Hillbilly_Deluxe

Well my old 351 modified decided to crap out today. I gave it an oil change and ran some Seafoam through it and now it has been pushed out of the way of trucks that run. It lost oil pressure and would not start. Trying to change the timing I discovered the distributor is seezed into the intake manifold. Well I have been playin with this truck (1979 ford) for 2 years now and the engine has NEVER impressed my. It's just a source of frustration and profanity.

Some day it may be a CTD but until then I need something to make her move. I found a new 390 mercury engine (60's style) with only 10,000kms. This engine is priced at $1000. NOW what I want to know is this a good buy?

NOTE: Yes it comes with an auto tranny
$1000 CANADAIN
The truck is a restoration project (tryin to be better than stock)

Thank you

Bob

BigBlue

Sounds like a dang nice deal. Even in canadian money, $1000 for an engine and a tranny is pretty sweet. Does it include everything needed?

sgibson

I don't know what the exchange rate is and Im a dyed in the wool moparite, but Ive owned a few 390's (61 galaxie,64 merc marauder,69 f-250) and the only thing that impressed me about them was how much gas they drink for how little power they put out. for comparison I wouldn't pay that much for a like 383/727 unless it was to make the car # matching. Can you find 351w's or C's up there?

mtl0727

yeah what he said, the 390's are in the f.e. ford engine family, i have a 67 ford fairlane 2door hdtp, its a work in progress mind you, at one point i wanted to build a 390 for it, yada yada yada, but just the size and weight and the availablity for go fast parts wasnt what i was looking for, but im sure just the stock stuff wouldnt be hard to find. I personally would go for a 351w, helluva lot easier to get parts for and work on. But what do i know im just 23

oestreich84

I have always liked the 390. There are lots of aftermarket parts available in Summit and Jegs for the FE engines, but the parts for the FE's are more expensive than the 351's. As far as gas mileage, I havent seen many mildly modified 351 windsors getting over 8-10. I had a 67 galaxie 500 4 door with a 390 and 2 shooter carb. If I took it easy I could get over 15mpg. It was when I got on it that it dropped down to 4-5 If the engine and transmission are in good shape I'd say that it is a great deal.

jon96ctd

1,000 seems like a good price for a running engine/tranny. you might want to look around and see what you can get a chevy 350 for, the newer the better. there are millions of aftermarket parts for those things and as something to get you by for a few years they're pretty efficient and a little cheaper to build than a 351. adapters for a small block chevy are available for just about every pre-90's ford and other transmissions.
if you can get an 87-newer car or truck 350 engine you can get carb intakes for them. advantages are they have hyd roller cam, 1 piece rear main crank seal and strong connecting rods. one thing to watch with some late 70's and most 80's 350's is the cam gear in the timing set has plastic on it and it wears and eventually if not replaced will skip one or more teeth and embed some broken valves into the pistons. anyway, i've built several small blocks from bone stock rebuilds to high performance builds and have learned quite a bit if you have any questions i'll answer them if i know and find out if i don't.

Hillbilly_Deluxe

well I have been lookin for 351's but there not easy to come by. To get mine rebuilt is $1600. Which is too much.
I am only 15.

ChrisLib

You probably twisted the oil pump drive in two. It keys into the bottom of the dist and runs down into the top of the oil pump, very common for these things to twist up like a twizzler. My older bro had a 79(?) F250 with a 351M in it and the same thiung happened to him, turns out the oil pan had a bit of water in the very bottom and it got into the oil pump and froze, when he went to start it....bammo. I still don`t know why there was water frozen in the bottom of the pan, never got that far to figure it out, truck got scrapped.

HOHN

No Kidding. I think the only engine that fails as bad in the power/mpg department are later mopar 360s (I'm a moparite as well).

Steer clear of the 390s. And *I* don't consider 1000 to be a good price for a 390 and trans at all, EVEN IF IT'S IN PESOS!

HOHN

I'm no Ford guy (so my knowledge is lacking a bit), but I'd say that a 351C is what you want. I'm under the impression that THIS was the hot 351, with huge intake valves and extreme rocker ratios-- it was practically a race small block from the factory, and I know that more than one big block of any brand has been embrassed by a 351C.

The other option I like on Fords is the 347 stroker from a 302. It will put out some decent power and it's a pretty lightweight package.

Let me give a brief version of my Ford rant:

Why were their legacy V8s so incredibly confusing? I mean, you have THREE different 351s, and I'm under the impression that parts won't interchange between them. They also made a 427, 428, and, 429, and ALL WERE DIFFERENT! Not to mention the "cammer" 427 that was a unique beast.

Give me a Mopar any day. Small block 273, 318, 340, and 360s all had the same block, and all had the same crank minus the 360's longer stroke and bigger main bearings.

Then the Mopar big blocks: you can swap any non-hemi big block head on to any non-hemi big block is it will bolt right on. 383, 400, 413, 426 wedge, 440-- it doesn't matter. Cranks will freely swap (but the RB engines over 400CID have slightly larger mains and have to be cut down to use on a 383/400). Connecting rods on EVERY non-hemi big block are the same, with the 383/400 getting shorter 6.358" rods compared to the 413+ engines getting 6.768" rods. But the small ends and big ends are the same size throughout.

<<END ANTI-FORD, PRO-MOPAR RANT>>

jon96ctd

Hohn, if you like mopars so much for interchangeability, which you should, have you looked into the small block chevy? interchangeable from 265, 283, 302, 305, 307, 327, 350 and 400; from 1955-1998(exluding L-1 and LT-5). now there are minor differences like main bearing sizes, roller and non-roller cam/block, 400 heads have to have extra coolant/steam holes drilled in them. the BBC's are not all interchangeable like that as there are a couple different generations but most are widely interchangeable.

and because the small block chevy is so interchangeable, aftermarket parts are easy to find and considerably cheaper. Bob's looking at $1600 for a relatively stock rebuild. i can do a 450 hp 350 for $2,000, including aftermarket high perf heads.

bob, what do you want with this truck, how long do you want to keep it and what use do you want to drive it for? knowing these is a good starting point for. from what you've said so far i think you just want it to be a reliable driver/commuter, not necesarily an offroad machine.

um, if you just want to get it going as cheap as possible i'd go look through junkyards for a car or truck that's been wrecked(side or rear impact) cause then you know it was running and didn't get taken in cause it just wouldn't run anymore. there's a number of options with that...you could look for another 351, though you're right, the truck 351's were just gutless and not at all impressive, i belive Hohn is correct about the 351C, i have no idea how you identify one or what cars they came in. or you could look for a chevy 350, which is SOOO easy to find. for trans options, you could either get an adapter that uses your ford trans(what is yours??) or you could get the Turbo-Hydramatic (TH-350) 3 spd auto, good trans, and put that in.

oestreich84

The 347 can be a powerful engine and lightweight, but I still havent found one that doesnt use oil. I am a mopar guy myself, but I have built Ford, Chevy, and Dodge smallblocks. If you want a low dollar, mild performance build, go with either the Chev 350 or the Dodge 360. In the last 5 years many performance parts have come out for the 360 to keep it in the same price/horsepower range as the 350. I have built many 450+hp 350's and a couple 450+hp 360's. The only difference in these engines was that the 360 almost always had a little more torque. If I were you, I would check around and see what is available, then start to put together a "shopping list" of performance parts that will stay in your budget.

Hillbilly_Deluxe

First the difference in a 351m ,w,and c are that the 351m is the only one of them with a big block. But I can buy an 85 s-10 with a 350 for $1000. It belongs to one of our companies drivers. It has a 350 four barrel chev engine with god knows how many miles. But which is the better idea? (it does run great though and moves like a bat out of ****)

HOHN

360 is longer stroke: 3.58 vs 3.44 for 350 Chevy.

Not to mention the 360's much longer rods. 350s are lucky to get 6" rods. Factory 360 rods are the standard mopar 6.123".

KB has some good, cheap, high-compression 360s pistons.

A 360 has become a GREAT small block build-up candidate. Think of all the new parts that have come out! Edelbrock now has port fuel injection for it, and their heads are good out of the box. You can build a screamer 360 for cheap using some W2 Econo heads (though the long valve Race heads with the closed chambers will make more power when setup right.)

Then, of course, there's the 4" crank that came out a few years ago. 408 CID of small block that still has a 1.53 rod ratio!! Let's see your Chevy do that! I've seen this 408 stroker hit 650hp with a flat tappet cam!!

westcoaster

$1000 for an unknown engine and trans or $1600 for a rebuilt engine. If it were me I would be giving the rebuild some serious consideration. Or try and locate a cheaper engine just to get it rolling... in my mind 1000 is too much for an engine you are going to dispose of in the future.

What do you get for your $1600? rebuilt and plained heads? new pistons rings and bearings with all machining?? Who is doing the rebuild? a pro rebuild shop??