Hey guys,
Hope you are all enjoying your Fall.
I've never seen anything nice said about the 360ci engine, ever. I've always heard it's a "dog" it's a "boat anchor" or it just flat out "sucks". I am wondering why this is the overall opinion? I've had a few F100's and right now I have my first F100 (a one owner 1969 F250 Camper Special) with the 360ci and a 4 speed manual. Haven't had much of a chance to drive it yet as it only arrived last week.
My question is: what makes this a bad engine as opposed to the 352ci and the 390ci (both of which I've had in my other F100s)?
Would like to know people's opinions.
Thanks,
Keith

 

The 352 and 360 have short legs. (A short stroke) once the RPMs rack up that’s it. They don’t have anymore breath. 390 has a longer stroke therefore can run out more. IMO the 360 is bullet proof. Hard to destroy, any FE for that matter. I run a 360and have done a few things so I can get more run out. It’s quicker than most other 360’s. However, I really keep trying to blow up the engine so I build another.

 

360/390 share the same block, the bore is the same (4.05"), the stroke is different.

Stroke: 360 = 3.50" .. 390 = 3.78."

So, the only difference is the crank, rods and pistons. EVERYTHING else is the same.

 

Thank you that is exactly the info I was looking for!
My 360 only had 64k original miles on it and outside of a tuneup didn't seem to need much else other than a carb rebuild and a standard tune up.

 

A couple people had dropped by my garage and told me to pull the 360 and throw in a 390 (which is how this question really started for me in the first place) but being that the truck is so original and the 360 only has 64k miles on it I didn't see a real reason to do that unless there was some glaring "problem" with the 360ci

 

It it works don't "F" with it ! It's all up to the owner and how they plan to use it

 

Tell em you’ll Race em and after they beat you “now let’s hook a chain up to em...”

 

Install Headers and a decent carb/intake/camshaft and that 360 will put up a respectable fight in the race too. Not being able to breathe is the biggest problem.

 

For a heavily loaded pickup, or one pulling a loaded trailer the following rule of thumb applies:
360 plus 4spd, use 4.10 gears. with auto trans, use 4.10 or 3.73 gears
390 plus 4spd use 3.73 gears, with auto trans use 3.54 gears
410/428 plus 4spd or auto trans, use 3.54 gears

If you have the 360, you can get away with the 3.73 rear end ratio as long as you're not overloading the truck, going up long steep hills, etc. But what you'll find with heavy loads and long steep grades is that the 360 will start to labor sooner and drop speed more rapidly. If you're not using the truck for pulling heavy loads or going up long steep grades, the 360 will be just fine, for the most part. Because of the low final ratio, the 360 causes a sacrifice in fuel economy at higher road speeds and imposes an upper limit on road speed that is lower than you'd have for a 390.

The 360 is probably not anybody's favorite FE because of the short stroke and thus loss of torque, but it's a tough and serviceable engine. If yours is original to the pickup and you're getting along fine with it, leave it be. If you rebuild it in the future, consider a 390 rotating assembly at that time.

 

IMO, all the truck FE engines (and other Ford truck) engines of the time were made to handle old gas and neglected oil changes while lugging their guts out. An experienced FE builder can recommend a custom cam along with after market heads that will really bring that 360 to life. Stroke it for even more pep, or leave it alone if you're happy with it.

 

Based on my experience, I wholly concur with your gearing recommendations.

I'll add:

360 or 390 with a 5-speed, opt for a 3.90 gear gear.

 

I'm not sure where the 360 got the bad rap. They are just fine and I've worked the crap out of quite a few of them over the years. Some of the later ones had really crappy head castings and the valve guides went out real quick.
Most of mine were kept fairly stock and I have had a few that ran better than the average 390, and a few that were not so good. All this can happen with any engine of that vintage due to sloppy manufacturing and things like core shift when casting heads and blocks, clearances and balancing.
But to quantify my experience, much of it came when fuel was formulated a lot different and back when the speed limit was 55 on interstate and not 80 like it is now. The 4.10s were just fine for running 55-60 but not so much for running 70-80. For all but heavy towing, the 3.73s will be just right all around with a 30-31" tall tire and no overdrive. You should still be ok with a lighter trailer and hauling a car.
I think most of the bad reputation comes from ignorant people who don't know how to properly tune and maintain an engine, like the people who feign hatred of a quadrajet carb to cover for ignorance of not knowing how to make it work right.
Try not to use any gas with alcohol, those old carbed engines do not like that crap and it will eat rubber.

 

Ask yourself this question: If the 360 is such a POS why did Ford make a ton of them and why did people buy them? Truth is we have a 'Cubist' mentality on motors and because the 360 is a de-stroked 390 people love to dog pile on that. Nothing wrong with a 360. I had people tell me to trade out my 360 for a 390 in my dump truck. It's a dunp truck, not a rail dragster. Just how fast do I need to get up to 50 with a full load, lol.
Rebuild the carb with the modern Ford kit and you will not have issues with the modern gas and the carb.

 

All in a nut shell

I had first hand that 360's were bad engines as they were the first engine
ford used to take a crap with people who owned them with big campers on them.

As willowbilly put it was the unleaded gas that was the #one killer back in the day'

Many of the people who owned them were the models of the c/s ranger that had a large cab over Camper on back.

When putting those 360's under heavy working loads the 360's Camper/Special Rangers got a workout with those big c/s and they held up until people started putting in the 87 unleaded gas.

By using the unleaded gas under some conditions would cause the Exh. Valves an seats to get hotter

than normal that causing them to become red hot. Under this condition it would slowly burn away as molten metal Cinders that would cause the engine to back- fire out the carb.

Over time of putting the ford 360 motor into the days that the EPA was forcing an end of
leaded fuels was the main reason for the clean air act that
broth on the death of the 360 engines sooner in the f100 if they where worked hard.

The f250- f350 was the last models that could run on the leaded gas.
By the mid 70's rolled around many states stopped using any of the leaded motor fuels.

Where as the f100 were suppose to run unleaded gas sooner into the early mid. 70's

As for the mid 70's rolled by the word was out that the ford 360 was a junk motor an now in 76 the EPA forced feed to us 86 octane that really did in the ford trucks.

With so many motor vehicles falling ill on 86/87 octane the EPA was force to bump up the octane to 87 that became laws across the US. Some states a person could buy high octane gas. Which was a back log of stored fuels until it was used up.
Just about this time most all were in need of all in need of a valve jobs.


1974/75 ford trucks were all needing repair by this time frame for the f250-f350s rolled by.

Ford also had troubles with push rod lengths on the 360 if the heads were milled to much.
If a person did not keep the push-rods in order they could run into a problems.

I don't remember the 332 & the 352 having this push rod troubles.

 

1970: The Evaporative Emission system (Evap/Em) was introduced in Passenger Cars, F100/Bronco/Econoline which required a non vented fuel cap and unleaded fuel.

1970/72 Passenger Cars, F100/Bronco/Econoline sold new in CA have it, but other states may not have mandated it.

1973: FoMoCo changed the fuel tank filler tubes with Evap/Em by putting a restrictor in them. Back then there were two different sizes of filling station nozzles.

The unleaded fuel nozzle was smaller in diameter, so the restrictor would not allow the larger in diameter leaded nozzle to fit in.

Sold new in CA 1973/78 F100/350's have Evap/Em. By 1979, all states mandated Evap/Em.

Leaded fuel was available for many years and it is still available at some filling stations. The Union Oil station in Brentwood (WLA) has it for about 10 bucks a gallon.

360/390 use the same pushrods, one type was shared with the 352. In fact, the only difference between a 360 & 390 is the crank, rods and pistons. EVERYTHING else is the same.

In 1968, FoMoCo made a "running change" with FE pushrods. 1965/67 352 and some 1968 360/390 pushrods are 9.62" overall length (C4TZ-6565-B).

Some 1968 360/390, 1969/76 360/390 pushrods are 9.59" overall length (C8AZ-6565-A). The 9.62" pushrods were still available, but were referred to as .030" O/S (oversized).