On the 66 F-100 I had a terrible oil leak out of the back of the intake. So bad I stopped driving it. Pulled the intake and found whoever installed it used the crappy cork end seals. The rear one was blown out bad. Was going to buy a nice new Edelbrock 4bbl intake for it (as the cast iron 2bbl one weighs in at 78lbs) but the wife axed that idea with Christmas purchases. So the truck was going to be down for a while...

Researched the gaskets and they aren't really cheap. It was just a bit more to buy a whole engine gasket set than the intake and valve cover gaskets individually. I pulled the heads to see what I had. Found some good and bad things about the motor. One bad was its not a 390 like I originally thought but really a 352. Bad that I lost the 38ci but good because its likely still the original engine. The only thing that really threw me was the date code on the intake manifold was a 1969 part number. Everything else is 1966, so somewhere along the way the intake got swapped for another cast iron 2bbl intake. Bad #2 was that the camshaft was positively puny. Not even .4" lift. Even a Autozone stock replacement cam is bigger than that. None of the lobes were worn as they all spec out the same. Must be one of the first CA emissions cams I'm guessing since the engine has all the smog stuff on it and had a LA DSO. Good #2 was that the heads already had hardened exhaust seats installed. Good#3 was that it also had brass valve guide sleeves installed. Good #4 was that all the plugs looked great as did the cyl walls. Good #5 was that I thought the #8 cyl had a slightly burnt valve or something because it had a bit of a misfire from that hole which I could isolate by pulling a plug wire. In fact it was just a bad exhaust manifold gasket. The crappy log manifolds would certainly be coming of at this point. Perfect candidate for some classic hot rodding.

Been cleaning up the deck surfaces, block and parts over the past weeks. Blasted and cleaned up the heads. Pulled all the emissions junk out of them. Did some porting. Nothing crazy. More exhaust than intake. Mostly bowl work. Back cut and lapped in the valves for good measure. Cleaned up the oil drain-back holes and installed some rocker shaft oil restrictors. The valve springs were super weak for the small cam so they and the valve rotator style retainers had to go as well. Installed new oil seals, a set of Comp Cams valve springs, 10 deg retainers and keepers. A splash of paint and they're now ready to go back on.

Still need a new cam, lifters, timing chain, intake and headers before it comes back to life. I have my eye on a Comp XE256. I also have a sweet Holley 4010 600vs carb to put on it which should match perfectly with the combo.

 

The head casting looks like C8AE? And has the thermactor plugs. Are you sure it is a 352 and not a 360? The bores are very close and the stroke is the same.

The heads if C8ae are correct for a 360 or 390 for 68

Nice job on the work.

Garbz

 

The heads are C6AE-6090-R. Should be the correct heads for the 352 of this year and application.

 

Rare ones too with the thermactor plugs, But you said they came from Cali.

That would lean it to a 352.

Garbz