Hi all. I am normally in the 57 to 60 forum but I have a question about a 76 FE 360. Hoping someone here can answer or direct me in the right direction. I thought I posted here before but couldn’t find any posts about this.

I am building a 58 F100 rat rod and am using a 360 from a 76 F250 someone gave me. The motor is really low miles on a rebuild. It’s a CA truck and was rebuilt to factory specs including the -4 degree cam timing. Before I mounted it in the 58, I installed a new timing chain that had -4, 0, and +4 options. My goal was to eliminate the -4 retard for CA smog so I set it at +4.

I was talking with an old Ford service manager and I am now unsure if the -4 retard was in the timing chain or in the cam grind (as I was told before). If it is incorporated in the cam, I am at zero. If it was in the timing chain, I am now +4. This is going to be a daily driver for my daughter who gets her license this month so I am primarily looking for reliability. I put a 600 cfm Edelbrock and headers with 2 ¼” exhaust but otherwise it is all stock.

My questions are; is the -4 retard for CA engines in the cam grind or the timing chain sprockets? How will the truck run at +4 if that is where it is? If I need to dig into it to move it to zero, I want to do it before I put the front clip on.

Thanks.

 

Sorry, not really sure about your question. Typically it was just the timing chain.
In all it just adjusts the power band UP or DOWN just slightly. In all you probably won't ever know the difference just driving it around.

 

It's in the cam. I've never seen a timing set that had the marks offset from the crank key or the cam dowel. Run it straight up. Unless you use a degree wheel and have the cam specs in print, you'll never know how it's timed.

 

It's been a long standing "fact" that if you had a post-1972 360, and wanted to get rid of the cam retard, you change the timing set. How true that is, I'm not sure. Do you still have the old timing set?

And it wasn't just for CA motors, it was all Federal, I believe.