Ford FE Engine Family 332, 352, 361, 390, 406, 410, 427, 427 CAMMER, 428, CJ428, SCJ428

Flirting with Disaster by Molly Hatchet 🤞

Ford engines are so overlooked...it kills me to see an old Ford with a Chevy engine...a crime!

I drove a 1965 Galaxie 500 with a 352 that my dad bought in February 1966 as a leftover new car and I started driving it in the fall of 1973 when it had only 9000 miles on it. It lasted until 1990 when the dreded northeastern Ohio rustworm finally did it in. I miss it, it was a caspian blue 4-door sedan 😢

The cross-bolting was introduced on the late-run 406s, not the SOHC.

The 427 cammers with the all gear valve train were based loosely on the Ford GAA v-8 used in Sherman tanks. 1100 cubic inches, double over head cam, put out over 500 hp at 2500 rpms.

One of the most overlooked engine designs was the FE intake. Many people talk about the weight of the intake, but ignore just how HUGE the intake is and how small the heads are. The intake is about as long as you can make it and this has a big advantage when you swap it out. The advantage is that you make the most change you can get from changing the intake because it changes so much of the intake runner. Without changing the heads, you've changed a larger area of the runner. So this means you reduce the most weight and change the behavior of the engine more than a BB Chevy or BB 460 engine. You can also add cross bolted caps to any FE engine if you want. Add a set of headers, good intake, cam and you have yourself a real torque monster of an engine. Very easy to get well over 500 tq on these things.

My first car was a 1966 Thunderbird (bought in 2017, I'm not that old lol) with a 390 FE V8! It was pretty worn out when I got it, but it still ran reliably even if only on 7 cylinders while getting 5 mpg and taking 10 minutes to start and warm up every morning, and stalling frequently in the first couple minutes of driving... It still always got me to my destination. Then I did a full engine rebuild in 2019-2020 and it improved significantly, even more so when I realized I was using the wrong fuel and 0% ethanol made it much happier. Now that I've been driving it for several years I'm honestly shocked how reliable it's been, I thought owning a classic car would require much more frequent maintenance, but I've hardly had to do anything. It only left me stranded once, due to a cheap chinese alternator that crapped out, but that was a cheap and quick fix thankfully. The odometer broke at about 96,000 miles before I bought it, and may very well have had over 100k at that point. Only modifications to it are a different fuel pump (for running ethanol gas when necessary), roller lifters, an aluminum intake manifold and four-barrel carburetor, and hardened valve seats. With modern higher-quality oil and whatnot, I expect it could easily last another 100k miles with very little maintenance. I totally get why old guys say "they don't build 'em like they used to," given how this whole car seems to be built like a tank, yet in the 80s all the American car companies started building cheap outdated junk and couldn't compete with the Japanese automakers. Sadly my T-bird was rear-ended by a distracted driver a few months ago and the insurance company declared it a total loss, yet after the accident it still tracked straight and everything still worked, even all the lights. Just some bodywork was damaged, and only in areas where rust had weakened the structure. It still works perfectly to this day, even if I have to leave it sitting for a long time to save up for repairs to get it back on the road with a rebuilt salvage title. My family has owned exclusively Japanese cars my whole life and loves them for their reliability, and some of my family members are convinced my T-bird is unreliable because it's old so I can't/shouldn't expect it to be useful as a regular car, but I'm convinced it's in the same league as any modern Toyota reliability-wise. Ford was building some truly excellent engines in the 60s.

Great video, but two minor corrections: first, FE does stand for Ford/Edsel, just like M-E-L. Second, the bore and stroke numbers were reversed for both 427 specs. Amazing that you could buy a new Cammer 427 for $4k, but that is more expensive than a complete Mustang! Or full-size LTD, for that matter.

I have a 360 FE in my 1976 F150 4x4. Original with 108,000 miles. It’s my daily driver. I really enjoy driving it.

Back in the day, ordered a 69 Mach1,428SCJ , 430 gears.With a little mentoring from Tasca Ford ran a consistent 13.7s at Conn Dragway and NE Dragway Pure Stock Class which consisted of street tires and closed exhaust.Had a very good launch and was a fast street car, made a lot of Chevy Guys unhappy ,i used to tell them (Not Bad For 335 HP } .Went to the next level, sodium valves ,multi angle valve job ,matched intake/head ports and General Kinetics cheater cam to run a stock class.Ran 12.3s, 112 mph, the class I ran had to run 7" slicks{ wrinkle walls } with 7psi air pressure, was exciting going the traps at speed.

AS EVER J, THIS IS A FANTASTIC INFORMATIVE VIDEO ON FORD'S FE ENGINES- WOW.THANKS FOR POSTING/SHARING.

427 Ford low, medium , high riser, tunnel port & SOHC are fantastic!

Great video, thanks! One correction, the 361 was an FT and the FE was a 360.

Another great engine episode, Jay! Keep 'em coming, please.

Would You Rather # 1: All are excellent choices, but I want the Mercury

FE=Ford Edsel. Good review. The 361 was a truck engine also used in the Edsel. The FE427 was a rare bird, but tuning was a lot more flexible than the cheaper to produce 428. The 390 is a superb all around motor, used heavily in pickups, along with its shorter stroke 360 brother. I will take a 61 390 Bird any day !

One of the best engines ever built!

Love the info on the 406. Most forget about the 406-6 barrel and go straight to the 427 as the daddy; well, the 406 was the g-daddy.

Please feature the old Ford Super Duty engines from WAY BACK. The 401, 477, and 534 cubic inch monsters that were found in big trucks.

Had a 73 f150 with a 360! Good engine!