Need your help. All advise appreciated. I have a stock 75 f100 4x4 with a 360, granny 4 speed. Truck does have dual exhaust. Been thinking of adding headers and aluminium intake. Trying to decide between Edelbrock Streetmaster or Performer and 4 barrel. Truck will be used for general driving and some light hauling. Thanks for your input.

 

If you don't need the aluminum aspect, the regular old cast-iron 4bbl will do just as well as the Performer. The Performer RPM might be better. No experience with the Streetmaster. There was an intake "shoot out" a while back that I'm sure someone will post about, but that was more about high-performance than anything else.

(In before "It's a 360, there's no point to adding a 4bbl to it") - take it from me, even a bone-stock post-1972 360 will benefit from headers and a small 4bbl. Especially in the highway mileage department if you can keep it out of the secondaries.

The one thing you might want to ALSO look at is replacing the timing set with a "straight up" set. The 1972-up 360's were built with a purposely retarded(?) timing set. Going back to straight-up would yield some more power as well. And if it hasn't had the timing chain replaced, it might be time to do so anyway.

 

If you go with the Performer RPM, there is no provision for heat crossovers. You will have to block off the crossovers on the heads, prior to installing the manifold. Not sure about the Streetmaster with regards to crossovers.

 

Heat riser passage is blocked off on the intake, no need to do anything to the heads, just bolt it in using standard gaskets.

 

In the shoot out the street master bested the performer but needed some port work to get it there. If you don't need the heat riser and don't want to mess with port work I'd go with the performer rpm.

 

Art, what do you mean by a straight-up timing set? Thanks

 

The 1972 and up 360's were built by Ford with a timing chain and sprockets that retarded (I think it was retarded, might have been advanced) the cam a certain amount, supposedly for emissions.. It really killed performance. If you go out today and buy a timing set for a 1972 and up 360, you'll get that original timing set.

If you buy a 1971 or older 360 timing set, you'll get the "straight up" set. A few years ago, I went through the trouble of looking up part numbers for 1972-up 360 and 390 timing sets, and what do you know? They were different. But before 1972, they were the same part number.

 

BTW, now I just checked Rockauto, and the timing sets are all the same part number, so I don't know WTF is going on. But the above story is true

 

I quite taking a chance on getting the retarded set, now I just buy one of the performance double roller setups.

Edit: Just looked thru my newest Melling's catalog, man is it messed up.
It list the same timing chain and sprockets for all FE and FT engines, all MD and HD FT engines used double roller chains and there's no way a FE or md FT crank sprocket is going to fit over that big crank snout on 331, 361 and 391 HD engines.

 

Is that all you plan to do? What else do you know about the engine - i.e. is it stock, ever been messed with?

If the answer is it is a stock 360, the dual exhaust is a waste, and changing the intake and putting on headers and a 4V is really chasing a small gain with a big cheque.

If you are going to the trouble to change the timing set and the intake, you are also throwing a fair bit of effort at a small improvement.

 

There is a possibility that the engine is a 390, unable to verify. Truck already has dual exhaust and just figured headers wouldn't hurt, plus would sound better.

 

You can check, lots of posts on it but it is as simple as putting a narrow rod or dowel down the spark plug hole and measuring the movement of the piston.

You have to pull all the plugs and turn the engine by hand, but if you mark the top and bottom of the movement the difference is the stroke.

Hard to do much with a 360, the low compression is the issue. I wouldn't remove the dual exhaust, my point is the rest of the effort won't get much of a result.

I don't know if Ford put 390's in 4WD trucks in '75, but they were not doing it back in the bumpside era. Does your VIN indicate a 360 or a 390? Either way a check of the stroke will tell you, and you can wake a 390 very nicely, 360 can be woken up by turning it into a 390, 410, or a 445.

 

Paul, it's a 360 from the factory however the engine was rebuilt several years ago when a family member owned it and it has low miles since then. Unfortunately the family member has passed, so unable to verify if rebuilt to 390 specs. Will try measuring the stroke as you have suggested. Thanks for your input.

 

Probably still a 360, people don't usually refer to stroking an engine as a rebuild. Don't want to sound like a negative nellie, but start from knowledge - check the stroke. It will determine what you do next.

 

O, I so agree. If its a 360, leave it be and find yourself a 390 for a future build. The 360 will get ya where you want to go, but spending money on it, well its a lot of $$$$ with little reward. Can't remember the name of the place, but you can get a pretty standard rebuilt 390 crate motor for a decent price. Even a 390 short block and build it from there. BUT,,, JMO