Q: I own a 1976 Ford F-150 two-wheel drive pickup with a 360 engine.
The piston rings are worn and need to be changed. While the engine is out, I’m thinking of turning it into a 390. I’ve also heard it’s possible to make it a 410 with factory parts, and an Edelbrock Performer cam and intake package?
A: The only additional parts you’ll need to turn your 360 into a 390 are a 390 crankshaft and pistons, such as Eagle Specialty Products’ cast steel crank and Speed Pro Power Forged pistons.
Horsepower ratings on stock 390 engines varied between 300-325hp at the flywheel, depending on their original application. With an Edelbrock Performer camshaft and intake you can expect 340-350 hp.
Turning your engine into a 410 is relatively simple, too.
You’ll need a 428 crankshaft like Scat’s cast crank, 390 piston, and your stock 360 rods. Factory 410s produced about 330 hp at the flywheel.
Expect an Edelbrock-equipped version to make 370-380 hp.
I owned a 1971 F350 Camper Special 360 engine 2bbL carb. What a gas pig! It would pass everything but a gas station.Lot of power/4 speed tranny\ 2WD. I’ve done a lot of Ford’s in my time and not a Lover of any of the “FE” engines….Ship Anchors!
Give me a 289 or 429 any day. But good luck if you can afford the fuel!
I agree. My question is why in the world would you want to keep the FE in your truck? Build you a 351 W and a C-6 trans and you will be a lot happier with more power, less weight, better mileage and with a Elderbrock intake and cam with EFI you will be ecstatic.
An fe will run circles around a 289 or 429 and last longer
I agree, I have had all 3 and I had all three. A 289/302 in a light car built for racing is good for…..racing. A 429/460 is pretty good, but would you believe that a stock rebuild only makes the same power as a stock 390 2V from 1969? It is true. A friend rebuilt one stock to put back in his 1984 250 4×4 that had a 4 V. The cam was in good shape so he bought another stock one from Mellings. And it turned out nice. It sounded like a new truck. The exhaust manifolds were pink from running so hot. He bought a set of stainless shorty headers. And he put 2.25 duals running down the right and a single stock big round dual in and out it was more oval but was huge, the tailpipes over the axle and to each side. He took all of his stuff to a dyno shop and ran it. It made 265 hp through the exhaust and 400 ft lbs it weighed 755 lbs just the engine. We put it in his truck and it had a 4 speed truck trans and it all went in so nice. The shorties were fit just like the manifolds, the factory exhaust pipe and tail pipes were like new , the good double wall factory stuff. All we replaced was the muffler. The tailpipes fit perfectly. The Holley was rebuilt to factory specifications and I did his distributor to cure the overheating by getting the timing right for working. It was a beautiful clean bullnose. 84 250. The only pistons were 9:1, so that was a bump from 8.4:1. But that was the power. When we were doing his , a fella was rebuilding a 360. He put 410 pistons in it like stock but found some rods that brought it up to zero deck and used .040 thick gaskets and his D2TE -AA heads that cleaned up well and a Comp 268H camshaft and Johnson lifters. A very mild cam. The intake was an aluminum swap meet that looked like a CJ intake that had ports that matched his small ports the he got for $20 and he cleaned it really good. It looked nice. He had 4×4 he had the big rear sump oil pan. Some one had modified a windage tray for it an he put a new pump and the long pickup tube from Melling. He had some long tube 4×4 headers and they fit fine. He wanted to dyno it to see how bad it was compared to the 460 in the 84 because we thought that was pretty good. The 360 was 9.8:1 with the long rods. The 460 was 9:1 so it was a fair comparison both.030 over, 464 vs 363 we ran it open headers with my reworingy his distributor and the Holley that was just like his. We were stupefied that the 363 ci FE only weighed 540 lbs fully dressed. The hp came in at 372 and 410 ft lbs.. It only had a cam , intake and headers and of course the longer rods but all they did was get the pistons up to zero deck It was a quiet drive back to the shop. The 460 heads had ports that you could almost put your fist in and the intake looked tall, just iron. But that little 363 had made 372 hp and 410 hp and weighed 210 lbs less made 120 hp more and about the same torque. I d put longer rods in the stock 360.
They were not known for fuel economy. I built an old 360 into a 390 with a marine cam and Holley 4 bbl carb. It went into a F 350 dump truck and not only hauled gravel but ass too. No other dump truck could accelerate loaded like mine. I was afraid of twisting an axle shaft it pulled so hard but fortunately it never happened.
I own a ’71 F250 2wd camper special C-6 with an original 390. It’s been bored.030, Edelbrock performer cam kit, manifold, Holley 600,MSD 26°curve @ 2600rpm. Hedman headers,dual 2.5″exhaust. I rebuilt this 65,000 miles ago! It runs great still. Truck has 290,000+miles. Daily driven in seasonable weather.
How much horsepower? Plenty! No real fuel economy….maybe FI TECH?
You will have to overbore to 4.050 for 390
I was under the impression that the 360 and 390 have the same bore and the 360 actually has longer rods. If that is the facts. Then a guy would have to change crank, rods and Pistons. I believe the skirts are different. Am I a fountain of mis information or what? Thanks.
Reading the comments? Seems as though your reader HAVE NO CLUE ABOUT FE ENGINES.Been building these for DECADES. Got 352 fe building 613 horse. 427 (507) bored stroked tunnel port and wedge head making OVER 870 HORSE BOAT ANCHORS? YOUR LEAD ASS BRAIN IS A BOAT ANCHOR OR SHOULD BE. I Own & opperate Quintex Machine Technologies build these for fun and a living. By the way. This, as you put it so stupidly, boat anchor is the same detuned cobra type engine tha beat Ferrari and everyone else at 24 hrs. At Lemans three years straight then quit racing. Point proven beyond any doubt.
James would you be interested in some FE engines and HP heads wildharold@bellsouth.net
I have had a love affair with the Ford FE since the 1960s. They can produce an unbelievable amount of torque. My brother and I put a 428 together with 10:1 compression, a 427 cam, large port heads, holley 710 cfm into a 5200 lb 62 T-Bird convertible and it would pull away from a 454 vette. This was with the stock 3.0 rear end! Built many 390s with great performance and decent mileage. The 360 had lower compression and never did perform as well as the previous 352 did. Oh did I mention i’m a retired professional mechanic with over 40 years experience in tune-up and diagnostics?
My respect Terry for your service. I have done FEs about the same amount of time. I always got a kick out of people who would throw away 70s pickup 360s. The D3TE-D4TE and on blocks were some of the best common blocks, I think they went back to D2TEand to D6TE, but when you look at the lower end, they are built like a brick outhouse. The reinforcement in the center 3 mains have the 3 rib SCJ to the main bulkhead. I gobbled them up most had a drill bit test between the bores of .187 or 12/64. And they sonic to bore to a thin for me 4.13 428 bore. I would only bore them to a 4.11 or .060 over 390and turn a 428 crank down to 3.97 from 3.98, and reduce the rod journals to 2.2 and used BB Chevy aftermarket 6..7 inch rods with custom pistons with 1mm/ 1/mm/2mm rings and as light as they could be. The old piston before this good stuff was around. I d leave the 2nd ring out and cut a link from the scrubber and bend the retainer rings in and put thevplastic holder back on. Tedious as a dickens. Anyway I put heads on and use a torque wrench on the balancer and they had all been balanced but you only needed 12-14 ft lbs to turn them over. I also put bore fitted head gaskets on at .35 for flat tops and. .040 with a relief groove or grooves for popups. 11:1 37 degrees total and 93 octane Top-tier gas for any FE you build and you will fall in love with it. Btw, a 235 duration.600 lift on a 1110LSA and ICA (square) for a cushion during overlap when the mixture is burnt, and there is pretty much nothing in the chamber that causes the piston to yank the rod and cyclical stress the pin and to
rod and piston to be stressed until they break. Ironically you could have twice the power with turbos and they act like a cushion better than NA.
FEs forever!
Went from a 360 to a 390 in my 75 F-150 4×4. What a difference. Power galore and 18 mpg on the highway. 390 is a great engine.
Ain’t it amazing how everyone on the internet is an expert on everything??
All nonsense aside, if the man wants to rebuild his 360 into a 390 or 410, that’s his business, and more power to him. With that being said, the only thing I saw wrong in the article is using 390 pistons with a 428 crank to make a 410. Original 410’s had a specific piston, 4.05 bore w/428 compression height. With the rise of aftermarket cranks, I’m sure one of the companies makes pistons for this application. I don’t know this for a fact, since I’m not an internet expert, but would think it would be so…
When I discovered that the crankshaft in my 390 was a gonner, I faced the same question as the OP. If you have to buy a new reciprocating assembly (crank, rods and pistons, the cost will be pretty much the same regardless of the stroke (see Scat offerings. In other words going to 390, 410 or even 445 CID entails very little difference in cost.
I have a 1972 ford f-250, 360 v8, four speed and 100,000 miles. Truck has no torque and the top loader 4 speed is slow to shift.
Queston: what engine / trans combo would work best. I dont want to use a computer to run the assembly.
Any good advice.
I have a 410 with c6 trans and wouldnt trade them for any other engine/transmisson combo. Fords FE is, in my opinion, is thier finest engine. Ever.
1976 Ford F350 140 inch wheelbase, 360 FE steel crank I guess Dana 70 locker 4:10 drove straight hands of wheel on freeway parked for 25 years. Base model needs better sheet metal and a rewire, and rebuilt has C6 tranny in Vancouver, BC any offers?
I also want to turn my 360 into a 410.I am only about half mechanic, but I used to know a few good ones. Most of them are too old or gone now. I have ran FE engines most of my life also. Best engine series ford ever made in my opinion. I wish I knew someone who could help ne with my build now for a reasonable price. I know the basics of what needs to be done and exactly how I want it but the tools, shop, and “know how” to do it all myself
Back in the early 90’s I bought a 67 F100 short bed with a tired 352 / C6. A buddy gave me a 360 out of his 68. It had recently been rebuilt but he was putting a 410 in its place. I just wanted to see if I could wake the 360 up. From what I had read, it was a short stroke 390. It had new flat top pistons so I knew the compression was a little better than stock. I did a little port work on the heads to smooth out the flow. A buddy that had an old speed shop with an old school bus out back full of used parts let me play. I found an old Offy 390 intake, a Carter 650 vac secondary with the Ford kick-down linkage, a used Saturday night special torque converter, and some rusty but usable headers. He let me have it all for $100. I put a shift kit in the c6 and I had a 6 cylinder F100 with a 3:55 geared differential that I put in my 67. Found a 76 360 in the junkyard with electronic ignition. Got the distributor, coil, ignition box and wire harness for $25. All I needed now was a new cam, lifters, timing set, and gaskets. Went with what we called an RV cam that wasn’t too radical that would work with the stock valve springs. This was a shoestring budget build with about $500 invested. After putting it all together, it definitely had woke up. Unfortunately one night it woke up a State Trooper hiding in the bushes . It would have been more fun if I could have afforded a posi-trac rearend. But hey, for $500 and a couple of weekends wrench time, it was a blast to drive. Nobody believed it was a 360. Especially my friend who gave it to me.
Yes I on could have went with a 351w which I did put in a 72 F100, or easily made the 360 into a 390. But again for $500 I got the most bang for the buck. My next project is a 69 390 in my 79 Cougar.
In the late 70’s I bought a wrecked 1967 GT 390 for $200, that was folded in the middle, salvaged the motor and C6, put in a 1967 F100, sold it to a friend who wrecked it. Wish I had that now!. Now i have an lowered 1970 F 250 390 that has been sitting for years, drained the old gas, (peww!), bought a cheap new 2 bbl, just started it this week, still runs great! I was told when I bought it was a 360, ran the numbers, it’s a 390.
A bit of advice if you have a 2V and want to change intakes, get a Performer RPM , instead of a Performer. The RPM is good on any FE. I hope that the 390 in your truck is a car one. They are zero deck engines. Most trucks are below zero deck. The truck 390 I am not exactly sure, but I had a customer with his truck pinging. I pulled his heads and it was below deck but not like a 360. I did an in chassis,pushing out his pistons and rods I had a set of 360 rods and I did some measurements and put together a zero deck and a .040 gaskets , redid the rods with ARP bolts and relief grooves opposite the plugs. They rev really quick! He put a Performer RPM and a 750 Holley 3310.
Summit if you’re listening please don’t quit on the FE. I watched Demon on Wheels again. I have a 65 Galaxie 2 dr . That is just sitting. My son and I swapped the frame out with a good Oklahoma frame replaced all of the suspension and brakes. We did all of the bodywork and painted it. It was beautiful but it has sat in the sun and the paint is ruined. I put a strong 390?in it with him with a C6.
I had rewired it from front to rear like a new car with Relays and fuses , everything was done. My son came and chopped it all up and was working to rewire it stock, when I said I had that done. I had an accident at work that left me with low vision. But he quit and he won’t touch it. Please stock Ford FEparts, wiring looms . C6 parts. or trans adapters.