Right now I am running a 410 bored 030. The motor is fairly new but I am already lookin ahead. When i rebuild i want to go straight to a 428. My question is, aside from the 427 side oiler and cammer, do they all use the same block? I know they do, but the guys at the machine shop said that there may not be enough meat on it to bore the extra 050 to displace 428ci. But if the 427 had a bore of 4.23 in the same block, then the 390,410 should have tons of room to work with right?

 

You will have to get your block sonic checked. Your best bet is to get a 73 or above block with a casting number of D3TE or D4TE with a mirror image 105 on the front of the block instead of a 352. You can find these in 73 and above pickups. They have thicker main webbing and generally have thicker walls. Still have to sonic check.

 

What is a sonic check?

 

A sonic checker can read the thickness of a cylinder wall.

 

Sonic checking is a way of checking cylinder wall thickness electronically. Kind of like an ultrasound of a block. Your machine shop should know what you are talking about. They are also right that you most likely won't be able to bore the block that much. Even with the later mirrored 105 blocks it is still crap shoot at best. Sonic check is the only way to know for sure.

You are correct that the Blocks are the same. But, They are only the same on the outside. The casting process changed from casting # to casting #. Each bore was cast differently from one casting to the next. The 427 bore has the thickest walls of all FE's if it had been bored to say a 352. As appossed to the 427 itself. While the acctual thickness of the wall may be similar in a 427 compared to a 390. But it was cast for bigger bores intended. The 390's were cast for 4.05 390 bores. Although some will bore out to the 4.13 428 bore this is far from the rule.

One more thing to look at. I don't know how you feel about the FE series engine. But if you like it much at all then I wouldn't jump from a .030 410 bore to, what breaks down to, a .080 over 410 bore. The advantages that you are looking for int he bigger bore are far out wieghed by the ease of failure with that much bore. The signs may not come on initally but they could be life threatening to your engine with just a few hundred or less miles on it. The next bore step i would go to would be just enough to clean things up. There are readily availabale pistons and rings for a .040 .045 .and .060 ove rbore for the next steps. The .045's are fairly hard to find but the rest are out there.

I know this is a long post and it is your motor so do what you want. But, If you enjoy good ole fashoined go fast history then I would suggest you save your bolck as much as possible.


Scotty

 

That all makes sense. The reason I wanted to jump straight to a 428 was because I couldn't find pistons for my 410. The only pistons I could find were cast .030. I couldnt even find standard bore pistons which I thought was wierd. Could you point me in the direction of where i could find these pistons and who makes them? Thanks for the help

 

There's a couple 390 pistons that will work in your 410. I'm building one up with the sterling 381P's, which read out as 390 pistons with 8.2:1 compression, but in a 410 will be a little more. These are essentially the same pistons put in the 410 originally, and the same kind ford used later in the 390's to bring the compression down.

Think there's some Silvolites that will work too.

You can use the 390 TRW's if you go to the trouble of having the top .08-.1 of each piston shaved off.

 

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 13-Sep-02 AT 02:31 AM (EST)]the other thing to look at with besides the truck pistons might be a custom set. Most Piston manufactuers will make you what ever you want. Custom pistons aren't cheap, but neither is rebuliding a motor becuase it was bored to much and it let go at 4000 rpm. The custom pistons would be my choice in that matter. And they will help to add peice of mind also. Was just looking at the Ross Racing Site and their custom and in stock pistons are nearly the same price. Right around $650. They don't offer a anything but a .030 over 410 piston as a stock item. But since the customs are nearly the same price it shouldn't be a problem to get a set. Turn around time is all the more you would be out. I wold ventur to say the reason for the price similarity is the fact that this engine is somewhat of a rarity. I hope this helps.

Scotty

p.s. the prices are from the Ross site. They can be had for alot less money.

 

Yes, that is a big help. Thanks guys

 

Can you give me a link to that website? Thanks

 

just use a good internet search engine like yahoo and type in ROSS racing pistons. I wouldn't order the pistons from ross directly as I found them much much cheaper on some other sites pulled up under the same search. One place was nearly $150 cheaper than the advertised Ross price.

Scotty