was a 390 availible in a 66 250 4X4?? i looked at a very rough 66 last night and the guy says its got a 390 in it. i know anything is possible and engine swaps happen but he wants $500 for it because of the engine. i don't think its worth that because its so rusty that the side of the hood is rotted off.

 

Was it available? Yes, it was -
BUT -
ONLY as special order, most likely installed by the dealer. There is no VIN code for 390 until '68, so it cannot be verified that way.
It could be a transplanted 390 as well.
If the engine is original to the truck, check the engine data plate under the coil. If will say 352 if original, and should have been changed if not.

You can check the stroke easily enough (if the engine will turn over), but don't be surprised if it turns out to be a 352.
Confirming the stroke will give you good leverage over the price. If he won't let you do it, my advice is to walk away from it.

Good luck.

 

John;
Wouldn't the vin plate on the door tell if its a 352 or 390 as well??? I don't know if a special order would change the vin data plate; but I would think it would.

Mitch

 

No, Mitch, unless the 390 was substituted for a 352 at the factory, which was highly unlikely for the Ford truck assembly lines, according to what I have been told. The one 390 swap I know of was done at the dealer, where a 390 engine was ordered along with the truck, and the dealer did the swap before delivery.
I hope Ford Boy Pete jumps in here; he know a lot more than I.

The warranty plate information might show a special DSO, for example, if the dealer ordered an engineless truck, along with a 390 to swap out before delivery. Even if indicated on the warranty plate, the paperwork for that DSO would usually be kept at the dealer's office, not the factory, and so is probably lost.

For an example, look at the F-100XL, a drag race truck, built in '63. It came from the factory with a 427, which was available in the cars at the time. The car VINs have a 427 code available, but the trucks did not - yet this one did have a 427 originally from the factory. The warranty plate code is blank here, leaving a space where the engine code should be in the VIN. Trans code is blank too, interestingly enough.

Did the regular production trucks which may have had non-standard engine configurations also follow this pattern?
Were there very many with non-standard configurations? ?
Who knows.

XL- F-100:
http://www.f-100xl.com/
Warranty plate:
http://www.f-100xl.com/doortag.jpg (DSO 84 is Home Office Reserve, by the way.)

Highboy, if you can post the entire warranty plate information, that would be a help. Even just the VIN would help.

Hope this helps.

 

I don't believe Henry ever put a 390 behind a 4X4, just like he never put a 460 behind one either. Through the mid 70s it was possible to get a 360 with a 4X4 in an F-250 or F-350. I knew of one in a 68 Ranger CC SWB too, and it was an A/T.

The only 390s I ever saw were in F-100s and came with C-6 A/Ts. All were 4X2 WD. As my friend Banjopicker said, they were all special Order. Their DSO Code had a letter or another number with it so we knew whether it was OEM or Not, whether to service it, If there was any 1863s to be done we had to have prior approval from the dist. Rep'. Also the purchasers of these "sweet Slicks" had to have some really good strings to pull to get one. All I am aware of went to "Poobahs" in corporate structure at a DSO Office and Plant near the Dealership I worked in.

So if the F-250 4X4 you are looking at is supposed to have come with a 390 engine as an OEM Item, I would dispute that Big Time. If it has Manual shift tranny I 'll tell you the guy is not being truthful with you.

If you want to check to be sure, pull a spark plug & measure the difference between the piston at TDC and BDC, this will give you the stroke, a 390 is longer than a 352, off the top of my head I don't recall what it is. I gave up on FEs a very long long while ago. I forgot all that stuff after I defragged my "head drive" [a joke HD-headdrive dumping memory to gain More Free Space. . . .]

FBp

 

Thanks guys, LOTS of knowledge here!! I'll have to wait till the snow melts down again so i can get the door & hood open so i can take a better look (its in a large snowbank). Measuring the stroke shouldn't be a problem as its my cousins truck. he's never had it running but he says it spins by hand. he says its a 4 speed too. its not really somethin i need so i'm in no hurry to buy it

 

Check out the FE forum here at FTE, for more details on other FE engines, too.

 

Hey, Ford Boy Pete, check your e-mail! I sent you a message.