Keep in mind 360 pistons with 390 crank and rods will give you 9.something compression, a good thing for torque, hp and fuel economy.

Just a thought.

Good luck with it.

Can't get 352 pistons .050 over?

 

ya, no .050 over pistons and custom pistons are like 600 bucks i had to lol at that so my last 2 best choices are reconditioned 360 rods, or just get a reconditioned 390 crank and rods. I talked to the guy that bored it for me at a pretty big well known engine shop and he said it shouldn't be a problem he does it all the time, so i wonder how many people are out there with crappy *** 360's with little compression that have no horsepower and get lousy mileage, and he offered to cut my block down, hahahahaha, I guess he was out to destroy my block making sure i wouldnt get my intake to fit right too, anyway i had him look up both piston heights and he was kinda like oh crap, so the people who helped me today at a small machine shop and measured my pistons to confirm the bad news they told me everything fordsix has told me, smaller head gasket wont work grinding the block will cause a tumbling affect of bad stuff, they want to shock test my block to make sure the cylinder walls are still good for 80 bucks is this a good idea? this forum is the greatest thing ever if i hadnt posted my original stupid free floating wrist pin post i would have never known the difference and i'd have a crappy engine.

 

If you did a sonic check and found it would go .060, you can get pistons:

Keith Black/KB Pistons 1129-060 - Keith Black Silv-O-Lite Cast Pistons - Application - SummitRacing.com

Now there is the cost of the test, which might be a good idea anyway. And then that extra .010 bore, so not sure this is a way to go.

 

thats what I was thinking too, the bore cost would be nothing the guy that screwed up said he'd do it for free, and my 352 piston would then cost twice as much as i paid for the 360 pistons, so thats why im thinking if i can get recondition 360 rods for less than 140 buck that would be my route, however everytime i see rods like on ebay motors they are advertised as 352/360 rods, lol. Summit list 352 pistons as having 6.540 length rods and 360 pistons as having 6.490 length rods, this makes no sense to me how could a smaller rod with a smaller piston on a block with the same crank and heads give you the same compression, im lost again, all the info im finding shows the 352 having the longer rod and taller pistons, I guess ill have to get my rod measured, haha (pun intended)

 

This chart shows the 352 uses the longer rods AND the taller compression height.

FE Series Engine Specification Chart

Keep in mind the 360 has the pistons .120 down the hole iirc, limiting compression, quench etc. The 352 had 10+:1 CR in the day in car engines, the product of the higher compression height of that piston, etc.

 

Yes, the car (early) 352 has the longer rods, and the 360 uses those same rods. However, the truck 352 he has uses the shorter rods, which with the short pistons would give an abnormally low compression ratio.

 

thanks guys you've been a ton of help and i've learned more about FE's then I thought i would ever need, looks like the best way for me to go is to make it a 390 if everything comes back good on the sonic check

 

So, the truck 352 rods are the same length as 390 rods? IF SO, all the OP needs is the 390 crank. He should be able to use the 360 pistons, 390 crank and his existing rods to get a CR in the 9's.

Does that square with how you see it?

 

There seems to be some mis-information here. Any 352 uses 6.54" rods. Any 360 uses 6.54" rods. The FE short rod is 6.49". It was used in 390, 406, 410, 427, 428. The old school hi-po 352 car motors cranked out horsepower using smaller cc heads, taller pistons, and either 4v or 6v aspiration.

 

Absolutely not! And...the last year the 352 hipo's were available was in 1960, installed in full sized Ford Passenger Cars only. 390 introduced in 1961, 406 in 1962, 427 in 1963 (Ford/Merc Passenger Cars).

C1AZ-6200-A .. Connecting Rod-Marked: C1AE-6200-G / Applications: 1961/67 352 Passenger Cars; 1965/67 352 F100/350's, 1968/76 360 F100/350's.

C6AZ-6200-D .. Connecting Rod-Marked: C6AE-J or C7AE-B / Applications: 1966/67 410 / 1966/68 427 / 1966/70 428 / 1966/76 390.

There may be other ID numbers marked on these rods, but this is all I could find listed in the 1961/1967 Master Cross Reference Catalog.

btw: In 1981, I bored the 352 (as original 4.00") in my 1965 F100 to 390 standard, then installed 390 rods, pistons and crankshaft. VOILA! 390.

Why anyone would bore a 352 to 390 standard, then install 360 pistons, I dunno. The 360/390 has the same bore: 4.05"

Only the stroke is different: 352/360: 3.50" / 390 = 3.78"

 

well just an update, I finally got my engine back again, to avoid all this I should have just bought a 390 crank, rods and piston, since they are more common and therefore not as expensive, however since I already paid to have my 352 crank polished and cut i didn't want to get rid of it. (stupid since that only cost me 80 bucks) So I spent an extra 150 dollars on buying some pistons that have a larger compression height and still have the 4.050 bore. the new machine shop I went to, Pettis performance, was very helpful and they did all the math for me and estimate that I should be at 9 or 9.5 to 1 compression, plus they reconditioned my rods and gave me a crap load of info on engine assembly and did my full balance, ultimately the compression ratio will come down to my measurements and all that but im just glad i wont be at 7 to 1. Anyway one question, the pistons i ended up getting have no valve relief and my old ones did, can anyone send me a link explaining valve releif or just explain it to me?..... thank you