Are the connecting rod bolts the same for the 360 and the 390? I have been told the 390 rods are shorter. I can only find the arp rod bolts for the 390. thanks

 

The bolts are the same; the 360 rods are longer.

Bob
'66 7 Litre, top loader, 3.25 Traction-lock, Sidewinder Intake, SCJ Exhaust
'88 F150 LWB 4x2, XLT Lariat, 302, 5 speed, 3.08
'99 Ranger, 4x2, 3.0, 5 speed, 3.73 posi

 

Thanks. I have not been able to find them for the 360 only the 390 so I wasn't sure. Thanks. Eric

 

Isnt it only the 332/352 (?) that used the long rods ?

 

Correct. The 352 and 360 used 6.540 rods, whereas the 390, 410 and 428 used 6.488 rods. I wonder -- has anyone ever tried building a 390 with 352/360 rods to reduce rod angularity and deck clearance, and increase the compression ratio? It seems to me that it should work just fine, and it's my understanding that pretty much every engine benefits from as long a rod as it will take before running into deck and valve clearance problems. I don't understand why Ford used the shorter rods on the 390.

ksd
69 F100 Explorer lwb 2wd FE 360 C6. WANTED: straight/clean styleside long box w/aux fuel tank for 67-69 F series.

 

Using 360 rods on a 390 can be easily done with possibly a shave on the piston tops but the 360 rods don't hold a candle to the 390 rods when it comes to strength.

 

You know, ksd, I was thinking that very thing today and reread an article from HotRod titled 'The 350 engine Chevrolet should have built". They put together a 4.155 x 3.25 sbc using a 400 block, 307 crank, and 6.209" Ford 300 rods with custom pistons. The CR was 11:1, the cam 215 deg @.050. It made 412 hp and 435 ft-lb torque, and did it on 87 octane gas.
Could this approach work on an FE? Maybe the 3.50" stroke is not short enough.
Eric

 

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 15-Aug-01 AT 08:02 PM (EST)[/font][p]What about
3.5 (360or330) steel (for the blower drive) FE crank offset to 400 Clev rods 400 Chev pistons.

3.6 stroke ad 6.6 rod is a pretty good ratio and the valves are pretty well unschrouded.

Being in Oz I got a Q about 360's:
I thought 360's were all truck engines and used the shorter/stronger 390 rod and those crazy heads with the (chev) Rams horn like exhaust manifolds.

 

360's are "truck" engines in the sense that they were only installed by Ford in light trucks, and not in passenger cars. They are still "FE" engines, though, as opposed to the "FT" engines that were similar but were used in medium and heavy duty trucks (F450 series and up). The 360 is built on the same FE block that the passenger car 390 was built on. The FT versions came in 361 and 391 cid, among others, but not 360 and 390.

ksd
69 F100 Explorer lwb 2wd FE 360 C6. WANTED: straight/clean styleside long box w/aux fuel tank for 67-69 F series.

 

Think of it this way (I dont know if it's true or not) in 1968 Ford stopped putting the 352 in trucks. then came the 360 and the 390, the 360 keeps the 352 crank and rods. but uses special pistons for the bigger bore, probably someone saw that it wouldn't make sense to have two seperate blocks cast for the trucks when they could make the new 352 and the 390 from the same block and save money. Then later (70-71'ish) they realized that since the 390 car engine was going away why have special 360 pistons, 390 4v pistons, 390 2v pistons, and 390 truck pistons when they could use leftover and already high production 4 barrel 390 pistons in the 360 to keep it's compression low and the 390 truck pistons in 390's.

 

I remember someone used the 332 crank (3.3 inch stroke) out of a '58 car in their 427 block with custom pistons for 370 cubic inches of high winding big block Ford. They used the Mickey Thompson dual 4 BBL cross ram manifold and Doug Thorley headers that crossed two pipes under the engine for a tuned intake and exhaust. Ran like stink, turning 9500 regularly. One real bad '63 Ford. Wish I had that car.

Bob
'66 7 Litre, top loader, 3.25 Traction-lock, Sidewinder Intake, SCJ Exhaust
'88 F150 LWB 4x2, XLT Lariat, 302, 5 speed, 3.08
'99 Ranger, 4x2, 3.0, 5 speed, 3.73 posi

 

They went the opposite direction from me. They destroked a 427 to get a high-winding motor, whereas I'm trying to stroke a 360 to get a low-rev motor with tons of grunt.

If anyone else wants to destroke a 427 or 428, I'm going to have a 352/360 crank (3.50" stroke) available soon for real cheap!

ksd
69 F100 Explorer lwb 2wd FE 360 C6. WANTED: straight/clean styleside long box w/aux fuel tank for 67-69 F series.

 

If anyone wants to destroke a 427 or 428 I will trade them my 360 crank for the 427-428 crank. :-) Eric

 

I went to lopers today and the rod bolts are differant. I don't know if they will work but the 390 has a bigger head and there are a few things differand on them so I didn't get any.

 

i'm interested in the engine parts you say you want to get rid of. e-mail me with any info at dahlenew(No Email Addresses In Posts!)
thanks very much





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