The time has come to replace or rebuild the 360 in my '75 F150. The truck and engine have 116K miles. Truck appears to have been taken care of mechanically. Engine is clean inside. The previous owner said it burned no oil before he parked it. That was about 8 years ago. It does now. It smoked bad when I got it running and after putting it on the road the smoke cleared up but it uses a quart of oil every 80 miles. It smokes slightly when backing off going down a hill at highway speeds or when you let it idle for about 20 minutes the passenger side starts blowing smoke rings. Otherwise no smoke. The main place the oil is going is all over the engine and undercarriage. It pukes oil out of every gasket and into the air cleaner housing. It actually blew my crankcase filter out of it's housing!! It has severe blowby. Funny thing is that it runs and starts well and has plenty power. Gets around 11 mpg, too. I've put about 1000 miles on it since I got it running and no change in oil consumptuion. If a ring was going to unstick it should have done so by now. I haven't done a compression test, but will shortly. BTW:New PCV valve, PCV system cleaned, etc.

My question is about replacing or rebuilding the engine. I went to NAPA yesterday and priced engines. They listed two 360's. One with smog and one without. The 360 with smog is about $1300 and a $200 core. The 360 without smog is $2000 and I forgot the core price. Now for the kicker. They only list one 390 for $1500 and a $600 core! I could buy the 390, keep my old engine for a paperweight (they would not give me my core charge back if the displacement is different) and for an additional $100 have a 390. All engines have a 3 year unlimited mileage warranty.

What does with smog or without smog mean?? Is it for air injection (thermactor) or EGR passages. My truck has EGR only. Which 360 is correct?

Also, the counter guy said that NAPA has a machine shop service in Richmond (about 70 miles away). He told me they could rebuild my old engine. He gave me the number and told me to give them a call. Will call them tomorrow and find out price/warranty info.

I would rebuild the motor myself, but don't have the time. So my main quiestions are what does this with smog/without smog mean? Has anyone used the NAPA machine shop? Does the 390 sound like a good deal? Will everything off of my 360 work on the 390? Anybody use a NAPA engine? Any other ideas? Thanks.

 

ive seen folks order them up here, a few times . the three year warrenty is nice ,the price is about average, and i havent heard any complaints. being that close to their machine shop would be real nice , if you did need to take advantage of the warrenty, and every thing from your engine will bolt on , i personally would go with the 390. it has thicker rods, i turned a 360 into a 390 from just what i leaened on this site and am very happy with it ,good luck,bob

 

My bet is on the Thermactor holes in the heads being the only difference, maybe compression ratio. The holes can be plugged with a kit from DSC for about $16 plus S&H. They are a wierd thread and I blew a lot of money at Ace trying to find something that worked. The solution was here on this forum. The plugs were perfect.