A sonic test just uses an ultrasonic probe to check the thickness of the cylinder walls non destructively. If done correctly it can be accurate to within a couple of thousandths. I do think that a real 352 block casting, one for a 390 and one for a 428 are made using the same basic block patterns but with a different water jacket core depending on the intended bore size.

 

I doubt this will help but here's something about the identification between the better block and the bland block

Highly recommend watching this guy on YouTube. I don't know if he's a member on here but he's done a lot of work on the FE series. I have a 352 block I got for parts because my machine shop ruined my crank for my 360 and wouldn't stand by it...but that's a story for another day and another thread. All I know is my 352 block is the not so strong block because it doesn't have the webbed design like in the video. If it was a stronger block I was planning to do a full on 5k revving 390 build but I probably would've blown it up as soon as I got a wild hair lol. My 360 has the webbed block but before I realized original is stupid expensive I fully intended on keeping it a 360 otherwise I would've done a performance build on it. Little too late now that I've sunk 3k into it. Moral of the story if you're gonna spend that much either get a crate engine or go full on performance build. That's from my experience anyway. Sorry to hear about your news on that engine. Real kick in the rear when something like that happens.

 

Thanks Obsession. I'll poke around a bit on more of his videos.
The plot thickens. Called the builder again today (at his request). He's pretty sure it's a 390 (casting of C6ME which lines up with a quick internet search to match a 390 or 428, but the bore size is certainly that of a 390), but will do the sonic test to be sure. Will need to bore it out .0030 to clean up the walls that were beat up with the cam lobe and lifter being munched. He also found that the exhaust valve was bent that was "over" the failed lifter which probably caused the problem to begin with. Evidently the machine shop that I had used to do the heads didn't do that great of a job, with evidence that they used old (yet ground) valves, and the spring pockets were not correct (varied by quite a bit in depth). Valve seats weren't set properly either which he said isn't a killer, but certainly won't get all the power out of it that one should. Some of the valves were "tighter" than they should be.
The only good news out of that phone call was the crank is fine and will polish as it should, the rocker arms and shafts are fine, and the valve springs are still in tolerance and can be reused, along with the timing gear. Hopefully the block can be bored. Oil pump will have to be replaced since quite a bit of debris was sucked into it.
It's gonna be an expensive endeavor for sure from what I can tell. The saga continues.

 

From what I've seen FE blocks if they fail in the main webbing it is usually a crack that follows the oil hole from the crank housing up to the camshaft bore. I've heard the reason for the cross bolted main caps on the very late racing 406 and all 427 blocks was supposedly a non cross bolted FE block would only survive about 15 minutes of wide open throttle running at a track like Daytona before the main webbing would fail. Since continuous 7000+ rpm high load running isn't in your plans any block would hold up just fine.

 

DaveMclain - no, LOL, I don't have to worry about that for this motor. It's in a '76 F150 4x4 with the 4spd transmission. Fastest it'll ever go with me driving it is probably 70. Not the best photo of it, but here it is.

 

That's a nice truck.

 

Thanks. It's a money pit. When my dad retired he was looking for a project, so I suggested he redo this. He took it down to the frame, and built it back from there. A ton of work, and a TON of money. it's not perfect, but it's close enough for me. I think it took him about 3 years to finish. It's an Arizona truck, so minimal rust with the exception of pieces of the floor pans. Weird. That's the only metal work done, except removing the in cab fuel tank, filling in (nicely - you'd never know it used to be there) the associated filler neck.
I want him to be able to drive it with confidence to small town car shows and such. He just turned 77 and I want him to be able to enjoy it.

 

That is a beautiful truck. Love the color combination. As you may of guessed I also have an F150. I have a 76 F150 long box standard cab 360 FE T18 2WD. My grandpa gave me the truck when I turned 15. He use to daily drive it back in the day but eventually had to get something more modern. It sat for awhile and was a farm truck before I got my hands on it. It's in rough shape and blown apart because the 360 ate a cam and lifter after an overhaul. Machine shop messed up A LOT of the work and forgot parts. The plug in the back of that valley is the reason why it failed. Had no oil pressure in the top end and after a month of trying to figure out why it was knocking a mechanic friend of mine found the lifter half way gone. I have big plans but since I've let it sit for about two years. After the thing broke my heart it left a bitter sweet taste every time I messed with it. It'll have it's day though very soon. Good luck on yours!

 

Well - the truck has finally returned to my parents today. I don't have the parts list yet, but it was a complete rebuild with the only things being reused being the crank and intake. Total cost (including pulling and installation) was right at 5.3K. More spendy than I had hoped, but I guess that's what it costs these days. Now the only thing left to chase is a parasitic draw which existed before, and I didn't have time to run it down. Can't imagine there could be too many things causing it given the lack of electrical devices in it.

 

These FE's aren't cheap anymore sadly. When I rebuilt mine 3 or 4 some years ago I had several thousand sunk into it. Was a real kick in the rear when I found it was all for nothing and another rebuilt would have to be done 😒😑

 

Yeah..that's basically what happened to me. Frustrating and expensive.

 

Was a cause found or just bad parts? Quality is becoming an issue in the world of today so I wouldn't be surprised if that's it. What also surprises me is that I hear the top ends on these can be touch and go. Now I don't know exactly what causes it but people say the FE has a bad habit of bending push rods. I've never seen it happen but have known people who have.

 

His first guess (and he's standing by it) it was caused because I didn't use a zinc additive. As he started digging into it, he found other issues from the builder (head work wasn't as good as it should have been etc.) but he felt the cam/lifter issue was definitely from the lac of a zinc additive.
Expensive freaking lesson for me.

 

I suppose that could do it. Maybe just me but I'd still think bad parts could do it. I keep hearing more and more and more about parts being bad from the get go. The oil would be a critical part of the wear in though. Hard to believe an engine can take so much stress but at the same time is so delicate that all it takes is a 5 dollar part and it'll eat itself alive.