I am in the middle of a dillema. I am planning on rebuilding an engine for my truck, a 1970 F100 sport custom 2wd, manual transmission ( 3 speed )
I currently have the stock 302. I know where I can get a 360 FE. (about 200 bucks for the whole truck its in so I get the tranny and mounts and all that stuff)

What I want out of the rebuild is a 350 hp engine with good torque- 350ft. lbs. or better. I want my truck to be quick out of the box and capable of roasting the tires to shreds if a chevy pulls up to the line. I have a 3.55 : 1 ratio rear end, which I plan to keep.

what would you guys say? any advice? I would really appriciate your opinions. Thanks Scott.

 

Go with the FE motor. You can bore and stroke it to 390 or 428. The 390 is a torque monster. A punched out 302 will be 347 cubic inches, and cost a ton of money. It will rev, but it won't have the torque you need. A good FE motor can put 350 HP, and 400+ ft./lbs. of torque. And it would be reasonably cheap to build, and damn near indestructable.

 

I would have to agree with madkore. there's an old saying that comes to mind that I think pretty well sums up the situation "there's no substitute for cubic inches when it comes to making power" hope that helps.

 

Yep!
There is no replacement for displacement, that's for sure.
That 360 block is great for building up - and your options are only limited by your budget.
Even better yet, you get all the little parts and gizmos and doodads from the donor truck to make the transplant easy.
Go for it!

(If the donor truck has disc brakes and power steering, transplant them while you are at it!)

 

That 360 can be turned into a 390 by swapping cranks and pistons. Real durable engines. I had to replace the crank and rod bearings along with an oil pump on my old 390 to increase the oil pressure. The old 390 had 175,000 miles and 33 years on the originals. With todays cam technology, one horse per cube is a walk in the park. You'll enjoy the increase in torque as well.

 

There is no replacement for displacement.

The standard rule of thumb is a "good engine" will put out as many horses as its cubes and an exceptional engine will put out 133%. To upgrade a 360 to 390 is basically nothing. So,

302 = 302 or 401
390 = 390 or 518

If you get the Fast Ford and Mustangs magazine (or is it Fast Mustangs and Fords) to get a nice 350 HP long block 302/347 is going to set you back $4000+.

It is a lot easier to get the 360 (to a 390 ci) to 390 HP then to get the 302 to 350. The other thing is transmissions. The 360 will most likely come with a granny 4 speed or C-6 that will hold up better then anything that comes stock behind a 302.

imo.

 

Opinions are a personal thing, but here's mine, since I have owned a '78 F100 with a 302 and a '72 F250 with a 360.

302 plusses--- light, good gas mileage (20 mpg plus in mine) cheap and easy to get build up parts for a small block compared to an FE, dime a dozen in wrecking yards for anything you need, Mustang parts easy to come by for 302s of any year. Much wider transmission choices including Granny 4, toploader, c4, c5, c6, AOD or E40d 4 spd. automatic

360 plusses: way more bottom end torque even if you don't throw in a 390 crank. Block and general motor structure are way more heavy duty than a small block.

302 minuses: need to rev to get torque, less of a problem in a car than in a truck. Bottom end torque required to get that big brick moving in a pickup. You could solve this with lower gears (higher numerically) but you say you don't want to change that.

360 minuses: A PIG in it's stock form, with the exception of torque. LOVES gas like a woman loves shopping. Any performance improvements will only WORSEN this.A 390 crank or 428 crank will get you oodles of power, but at a big bucks cost compared to a small block. You need to change heads to get it to breathe.


Basically it depends on what you want to do with it. When I went to build the truck I am currenty working on, I went with the 302. Wanted to use a 4 spd automatic and to be able to highway cruise to events without having to sell my soul and first-born child to an oil company. My choice for my application. You need to pick yours.

 

ok in stock form the 360 gets a bad rap because yeah it has it's short comings, but any motor that gets rebuilt will be more efficent in everthing because you have freshened all thew worn out parts, the 360 like the 352 is a short stroke big block, so it will rev pretty good and make torque, a mild rebuild including getting the heads done and a decent cam will make a very good truck motor, if you use new pistons or mill the heads to raise compresion should be able to make 300-350 horses and around 400foot pounds.
but yeah it all depends on what you want to do with the truck, I say big block all the way because the torque is always under your right foot.