Duty, thoughts turn to the current F-250/F-350 Series pickup trucks. However, 50 years ago Super Duty meant big heavy-duty cast-iron 401-, 477-, and 534-ci big-block Ford V-8s for medium- to heavy-duty trucks. You’ve heard and seen them in delivery trucks, school buses, garbage trucks, and a host of other duties including marine use if you’ve been around a while. The behemoth Super Duty gas types were very popular marine engines.
The Super Duty engines, produced from 1958 to 1982, made big torque for gasoline engines and were about as inefficient as it gets. These low-revving high-torque engines burned a ton of fuel and did a tremendous amount of work tirelessly. Although they have been out of production for more than three decades, there are undoubtedly thousands of them still operating around the world.
Ford promoted the Super Duty 401-, 477-, and 534-ci engines as “similar to modern diesels in performance, economy, and durability.” Although the Super Duty remains a very common engine still in use worldwide, it doesn’t enjoy the kind of following seen with the 385 Series and FE big-blocks. These low-revving high-torque V-8s did their work at low speeds yet made tremendous amounts of power. They are in no way a high-performance engine. The Super Duty V-8s were workhorses long on brute twist.
When the 401-ci Super Duty was introduced for 1958, it was rated at 226 hp at 3,600 rpm along with a whopping 350 ft-lbs of torque at 2,300 rpm. These were grunt engines developed to make torque for tough jobs where low-RPM twist was needed. The larger 477-ci Super Duty delivered 260 hp and 430 ft-lbs of torque. The largest of them all, the 534, made 277 hp along with 490 ft-lbs of torque. In marine use, these were available with twin turbochargers for unending amounts of power.
The Super Duty engine family for big trucks was a mix of MEL and FE nuances that had no interchangeability with the FE/FT or MEL. Although Ford produced untold millions of Super Duty gasoline V-8s back in the day, they aren’t very common today. As a result, they aren’t covered extensively in this book.
The 385 Series
In the years leading up to 1968, Ford produced old-school big-block V-8s. The FE, MEL, and Super Duty engines were heavy, outdated designs at a time when Ford was looking for improved efficiency from high-displacement V-8s. When you study the 385 Series big-blocks displacing 429 and 460 ci closely, they are little more than an enlarged version of the skirtless, lightweight small-block Ford V-8. The belief in those days was to eliminate the block skirt and excessive weight in this new gray wall iron casting.
The 385 Series big-block debuted in displacements of 429 and 460 ci offered in Ford, Mercury, and Lincoln automobiles. Both engines had the same bore size of 4.360 inches with the displacement difference being in stroke. The 429 had a 3.590-inch stroke with the 460 coming in at 3.850 inches. The nice thing about the 429/460 big-block is interchangeability thanks to the use of the same block casting and the same cylinder heads and induction. These engines were hardy workhorses from the Dearborn iron foundry and Lima, Ohio, engine plant. They witnessed hard use across a broad array of car and truck applications throughout their production life.
Boss 429
Although not many of you are going to be building a Boss 429 engine it is important for you to know a little something about this rare limited-production highperformance hemispherical-head engine. The Boss 429 began life as the Blue Crescent with iron cylinder heads during development. The Boss 429 was developed strictly for NASCAR competition as an answer to the Chrysler 426-ci Hemi, which had been beating the pants off the competition since 1964.
Ford’s ill-fated 427-ci FE SOHC was a significant setback for Ford when it attempted to compete with this unusual single overhead-cam big-block mill when NASCAR chief Bill France said no. France viewed the Ford SOHC as too powerful for NASCAR and gave it the thumbs down. The Boss 429 was a renewed attempt at the winner’s circle in stock car racing.
It is important to remember that Ford won five NASCAR championships in the 1960s, all with FE big-blocks. The 427 SOHC had more than a 100-hp advantage over the Chrysler hemi. NASCAR became afraid that the speeds attained by the cars powered by that engine would exceed the vehicle’s tire and suspension technology and would cause many deadly crashes. After the death of Fireball Roberts, NASCAR was very sensitive to this, and it is generally believed that this is the reason why the 427-ci SOHC was never permitted to run in NASCAR.
The Boss 429 was a purpose-built hemi-head racing engine developed specifically for NASCAR competition. In pure racing form the Boss 429 is a strong performer. To compete in NASCAR, Ford had to produce at least 500 streetable examples of the Boss 429 along with a corresponding number of Ford Torino Talladega and Mercury Cyclone Spoiler II fastbacks. Short-term Ford President Semon E. “Bunkie” Knudsen felt that Ford could get more promotional mileage by building at least 500 Boss 429 Mustangs and at least 500 Torino Talladegas fitted with the 428 Cobra Jet, which were required for homologation of the aero packages. Cyclone Spoiler IIs were fitted with the 351W V-8 small-block.
A Legacy of Great Ford Big-Blocks
Ford can be credited with the development and mass production of some of the greatest big-block V-8s ever produced. No other North American automaker can claim that it went up against some of the most legendary automotive marques in the world at Le Mans and won with an American pushrod V-8 four times straight, handing Ferrari a defeat each time. Ford’s big-block story is about adversity, learning from it, practicing what was learned, and coming back with an even better engine than before. Ford’s reputation for durability and longevity comes from more than a century of research, development, and a commitment to refinement and engineering.
CHAPTER 1
GENERAL DATA AND SPECIFICATIONS
Ford’s FE Series big-block arrived in 1958 in three displacements: 332, 352, and 361 ci. The 332 ci had the shortest stroke of any FE Series big-block at 3.300 inches with a 4.000-inch bore. The 352 with the same 4.000-inch bore had a 3.500-inch stroke. In the beginning, the 332 and 352 were fitted with mechanical lifters with blocks void of oil galleys for hydraulic lifters. Throughout the 1958 model year 332/352 blocks were drilled for hydraulic lifters in order to meet higher passenger car standards of the period. Car buyers did not want the hassle of periodic valve adjustment in a marketplace full of V-8 engines with hydraulic lifters.
When you’re shopping for a 332/352 block, pay close attention to important elements such as hydraulic lifter oil galleys along the cam bore. Blocks designed for mechanical lifters cannot be upgraded to hydraulic lifters.
When the FE was introduced in 1958, the 292/312-ci Y-block V-8 (shown) was the Ford industry standard with its skirted block, mechanical tappets, stacked port heads, and simple design. The FE Series big-block dwarfed the Y-block even though it employed similar engineering.
360/361/390/410
The 360, 361, 390, and 410 engines are grouped together because they have the same 4.050-inch bore. The 361 was an Edsel engine option with a larger 4.050-inch bore and the 352’s 3.500-inch stroke. The 361 was also available as the Ford Police Interceptor for 1958 only. The 360, virtually the same displacement, was introduced strictly for pickup trucks from 1968 to 1976. FE production ended in 1976.
The 390, introduced in 1961, differs from the 332, 352, 360, and 361 in terms of stroke, which was greater at 3.780 inches. The increase in stroke made the 390 FE something of a powerhouse for its time. The 2- and 4-barrel versions of the 390 were most common followed by the 401-horse 6-barrel 390 High Performance V-8 made possible by a trio of Holley 2-barrel carburetors and a progressive throttle linkage. The 390 High
