With all of the local car shows and swap meets either cancelled or postponed, I decided now was the time to rebuild the engine. I had low compression readings on 3 cylinders. When I tore it down I found cylinders 2 and 4 with heavy vertical scoring and cylinder 6 had a broken top compression ring. The blow-by caused the front seal to leak and blew out the front passenger side corner of the intake seal.

I found a '67 352 block in PA that had just been to the machine shop with a fresh .030 over bore and the surfaces were decked. I didn't know how much was taken off the top so I would have to wait until the rotating assembly was installed to measure the deck clearance. The overbore will make it 357 cubic inches.

Deck clearance measured .059. The pistons are cast Silv-O-Lite with Hastings moly rings. I'm using Quick Seat dry lubricant on the cylinder bores to get the rings seated quickly and with a good seal. EDIT: Corrected the deck clearance

I tapped the oil feeds in the block and installed oil restrictors that I made by drilling a 7/64 (.109)" hole in the middle of a 3/8 set screw. I know some builders restrict them much smaller than that, like all the way down to .075, but I felt I would rather have a little more oil feeding the rockers. That should keep plenty of oil at the crank where it's needed, especially since the main bearings are fully grooved.


I'm replacing the original C6AE-R heads with C8AE-H castings. They have smaller intake ports and combustion chambers but larger exhaust ports. They will keep the velocity up on the smallish 352 and should improve both horsepower and torque.

The combustion chambers on the C8AE-H head on the left measured 70.5 cc. I haven't measured the stock C6AE-R head on the right, but typically they come in at 74 to 75 cc.


Intake ports on the C8AE-H head (left) measure 1.88 x 1.32. The intake ports on the C6AE-R head measure 2.25 x 1.36. This head has great potential on a bigger engine. It was used on GT 390s and 428s in '66, but the exhaust port needs work to keep up with the intake.


The exhaust ports on the C8AE-H casting measure 1.86 x 1.26, almost as big as the intake ports. The C6AE-R ports measure 1.61 x 1.26. I think the C8 head will work well on my 357. I may not be able to use the stock manifolds though as they may not seal the port at the bottom.

I installed the cam I had planned to use 2 years ago but decided the stock (and worn out) compression was too low to make use of it. Cam specs are as follows:
Duration: 204 I/214 E @ .050 Lift: .486 /.512 E LSA: 112

The tale of the tape:
Combustion chamber volume: 70.5 cc (4.302 cu in)
Head gasket volume (Cometic .027 MLS): .494 cu in
Deck clearance:.059 (Corrected deck clearance)
Piston dish volume: 4 cc (0.244 cu in)
Static compression: 8.87:1
dynamic compression: 8.1:1

The corrected dynamic compression will be happy with 91 octane gas and maybe even 89. The rule of thumb is iron heads need to have no more than 8:1 for 91 octane, but I think that's a little conservative.

Using the horsepower estimator at GoFastMath.com I came up with 295 HP @ 4000 rpm. It should have plenty of torque from 1500 to 3500 rpm. Need to recalculate with the lower compression ratio.

 

Excellent research and ciphering. I see so many threads where someone slaps together a bunch of goodies, but never stops to consider how they will perform in concert. I think you will have a nice power plant that is well behaved.

 

Very nice. Keep the updates and pictures coming please.

 

Sorta blew me away with the math. Man, that is some solid research, or, I'm thinking you've done this before. Either way, a job well done.

Got me 'hooked', so, gunna hang around and see the outcome.

 

Glad you're enjoying it! I've built a lot of Windsor engines from mild to wild, but this is my first full engine build of an FE. I did a lot of research, mostly on youtube, on what others did and used that as a guide. My goal is a reliable daily driver that will have enough grunt to make my truck useful for hauling and towing without stopping at every gas station I pass by.

I hope to have it back in and running in time for Ford Carlisle which was postponed until late July. Normally it's the weekend after Memorial Day. Then there's the F100 Nationals in Pigeon Forge in mid August. I wasn't able to make either last year, so I really don't want to miss them again.



This is as far as I can go until the head gaskets arrive. I couldn't order them until I assembled the short block and determine what thickness I needed. Generic FE head gaskets have a huge variance in compressed thickness, all of them too thick. The Fel Pro blue gaskets can range anywhere from .042 to .052 from what I've read. That's why I use Cometic head gaskets. They have incremental thicknesses so you can get the compression right where you want it. They are pricey though.

 

Early days into your build, but enjoying all the tech data. This is definitely an aide for future reference.

I’m new to the FE world, for that matter Ford, but seriously looking at buying one, no doubt will be a project car, as a ‘daily’

 

That's why I use Cometic head gaskets. They have incremental thicknesses so you can get the compression right where you want it. They are pricey though.

Me too. But they really need a fresh surface on the block and heads to guaranty a seal. They don't seem to pricey until you realize they only come one to a package.
Your engine is looking good.

 

Well it's early into the engine build anyway. The rest is pretty much done... for now at least.

Exactly!! I thought I was buying a pair and then realized it was just one, yikes!

Thanks. I mis-read the dial indicator when measuring the deck clearance and it's actually .059 not .039. That means I have to use the thinnest gasket I can find which is a Cometic .027 with 4.08 bore. That will drop the static compression down to 8.87:1. Not a huge drop and almost exactly what Ford advertised the compression to be on the 352. Without spending the time to take accurate combustion chamber measurements, it probably had 8.4:1 stock. The stock head gasket was .034 compressed, the piston sat .055 down in the bore and I bet those heads have at least 75 cc chambers.

 

I used to do all that math on an Excel spreadsheet until I ran across this site. There is a calculator here for anything you could ever want to calculate. Of course like any math equation, garbage in, garbage out. Measuring all that stuff is still the biggest PITA.
Wallace Racing - Automotive Calculators

 

Not to poke any holes but I'd say the "gofastmath.com" doesn't take into account your elevation on their compression ratio calculator which also effects the horsepower rating. On their horsepower rating, it assumes that your cam selection will take advantage of all potential flow your intake valve and runner can muster. I'm sure we all know these loose estimates at best. I used Wallace Racing calculators on my build as well. Only thing that's accurate is the dyno itself and even then can be manipulated to spit out a number.
By the way, be sure to pop the dowel out of your front china rail unless your Edelbrock intake is drilled for it. Your truck will wake up big time once it's back together.

 

Yes, it's just an estimator and it doesn't distinguish between a high velocity port and a giant flows like crazy at 7000 rpm cavern that drives like a dog at 1500 rpm. I'll try to get to a chassis dyno and at least know what I'm putting to the ground. I believe the numbers are based on sea level, which is where I live.
My intake has already been modified for the dowel when I re-gasketed everything and swapped the stock iron 2V for the Edelbrock performer, but good eye!

 

You raise good points about the differences on the heads too. Makes me wonder if there's a factory iron head with the 70cc chamber with the C6AE-R port and runner sizes? I noticed the dowel since I am redoing my intake gaskets and spent a lot of time staring at my engine the last few days. lol

 

I think this may be what you're looking for... C3AE-C heads with smaller chamber but big intake ports:

 

Right on! Definitely add that to my notes to find a pair at the swap meets. Looks like no Thermactor either? Can't tell with the shadow in the port. Thanks for that info!!

 

Here is one that is impossible to find nowadays C0AE-6049-H, 58.7-62.7 cc chambers, 1960 to 62, 352 & 390 specials, big intake port, 10.6-1 compression. Ford had those 352's pumped up pretty tight in 1960, 360 HP @ 6000 rpm.