Well here's a dumb question for you guys. When I take the block in, what else do I need to take. Main caps? Bolts? Crank? Stripped-down heads? Not too worried about the manifold..."The Plan" is to go with a new Edelbrock Performer or Performer RPM. Money is the deciding factor in that one! For now, I just want the block cleaned up and checked out. Spudco, did he charge you for checking your block? If so, how much? Thanks guys. BTW, I am in Aurora, off Havana and Iliff, so anywhere you all want to get together is fine with me. Just let me know when and where. Of course evenings and weekends are best...o.k., they are the only time. Gotta work to pay for this nasty hobby!

Chad
1968 F-250 390 2v auto
Aurora

 

Well here's a dumb question for you guys. When I take the block in, what else do I need to take. Main caps? Bolts? Crank? Stripped-down heads? Not too worried about the manifold..."The Plan" is to go with a new Edelbrock Performer or Performer RPM. Money is the deciding factor in that one! For now, I just want the block cleaned up and checked out. Spudco, did he charge you for checking your block? If so, how much? Thanks guys. BTW, I am in Aurora, off Havana and Iliff, so anywhere you all want to get together is fine with me. Just let me know when and where. Of course evenings and weekends are best...o.k., they are the only time. Gotta work to pay for this nasty hobby!

Chad
1968 F-250 390 2v auto
Aurora

 

Well here's a dumb question for you guys. When I take the block in, what else do I need to take. Main caps? Bolts? Crank? Stripped-down heads? Not too worried about the manifold..."The Plan" is to go with a new Edelbrock Performer or Performer RPM. Money is the deciding factor in that one! For now, I just want the block cleaned up and checked out. Spudco, did he charge you for checking your block? If so, how much? Thanks guys. BTW, I am in Aurora, off Havana and Iliff, so anywhere you all want to get together is fine with me. Just let me know when and where. Of course evenings and weekends are best...o.k., they are the only time. Gotta work to pay for this nasty hobby!

Chad
1968 F-250 390 2v auto
Aurora

 

Chad,

I just took in my block with main caps (bolted on in the right places). I didn't take anything else in because if the block was bad I would have put all the parts in a box and sold 'em at the swapmeet.

You can take in whatever you want cleaned. Don't worry about the cam bearings. They take 'em out before they tank the block. Do check that you have taken all non-iron or steel pieces (adapters, hose nipples, etc) that you want to reuse off. They'll take any non-ferrous parts off there because they really mess up the hot tank. If you want, you can knock out the freeze, cam and oil gallery plugs, but if you don't, they will.

When I picked up my block they had lightly die-stamped each piece to make sure I got all my stuff back. Good shop!

Spudco

 

Hey Fellas!

Spudco, thank you for the congratulations, kids are the best, I am looking forward to doing the whole little league coaching thing over again... I was sorry to hear of your cylinder taper miss-fortune. One of the good things about Rob is that he will recommend a solution within your budget. A new set of .060 over pistons of the Silv-O-Lite brand may be in your future!


Chad, don't worry about how clean anything is or what is attatched, they will take care of that if you miss it.

My plan, I have a 360 block that is already .060 over which looks pretty good and may just need a hone. This is the rebuild base. A donor 390 with a cracked block will be giving up the rod and crank. The 360 slugs (pistons) will be cleaned and reused on the 390 rods (gives a taller dome so builds compression). My heads are in pretty good shape. I am going to stamp the rods/mains with a steel stamp set I have when doing the tear down. All will go to the shop for cleaning and fluxing, the rest is to be determined after that.

Of course I am shopping for the used Perf RPM and a carb to go along (hopefully less than $600 for the new stuff).

I have experienced engines returned from the shop before, and they are not pretty, at least like the freshly painted ones you can buy from them... One thing I will do though is a thorogh(sp?) cleaning with a brush set, just to be safe. I will forgo this step if Rob has taken care of that part on his end.....

Of course, I am in the West side of town (almost 470) but work in Englewood. Let me know about getting together, maybe even lunch or after work if we are all near at some point in the day.

Thanks Guys--Mike

 

Hi Guys,

Here's the latest on my 352 project. I got to tear the rocker arms apart tonight. They're shot. The shafts had a big "trench" worn in them where each rocker arm sat. Each rocker arm was visually out of round on the inside. They're toast. They're in the can with the cam, lifters, valley pan, pushrods, oil pump and of course timing chain.

So where that leaves me is.... 1) a solid block that can go to .060 over and 2) a set of heads, connecting rods, crank, intake manifold, timing cover, oil pan that need to be cleaned and magnafluxed, then rebuilt.

I talked with Rob at Blue Oval about rebuilding this as 352 or 390. I'm leaning strongly to the 390, since I like torque more than HP. But both buildups are very doable. Now I just need to come up with the $$$!

So, I won't be digging around at the junkyards for new parts anytime soon. I have to get these guys cleaned up.

Spudco

 

Mike G, new to the forum, just read your post about Blue Oval Performance. The last post seems to be around April, have you had any more dealings with this shop? What was your impression?

 

Hey Mattri:
Welcome to the gang!
Unfortunately I have been out of the loop with my toys for a few months now... With a newborn and just moving into a new(er) house, I have not had too much for anything else. I plan on stopping over to see Rob this week as I will now have room for my stuff in the garage. Overall, the place is great and Rob will build/do just about anything you are after. I also have received another Ford guy engine shop name from a racer friend of mine. He highly recommended Lee Dalton at Mountainside Engine in Golden.
Tell us what you are working on and don't be afraid to ask questions.
--MG

 

Thanks Mike G. I just picked up an 87 f-250 4x4 with the 460. I t is completly stock right now with the factory Holley, zf 5spd and the 10.25 rear axle. I was thinking of adding headers first, followed by a Holley Truck Avenger 770. Then later I was planning on cleaning up the motor itself. Pocket port on the heads and a mild rv cam. O course I'd do a minimum overbore and resize the rods and have everything balanced. This motor is going in a truck that will be used for work and some moderate off roading. Nothing radical. I went in and talked with Rob the other day, he was reccomended by a guy I know. He reccomended the Weiand Stealth but I was going to ask if the stock manifold might be good enough. He also talked me out of a MSD system, said the Dura spark is plenty for what I want. He also reccomended the Truck Avenger over the reman Edelbrock I was thinking of. I have a great impression of the guy, I just wanted to hear what people who have more experiance with him thought. I appreciate you all taking the time to answer these questions. ANY thoughts, ideas, suggestions etc. are very welcome. Thanks again.

 

Thanks Mike G. I just picked up an 87 f-250 4x4 with the 460. I t is completly stock right now with the factory Holley, zf 5spd and the 10.25 rear axle. I was thinking of adding headers first, followed by a Holley Truck Avenger 770. Then later I was planning on cleaning up the motor itself. Pocket port on the heads and a mild rv cam. Of course I'd do a minimum overbore and resize the rods and have everything balanced. This motor is going in a truck that will be used for work and some moderate off roading. Nothing radical. I went in and talked with Rob the other day, he was reccomended by a guy I know. He reccomended the Weiand Stealth but I was going to ask if the stock manifold might be good enough. He also talked me out of a MSD system, said the Dura spark is plenty for what I want. He also reccomended the Truck Avenger over the reman Edelbrock I was thinking of. I have a great impression of the guy, I just wanted to hear what people who have more experiance with him thought. I appreciate you all taking the time to answer these questions. ANY thoughts, ideas, suggestions etc. are very welcome. Thanks again.

 

Also look for "RobMcQ" in the FE engine forum. Every once in a while he'll stop in and impart wisdom upon us less fortunate...
--MG

 

i finaly made it down to talk to rob about my engine. man that guy knows his FE's. read my post in the FE forum about my engine. it is in need of heads and hopefully just a re-ring kit.

 

Rob's the Dude, I need to pay him another visit next week for more goodies. He also has a 70'ish pickup so checks in here every now and then too. Take a look to my reply, if you are going to spend that much $$ on stock heads, spend a few more and go aluminum Edels.... Heck, you can get a stocker set from checker or AutoZone for about $150 each, ready to bolt on...

 

well my 390 is shot. the cylinder walls are worn smooth and my rings are definetly shot. so it looks like the beast will be sitting a while longer. i will take some pics of it this week so yall can see what i am talking about. do you think it would be worrth taking to Rob at blue oval to have a look at it. he said he would check it out for 75 bucks to see what i would need.

my post in the FE forum http://www.fordtrucks.com/forums/sho...hreadid=177980

 

Does anyone know if he does Port and Polish? His prices don't seem too bad, but then again it's hard finding someone that knows FE's.