Hey,

I just got my first Ford truck, a '76 F100 with a 360FE and a 4-speed. The 360 is stock, with a 2-barrel carb. I was just wondering if anybody had a list of good bolt-on performance parts that work good with the 360? It already has electronic ignition, which is a plus I think. I'm basically looking for recommendations on an aluminum intake, 4-barrel carburetor, headers, and a good cam that is improved over stock, but not too radical to drive everyday.
Very much appreciated.

Frank Slay

 

I'd recommend a 67 and newer car 4V iron intake or a performer and a crane 901 cam and valve springs or just stay with the stock cam. The 901 makes surprising power to 4500 rpm and gets good mileage. Headers aren't necessary, but will help the power a little if you don't mind tracking down exhaust leaks. A holley 1850 600 cfm carb should do the job well or an edelbrock/carter unit, your preference.

 

I'm going to take a little different direction on my recommendation.

If you have to get an aluminum intake, get the regular Edelbrock Performer. It will match up to your intake ports. If you were going to have the heads off, then get the Performer RPM. It has larger ports and you would have to open up the heads a bit to compensate.

If you can live with an iron intake, then a regular car 4V intake will work well.

I must disagree that headers aren't necessary. The stock truck FE exhaust manifolds have to be the most restrictive design ever known to man. Definately get headers! I have Hedman headers on my truck and they work good. If you get a good gasket they seal up just fine. I have been using these gaskets, Summit # FOG-7024-2:

http://store.summitracing.com/partde...5&autoview=sku

I do agree that the Crane 343901 is the camshaft to get for a 360.

A Holley 600cfm should be plenty for the above mods.

Now you didn't ask about this, but there is a piston, Silvolite number 3139, that should bump up the compression a little on a 360. Now, nobody on here has tried it, and I'm only going by the listed specs so you'd be kind of the guinea pig! But if the specs are right, it should bump compression up close to 9:1, depending on combustion chamber size of course.

 

Hey Rusty, I know the stock logs are restrictive, but my experience with mild 360's is they seam to do pretty good even with the logs. All the FE headers I've seen have primaries that are pretty oversize for a very mild 360 truck engine. Just my thought anyway. Also, the new performer RPM's have the exact same port size as the C7 and up medium riser heads. They match up perfectly, no porting required. You do lose the exhaust crossover with the RPM which can hurt cold idle quality.

I guess I figure that one should go as small as they can when building an engine to get the desired power to squeak the most economy out of the engine at the same time.

A fellow at the local exhaust shop has a built up 360 in a highboy he likes to talk big about. It's got a performer rpm on it and headers and way too much money into it for a 360. It sounds healthy, but the powerband of the engine is too high for the heavy truck and it's gearing/tires and the clutch takes a good beating. A stock 2V 360 would probably be faster off the get go and alot more pleasant to drive in that truck.

 

I am thinking about getting one of those factory 4-barrel intakes for my 360. Do I just find one from a 390 or what? How will the swap from a 2-barrel to a 600 cfm 4-barrel and iron intake effect my gas mileage? Will I get any power increases? How much do you think one of those intakes will cost? Thanks so much,

fslay

 

On a stock 360 2 barrel at 430K miles headers and dual exhaust woke it up, later was given a 390 2 barrel high compression cam with iron 4 barrel and carb, both Ford items. With the above added parts and a dizzy recurve it ran harder with a small improvement in fuel mileage unless a heavy right foot was added. This 2 x 4 truck would edge by a 390 powered 4 x 4.
Don't go too deep into a 360 when a 390 would be a better motor for the power and torque you looking for.
.....=o&o>.....

 

you can get the intake off a 390. 360 were never offered stock with a 4-barrel carb. Use either a 600 holley or 1406 edelbrock carb you won't see much if any differance in fuel milage and only slight performace increase. 360's are a truck motor not a lot of performace to be had because of the low compression ratio.

 

On a personal note, you would might be better off rebuilding a 390 instead of trying to salvage the 360. 360's have very low compression in mid 70's trucks from the factory and if you were to try to tow something with it it'll eat all the money in your wallet as far as gas goes. A good rebuilt 390 won't break the bank if you do some research and scout around for good deals and parts (go with a car motor, heads are nicer). Trying to upgrade the 360 with aftermarket parts will increase performance, but unfortunatly you won't be getting you money's worth.

 

hi rusty , fslay i would listen to rusty,he no ford his fords just , im rebuilding a 361 with rusty help and im in australia

 

Well, the 360 in my truck only has like 90,000 miles on it. It runs great and is pretty strong. Can't I make a 390 from a 360's block and heads? What's involved with that?

As far as keeping the 360, I won't be pulling too much...just driving it to work mostly. I just thought that if I kept the 360, I could throw on a couple of bolt-ons and get some improvement.

 

You'll need a 390 crank with rods and different pistons with your old block that would need a bore job just to clean up the bore not a massive overbore.
Use your old heads but have them rebuilt for unleaded gas, add the 4 barrel and dual exhaust (headers) from the 360. To allow for longer rebuild and less down time I would build up a spare 390 motor for a quick drop in when needed.
This will get you a spare block, 390 crank and rods that are needed anyway.
.....=o&o>.....