You're cookin' right along. Check yer PM's.

 

Looking good. Excited to see the progress on your truck.

 

You are absolutely correct O' wise young man. Back in the day I had a 83 Mustang GT 302 with a 85 carb that I worked. Along with ported heads,Motorsport intake, 1.7 roller rockers,etc.,etc. I used to holeshot every Camaro and Firebird that tried me. And they never caught me. I'd put that car up against Bobby's truck. He'd beat me I think, but not by much. But anyways....I was comparing lift,duration,and overlap.

 

Speaking of mustangs, I saw a couple of really cool ones the other night. One was a orange and black late model, the other was a black early 2000s cobra. Both cars were really loud and they were cruising around together. I caught them at a light and when it turned green they both hit it hard and raced away. I watched as the cobra hit 2nd gear and got a little loose. Haha, it was COOL!

 

Nice start Trozei. In to follow.

 

So, interesting day. Good news and bad news. Good news? The rain cleared and I got a chance to clean my engine. Some of the grease was so caked on though that the pressure washer wasn't enough. I'll have to scrape it off.





Soaked in Easy-Off oven cleaner for 20 minutes.



Et voilà.



Now, here's the bad news. Now that I can actually read the casting numbers on the engine, I can see that the block is a C6AE and the head is a C8AE. Know what that means? For one, the engine is not original, unless it was stuffed away in the back corner of a manufacturing plant and forgotten about until my truck was made a few years later; and for two, I highly likely have a 240 and not a 300. I won't know for sure until I measure the stroke, but I'll remove the head later today and looking at the combustion chamber will tell me for sure what the head is from. I don't know what to make of this news, nor do I know if this will change the direction of how I approach my engine build, but I want to measure the stroke to see what's what before I make any decisions.

 

Hmm... That is interesting.... I don't know what to tell you bud. If it is a 240, and you liked it, you could just keep it. Or you could go with your original plan and put a 240 head on a hopped up 300. Depends on what it actually is. I'll be waiting on the news.

 

I have a feeling that if it is a 240 I'll get stupid with it and build the engine for high revs. But my oh my does this make me annoyed. I always thought it was a 300. The previous owner said it was, and he being the grandson of the original owner I took his word for it, aided by the fact that the VIN called for a 300. The engine was too greasy to read the casting number beforehand and I couldn't scrape away at it with the headers in the way, but it had the three-groove crank pulley indicative of a 300 so I never bothered. Also, I spent a long time looking around every yard I could find for a 240 head to put on my "300." It was in a small town near Olympia, WA that I finally found a 240 head. I'm starting to think I wasted my time on that one. Just waiting for the engine to dry off so I can start pulling it apart.

 

240 or 300 doesn't matter. The solution for a low-compression, six banger is ... a turbo!

Welcome to the world of scummy engines. I attacked the LBB with all means - EZ Off, kerosene, picks putty knives, plexiglass scrapers, and wire wheels.

 

Now were talkin'! I've got a 200 in a '67 galaxy that I want to turbo.

 

It's a ton of fab work to turbo this engine and I really just don't feel like going through the process. I'm eating dinner now. I'll pull apart the engine after I'm done.

 

Yea it is. That's why I haven't done it yet. Once forced induction comes into play, everything gets more complicated....

 

So, took the engine apart a little bit. The head was stuck on tight, even with the hoist pulling up on it. Took a while to get it off, but I managed. 75lb of weight savings right there.



I'll might be reusing these pushrods so I wanted to label their locations for future use.



So, here's the scoop. The cylinder head is definitely a 240 head. I was a little disappointed to see this as it would mean my engine is a 240. But, looking at the pistons travelling up and down, I noticed the stroke looked a little long. Sure enough, my engine is a 300 with the 3.980 stroke. A 300 is just a stroked 300, exactly like a 390 is to a 360. There is no difference otherwise, which, also like the FE, makes it impossible to truly identify without measuring.



Now, the block is a 1966 AE block for a car, and cars only got the 240, but the engine tag says 1969 300. I know my truck is low miles and this engine also appears to be low miles. On rare occasions Ford would use car blocks on trucks and even blocks predating the vehicle because they maybe had leftover stock or who-knows-what, so my theory is this: the block was originally cast to be used in a car such as a Galaxy but wasn't actually used until 1969 when the manufacturer threw in 300 internals and put it in my F100. Why the 240 head, you ask? Someone along the line added that. It's an old hot rodder's trick to do this as it bumps your compression up half a point. Other than the combustion chamber size, the 240 and 300 head are identical. This is why I spent months looking for a 240 head. I now have two.

Either way, I'm in a much better mood now. I wanted a 300, I got a 300, and I now have a 240 head that will cost much less to have refinished at a machine shop.

 

Good deal jack! Glad to hear it is what you were after.

I've been contemplating doing the same kind of thing to my 351. I have some Australian 302C heads that bolt right on with a much smaller chamber. 57cc compared to 76cc. I think that would take my compression right to about 10:1. I might do it one day when I have enough money to spend on having them rebuilt with hard valve seats and whatnot.

 

So, I did some measuring. My cylinders are all round to within under a thousandth and there's no taper, so that's of course a good thing. I'm looking at my nearly bare block though and I can't help but wonder if I should do the bearings and rings simply because I have the engine out and it's a may-as-well. What would you guys do? My compression is healthy in all cylinders. Haven't physically checked the bearings but I'd imagine they're fine since the engine only has 80,000 miles or so.