I have a 1964 Ford 391 FE motor Im looking for alt. brackets & water pump pulley.PLEASE HELP call (989)-305-0410 Roger

as far as i know the flywheels interchange but the balancers do not. the 391 truck crank needs to have the snout turned down to the passenger car size to use the 390 dampner.

I'd post this info to that truck forum, but that thread's about a year old.

500-series and smaller trucks got the plain old FE engine stuffed under the hood. The plain 360/390 block is a good one, however. Occasionally you'll find a heavy duty FT casting in an FE truck block, but more often it's only an FE-style block with reinforced webs, not the heavier cylinders, and most often it's the plain block.

There is most often a reversed "105" cast on the front of the FT block, and a "352" cast on the front of an FE block, but this is not a strictly reliable indicator. Also, some FE and FT blocks have neither cast on their front.

The FT block is a heavy duty casting and can sometimes be converted into the equivalent of a 428 "C-scratch" (HD) block, but only a sonic map will tell whether the cylinder cores are centered well enough to allow this without offset boring. Core shift is common in any older technology production block, the FE and FT are no exception to this. There really is no need to rush out and overbore this thing. For stronger cylinders, take the first swipe at 390+.060" or 428std, and save the 428+.030"/428+.060"(if possible) bore for the next rebuild.

I don't yet buy into the rumor that FT blocks are a special alloy, with extra Manganese and Silicon, because Ford's ferritic nodular of the period actually had LESS Manganese (<.25% vs .80%) and less Silicon (1.10% vs 1.85%) than their gray iron (MCC holder analysis info). Ford used a strong durable gray iron in FE and FT blocks (and is likely why the FTs got heavier main webs and cylinder walls), and occasionally used a softer, more hammerable iron alloy in some of it's race-only FE blocks, however this does not appear to be a nodular type of iron. From my readings, it doesn't seem that engine blocks could practically be made from nodular iron in the mid-70s, and projections from this period don't indicate a future application for nodular engine blocks. Oddly, nodular exhaust manifolds were becoming popular toward the end of the FE reign - though I doubt any FEs got 'em. This is only my understanding - I'm still learning this stuff.

Many times you will find nodular iron maincaps in FE, and probably FT, engines manufactured for heavy duty use. The 427 SOHC engineers mentioned (in their published paper) that they switched from gray iron to nodular maincaps in the Cammer (circa 1964). I have frequently found Brinell indenter markings on each nodular maincap in an FE engine, indicating the appropriate "hardness" is present in the maincap. I assume "Brinell marked" maincaps to be the nodular maincaps. So far, I've found them on 427 and some 428 "C-scratch" blocks. My FT block doesn't have the marks, but neither did one of my CJ "C-scratch" blocks. Not sure if the Brinell dude was taking the day off or if Ford just took "representative" samples from each pour.

The only significant difference I'm aware of between the 361/391 FT block and the HD 428 PI/CJ block is the FT gets a HD oil pump driveshaft, and therefore has a larger pilot hole drilled into it for the distributor. If the FT distributor is the massive and ugly "governed" type, you'll wanna toss it and bush the hole (330MD bushings are apparently still available from Ford) to fit an FE distributor. If your FT has a "normal looking" non-governed distributor, you'll wanna keep this great piece with the engine and run the big-honking oil pump drive that came with the engine. You WILL have to have the distributor recurved. Again, this is all just my opinion - I'm not the kinda person who needs facts to make a claim. Also, I haven't yet verified that the FT distributor fits the hole in the FE intake properly - I seem to recall seeing something strange in this respect, but have never checked it out.

The 391 crankshaft is made of SAE 1046 forged steel. Nothing special, but it makes a great crank. If it's got a "$" trademark symbol on it, then it was forged at the Wyman-Gordon plant. You'll want to turn the crankshaft's snout down to the FE diameter, and also thin the crankshaft's flywheel flange to the FE thickness, otherwise the flywheel will be too close to the tranny. It may not be crossdrilled like the early 427 forged cranks, but that just means you must use super-common grooved main bearings top and bottom to keep continuous oil pressure to the rods. The crossdrilled crank allowed using an ungrooved lower main bearing to better support extreme crankshaft forces generated by full-race FEs. Seasoned 427 racers often elected to NOT crossdrill their cranks, so, according to the more enlightened, you've got a "race drilled" crank (as do all of us "cast crankers").

The rods are the excellent dime-a-dozen FE-type rod used in every 390+CID FE (exc SCJ) since about 1964. Yes, I realize PI and CJ engines got the same rods drilled a bit more for the fatter bolts. I believe the steel is SAE 1041, and these suckers are well suited to high-performance street and strip action. You'll want to install 3/8" ARP bolts and resize the big-end, as it's no doubt been hammered out-of-round hauling tons of lettuce to the local grocery over the years.

The heads - well, you'd best toss 'em. They're a little different - especially on the exhaust side. Same with tossing the pistons. Valve train - it's a yawner, but you might as well keep it until you decide whether to go hyd or mechanical on the cam (go mechanical if you wanna rev, hydraulic if you're a law abiding citizen). Keep an eye on the pushrod length, as that varied a slight bit over the years (no biggie). The cast iron timing cover - keep it until you realize you don't plan to use a front engine plate - and then toss it. Oil pan - toss it if you've got a car. You definitely need to get a performance oil pan if you expect ANY fast FE to live in a car. You can probably make the externally balanced FT truck flywheel work, but I suspect you really need an aftermarket steel flywheel, as I doubt Ford intended that FT flywheels would spin really fast.

I guess that covers the basics. Hope it helps. Again, this is all my opinion.

Shoe.

Its a new Holley, so I am assuming that it should be ok. All of the vaccuum lines are plugged. I'll try resetting the plug gaps to .035. I'm using the MSD 6AL ignition system which actually calls for a 0.050 to 0.060 plug gap. I tried that and it was even worse.
If it is a fuel problem, it is possible that the ignition switch shuts down the pump current during starter cranking. I'll need to check that also.
Thanks for the info...

this may sound off the wall but did you open up the idle mixture screws?? they should be 1.5 turns off their
seats for the initial start up. sometimes they are not adjusted at the factory. try that if all else fails.

let us hope that motor stays healthy for a long time!!

Do they have and E-mail address?

The picture is B/W, so I don't know if they are chrome or black. They have INTERCEPTOR embossed on the top of them. There is also a Lg. "V" with an "8" inside of it, that is centered above INTERCEPTOR.

I scanned (120 dpi / 200%) my picture out of FORD and MUSTANG TRADER, Jul. '96, pg. 50. I also have the same picture, only in Negitive. I think the negative brings out the embossed letters better. I can E-mail them to you, if you'd like to see what it is I'm looking at. My E-mail address is: cougar@qtm.net

I'm familiar with this parts store. From past phone conversations I have had with them I do feel it a good idea to rely on thier information.

I don't belive the tunnel port intake has an exhaust crossover. Come to think of it I don't remember the T/P heads having the crossover ports either. So if that is the case you shouldn't need the baffle under the intake should you?
Dex.

Since most intakes have an exhaust cross-over, the shield is used to keep the oil away from the intakes hot bottom.

Drip rails allow oil to drip onto the fulcrum portion of the rockers to lube and cool them.

With the current 390-2v dual exhaust and pertronix in all around driving it usually averages 17 but I live in a rual area, I'm sure it would be worse in the city. Last year I drove it round trip to Chicago (1300 Miles) and on one tank of gas got 19.3.

One reason I want to keep the compression so low is I want to use 87 octane gas. I'm also more enterested in torque than horsepower.

i would think that the msd box would work with the
pertronix unit but i would contact msd first and see what they say. i however am of the opinion that you should try to use a systems aproach to building cars.
if you want the msd ignition then use the msd dist as well. my thoughts only.

I agree with BEAR - the 6AL is the MSD box you want - the rev limiter is a must as far as insurance goes. A guy I know just blew his FE last week - missed a shift and went over 8000 rpm. Threw a rod. Didn't have the 6AL...

Anyway, another suggestion. I'm running the MSD 6AL box with the blaster 2 coil in my 428 Mustang. However, I went to the parts store and bought a Ford electronic distributor for a 1975 Ford Truck with a 390. I think it was around $50. This has the wide cap (which I wanted) and also the necessary hookups needed for the MSD box. It works extremely well and saved me some money (MSD dist. are kinda expensive). I considered the Ford Duraspark setup but it was a lot more expensive (if you bought it from Ford Motorsports) and I'd almost swear that MSD probably makes the Duraspark boxes for Ford because they sure do look identical sans the color... Anyway, you sacrifice some orginal appearance but the system works flawlessly and is durable (I've been running this setup for 6 or 7 years with no problems.) My $0.02 worth. Good luck.

My father used to have a '58 Sunliner back in sixty-eight. He still wishes he'd never sold it. Oh well.

If you can get two out on each side you can use garden hose or pressure washer with a #4 tube adapted and bend so you can work inside the water jackets and blow the sludge out from one to the other on each side. I'd also check the rest for rust through, sometimes they can be paper thin and start leaking at anytime. I always knocked out all the freeze plug wash out the water jackets. If you can't get the sludge out by flushing I'd say you'll have to pull the motor and knock them all out and blast the sludge out. Might as well detail the engine bay while you have it out. Great site Linden, I go their all the time to look and dream...........