Possibly. I'm not sure how the old man ran the truck but i doubt he did extended highway runs at 65+ mph. Me? I'm just trying to keep up better with my neighbor's '55 Chevy.....

 

Motor's out as of Sunday. Pretty much leaking everywhere I think. Freeze plugs are definitely seeping coolant too.

Are the originals steel or aluminum? Or tin....? They look quite corroded.

Soon as I get my engine stand figured out (arms won't spread wide enough to fit bolt pattern!!) I'll start tearing into it.

 

congrats on getting the beast out !! i've seen worse
check out my orig 360 , atleast you can see blue..lol

 

Actually mine looked very much like that when I got it. However two months ago I thought I might be able to identify leaks if it were clean so I took it into a self serve car wash and gave it a good power wash.... Yeah, the blue showed up after that. So did all the leaks with nice clean oil coming out of them. Obvious was the timing cover and front of intake. Valve covers too and I always assumed the rear main due to the dripping at the back of the motor. I read somewhere on FTE that it was highly likely the rear intake was the culprit and seeing this it sure might be. Can't tell if the rear main is leaky but the bell housing was wet inside with oil and antifreeze.

 

MY PICTURE IS AFTER CLEANING TOO . these old 360 sure did get dirty

 

This motor is gross....




The cylinder walls are nice and smooth and I feel no ring ridge. Everything feels tight when I turn it without lots of slop, but I haven't checked play with gauges or anything.... Would a machine shop be able to clean this up, re-hone and re ring, replace bearings and reassemble or would I need to bore it out and mill surfaces, get new rods, pistons and crank etc. etc...? I'd love to be able to "freshen" the bottom end without extensive work.

 

no ridges is a good sign , that means minimum cylinder wear .
looks like you have the higher Compression pistons with only the eyebrows and no dish .
only way to know exact motor condition is measure everything .
you need inside mics and a caliper
harbor freight has both for cheap

 

if everything checks out you can remove the pistons and deglaze hone the cylinders and put new rings on.

 

So the more parts I removed the more I came to realize this would be a complete rebuild...





Now I am trying to decide if I should do this myself or drop it off with a builder that knows the FE motor well....

I am hoping I am fortunate and caught this mess in time. I know I got lucky with the cam gear....

 

did you already pull the pistons out ?
if not make sure you mark the rods and caps !!

 

How do you mean....?

 

He means make sure the same caps go with the rods that it came off of, caps and rods are machined as a pair so if you don't mark them its going to take a while with a micrometer to find what goes where.

 

YUP what 66crawler said , also need to mark the main caps .
or if you didn't you can get new rods and pistons or just get the stroker kit .

 

check the rods and caps , someone might have already marked them . if you're lucky.

 

I took pistons out one at a time and put their proper cap back on in the same orientation that they were in the engine. Also all the main caps were laid out in order in top of the block. Once I muscled the cam out the main caps went back into the case in the same orientation they started in. I even put the bolts back in the same holes.... I'm kinda obsesive that way.

Doubtful anyone marked anything before. I am still thinking the motor is unmolested from Ford since the nylon cam gear was in place. Also the bearings looked rough but were all silver with NO copper/brass color showing. Makes me think the truck odometer is accurate and mileage is still sub 70k. I threw a mic on the 1/5 rod journal and need to look up journal sizes for a stock '65 352 motor. That to me would be even more evidence the truck is low mileage as I suspect. It looks to me as if moisture got into the oil at some point judging by the markings on the bearings and lifters. I'll try to post a piture and get some opinion.... I am told (did I mention this already?) that the coffee grounds looking valley and upper cylinders are due to lack of frequent oil changes. I suspect this would have influenced the condition of the bearings and lifters.