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I bought a 1952 Ford Customline Project car that was incomplete and partially vandalized with Ford running gear. The engine had been sitting for 6 years with the intake manifold off and the spark plugs pulled. I pulled the heads and found light rust in the cylinders which cleaned up easily. I drained the oil pan of water then oil, no "milkshake looking stuff" to my relief---got the heads magnafluxed anyway. The pan water had not reached the main bearing area, yay. When trying to rotate the engine with a bar, it would only turn maybe 60 degrees and stopped with a thud. I found the flexplate balance weight(?) was hitting the seperation plate. A C4 trans was bolted up but the torque converter was not in the mounting holes either. Best guess is that they started to work on it then gave up and just slapped it back together to sell. That's the background, I hope that's clear enough.
My present #1 problem is that I found out that there are 2 different Felpro head gasket sets for the 1987 302 engines. I do not have any idea how to know if my engine is an earlier one or not. The numbers behind the starter motor are E7TE with a small *9D11* off to the side. That leads me to believe (from internet souces) that this engine is out of a 1987 Truck---right? Since the gasket sets are ~$100, I don't care to get and open a non-returnable package so I'm asking for your help to ID this engine as early or late 1987 manufacture.
The #2 problem is the flexplate interference. This 'plate looks like it came from a junkyard and has paint-pen markings saying "LSD" on one side and "J3" on the onter side. This engine couldn't have run with this flexplate (I think), so I need to locate a proper one to get this engine operational. The balance weight is on the engine side, is that wrong? The seperation plate is between the flexpate and the engine, is maybe that wrong? I had a lot of old Y-block Fords in the past ('60's) but am ignorant of these newer ones.
I'm not trying to make a super show car, just like the '52 body style and want to make it into a nice cruiser. Hoping this info rings a bell with someone out there, thanks.
My present #1 problem is that I found out that there are 2 different Felpro head gasket sets for the 1987 302 engines. I do not have any idea how to know if my engine is an earlier one or not. The numbers behind the starter motor are E7TE with a small *9D11* off to the side. That leads me to believe (from internet souces) that this engine is out of a 1987 Truck---right?
Not quite.
Ford casting numbers such E7TE-6015-AA actually only indicate the last revision of the mold used to cast the part and doesn't indicate when it was cast. In this case it signifies an engine part for the truck division. With this block being a 302 that means it is roller ready with 2 raised bosses in the lifter valley that should be drilled and tapped, and the lifter bores should be machined flat on top, so this block will accept the factory roller cam setup with the spider and dogbones bolted into the valley.
But there is also a date code "9D11" and it decodes as follows... 9 = Year in the decade or '89, D = Month or April, and 11 is the day.
Originally Posted by El Huapo
The #2 problem is the flexplate interference. This 'plate looks like it came from a junkyard and has paint-pen markings saying "LSD" on one side and "J3" on the onter side. This engine couldn't have run with this flexplate (I think), so I need to locate a proper one to get this engine operational. The balance weight is on the engine side, is that wrong? The seperation plate is between the flexpate and the engine, is maybe that wrong?
No both of those things sound correct but the flexplate may still be wrong, is it fastened to the crank with all the bolts or just a few? The bolts holes only line up correctly for all bolts in one orientation, and also note that there are specific flexplates for different transmissions.
Scndsin---thanks for confirmation of the year, still wondering about the early or late mfg in 1987. I failed before to add pics, finally got it this time. Or would pics of the block nubers underneath be what you wanted?
the project still oil on the rockers looks good enough to me
Conanski: Thanks for that info, altho the 9D11 showing a manufacture in 1989 is confusing. I markede how the flexplate was on but don't expect it to count for much since this engine couldn't have run with that 'plate. Well, I wanted a project... har!
Last edited by El Huapo; Jan 11, 2023 at 01:41 PM.
Scndsin: Thanks for your help, I added some pics, no problem once I see that the upper right rectangle for posting attachments is blank until you put the pointer on it---I thought it was nothing but a blank so I couldn't get pics to post. lesson learned.
Ford used the same engine castings for many years epecially with these Windsor family engines, that same block could be found in trucks right up until Y2K. I also see a couple other things... the flat top pistons and the capitol S cast into the outer corner of the cylinder head. That means those are E6SE cylinder heads which were originally designed for the '86 Mustang, the casting numbers for these are found on the underside of one of the central intake ports. These heads are easily the worst SBF head ever produced with a heavily shrowded valves and restrictive ports, if you ever want to see more that about 200hp out of this thing they should go away. The matching E7TE head or one of the GT40 castings(F1ZE, F3ZE) are much better.
This oddball combo of parts was used in the crown vic for a few years before '92 and in trucks between '92 & 93.
I guess I don't know how much I don't know---not too surprising. I went under car and got some actuall casting pics of the engine block if that matters: 9D11
Yeah looks right. See how the date code looks like it was on a separate tag that was attached to the mold with a pair of screws? Ford didn't update casting molds unless they wore out or something had to be changed. All this means you actually have an '89 motor that was likely installed in a Crown Vic originally. Check out the link below...
Yeah looks right. See how the date code looks like it was on a separate tag that was attached to the mold with a pair of screws? Ford didn't update casting molds unless they wore out or something had to be changed. All this means you actually have an '89 motor that was likely installed in a Crown Vic originally. Check out the link below...
Well OK, I had better trade back the Felpro Head Gasket Set I picked up because I was betting on engine being an early 1987 model. I never opened the box so I can swap it for the later version (P11 for the P12 in Felpro speak). Thank you very much, I'm getting a little less confused here.
BTW: I looked up the specs for 1989 Crown Vic and the HP number is 150. That's pretty low so sometime in the future I think I will be looking for better heads, thanks again. I was expecting something closer to 200 HP which would be fine with me, a regular gas smooth cruiser is my goal.
I had a set of E6 heads that I ported pretty heavily and they still didn't work as well as untouched E7's... which work well enough to make 260-275hp and GT40's will break 300hp without much effort.
Thanks to all who helped me understand---now I get the difference between casting numbers and date codes. I found an internet site that clarifies it too, now that I know what to look for: Ford Part Numbers, Casting Numbers, and Date Codes (automotivemileposts.com)
Maybe this will help someone else.
Happy Trails, hp
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