I have been looking on the internet for different manifolds for a 360. i have found many manifolds that are for the 428 FE and look like they would work on the 360 because the manifold is similar because the manifold goes under the valve cover. examples of these manifolds are: Dove T-Wedge(2X4 Tunnel Wedge Intake Manifold), Dove MR 1X4 (Tunnel Wedge Look),Blue Thunder 2x4 Intake Manifold. These are all from http://www.gessford.com/cobraparts/fintakes.htm, so please take a look and tell me what you think. Any help would be wonder full, (1974 F150, 360FE, 7"s of lift, 37's, stock gears)

 

Good news/Bad news

Good news: You don't have to spend that much $$$ on a new intake, you don't need a big 'ol 2x4, six pack, or tunnel ram.

Bad news: A "mostly stock" 360 will never be able to use that big of an intake. The 360 runs out of breath around 4500 RPM, nothing to be gained for the money spent. Depending on the heads you have, larger intake runners might even hurt, especially at lower RPMs.

For a "mostly stock" 360 a cheap 4V intake will do wonders for torque at lower RPMs. A cast iron Ford 4V, or a low cost aftermarket 4V will give you the most bang for the buck. Stay away from a used intake that says "SP2P" (?). There is a reason you can only find used ones; they're junk.

Here's a bump, I'm sure others will chime in.

 

YoungMTKen, all of the intakes you listed will fit, none of them will do you any good. The 360 FE has assembled height problems. If you want to change out your two barrel, a cast iron 4V manifold is cheap and easy. Does your truck have headers ? Headers make a HUGE differance in how an FE runs. The best help you can do for a 360 is to remove and replace the crank, rods, and pistons, and make it into a 390. Most 390 pickup truck engines also have assembled height problems, but if you choose parts carefully, you can get the correct height and you'll get an amazing power increase over the 360. The power differance is greater than what you can get with a cam, an intake, or anything else you might change on a 360. Did I mention 360s suck ? Do you want to know why ? DinosaurFan, on work's old cast off 'puter

 

thats what i have heard alot, and after rebuilding this engine with the stock pistons crank and rods i have found out that i should have tried to find a 460 at best of just simply gone with a 390 set up. To answer your question, i recently put a set of flowtech headers on. I still have the stock carb and minfold and cm so i guess since those manifolds are out of the question i need to look for a stock cast iron 4brl intake. So i guess i need o know what else to look for to find any little possible power?

 

what heads do you have? C8AE-H or C8AEH or what? do you have plugs in your thermactor ports on the exhaust port side of the heads? In my opinion the best case senario for your build the way it is right now would be if you happen to have 68cc heads, which are the C8AE-H or C8AEH heads. with the thermactor ports I am told that the heads are even smaller combustion chamber, but I have never compared personally. the smaller the chamber and the thinner the head gasket at this point the better off you will be compression wise. do you know what pistons went in the build? are they a stock flat top with valve reliefs on both sides? see, the compression is what gets a 360 down along with the crummy cam they recieved. think about it, it has better heads than a sbc and has ten more cubes than a 350. those "Chevy" (hate to type that word) engines produce power, and so will your 360 but more of it if built correctly. if youre willing to put that much money into a manifold, Im sure you would be willing to purchase a good cam for it. you already have headers, cool! and go with the cheap manifold, in a truck you need more mildly sized ports compared to a all out drag engine. your truck engine normally, needs to produce more power at lower rpms which means reduced air flow at peak power level needs. you need to produce a fast turbulent flow thru the intake to get the air spped up and force the air thru the head and into the cyl. by the air speed alone as soon as the valve opens up. if you have a big port, at lower air speeds like at lower rpms of the engine, the air isnt moving very fast and will not force its way into the cyl. but, with a smaller port size the air speed is up enough at lower rpms to cram air into the cyl's just because of pure momentum of the air flow. also turbulence is important in keeping fuel mixed in the air charge on its way thru, remember every time the air/fuel mix goes around a bend the fuel being the heaviest wants to drop out of the mix because it tries to go in a straight path. good turbulence helps to keep it mixed up good. hope thats not confusing!
but wait, you have a longer rod than a 390,427,428 and way longer than a sbc! that is a good thing when in a truck built for torque because the piston recieves less side loads when changing direction which means less friction. also the piston is at top dead center and bottom dead center longer with a long rod. the bad thing is that most of these rods are not as strong as a hipo 390 rod so high rpms are not its strong point. but in a truck unless its a race truck, who cares about high rpm capability?

 

Thanks, that is alot of information that will help. I dont know what type of heads i have, so where would i find that number at? and you talked about plugs in the thermactor ports on the exhaust. again no clue. in the rebuild, if i remember right the pistons had no dish and if anything there might have been the valve reliefs in the top, because i think they were mostly flat tops so that might be close. the cam that went back into it was pretty much a new stock cam. the rebuily kit was to put it back to stock. so i should look for the cast iron intake? what type of carb, is a reman ok generally? thanks for the info

 

Between the spark plugs. Check both heads as I've seen a bunch that don't have matching heads.

 

The number is cast between the center spark plugs. The date code is cast in the area just inside the valve cover above these numbers. If your heads were fit for thermacter tubes, you would see a hole or a plug in the top of the exhaust runner.


The rebuild is done, no sense in re-doing it at this point. I've forgotten since looking at your gallery, does it have headers? As already mentioned, that's the first improvement you should make before changing other parts. To answer the intake question, an intake that has C6AE or later number cast in would be a safe bet. 1966 is when Ford started casting the smaller runners in manifolds and heads. Some make reference to a big letter "S" cast in front of the number. That is a good indicator of the "velocity port". I have seen one mid '70s casting with a big "T" cast in, but you need to look at the hole for the distributor, make certian it's not a FT casting. The FT has a bigger diameter distributor where it goes through the intake. The other differences make the FT non-compatible for a swap.

I would not hesitate to shop used parts. There are a few self serve yards near me. Shopping ads and swap meets also lets you meet other people who like to work on their stuff.

All brand preference aside, more people here know the Holley carbs. The parts are cheap and easy to find. A 600 CFM carb should be quite big enough.

 

Other than the 4v S intakes being common to the GT package there was not a whole lot of difference between the S and T intakes. Both have been found trucks and cars in 2 and 4v trim depending on the engine package.

 

well, then a stock build will get you by, one advantage to the lower compresion is that you will not have any ping problem associated with high compression and cheap gas. you will not have a problem with that, and given a good cam you can live with it.
thanks for the intake info guys!

 

Once again sorry, but the 360 does have headers and dual true exhaust i think 2 1/4. local tire rama shop in billings did it. i dont favor it and have been told it should of been different but i guess i will live with it. I get paid tomorrow and will take a look at my favorite junk yard out of town and once again it should have the numbers "C6AE or later number " would be good. again where would i find that and what do you mean by a later number. and it might be like SC6AE? not a TC6AE or FTC6AE? look for the s one? thanks you guys are a big help will keep you updated

 

I upgraded to a C6AE 4bbl intake, ported the heads at home, still have stock exhaust and the diffrence in the old 352 to new is priceless. I do have a set of headers but need to save for dual pipe/mufflers. A trck is a truck if it's a truck ? Low end is the goal. Hell a properlly tuned setup with a 2bbl is a bad *** setup. I had a 74 with a 360/c6/stock exhaust and that thing would smoke this 352/FMX package in a minute. But I think this 352 would tow it a few blocks in a minute hands down

 

It's late and I don't have a link to a primer on decoding casting numbers, so here's the short of it:
The "S" or "T" are quick identifiers cast before the other numbers.
First character (letter)=decade. C=1960s, D=1970s
Second character (number)=Year in that decade.
Third and fourth characters (letters)= I can't even think what they call the grouping now; AE is automobile engine, TE is truck engine. Anything that starts with a "D" will most likely end with "TE"; example D4TE. Produced in the '70s...they all went in trucks.


If you see a "TE" third and fourth characters, look at the distributer, water neck, and timing cover. If they look way different than your FE, keep walking. Those are some of the easy ways to spot the FT.

That's a short and crude explanation. Hopefully I have not caused NumberDummy an aneurism (sorry bud!). It's worth learning the whole system, and which #s to watch for.

BTW, if you run across a set of drip rails like the bottom of this pic, grab em:


I'm on the clock in 6 hrs., have fun!

 

thanks for the information, i will look at the junkyard this weekend and get back to you. i looked at my 2brl and the identifying marks are completly different. so i guees i have to ask does the 4brl just have different identifying marks than the two brl or what? and what the hell is BTW, sorry just wondering. whats special about those drip rails and what are they off of?

 

Just look for the 4V intake with C6AE or newer cast in.

The drip rails are an early version. They direct oil to the lifter valley instead of the drains in the head. Some people have had problems with burning oil because it floods the valve covers. Simple and cheap solution is the early drip rails.