I sold my 78 and recently bought a '66 3/4 ton. I some how lucked into a situation that is allowing me to have this set up the way I want it. In other words I have some money and time to play all at the same time.

I am basically setting it up in a rat rod style. It has a 352 with a 2 barrel carb on it right now. It has an oil leak in the front. So the plan at this point is to pull the manifold and then replace it with a 4 barrel model topped with a 600 carb.

Now while I am this far and fixing the leak, I figured I might look into putting in a cam and a timing gear set. Does anyone have any suggestions, hints or advice?

Now I have been told that Ford exhaust manifolds will handle up to 400 HP without having to go to headers. So I am going to leave the manifolds for now and see if it is true or not. I will most likely put some on but that will wait till the end of Summer.

Anyhow if anyone has any other ideas that you think I should be doing, let me know.

 

headers and an exhaust will be one of the single best things you can do to wake up your FE. do it sooner rather than later.

matt

 

You didn't specify whether your transmission is manual or automatic, or what you want your engine to do - lots of off idle torque or high rpm horsepower. Depending on how much you want to spend you can fit aluminum big valve heads, hydraulic or solid lifter ROLLER cams, roller rocker arms, whatever you want and can afford. You will certainly want some head work done to convert it for unleaded fuel and improve the breathing. It would be a good idea for a machine shop to check out your bores, crankshaft, bearings, rods, valve train, etc. If the original rope rear main seal is still there, maybe change it out for the more modern rubber one. You will probably want to replace the oil pump and maybe do some of the other FE oiling mods. You will certainly want to upgrade your ignition to a Pertronix or maybe an MSD. Depending on where you live (heat) you may want to install a 6 or 7 blade fan and/or fan shroud. Most people on this forum don't think too much of the original cast iron log style exhaust manifolds. The do have some advantages, but I don't personally believe that 400 HP is one of them. If you upgrade to the 360/390 block (4.05 bore instead of 4.00) and can find a 390 crank and rods you could have that advantage, plus you can get a stroker kit for that to take your engine out to 445 cubic inches or so. These are just some of the things you can do. I'm sure other guys will have additional ideas. Good luck with your new toy!

 

It has a manual 4 speed in it and it is staying.

I am looking to keep it sort of like it is but bump it up a little. The oil leak and 2 barrel carb need to get fixed now. So while I was in there I thought I would tag the cam and timing chain.

Headers are an eventual and probably when I do the MSD ignition, but again are not my first priority.

So let's try it this way. If this was your truck, what would you do in order of importance to you?

1966 Ford 3/4 ton
352 with a 4 speed manual trans.
standard exhaust manifolds
2 barrel carb
original ignition

Motor runs strong and everything hooks up positive. Issues are that there is an oil leak in the front of the engine.

 

Repair the oil leak, redo the interior, add or fix ac, replace all rusted out metal with new metal, paint. All the while, watch clist for someone selling a completed hot rod drive train already in a 66 half ton and have two trucks, one for daily and one for fun.

For example, there is a 69 hot rod 460, 700 E.... etc. doing a 13.8 quarter mile for sale in Garber, OK for less than $4000 which is less than what is in the engine which is a screamin demon. The guy is going to a cheby bracket car.

 

Having just done something similar to what you're talking about a couple of years ago, I would swap out the intake manifold and add the 4 bbl - just swapping the manifold might eliminate your front oil leak, depending on where it is - convert to dual exhausts (I went with headers), and upgrade your ignition system. There's no point in opening up the amount of air your intake side will flow if the exhaust side is still the stock factory bottleneck. With a compression ratio of only 8.9, and that's when it was new 45 years ago, and no head work done, I'm not sure a new cam (requiring new lifters and probably valve springs) will do much for you. I left mine alone (until I built a bigger motor) and it was fine. One more point - FE intake manifolds are notorious for being difficult to seal correctly during installation. Good luck!

 

This right here is about spot on.

The stock exhaust manifolds are unlikely to get you to 400hp. A new intake and a small 4 bbl carb, say 650 cfm, is about right unless your getting above 400 hp. Convert to electronic ignition at the same time as doing the intake and carb. Add headers, dual exhaust down the road, but I would do it sooner than later and it will increase your top end power, and probably give you a mile or 2 per gallon better in fuel economy. Cam upgrades are great and all, but require you to pull the engine (generally) to get it done.

Anything beyond that I feel is a waste unless you really want to keep the stock appearance of the FE motor. If you want to make some real HP, and dont want to have to spend ridiculous amounts of money or the very few parts out there for an FE, a 460 is probably a better option.

And to comment on the FE intake manifolds, as I have changed a few. Use a cherry picker to set the intake down on the seals. Aluminum intakes are not as bad, but still are big and bulky, and can be a PITA to get in the right spot. Im a very large man, 6'7" & 300 lbs, and I have all I can do to get one set in place without screwing up the gaskets when setting it down.

 

You know there are going to be studs broken off in the head when doing the headers, So might as well get a valve job done with harden seats and freshen it up abit.

 

Ok after reading and talking with an old timer who used to build hobby stock motors.

I am skipping the cam.

I did find a cast iron manifold and Hollie 600 with a kit for $75 and that is going to go on for sure.
I also found a set of headers for $50 but am holding off on those for a bit. As mentioned I am worried about the studs breaking. For now I am having duel exhaust put on the stock manifolds. If I am not happy then I will pull the heads, have them worked over and then install headers. I just don't think I would find enough power to justify the chance of breaking studs. Risk vrs. Reward on that one.

I was told about a product called a "Pert ignition". I need to try and look it up. If anyone knows about these please chime in and explain them and a link for one would be great too.

 

Found it. Pertronix $240 to convert it over to electronic ignition. DONE.

 

Yep, pulling the exhaust manifolds on a FE is always a crap shoot. The best bet is to heat the top flange on the head a bit with a torch before removing.

One thing you may want to consider for the future is to pick up a set of heads from the boneyard, have them worked over, get them ready for headers, and just do a swap.

 

Rear Top 2 are gonners 99% of the time. Do yourself a favor and put studs in at least the top row. Hell it helps hang a stock log/header.

 

The pertronix is a nice upgrade. I have the Ignitor III with the Flamethrower III coil. This allows you to open the spark plug gap because of the hotter spark - .045. I also bought a reman dizzy for $50, because the old one had too much slop. This retains the stock look while improving performance. If you have never replaced a intake manifold on an FE, you might want to invest in Steve Christ's book on rebuilding big block ford engines. There are alot of things that can go wrong if you are not organized. Also, the source of your oil leak could be the stock steel valve covers, which can leak from over tightening. Good luck.

Kurt

 

just an observation...and probably not the right place to make it..but did Ford make an engine that didnt break exhaust manifold bolts upon attempted removal?