Swapping out an FE 360

[624WD]

Working on a 65 Slick 4x4 with Style side bed. My 62 parts truck came with a (perhaps mid-80's) 300 inline with new Performance HEI distributor, coil, and other doo dads that come with it. Don't have any history on either of these engines but both seem clean and strong. My questions are this:

For towing an 18 foot deck-over trailer with lumber loads or 6,000 pound Ford tractor, and using the truck for small camping trips and towing a 1962 Shasta camper, what would be, in your opinions, the better choice of the two engines to install?

My memory serves me that the 360 is thirsty on gas consumption - loves it, but the MPG are not great.

Best to replace the 360 with the 300? and will the fuel economy be any noticeable and worth the effort? Not too concerned about torque and power differences as the 4WD will be fine to pull me in case the rears slip or I'm in a tight spot...

The 300 is carbureted - single barrel. The 360 has a 4 barrel Edelbrock. Thats all I can tell you right now. Don't have the CFM's for the Edelbrock

If I go with the 300 I-6, the carb on this unit seems suspect and a cheap aftermarket brand. What would be the best stock carb set up for this that is economical - not looking for high performance, just good fuel and air flow - with the stock intake.
tom

[04sd]

If it were me I stick with the V8. Sure the 300 will get better mileage but I doubt it will be worth the loss of power or the work to do the swap. Neither engine is going to get good mileage towing 6000 lbs plus the weight of the trailer. What is the 360 from?

[chris401]

If you keep the FE the 3.5" stroke is still a good crank for towing. Blair Patrick Enterprise has 4.062" pistons with the correct deck height. Another way to get proper compression height is a set of 332 pistons on 6.49" Ford 390 rods. You'll need to shave .007 + of the tops. All the after market pistons that I know of are almost as far in the hole as the factory 390 pistons are.

[624WD]

thanks to each of for weighing in. I would have guessed the consensus would have been to dump the 360... so this is good information for me.

[slick4x4]

The 300 6 can get twice the fuel mileage running without a trailer
Ive seen a F100 get over 20 mpg with a I6
And same truck with a 360 not get 12mpg
If the majority is pulling.... more hp is the choice though

[624WD]

Good point. How often is it pulling? Not very often. And, the Shasta trailer is very lightweight. It’s a little guy. Think I now know the solution. Keep the 1965 360 for pulling, and get the 300-6 finished for the dirt, dogs, manure and grocery runs.

[chris401]

thanks to each of for weighing in. I guessed the consensus would have been to dump the 360... so this is good information for me.

That wasn't my consensus. Both engines have there strong points. I personally have not seen any gasoline trucks match the 300 economy until the EcoBoost era. I don't expect any EcoBoost will match the durability of the 300.

I favor the FE engines. I had a proper pin height 3.5" stroke 377 FE once that would run strong. The bottom end held 6500 rpms fine until parts of the camshaft ended up in the crank case. Right now the 65 F-250 has a standard bore 352. It is about to make it's 12th 1,200 mile round trip dragging a trailer. Depending on what I am loaded with the truck gets 6.7 to 11.3 towing.

[Lowell]

I pulled a Terry 24 foot camper with a Bronco 300 six although the hills really pulled it down,had to down shift a lot.towing it got 11 or 12 mpg. empty it got 20 or slighty better.I think you would do okay pulling the shasta. I think the terry weighed around 5k.