I've got a Ford FE engine, but I'm not positive what it is. . .a little confused by the 2 bbl intake manifold. . .

. . .the casting numbers on the block and heads imply either a 390 Police Interceptor or a 428 Cobra Jet from what I have found in the "Ford Engine Parts Interchange manual". . .

here are the casting numbers. . .

block:

really hard to tell , I scrubbed the casting numbers with engine degreaser and a wire brush and it still wasn't clear if the casting number was C3ME (implying a 1963 390ci Police Interceptor, but there was no "-B" in the casting number. . .no "- any letter in fact) or if the casting number was C8ME (implying a 1968-1970 428ci Cobra Jet). . .

. . .I'm leaning toward the C8ME because of the lack of a "- letter suffix on the block casting number. . .anyway, both of these block casting numbers are indicated as High Performance block in the parts interchange manual. . .

cylinder heads:

These don't really help me because it appears they were used for both a 390 and a 428. . .the casting number is C6AE but I didn't see an additional "- letter) to indicate which head it really was. . .so it could be anything from a 352, 390, 410, 428, or 427 (not a 427 because the block definitely isn't a 427. . .the bottom end isn't cross-bolted)

The engine appears to be all original and untampered with. . .no carb, no distributor, missing the passenger side exhaust manifold, but the driver's side stock manifold is there. . .bellhousing is still on the block as is the water pump. . .no other accessories on the engine. . .

I didn't have my camera on my so I couldn't take pic's. . .I will have the engine on Monday so I can post a pic then if needed. . .

. . .anyway after Monday I will be able to provide more info on it when I can get around it more easily than I could in the crowded garage that it was in. . .a friend of a co-worker passed away and this engine was supposed to be used as the hop-up engine for a Galaxie. . .I'm not sure what year the Galaxie was but I did see tail light lenses that looked like this right next to the engine

http://i.ebayimg.com/03/!B5Vi2mgBGk~...,)85,g~~_3.JPG

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3214/...39ce2563_z.jpg

I believe these are for a 1966 Galaxie, but I don't know for sure. . .

Thanks for the help!!!

 

the block and head numbers aren't jivving for an oringinal motor, some of those castings are real hard to read in good light anyways.

 

Yeah, the block casting was really hard to make out. . .

 

Are the heads and block still together, or apart? About the ONLY way to tell anything on any FE, unless you absolutely POSITIVELY KNOW that the engine has never been taken apart (and that's almost impossible), the casting numbers on the outside mean almost nothing.

Without physically measuring the bore and stroke, it's a crap-shoot.

 

A C3 number would be a early block casting. It would have only 2 motor mount bolt holes vs 4 bolt on the 65 and up blocks. Being the casting number isn't easy to see there's also a assembled date stamped into the left side ear close to the deck. You'll see a flat faced spot, it should have the date hand stamped into it if it's a production engine.

 

Yeah, the engine is 100% assembled, minus the carb and the passenger side exhaust manifold. . .

. . .I will check on all this stuff when I move the engine on Monday.

Thanks for the help. . .I will post up what I find.

 

Here's what I found out after I eventually located the engine I.D. tag. . .

. . .the tag reads:

390 66 6
5 M 311 S

So it's a 1966 2-bbl 390 made in 1965 from what I've been able to learn about decoding these tags. . .it also appears the engine has never been disassembled.

 

An easy way to measure stroke is to pull the #1 and 4 spark plugs and manually (turn crank bolt) bring #1 up to TDC. Put a dowel in #1 @ TDC and make a mark. Then put it in #4 and make a mark in the same fashion. The measured distance between them is the stroke.
3.5"=352/360
3.784"=390 (or 427)
3.984"=410/428

You'll have to check the bore to determine final CID. I know it may appear to have never been apart but with how old these are, it could have been rebuilt in 1975 or 85 and it would look the same as if it was never rebuilt. You won't know what it is until you take it apart.

 

There were NO C3ME blocks. So the C8ME is correct and the engine is not original to a 1966 anything.

 

According to the engine ID tag. . .

. . .the 390 is the CID displacement, the 6 is for the change number, the 66 on the tags stands for the model year (1966), the 5 stands for the year of manufacture (1965), and the M stands for the month of manufacture (which I don't know the month codes so I don't know what month it was built in), and the 311 is the engine ID which corresponds to a 390 2-bbl, and the S. . .well I don't know what the S stands for. . .

. . .but my info could be wrong.

 

M = Dec. Your correct on the tag info. The date code on the block will tell you the exact year, month and day it was cast. It's right below the oil filter adapter pad on the small angled part of the block there. It'll be a number/letter/numbers format. That said engine tag and everything else could have simply been swapped at some point if it's a later block. After some 40+ years a lot can change. A few pics would be very helpful.

 

I'll check out the block date code stamping tonight and try to post some pic's of the engine up. . .

Thanks for the help!

 

Here are pic's of the engine





Block casting numbers. . .some are hard to make out in the pictures because of poor lighting and flash reflection, but it looks like a C6ME to me. From the High Performance Ford Engine Parts Interchange Manual" this would be a 1968-76 360 cid hydraulic lifter truck block, a 1966-67 410 cid block, or a 1966-68 428 cid block





Head casting number. . .C8AE, but no -suffix number (the 5 is where the -suffix number should be???), but all 3 C8AE casting numbers are supposed to be 360/390/428 head castings with Thermactor. . .from what I can see in the manual the 3 different castings are indentical, but I could be missing something.



Exhaust manifold casting number. . .the interchange manual doesn't give me any casting numbers for this exhaust manifold, only for the 429 Cobra Jet and Super Cobra Jet heads.



and I think this is the date casting code you were talking about, but I couldn't make it out very well. . .and it's on the bottom so I had to use the flash which washed the picture out some. I couldn't make it out even looking at it in person.



I will have to take another picture of the intake manifold casting number. . .picture turned out blurry. . .

 

Those are C6AE-R heads. Notice the R opposite the C6AE, this is the suffix. This would imply a 352 from 66, but many people use this casting on rebuilds. The next step is to measure the stroke. Hard to tell in that last pic if it was the date code or not. It's right between the filter pad and oil pan rail on the block in pretty small lettering. Maybe I just can't make it out.

 

Block sure looks like C6ME casting number to me. Sleepy is right on the heads. Good heads too BTW. Those valve covers were a 66 only design IIRC. The C3SE-B ex mani is from T bird or full size Ford/Merc. Date code under it looks like 5M3 65-Dec-3rd and would be original to the engine. All in all looks like a nice original engine. Enjoy it!