hey all new to the site and Im helpin out my brother (no computer) anyways he's got a 77 highboy with a 360/4 spd, we wanna do a longblock or crate engine install. So my question is what motors are compatible with his exsisting bell housing, does the 390 have the same bolt pattern. And if he decides to go crate motor (on a budget) what motor would you all suggest. I'll be here alot asking question, so thanks ahead of time. Im into the bike building scene and what do you think of the high hp 302 crate mtrs?

 

390 +360 same block so that's the easy switcharoo
i did this to my 68 found a long block 390 out of a tbird and rebuilt it . with some extras.

 

Thanks Mike, much appreciated.

 

Better make sure it's a 360 in there. The 77's had 351M/400's. Last year for the 360/390 in pickups was 76.

 

Will do, I call him and let him know right now, ty sir Whats the best way to ID the motor ?

 

360/390's valve covers overlap both the intake and heads. The 351M/400's do not and have 8 bolts per valve cover, the 360/390's have 5 bolts per cover

 

Thanks again baddad.

 

You can't tell a 360 from a 390 based on external examination. You have to measure the stroke. There are lots of threads on that subject.

Couple of other things - why stop at at 390? You can't get much more bore out of an FE without checking the block, but you can get a lot more stroke. If you are buying a rebuild, it isn't that much more to get a stroker.

If you do get a long block, the motor mount positions were different between car and truck engines, but the mounting holes for both are present. Just don't wait till you are dangling the engine over the bay to notice. Also, some of the high performance heads came with four bolt exhaust manifold configurations. Trucks had two bolts, again you don't want to find that out when you are trying to mate your headers or manifold.

Last, 2WD engines had a front oil pan resevoir and pick up. The 4WD had them on the rear. You need to move the pan and pick up over to the new engine and move the front main bearing cap bolt to the rear because it has a bolt hole threaded into it to attach the pick up.

All in all trivial stuff. Last thing to watch out for, lots of shops can rebuild a 302 or a chevy small block, not that many builders know the FE. Look up FE oiling mods on this site, if the builder can't show you they were done, get your engine elsewhere. Buy your long block from a known FE builder and they will know the quirks of the FE. If you can, get an engine dyno on it before you take delivery. It costs a few extra bucks, but it will tell you everything you need to know about your engine.

Last thing, when you get your new engine in the truck, kick the crap out of it to break it in. Hard runs from zero to 60 back to zero for 50 miles, then change the oil and just run it hard for the first thousand.

 

Yellowtruck I think they just need to make sure its an Fe motor first.

 

66crawler - true enough, however regarding the oil pan and pickup he has the same issue, it is a 4WD, so you need the oil pan reservoir at the rear. I have no experience with the 302 or 351, but they came in standard config with the reservoir and pick up at the front.

 

Another way to ID an FE is the plugs are set up / / \ \, which is unique among Ford engines.

 

Intake/head configuration is the easiest. Helen Keller could spot it.

 

I want to laugh cause it's true, she'd spot it before half the others could....which makes me want to

 

Well the fac that it's a 77 highboy changes everything. These trucks didn't come with an FE motor. So if it does have an FE, it could be anything as far as a car or truck motor.