Settle something for me...390 vs 400.

[cbxer55]

One of my first cars was a 1970 Pontiac Firebird Formula 400. Small block 400, Muncie M22 Rock Crusher trans, 4.11 gears. That thing would still chirp shifting into 4th gear. No smog, no ac, no nothing. Just motor, dual snorkel air cleaner assembly with boots on the snorkel that sealed to two long hood scoops. Had to clean the air cleaner all the time, bugs, leaves, etc.

 

[superj]

i have nothing to add. i have only driven a 70 something lincoln towncar with a 460, the old company 80s f250s with the 351, and my old 65 mustang with the 68 302 in it.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

One of my first cars was a 1970 Pontiac Firebird Formula 400. Small block 400, Muncie M22 Rock Crusher trans, 4.11 gears. That thing would still chirp shifting into 4th gear. No smog, no ac, no nothing. Just motor, dual snorkel air cleaner assembly with boots on the snorkel that sealed to two long hood scoops. Had to clean the air cleaner all the time, bugs, leaves, etc.

Wrong kind of 400...

 

[cbxer55]

Wrong kind of 400...

I know. But I felt since the discussion was on 60s and 70s, motors, that is was barely on subject. At the time, I also had a 78 Trans Am with a 455. The 70 with the 400 was much more bad-ass than that clunker 455.

 

[superj]

my step mom had a trans-am with the 455 also. it was a smokey and the bandit ta. i was still in elementary school so this was mid 80s. i know the back seat sucks for 3 kids to sit in because someone is sitting in the middle which is not a seat.

 

[ekrampitzjr]

I worked on a bunch of FE's and 351m/400's. The FE was great but it hung around too long, in 75 and 76 we had a bunch of trouble caused by the worn out equipment they were built with- sand holes in the cylinder bores so coolant would slowly leak into the oil, sloppy crank machining causing poor bearing fit, excess oil consumption for example but they ran good. They were hard on gas but no one complained and most all of them leaked oil.

As another member noted, the FE first appeared in the 1950s for the 1958 model year, though for the time it had what was considered a thinwall casting. After the 1971 model year, the FE/FT engines appeared only in trucks through 1976.

The worn-out equipment you mention in the last FEs is probably true. It also appears that Ford used whatever parts it had on hand to build those last ones toward the end to use parts stockpiles. Years ago I read an account of someone rebuilding a mid–1970s 390 from a pickup. When the writer tore it down, he claimed that particular engine actually had been built at the factory with a mixture of pistons from different versions of that engine: some heavy-duty FT pistons, some FE standard pistons, etc. Take that for what it's worth, but that probably helps explain the oil consumption.

 

[pjtoledo]

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