Slick 60's

Ok, i have ruled out the idea of having a "BUILT" hot rod motor in my 65 f100. but the 352fe needs a boost. It is untouched and a 200HP boat anker. I want to get rid of the 2bbl and stock cast intake. Any suggestions on a aluminum intake 4bbl set up that will be better on gas when my foot isnt in it and good on highway, yet still have a kick when I want.

Troy

Hi Troy,
You said your 352 is "untouched".....I read that as your engine is a 47 year old tired mill, as in never rebuilt. If that is so, this of course means your camshaft, valvetrain & the timing gears/chain are all worn & tired too. So, if you bolt on an aftermarket intake and a 4-barrel carb, you might expect more performance - but it may not be realized due to the rest of the engine still being very tired and worn.

With that being said, I'd recommend you simply do a SUPER tune up on what you already have. This action will provide you with the most the current combination of parts can offer. Such as: test your coil output, test your coil & spark plug wires for excessive resistance, install new spark plugs (properly gapped) and new points/condenser and distributor cap. New fuel filter, new air filter, fresh coolant, fresh engine oil & filter and fresh transmission and rear differential gear lubes. Grease all of the steering linkage, kingpins and driveshaft U-joints. If any won't take grease, fix/replace them. Give a serious inspection of all four corners of the braking system; shoes, drums, retaining springs, etc. bleed the brakes. Inspect all four tires for even wear and adequate thread depth. Inspect the front axle inner and outer bushings, radius rod bushings, etc. Do you need a front wheel alignment? How are the shocks?

Now if you've done all of the above already - then your truck could be considered relatively safe & dependable - which IS your first priority.

Now back to your info request:
I'd suggest you look for an aluminum Edelbrock Streetmaster or an Edelbrock SP2P intake manifold. These are older design intakes, however, I've seen them for sale for less than $200. Some folks claim the Streetmaster is not a good candidate for mild street performance (because it is a single-plane design part), but others will disagree with that claim. A SP2P is similar to the cast-iron FoMoCo 4-barrel intakes, but MUCH lighter. Although some intakes will have two different carb bolt-down patterns, some intakes will have only one pattern - and you'll want it to match your choice of carb. Inspect the intake carb bolt holes to ensure the threads are still good. Inspect the manifold surfaces for any signs of milling or machining that may effect their sealing to your cylinder heads. Look the manifold over good for any cracks or signs of warpage.

Economically, a used carb can be a good choice and are readily available. An older Holley 600-cfm carb with vacuum-actuated secondaries would be my choice for a carb, but you may be able to locate & buy a comparable, inexpensive Edelbrock, Autolite or Motorcraft 4-barrel carb too. Ensure that throttle linkage will attach to the carb linkage. Put a fresh rebuild kit into it and it likely will perform fine for you.

BarnieTrk

I'm now looking at the same thing. '66 with a stock 80,000 mile 352.

The PO already put nice headers and exhaust and said that really woke it up from the cast manifolds. That should be your first step.

Then I would look at an Edelbrock Performer with a Holley List 1850 (600 CFM Vac Sec).

If you want to turn it a little harder, go to the Edelbrock Performer RPM and a Hollet Street Avenger 670cfm

My thoughts from my recent research.

SPark

SPark,
Whatever works for ya is great..... but I'll tell ya this:

I have run headers on both my '65F100 with a 390 and my '65F250 with a 390. Realize that headers burn out...and it depends on several factors as to how fast they burn out - but it will happen eventually. Coatings help, but they don't prevent them from burning out.

I've owned my '65F100 since '81 and I think I'm on my third set of headers for it. The headers make more of a performance difference if you run the engine over 3500 rpms. Most of the time, I shift and run my 390s under 3500 rpms, so I doubt the headers help my 'performance' much.

Realize too, if you do much stop & go traffic, the headers will put LOTS of heat into the floorboards, heating the cab considerably. I replaced my starter 3 or 4 times and finally built a heat shield for it - which is working at extending its life,,,I think it's going on 7 years now.

If I still had the OEM exhaust manifolds & they were in good shape, I'd use them instead of headers. They would make it quieter in the cab, make much less heat on the floor and starter and they wouldn't burn out like headers do. I would still run dual exhaust with the manifolds and I'd bet they'd be just fine for me and how I drive.

The Holley 1850 is a fine choice and I run one on one of my 390s.

It's been my experience that you'd pay more for the Performer RPM intake than the older designed intakes. Unless you plan to run your 352 over 4000 rpms alot, I highly doubt you'd notice the difference between the Performer RPM and either of the two less expensive intakes.

BarnieTrk

I will express the obvious here and say the 352 is a good engine, but low compression due to the slugs being down the hole about 100 thousandths. My advice, find a good 390 already built with what you need on it, prefferably one you can hear run, with paperwork on cam and what was done. Nothing wrong with a 352 but like the 360 were work engines mostly with low compression. There were some strong 352's in the early 60's untill the advent of 406/427 engines. After that no thought was given to doing anything performance wise with the 352 to the best of my knowledge. You obviously did not give much for your truck, so your lucky in that respect. The sad news, is to wake up your truck you need to ad at least a cam, dual exhaust and intake. Results are going to be fair at best. Even going to a 390 you would have to do the exhaust in duals. If, you motor is tired, then you need to think before you leap. Cams usually mean you need valve springs to match, so your talking 200 or better there. You can get a performer for 100 to 250 used. Hunt around those for 100 to 125 can be found. RPM intakes are running 200 to 250 used sometimes more. Of course when you change the cam, you need to change the timing gears and chain. Little word of caution on this. Ford built these model engines with a spacer washer between the cam and timing gear. Later they did away with the washer and made the boss on the cam gear thicker. When you buy a timing set most likely it will be of the later design, and should include a warnig to remove the washer and discard it. If you put it back on behind a newer set, it will put the chain in a bind, and also rub the inside of the timing cover, causing metal flakess in the oil, and you will damage your bearings. Getting on with what can be done ato a 352. If, you can locate a set of 1960 COAZ heads with the 59 cc comustion chanmbers, you can increase your compression as your stock heads are about 70cc's. These heads are rare and often expensive. I have a set but would not sell the set, even if offerd large money for the heads. These heads are rare and hard to find. There are some avantages to running the 352, and that is lower compression means fewer problems with running todays fuels. You can run up to about 9.5 to 1 before experiencing problems. As to efficiency, from what I've read, Quench has a lot to do with this. Best quench is less than 40 thousandths, and at 100 the 352 is way off from the optimum. A 390 is about 30 down the hole, so with head gasket is stil not at optimum, but closer. If a person runs the original steel head gaskets it would be fairly close , but with modern galkets , not so much. Anyway, If you want real power out of you engine, it's going to cost money. A good engine 390 can be had for anywhere around 300, to 650. Just depends on how good and what has been done to it. Otherwise, you might consider buying a 390 crank rods and psitons and putting all this in your engine, along with a good torque rated cam of your choice. and duel exhaust.
The advice to first tune and firm up what you have is improtant. Make it drivable and safe first, then start small and see what you have to work with on your truck. If the engine has never been open or worked on, you may ned to change the valve seals. If it smokes when you first fire it up, this is an indication that the seals are needing replacesd. I've seen these so bad, that the seals are broken into little pieces that end up clogging the oil pickup.
Bang for the buck, cam first, duals, intake and carb. Just don't expect to much, 352's are not race engines. 352's are good dependable smooth running , just don't expect much more than 12 to 15 mpg.

Rich

I have a worn out 352, 600 cfm edelbrock, edelbrock performer intake, pertonix ignition, isky 262 super cam, headers and dual exaust. It does ok, I get 13 mpg and I drive the shit out of it.

If I was to do it again id save all my money for a 390 or swap in a 460. The 390 would be 100% bolt in and thats what I have in the works right now is a warmed over 390.

If you want to do something on the cheap, do a good tune up, swap meet or junk yard a 4 barrel cast intake and pop on a used rebuilt edelbrock 600 cfm carb. Then buy some cheapie headers and it will wake up a good amount with that and you wont be into it too much if you buy everything used. that should hold you over until you figure out what you want to do. Just my

There is only so much you can do with 50 year old technology unless you are willing to take out a second mortgage.

Aluminum heads and intakes are very expensive for FEs.

This is my plan for the 352 in my 66 DD.

3g alt
dual exhaust
HEI distributer
rebuild on the 2100
open element air cleaner

I have a complete 390, if I ever build that, all these parts will swap over.

TroyPilcher wrote:Ok, i have ruled out the idea of having a "BUILT" hot rod motor in my 65 f100. but the 352fe needs a boost. It is untouched and a 200HP boat anker. I want to get rid of the 2bbl and stock cast intake. Any suggestions on a aluminum intake 4bbl set up that will be better on gas when my foot isnt in it and good on highway, yet still have a kick when I want.

Troy

So what did you decide to do, Troy?

The headers the previous owner installed on my '66 are stainless, not a rot problem there. He also did it right with insulation for the starter and cab so that is taken care of. In my opinion, headers and a good exhaust system are the cheapest bang for the buck you can put on a motor, just don't go to huge tubes, remember it's a torque motor, not a drag motor.

I just purchased an Edlebrock Street Master tonight for $125 in pretty nice shape. Guess that's what I'm going to start out with for my truck. Thinking about trying an nice fresh 4100 I have sitting on the shelf or a new Holley Avenger 570cfm, never messed with one of those. Also have several 600 vac, 650-950 Quick Fuel and Holley double pumpers and may even try a 390 mechanical secondary just to see how it works. Not doing my switch until winter so I won't really know anything until next spring.

I'm actually a little hesitant to make the changes because this truck gets around 17 mpg. I won't ever drag it so maybe the Hollety500 2bbl on the stock intake is just fine........nah, gotta change things.

The PO also put in a T5 tranny and that is a blast! 1900 RPM at 70mph.

Keep us posted on your choices!
SPark

LM14 wrote: Thinking about trying an nice fresh 4100 I have sitting on the shelf or a new Holley Avenger 570cfm, never messed with one of those. Also have several 600 vac, 650-950 Quick Fuel and Holley double pumpers and may even try a 390 mechanical secondary just to see how it works.

I'm actually a little hesitant to make the changes because this truck gets around 17 mpg. I won't ever drag it so maybe the Hollety500 2bbl on the stock intake is just fine........nah, gotta change things.

My 390 (with headers & duel exhaust) didn't like my Holley 500cfm 2bbl.
I then put a Ford C7AE-9425-E "S" 4bbl intake & a Holley 600cfm (w/vac 2ndarys) on it and it was a lot happier....

BarnieTrk