Just bought a '73 F250 camper special about a week ago and plan to "freshen up" the engine in the next few months. I'm really happy with it, I spent several weeks driving all over Southern California looking at trucks until I found this one. Really straight body, (tiny bit of surface corrosion just above the right rear wheel well,) a few typical door dinges, interior is good, (although the seat cover is getting thin,) Paint is faded and oxidized, but other than that, very good condition indeed.

I've spent the past week reviewing the archives and have learned alot. The guy I bought the truck from said the engine was a 390, but the VIN indicates a 360 (Y code.) I suppose in the end it doesn't matter much, since I intend to rebuild it anyway? It has "352" and a couple other letters/numerals that I can't remember at the moment, embossed into the front of the block, just below the head on the drivers side.

I've already secured a 390 perfromer intake and holley 600 carb for the rebuild. My next step is to buy a good book on FE rebuilds and study that for awhile (any suggestions?)

I'm certian I'll be asking for advice about the rebuild over next few months, and I hope you folks are kind enough to provide some advice that I can't find specifically in the archives. I'm looking to build a "mild" performance engine, nothing too harsh--just reliable, as near bullet proof as possible, and fun.

I'm a Harley guy, never rebuilt a truck engine, I dont' have any experience with "big" engines. I have a 4 month plan as I retire from active duty in about six months and want it broken in and ready to roll when I move back home to Oklahoma.

Good to find this site,

Kevin

 

Welcome to FTE! For the book I would recommend "How to rebuild a big block ford" by Steve Christ. You can purchase it from this site if you choose to do so. It is a very detailed and informative book that contains about everything you will need to do the job. Motorhaven

We can definitely help you out with the rebuild. There are some oiling mods that should be done and the rod bolts should be replaced with ARP. This will give you a very reliable FE. Tell us how much you are willing to part with for the rebuild and exactly how much "fun" (as you stated) you want it to be.

I just left Oklahoma to go to Korea. What Branch you in? I'm in the USAF.

 

That 352 you spoke of on the engine block was put on a lot of FE engine blocks as a standard. Get the book Rat suggests, I love it to death and have learned so much from it. Welcome!

 

Thanks Rat,

I am in the US Navy, 19.5 years now. I know what it's like being stationed in the Far East, I was at NAF Atsugi from 1997-2000. Loved it there, hated to leave. I would guess you are at Osan??

I'm hoping to stay under $1800 on the rebuild, aside from the edel 390 and holley 600 I already have. The engine is "supposed" to have fresh heavy duty heads. Really clean under the hood, MSD stuff on top, altough I haven't dug too deep yet.

The speedo reads 18 and change, I don't know if it's 118, 218, or more??? It drives solid, no wandering around or anything like that. Cold natured it is.

I'm just looking for a good solid truck for everyday use. Nothing too radical. I intend to ride my Harley most days for transpo (better gas mileage)

I plan to park her at the "auto hobby shop" on base and start the engine work. All the special tools and stands I would need at a cheap price.

I will return to Guthrie when I retire. I would suspect you were either at Tinker, Vance?? My home is close to both.

Kevin

 

I was at Tinker. I'm at Osan now. It would be cool but I have a family back home so that kinda puts a kill joy on things. Gotta love those auto hobby shops. I didn't use that one at tinker too often. It was real nice but the DOD guy in charge is an idiot and loved to give everybody there a hard time. If the heads are fresh and you already have the intake then you should be able to do a real good job and it might not take $1800. Heads can get real expensive to rebuild if they are completely shot so that should save you. What is the casting number on them? It is located by one of the middle spark plugs and should be something like D2TE-AA or C8AE-H. There were never really any heads that were called "heavy duty". Is the distributor and MSD? That would be cool as it is a pretty high dollar item. Give us a few more details as to what is already on the engine and I will give you some recommendations. Ask about the oiling mods right before you go to the machine shop with the block. Once you decide what you want to use for parts I will run it through the desktop dyno and post you a graph. Not 100% accurate but it seems to be darn close.

 

I haven't delved into the engine too much yet, I'll look into it more closely this weekend. I don't know what is under the surface, all the the ignition stuff says MSD on the surface, except the coil, which looks "stock like."

I was just so happy to find a body so straight, and it runs and drives great, other than the cold natured part/rough idle. I just want to rebuild the engine so that i "know" it's solid. The guy I bought it from said that when he went to whatever service it was and mentioned that the heads were for a truck--he choose to go with the HD valve option, whatever that is??

In any event, if it were to cost me more than $1800 to make it no **** solid, than I'm willing, as long as it doesn't get up towards the $3000 mark. It is "supposed" to have a C6 and Dana 60 with 410 gears. Proabably about right for camper special? From what I have seen so far, it certainly is low geared, I can "almost" see the gas gauge move to the left at freeway speeds and the engine up close to 4000Rpm at 70 mph. I'm installing a Tach soon.

Thanks in advance for and recomendations.

Kevin

 

Well the cool thing is that the FE is almost bulletproof in stock form but there are improvements that can be made. I would recommend the following:

-Crane 343901 cam with matching spring kit

-ARP Rod and main bolts (main bolts aren't 100% necessary but definitely don't hurt)

- TRW L2291F pistons with moly rings (many manufacturers)

-Clevite 77 main and rod bearings

-Stock adjustable type rocker assemblies with the matching pushrods(www.dscmotorsport.com)

- Coated Headers (many different quality types which I will let people that own them recommend as mine are cheapies)

- Felpro Complete engine rebuild gasket kit

- Melling M57HV oil pump with ARP chromemoly driveshaft

This would be the basic parts that I would recommend. This would require probably mid grade or premium fuel. Depends on the heads. Keith black makes a nice hyper piston that will lower that compression ratio a little. The L2291F pistons are the only forged pistons that are widely available for the FE. Pay the money to have the engine balanced at a reputable machine shop. This will add to the life of the engine and in some cases prevent a severe problem if the setup is a little out of balance already. If the heads are good like I said $1800 is plenty. He might either mean better quality valves or CJ sized valves whe nhe said heavy duty. You'll have to get it apart before you can tell.

Hopefully the engine is a 390 as most were 360's. A crank and set of rods can be picked up at the machine shop or better yet at the pick and pull. The guy I bought my truck from said it was a 390 also. Turned out to be a 360. There are several strories on here just like mine. They all seem to be 390's when the for sale sign gets taped to the window.

 

Yup, I'm "expecting" it to be a 360, but since I'm gonna rebuild it anyway, picking up a crank to make it a 390 doesn't seem too crazy?

I want to keep the rebuild as "reasonable" as possibile, just a bit more powerful than stock, but when you look at a few $ here and a few more $ there to upgrade, it doesn't seem very difficult to get sucked into the "HP" bug??? But--a few $ here and there soon adds up. And--I have a $2500+ week long trip to Alaska this summer, to fish for HUGE Halibut and Salmon to budget for as well! :-) Eat your heart out fellow sportsman!!! ;-)

Time to get some rest. Gotta hit the salavage yards this weekend for some possible upgrades!?

Thanks for the tips and warm welcome to FTE!

Kevin

 

I looked a little closer today and the heads have the cast marks: C8AEH. These are "okay" I'm hoping? I tend to believe the guy I bought the truck from, fresh paint on everything on the top end, and I haven't found anything thus far that wasn't as he described.

It already has petronix igniter II ignition with a new stock type coil and new MSD 8mm wires. Looks like a re-manf stock distributor, but I'm not sure?

The truck runs fine other than being cold natured and a rough idle, once it's off of idle, it's fine. Any ideas what that might be??

 

Yes those heads are good castings. If he put CJ valves in them they are the next best thing to CJ heads. Sounds like a lot of the fancy work has already been done for ya. I would dump the stock coil for the pertronix or MSD coil. The wires are a little overkill but there is nothing wrong with that. The rough idle could be caused by a billion different things but check for a vaccum leak or advance the timing a little no more than 12BTDC. The factory tune is 6BTDC but I have never seen an FE run right at 6BTDC. Also try and adjust the idle mixture screws a tad to richen it up a little.