went for it...got two used rods and Pistons out of the junk yard...block was OK. Stuck it in the car...broke it in...and finally put my foot in it. Scattered the three speed and limped home. Went to another junk yard and bought all the running gear from the block to the rear end out of another wrecked 427" Galaxie. I replaced my mag wheels with stock steelies with stock hubcaps and a set of cheater slicks. Powder blue and white car looked like ma Mas grocery getter. Street raced a 56 Chevy gasser with a 327" and four speed...blew him away. 30 years later I was telling the story to a friend who exclaimed "I built that car...you were racing my brother" American Graffiti was fimed next door in Petaluma CA and some of my high school friends worked on the cars. I was blessed to live "the real deal"
@@unclequack5445 Ever hear of Bill Grumpy Jenkins? Put a lot of big blocks on the trailer with 327's. they have a great rod-to-stroke ratio and can be wound up like an alarm clock--pick the right power-to-weight car combo and you can make grown men cry.
I'm coming back to watch this again. I had a Sky-Blue 67 Country Squire with the 390 4-barrel. My first car here in the USA back in 1979. Bulletproof, and 17mpg when leaded gas was about 76 cents per gallon.
@@bigboreracing356 No need to be rude. Yes, I understand that FE's have a deep skirted block, as do countless other engines. As I'm sure you are aware, the term Y-Block most commonly refers to the Ford 272/292/312 series of V8 engines. This is what I was referring to and I would like to see the Engine Power guys do a build on one.
I daily drive a 390 in my F100. Lots of stock internals, with some bolt on stuff. Rebuilt it when I was 17 (Only 1 year ago) Runs great. This gave me a few more ideas for my build.
@@willfrancone3908 I've seen your channel, are you still using the 4 speed? A really nice upgrade for a daily driver would be a tremec tko. I built a 445 and ran the 4 speed for awhile. I put in a tko 600 and am much happier.
@@slick-px4pq I am still using the 4 speed. I would love to do a 5 or 6 speed, But it's expensive. There's a guy who is possibly going to make an adaptor to fit a zf5 behind an FE, so maybe I'll wait for that. Having an overdrive must be nice behind these gas hogs.
These 60's era Ford FE engines were really something in drag racing and Nascar. Most noteworthy was Fords 390 FE, where in 1961 was available with the three deuce option which made 401 hp. Imagine a brand new 1961 Ford Starliner (black) with the 390 and a 4 speed, ..always a big hit with the chicks down at the tasty freeze..
I would like to see the cam spec on that 401 HP three Deuce 390 compared to the roller used here , The 61 may have higher compression . The engine rebuilt here seems short on power with that much cam , other pump gas engines with less cu.in. do better with .100 less lift and 14" less duration.
@@BuzzLOLOL the camshaft and heads being used on this Ford , are not good choice Blueprint SBC mild 383 crush this Turd easily with milder cams , stock vortec head and a little less displacement. A Ford 390 has a 3.70 stroke, SBC stroker 383 has 3.75 I think the Ford has better potential with a milder cam & Heads for better velocity,
I know this was a budget build, but with the 410 merc pistons already there, it would have been interesting to pick up a 428 crank (not like this show doesn't get aftermarket parts free) and see what 410 cid would accomplish.
@7:35 should be ROLLER cams install with only engine oil, hydraulic flat tappets definitely need the moly lube. I love the FE content! Keep it coming!!!
First of all I'm going to take a moment to appreciate the presentation you guys give, you guys kept the same format and its awesome. I remember around 2003 on Sunday mornings sitting on my bed as a 9 year old watching "the power block" on the TNT network from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. good memories. Glad to see y'all still got it!
38 degrees of total timing is what the RPM heads want!! Also, a 1131 Silvolite piston would have brought you 9.7 to 1 compression which the FE series really likes!! We are not a big fan of the Keith Black pistons!! Too low of static compression!! Also, aligning up the main saddle oil passages to the main beatings is crucial! Intake centerline should have been at 108, not 104!!
I just found my boy a 428 crank to stick in his 390. It is going to be fun building the 410 for his f100 4x4. Would you have a cam recommend? It's a hunting truck but he also likes to play in the mud so we are looking for good low end power.
I agree with you FESpecialties. This was a sad build and waste of money for the amount of roller camshaft with over 600 lift and 1.72 rocker ratio it should have made way more power
Is there a cam you would recommend? I plan on doing my first build to refresh a recent F250 purchase. Not looking for a race car but a fun weekend tire melter :-)
I run a Tony Oddo, Jr. 428-SCJ in my Mach 1. FEs with aluminum heads and intake are as light as an all-iron small block. 460 hp, 490 ft-lbs w/ CJ manifolds - NO headers.
I like how they didn’t discuss piston ring installation and indexing, piston orientation and connecting rod orientation on the crankshaft. All very critical details.
I built a 428 CJ from parts even managed to find some cross bolt main caps. I used the HS rockers and a gear drive. Back when I built it $350 seemed to be the magic number for parts. Intake rear sump pan etc. Expensive engine to build but what a stump puller.
I've.built everything from a 352 to a 428 as far as FE engines go. The best intake I ever used on a street FE is the classic Edelbrock Streetmaster. Although it's a single plane it doesn't penalize low rpm torque to make high rpm HP.
Really nice build. I love my Harland Sharp rockers. Such good quality. I have a set on my 1st gen Bronco that I have had on for about 20 years! One thing on the 390: good power on a conservative build, although I was surprised it did not respond a little more to adding 5 degrees of timing. I was thinking 20-25, not that 15 is bad.
i always wondered what those factory bigblock intakes intakes weighed. they could get heavy if you had to pull one off with the engine in chassis. i enjoyed the video. i remember tri powered 406 engines. fast back in the 1960s.
I had a 1966 Fairlane GT 390. The GT block had main cap bolts that went through the side of the block. Factory numbers were 335 HP and 427 TQ. It was a pretty fun car for a 16 year old kid. GT was a 4 spd and the GTA was an automatic.
No 390 GT block had cross bolted main caps. The only FE with them was the 427. Supposedly very late 406 blocks had them too however I've never seen one or any substantial proof they exist
@@tomcoppa2211 You are correct regarding the cross bolted main caps. However if I am not mistaken the GT block's had beefier main bearing webs as did the PI 390's .
I had a 73 f100 with a 390 with a 30 over bore and that truck was a monster I sold it to a friend who plowed the oil pan on something it took him to work 5 miles each way for over a week with no oil it finally seized we put oil in it unseized it with a wrench and it ran fine for several more years
back in the late 60s a friend of mine had a 390 done up and put it in his 66 four door fairlane and we put stock chevy mufflers on it to hide the power but you could tell he had some power, he could pop the front end at 90 miles an hour and no one touched him at that time , today with all the different set ups you never know what you are running against.
390 was put in nearly everything Ford had at the time. And worked well in every application. Give me a 67 390 2barrel in a full size Ford car. Good on gas and power.
@@jesse75 390 made good torque with factory heads and intake, but if you're building one for horsepower output, everything spec'd differently. A truck is heavy and needs torque.... Just like a full sized car. Use a 390-2v all day long, I've seen first hand their grunt strength. But in factory form they're a truck engine.
@@richdouche8253 define factory form ? The car 390 and truck 390 are different. 390 first used in heavy cars. The 352 was phased out in favor of the 390 in trucks in 68.
@@jesse75 Factory form 390's, whether put in cars or trucks, have never been known as big horsepower engines. The runner and port design, size and shape. Combustion chambers. Valve angles. Etc etc. were not designed for making big horsepower. Fantastic for vacuum and low and mid and great torque for street use, but nobody was winning races with the 390 compared to competitor big blocks in factory trim. Even look at this build... These guys have 390 cubes (plus), and were barely making over 1hp per cube with aftermarket heads, roller cam, rockers, intake and carbs. Hell.... I'd rather have lighter and smaller Windsor stroked to 393 that could churn out more horses on the same mild street stuff. I'm not bashing the 390. It's just never been known as a heavy breather. Especially in factory form. In any configuration that it was sold to the public.
@@richdouche8253 just like the 351w, the 390 never was a performance engine. Maybe in it's infantcy, but the 406 and 427 were the performance engine. Again. In the 60's and early 70's, the 390 powered nearly everything. It was just a grocery getter like the 351 Windsor, being used in cars and trucks. Oh wow. They put a 4 barrel carb on these engines, but they didn't amount to anything special. Just moved around a heavy vehicle. But the 390 is still a venerable engine. Everyone of these engines I find at a wrecking. I buy. Rebuild. And never have a problem selling. The engine is in high demand where I live. I must have did 70 of these engines so far. And it's true, many of the stock original pistons are marked 410 on them. But not the car engines, those pistons are different.
Nice build. Love the FE! Just gor those who don't know, if this build would of used Trick Flow heads the hp would have been more impressive. Probably upwards of 50-60 hp. The ebooks are nothing more than clone iron heads. Nothing special. This engine with 9.8: 1 and Trick flow heads hits 500hp.
Agreed, the head selection makes no sense and is holding this combination back. Cam is 238/244 @.050 with .618 lift on close to 400ci with the bored cylinders? Needs more flow. And compression, 9.1 with aluminum heads makes no sense either. They left a lot of power on the table with this build.
Considering how well aluminum heads handle heat, you can typically run one point higher compression than cast iron heads. so yeah i think EazyE77 hit the nail on the head.
For those commenting if you were to go with stock / upgraded iron heads how high would you limit the compression ratio ? Not sure I have the coin to do heads as I would probably skip right over E Brock’s and they are quick pricey.
They's thirsty beasties, my buddy got a 65 pickup with one in it ,and back in 1991 as a couple of snotnosed kids we burned 175$ worth of gas in it in a week and didn't even leave the county.
Oil mods are necessary on those type engines starting with an afternarket oil pump drive and restrictors for the heads . a 4.98 crank would really make a big difference and keep the Compression arouns 10.25 to1 Trick Flow heads are the ticket on the Fe type engine . Just my thoughts on what works for me .
Boy, I sure wish You Tube was available in the 70's. My 428 separated the intake stem from the valve and destroyed the engine. To get my Cobra Jet Mustang back on the road someone told me about a 335hp - 390ci, which was the same block, so I put that in. I was able to use the same intake manifold from the 428, which was NOT aluminum. J.C. that is a heavy manifold! It took two people to install it. I was 20 or 21 at the time, so I didn't have much money for all of the fancy high HP parts, just a set of headers. It was fun(?) to work on, but ran great when it was done.
Best twist about a FE is when the oil pump shaft twists into a pretzel LOL, and you gotta love those rusted exhaust bolts when they break because they are through holes and rust. Great design!
Or you go to pull the distributor,and some schmuck was goofing around and now your driveshaft is in the oil pan. But wait,there's more. It's in a van 😂😂
you guys could run alot more comp with that cam ! is there a reason you guys are running such low comp ? just curious. im sure this engine would be very safe with 10.5-1 with the same rpm limit. unless you struggled with piston options ? which would be undestandable.
my question is about that cam , thats a lot of duration and lift for a mild street engine, you want peak HP below 5500, and stronger midrange torque I seen 383 sbc with 9.2:1 compression , with vortec heads and a 220/228 duration .510 lift 112 lobe cam get 420HP @ 5200rpm and 465 Torque 3600rpm , with the factory air cleaner housing on and a Quadrajet carb, That 390 should be capable of 415 HP under 5500 rpm and more tha 445 torque at 3600-4000 ,It does have a 3.7" stroke so it should get more than 445 torque and you want that to carry a nice flat curve with peak HP around 5100-5200 , This 390 having 445 lbft of torque at 3700 is ok , a more optimum , milder cam might lift that up and produce peak HP around 5100 rpm, that is a nice street engine 4 a truck,,
I ended up washing mine three times but it was out of fear from all the drilling cutting and machine work done. Looking back I should have just bought a new block from Barry Rabotnic.
My only concern: are there aftermarket headers? My uncle owned a 68 Cougar XR7-G in the 80's. It had a 390 with cat on the valve head covers. It had only cast iron exhaust manifolds. The 390 is a great engine.
428 crank, longer 390 rods, short Merc 410 pistons, C60Z6250BB Cobrajet cam. CJ manifold and Hokey, Gemini headers. {eg the 200hp chassis dyno @2500 rpms. Fun, in my '72 F250.
One correction - the say hydraulic cams use motor oil for lube vs flat tappet cams that use assembly lube. Slip of the tongue but cams for flat tappet lifters use assembly lube regardless of whether they are meant for hydraulic or mechanical lifters. Roller lifters use oil regardless if they are hydraulic or mechanical.
Note for folks working on Japanese trucks and trying to save a buck: @5:14 you see the guys spraying Dupli-Color Old Ford Engine Blue on the block and you might think it's a perfect match for Toyota 8A1 Medium Blue from the 1980s - it is soooo close I can barely tell the difference even in good light - but the paint does not stand up to UV. It might be cheaper than a proper paint job, but it isn't a durable substitute.
Lotsa people thought that and i remember watching a vid on racing engines and they talked a little about the fe and once people started thinking about the engine calling it the iron block cause the element table but had no clue bout Edsel ford
Rebuilt a 428 a couple years ago and caught a major flaw in the rod bearings. The squirt holes were not machined in the bearings and if I hadn’t caught it it would have destroyed the cam. Just beware of the rod bearings!
The BEST big block engine ever made by anyone. It was in production for 18 years and went from 332 cubic inches all the way up to 428 cubic inches. Ford could have easily made much bigger if it had not been for the 385 engine family that was made to replace it.
Not even close, fe’s are turds. A stock 429 68-71 made these numbers. 429/460 is light years ahead of an Fe and better than a BBC imo. Fe will always be held back by its garbage cylinder head. These aftermarket heads flow less cfm on the intake side than a stock 70 closed chamber 4V cleveland head. Rich Holdener did a vid of a bone stock m code 70 clev with headers, cam and an intake, made 450 hp. Fe’s are good grandpa engines, not racing engines
@@mitchanderson5813 Actually Rich's 351 made closer to 360 HP not 450. Still a nice engine though. I was impressed with his 400 "factory stroker Cleveland" build's?
A lot of engines really like them, especially the older mechanical distribution motors. I have seen a few computer controlled cars have issues adjusting the curve though.
Greetings! Can I ask you a question regarding a 1969 Ford Mustang with a 390 engine? We are repairing such an engine and cannot find the dimensions of the crankshaft and piston liners.
Would've been nice to see a little higher compression than 9:1. It's not the 80s anymore, with those heads and that cam, 10:1 would've been just fine. Glad to see the FE getting some love though.
It would've made about + 5% more HP so say another 20-25hp. There's a rule of thumb that for every point of compression there's approximately a 5% gain all things being equal including fuel. I read another paper that said compression increases beyond 9:1 result in less power increase than increases up to 9:1. I don't really know what that means but I guess the power increase from 6 - 7:1 might be 15%, between 7 - 8 might be 10% and 8 - 9:1 maybe 8%. Sounds reasonable. That's all on the same fuel too and was on a single cylinder test engine with a hydraulically operated variable compression piston. Hardly a real world V8 but interesting none the less, no? We know increasing the octane rating of fuel combined with compression increases yields more than 5% generally but then things like high flowing heads and camshafts and huge tube headers and all this other stuff adds to the non level playing field I suppose.
love fe ford's, drag race with one, should have drilled through the block from the oil filter housing side to the oil pump hole. also link timing chains are more durable for syree use and you could have went with the trick flow heads and jumped 50 horsepower.
@@bigboreracing356 the fe ford engine has won multiple engine masters competition for horsepower per cubic inch, it'd put there in you tube land to see
@@bigboreracing356 I have had other racers ask my permission to measure my rear-end and look at how I built it. damn truck is fast but it is about a lot more than an engine, as it pertains to the strip your rear-end and suspension are super important to be able to hook all that power up.
I am a FE Guy, we build up to 10FE Shortblocks for Customers every year. I wonder why KB doenst build the piston without that dish.... giving a good compression..or stay with a real dish...but that step dome kills compression..sadly they never answered..btw..I have a video on ym channel got KB Pistons with bended piston pins..ever got an answer for that problem
