mad2smile

i have a 1976 F-150 supercab 4x2 with a 360FE and a C6 tranny. the truck only has 64,000 original miles on it, but it sat for 10-15 years in a barn before i bought it and started driving it every day. the truck is pretty reliable... i mean, it starts every time. but sometimes it runs like total shit, and it uses oil, etc. i think that the old girl needs a new engine, b/c i know that twice the engine overeheated due to a bad water pump (changed now), and that a few times, the truck has had hardly any oil in it. i fear that the damage done is beyond repair, so id like to just do a swap.

heres my delima... ive never built an engine. and though i know what im doing with cars, but i dont really know where to start with an engine for my truck. i know that i want a larger displacement engine (preferably in the 400= ci range), but some such engines are way our of my price range (esp 406s, 410s and the cj/scj engines).

i need options here. any good suggestions? any of you been frugal and still built a really good high-displacement engine? honestly, my top end, including carburetor and custom mandrel bent true dual exhaust system is around $1500.

fire away.

__________________
1995 Taurus SHO MTX w/Quaife - 75,000 miles
1976 Ford F-150 Supercab 4x2 w/360FE engine - 64,000 miles
1993 Dodge Ram 3500 Club Cab 6x4 Flatbed MTX- 100,000 miles

Remember, remember the Fifth of November.

kdtrucker

First off are you going to use the 360 for your build or are you going to use another engine. If you use the 360 and you want 400+ cubes, you'll have to bore the block and definitly get a longer stroked crank. Although if you leave the 360 bore at stock (4.05) and find a 428 crank you'll have a 410. The 428 crank isn't cheap appox. $400 unless you find a 410 motor in the junk yard They came with the 428 crank.

You don't really have alot of money do get the big horse power that you want, but it can be done if you know what to look for and buy cheap and make really good friends with you local machine shop, they may be able to help you in many ways

Tell us how many cubic inches you want a what kind of HP & TQ your looking to get and we here at the forum can give you a better idea of how much money you'll need for your build.

FFR428

Search around online for some of the rebuild places. 390 longblocks last I checked were in the $1200-1500 range. 7 year 70k seems to be the normal warrenty on most of the better places. Good if you can't do the rebuild and search for parts. It's about the same money after you chase down 390 parts and pay a shop to machine, rebuild and assemble everything. I have no idea who's good but ask around on the forums. With a budget of $1500 that'll about cover the longblock, core and shipping charges. You'll need the intake and some misc brackets and hardware off yours to swap everything. Carb and exhaust you'll still need but you can always try to sell your block, heads to recoupe a bit. 360-390 block are the same. Good blocks can fetch $100-150+ and std heads $50-100. Most engine core charges are $180+ so that's about a wash. I beleve you'll have to ship it back for the credit?? So that could be extra costs I don't know how they work that. Just thinking out loud here....

mad2smile

well, i'll probably need to be able to use the truck, so im thinking that purchasing an additional block would be the way to go.

i personally care alot about torque, but i also love hi-revving muscle car hp. if i could only choose one of the two, though, torque i would be my choice for sure.

shooting for at least 400 cubes, and over 440 ft/lbs of torque.

my dream would be to have the tri-power intake/carb setup, but that alone would be over half of my budget, so im thinkin that an aluminum intake with a 4-barrel is probably the way to go.

what do you all think?

__________________
1995 Taurus SHO MTX w/Quaife - 75,000 miles
1976 Ford F-150 Supercab 4x2 w/360FE engine - 64,000 miles
1993 Dodge Ram 3500 Club Cab 6x4 Flatbed MTX- 100,000 miles

Remember, remember the Fifth of November.

FFR428

Your going to need more money. You might be able to pull off a stock replacement but anything more is really tough on that budget. If you could built it yourself possibly you can do more. But if not there is not a whole lot you can do. The FE engines are just too expensive parts wise today. And the fact your shopping for a long block with that budget your limited to pretty much stock parts. Maybe a cam upgrade in there. Any kind of performance 390+Cube engines are in the $3-6K++ range depending on parts and machine work. If you had a good shop to do the machine work and a friend who can help with engine assy you could do a little more. Engine assy is not that difficult once you understand everything. With all the books and websites out there to help you could do it with some help. I learned long ago because I could never afford to pay someone to fix my cars. LOL!!! Still the same today!!

mad2smile

i would probably do everything except machine shop-type work. i know i can do anything i need to. i replaced my head gasket on my cummins ram, so surely i can assemble an engine.

what if i could find a decent 360 or 390 that has 100,xxx miles on it and then do stuff like cam, porting of the heads, intake, carb, etc? could i stay pretty cheap then or would it still be alot more than i want to spend?

__________________
1995 Taurus SHO MTX w/Quaife - 75,000 miles
1976 Ford F-150 Supercab 4x2 w/360FE engine - 64,000 miles
1993 Dodge Ram 3500 Club Cab 6x4 Flatbed MTX- 100,000 miles

Remember, remember the Fifth of November.

iiizman

Check this guy out he is reasonable

Carl's Ford Parts

Z