Picked up my 65 250 at the end of August. Straight and rust free truck from AZ. Stock with a 352, grimy and dirty but ran ok. Decided to get the block rebuilt and muscled up a bit...8k price tag sent me in a different direction! Picked up a 390 Long Block from S&J Engines in Tacoma, WA. From there I chose the rest of the needed parts to complete the build! Heading back to the engine shop on Monday so I thought I would post before and after pics of the engine bay prior to install.

 

Nice work. Keep the pictures coming.

 

Thanks! Will post more once engine is back in!

 

Looks great! Anxious to hear what you did to the new engine.

 

Here is a shot during rebuild. Not the best shot but it shows progress. The long block included an upgraded cam and ported and polished heads. I used Edelbrock RPM Performance intake with a Holly 4 barrel and Dougs Headers. Engine is going back in this week!

 

Engine almost done...a few more pics

 

That looks great.

Mind discussing what you did to prep the engine bay for paint and primer? How about the paint and primer brands too...

 

Thanks! First I removed everything from the engine bay including the wiring. I also removed the upper grill, main grill, the stone deflector and all the lights. To clean I used a variety of products depending upon the severity of the grease and grime! I used Por-15 Cleaner and Degreaser, Simple Green, brake cleaner and oven cleaner. The areas near the rear main seal and trans were the worst as I had a long time leak and it made for a tougher clean up. Those areas also needed scraping. After I removed all the grease and dirt I then removed any rusted/bad paint areas by sanding and or grinding the areas till relatively smooth and rust free. Prior to painting I went over everything again with Eastwood’s Paint Prep spray to make sure everything was as clean as possible.

For paint I used the following;

Engine Bay-Rustoleum Rusty Metal Primer and Semi Gloss Engine Enamel.

Firewall-Spray Max 2K in the original color code “T” for 65, Navajo Beige.

Trans-Rustoleum Cast Coat Aluminum Engine Enamel

Steering Box-Rustoleum High Performance Enamel Dark Machine Gray.

I used self etching primer for any engine parts that I reused and stripped from my 352.

I was originally planning on using all Eastwood Paints, but decided that I couldn’t see spending $15 for a can of spray paint. I did however pop for two cans of Eastwood’s Alumi Blast for my valve covers and grill because after reading a bunch of reviews I decided it was exactly what I was looking for.

feel free to ask anything...it was really a fun learning experience!

 

So did you strip things down to bare metal or did you just clean and scuff paint and then re paint over it?

thats what I’m trying to decide. Do I need to go to bare metal or can I paint over the existing paint?

 

In a few places I took it down to bare metal if the area was really bad, but for the most part, I cleaned, scuffed, primed and painted!

 

Question about radiator hose clamps. Does anyone know what type of clamp came on the hoses back in 65? I really don’t care for the modern clamps.

 

1961/65 engines were painted black, 1965 352 valve covers were painted gold.

1966 was the first year that engines were painted Ford Corpoate Blue, including the valve covers.

The "squeeze" type radiator and heater hose clamps were only installed on new trucks. Only thing available at the parts counter were worm clamps.

 

Try these pictures. If you can't see the clamps ask Larry and he can point you in the right direction.

 

Thanks to you both! I will grab some worm clamps. ND, I realize colors are incorrect for year. When 352 couldn't get rebuilt for a decent price I decided to go the 390 route. At that point I figured well the truck 390s where all blue so I went with it, plus I knew I wanted to dress up the engine a bit from stock!

 

They were split band A-15 clamps, so called because when they first came out they had A-15 stamped on them which indicated the size. I don't know when they stopped stamping them, but the NOS clamps I found were not stamped with anything (at least that I can see and since they're already installed it's possible I just can't see the stamping). They are thicker than the reproductions and fit the large radiator hoses better also. I had trouble getting the reproductions to make a good seal, possibly because they barely fit the large diameter.

All the smaller hose clamps (heater hoses, PCV hose, brake booster) were corbin clamps (Bill's "squeeze") that were installed at final assembly. The 2 clamps on the water bypass hose on the 352 were installed at the engine assembly plant prior to paint and were the tower style. You might not notice it on a '65 painted black, but on a '66 painted blue it's obvious.