Ford Big-Block Parts Interchange. George Reid
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was rather modest, considering that it gained nearly 100 ci of displacement in the years to follow to wind up at 428 ci. Ford achieved these displacements by playing with bore and stroke combinations.
The FE was produced in four bore sizes: 4.000, 4.050, 4.130, and 4.230 inches, with strokes of 3.300, 3.500, 3.780, and 3.980 inches. Ford managed eight displacements with these bore and stroke combinations. And, if you’re creative enough you can come up with more than 450 ci using the 427 block and a 428 crank. Opt for an aftermarket stroker kit and you can take the FE to the moon in terms of displacement and raw torque.
You can ask a lot of the FE without consequence as long as you amass the correct parts and infuse proper building technique. Although there are four bore sizes, basic engine block architecture is the same with the exception of the 406, 427, and 428 Cobra Jet, which are higher-displacement highperformance versions of the FE Series big-block. Cross-bolted main caps and heavier main webbing arrived late in the 1962 model year with the 406, then, ultimately the 427 in 1963.
NASCAR-driven performance improvements included High Riser heads available over the counter from Ford starting in 1963 (replacing the earlier Low Riser versions), and then Medium Riser heads in 1965, with a NASCAR rule change. In 1964, in the wake of the Chrysler Hemi’s NASCAR performance, Ford developed the 427 Single Overhead-Cam (SOHC) engine during a crash program, in just 90 days, to take back NASCAR dominance. Rules issues in NASCAR at the time prevented it from being used in stock car racing, but it became a legendary drag racing engine, piloted by Don Prudhomme, Mickey Thompson, “Sneaky” Pete Robinson, Connie Kalitta, and others.
The 427 Side Oiler, which featured an improved oiling system over the FE wedge engines, arrived in production cars in 1965. The 427 Tunnel Port came online next in 1967 as a NASCAR alternative to the SOHC. The 428 Cobra Jet, which arrived in 1968 in the Mustang and distinguished itself on the dragstrip, used a unique heavy-duty block with heavier main webbing for rugged durability.
The FE’s closest sibling, the FT Series (Ford Truck), produced in 330, 359, 361, 389, and 391 ci for medium- and heavy-duty trucks, was a stouter version of the FE with a heavier block and a steel crank. The beauty of the FT is its interchangeability with the FE. The FT’s steel crank will fit the FE with the talents of a good machinist who can machine the snout down to the FE’s diameter and length.
The FE big-block was eliminated from high-performance factory applications after 1970. In fact, 1970 was the last year for any kind of high-performance FE; it wrapped up with the 428 Cobra Jet, which was replaced with the 385 Series 429 Cobra Jet and Super Cobra Jet in 1971. In 1971, the 390 FE was replaced in passenger cars with the tall-deck 400-ci middle-block derived from the 351 Cleveland program. The 390 and lower-displacement 360-ci FE big-blocks, which were factory installed only in trucks, were all that remained of the FE program through 1976. The FT engine program wound down to a halt around the same time.
It can be safely said the venerable FE big-block is the most legendary high-performance engine in Ford’s history. It started out as a mild-mannered passenger-car grocery-getter engine in 1958 with the 332, 352, and 361 (Edsel). It wasn’t long before Ford engineers and product planners realized the great performance potential of this engine given displacement and a hotter cam. Racing history was made as Ford began adding displacement and brute high-performance components.
The MEL
The MEL (Mercury-Edsel-Lincoln) big-block, produced from 1958 to 1967 to replace the Lincoln Y-block V-8, is the most unusual Ford big-block ever produced. With displacements of 383, 410, 430, and 462 ci, the MEL was available in the Mercury, Edsel, Lincoln, and even Ford Thunderbird. When this engine entered production at the beginning of the 1958 model year at Ford’s new Lima, Ohio, engine plant, it wasn’t officially known as the MEL. In fact, based on Ford documentation from the period, the Mercury-Edsel-Lincoln Division of Ford didn’t exist until January 1958, when it was officially announced. The MEL was once a very popular racing engine, especially in powerboats where its torque and durability were unbeatable. It could make torque all day without breaking a sweat. These days, the MEL is often built more for automotive and boat restorations than anything else. Die-hard MEL performance buffs still look to these engines for torque. Parts for the MEL are becoming increasingly scarce.
What makes the MEL different from any other Ford V-8 of the period is the absence of combustion chambers in the cylinder heads, which employ a flat deck like a diesel cylinder head. The block deck is cut at a 10-degree angle off the piston crowns to where the top of each cylinder bore is a wedge combustion chamber. Chevrolet did the same thing with its “W” series 348- and 409-ci big-block where the top of the bore was also the chamber.
The MEL went through a series of revisions with its cylinder heads and pistons to reduce detonation and hard-starting issues early in production. The flat-deck cylinder heads got a small pocket chamber briefly during the course of production to help reduce compression and help quench. It wasn’t long before Ford went back to the flat-deck cylinder head and made changes in piston design.
Early on, the MEL was an option for the Mercury in 383 ci. Mercury received the 430-ci Super Marauder with 6V carburetion, along with the distinction of being Detroit’s first real muscle car engine. In the 1958–1959 Edsel, the MEL was 410 ci; in the Lincoln and the 1959–1960 Thunderbird, 430 ci. After 1960, the MEL was a Lincoln-only 430-ci powerplant until 1966 when Ford grew it to 462 ci. Production ended in mid-1968 when the 462 MEL was replaced by the 385 Series 429/460.
Super Duty Sleeper
When you think of Super Duty, thoughts turn to the current F-250/F-350 Series pickup trucks. However, 50 years ago Super Duty meant big heavy-duty cast-iron 401-, 477-, and 534-ci big-block Ford V-8s for medium- to heavy-duty trucks. You’ve heard and seen them in delivery trucks, school buses, garbage trucks, and a host of other duties including marine use if you’ve been around a while. The behemoth Super Duty gas types were very popular marine engines.
The Super Duty engines, produced from 1958 to 1982, made big torque for gasoline engines and were about as inefficient as it gets. These low-revving high-torque engines burned a ton of fuel and did a tremendous amount of work tirelessly. Although they have been out of production for more than three decades, there are undoubtedly thousands of them still operating around the world.
Ford promoted the Super Duty 401-, 477-, and 534-ci engines as “similar to modern diesels in performance, economy, and durability.” Although the Super Duty remains a very common engine still in use worldwide, it doesn’t enjoy the kind of following seen with the 385 Series and FE big-blocks. These low-revving high-torque V-8s did their work at low speeds yet made tremendous amounts of power. They are in no way a high-performance engine. The Super Duty V-8s were workhorses long on brute twist.
When the 401-ci Super Duty was introduced for 1958, it was rated at 226 hp at 3,600 rpm along with a whopping 350 ft-lbs of torque at 2,300 rpm. These were grunt engines developed to make torque for tough jobs where low-RPM twist was needed. The larger 477-ci Super Duty delivered 260 hp and 430 ft-lbs of torque. The largest of them all, the 534, made 277 hp along with 490 ft-lbs of torque. In marine use, these were available with twin turbochargers for unending amounts of power.
The Super Duty engine family for big trucks was a mix of MEL and FE nuances that had no interchangeability with the FE/FT or MEL. Although Ford produced untold millions of Super Duty gasoline V-8s back in the day, they aren’t very common today. As a result, they aren’t covered extensively in this book.
The 385 Series
In the years leading up to 1968, Ford produced old-school big-block V-8s. The FE, MEL, and Super Duty engines were heavy, outdated designs at a time when Ford was looking for improved efficiency from high-displacement V-8s. When you study the 385 Series big-blocks displacing 429 and 460 ci closely, they are little more than an enlarged version of the skirtless, lightweight small-block Ford V-8. The belief in those days was to eliminate the block skirt and excessive weight in this new gray wall iron casting.
The 385 Series big-block debuted in displacements of 429 and 460 ci offered in Ford, Mercury, and Lincoln automobiles. Both engines had the same bore size of 4.360 inches with the displacement difference