Im hoping some people who are more knowledgeable about FE’s will be able to clear the air for me. I have what I believe is a 428 ford big block. It was pulled from of a jet boat. I knew a guy through work who’s son bought this jet boat brand new many years ago. He took the boat out once maybe twice and then was killed in a car accident. The guy I worked with them had it sitting in his front yard for years and never did anything with it, every once in a while he would put a plastic bag over the carb so no water would get inside. My cousin saw it one day in his yard and at this point the boat itself was so dry rotted and gross it wasn’t worth anything, so the guy just gave him the motor and they pulled it out and now several years later it’s sitting in a warehouse at my work. I’d like to put it in my 75 ford highboy that currently has a blown 390. The plan is to take this truck up the mountains and use it as a wheeling rig. It’s going to get one ton swapped with some pretty beefy tires so I’d like this motor to have some power. I found the code on this motor and it says C8ME-A and I looked that up and it could be a slew of things but seeing as it came from a jet boat I’m assuming it’s the 428 cobra jet. The other week and I went up to check on it and pulled a valve cover and it’s a little dirty but no rust on anything I could see and the balaje springs were painted lime green still like new. I know that to put this in a pickup I need to change the headers, intake, water pump, engine mounts maybe a flywheel, what else would it take to put this in a pickup? When I looked at the code online I was a little disappointed it was only a 2 bolt main, I was thinking about putting a stud kit in it. The blown motor I have has Edelbrock intake and carb which I think is comparable? I bought a reseal kit from jegs that fits 360-429 motors. Also the code said that it was technically a medium block instead of a big block. My question is, what will it take to put this in my highboy, what is an FE medium block and is this motor a 428? How can I tell? Is this motor worth doing some work and putting in my truck? It was from a jet boat so it’s built to handle some rpm. I’m thinking this motor with high rpm and the low gears will make for a solid wheeling rig. Thanks let me know, I have never really messed with a Ford big block before any knowledge will help.

 

Measure the bore and stroke. I think 428 bore is around 4.13" and the stroke is 3.98". That will tell you for sure. If you're rebuilding it, the crank will tell you as well. I think that will be 1U but there is some other markings as well.

 

I don’t plan on rebuilding it, I’m going to reseal it and maybe put some main studs in and I’ll do the main bearings while I do that but I’ll leave the pistons and rods alone if they still look good. Thanks for the advice. I also know someone who has a camera, I’ll see if he’ll be willing to scope it for me to make sure it looks ok before I tear it apart

 

If it is a 428 it will be externally balanced with a counter weight on the crankshaft behind the harmonic balancer and the flywheel will also have a counter weight. All FEs other than the 410 mercury and 428 are internally balanced.

 

Doesn't really matter if it's free, any FE is better that a scattered one.

I would tear it down and see what you have. all you're out a gasket set which it probably needs anyway.

Count the bolts in the exhaust ports. if it's not more than 8 to a side it's not a GT or CJ.

 

Ok thanks for the info. Can you tell me what a medium block is?

 

Forget "big" or "small " in this context. Forget "medium" altogether.

You have an FE.

You mentioned a reseal kit for 360 to 429.
Must be a typo. The FE tops out at 428. The 429 is another engine series.

Only 406 and 427 engines had 4 bolt mains.

Being in a jet boat would have NOTHING to do with the engine being a Cobra Jet.

The teardown advice is sound. You said it seemed dirty inside. You don't know much time is on the engine or how hard it was run.

These are expensive to fiddle with so why not make sure it's 100% before you go through all the trouble of installing it.

 

The reseal kit actually says 360-428 you’re right about that. I said it I thought it was a cobra jet because when I looked up the casting # for C8ME-A the 428 option with that # was a cobra jet or super cobra jet. To my understanding there are big blocks and small blocks and it just depends on what the displacement was bored to. So the medium block term confuses me. Here’s the link to the site I found when I searched the code

http://bigtoys.free.fr/IMAGES-CASTIN...NE%20BLOCK.pdf

 

All 428 blocks are basically the same,no 4 bolt mains,same block in CJ,SCJ,Granny's wagon. SCJ is the only externally balanced with front counter weight.flywheel weight. Some later industrial engines had ribs on the side of the block but otherwise the same. That boat motor may be a CJ or SCJ and have some factory performance parts but you need to pull it apart to get numbers on rods,crank,pistons,get numbers off intake,carb,check heads for numbers,exhaust bolt pattern.Not enough info.This could be a high dollar motor.

 

Along with everything else a lot of boat engines were built to the nards. the compression might be so high you'd need race fuel to run it and that's not very practical anymore. just tear it down and see what you have and the condition..

 

I’ll get some pics tomorrow at work for you guys, I’ll see if I can get some #’s off the intake, heads and whatever is else that is easy for now. I’m hoping it has some performance parts on it, I think it’ll be a sweet motor if it’s still in working running order, it’s just been sitting a long time

 

Due to the thin wall casting of the FE series, you cannot safely bore a 390 to the 428 bore diameter. The 428 was a slightly beefier casting to allow the larger bore size. The external casting numbers you find on the block are not reliable indicators of what's on the inside. So yank the intake and heads so that the bore can be measured accurately.
If it is a 428 block, you have something of value to nostalgia drag racers such as those who still run '68 Mustangs in Super Stock. They are getting scarcer by the day and AFAIK they are not being reproduced in cast iron or aluminum as the 427 FE engine is.
Thus you may want to sell this engine and use the proceeds to buy or build something milder.
See the DIY Ford site on FE blocks here.

 

Hmmmm interesting. I also read that many 427 FE’s were used in marine applications. If the casting code isn’t always correct then could this be a 427?

 

Look on the side of the block above the pan rail. Three bolt heads? Post a picture if so.

 

I might be wrong but I believe there were marine 427s that were not cross bolted.