Dumb question about FE motors

Danr55 · #1 (**permalink**) 03-02-2009, 08:37 PM

THanks guys.. Patrick, I found that page using Google.. Actually I found lots of good information including the info on the letters on the back of the block. As long as it is an A or a C, I can tell you what it means. An S .. I've not a clue. I'll keep looking until I figure this rascal out. Thanks again..

Ronbo · #2 (**permalink**) 03-03-2009, 02:50 AM

Back in those days about 90% of the employees working at the brookpark plant were West Virginia "Mountain folk" so that would explain the the backward "S"...

I think at the time Ford had a policy to provide them with a pair of shoes when hired and someone to teach them how to tie them.

Ahh, those were the days; the police would raid the local whore houses around the plant about every couple of months, the parking lot was a great "unofficial" fea market (although the police did take issue with the guy selling machine guns out of his trunk), if you were one of the unfortunates that didn't have a "deal" with the gate guards, you could simply dispose of your empty Jack Daniels bottles in the doors, fender or quarter panel bottoms of one of the cars. You drank Jack at work because it was too hard to hide a six pack of Stroh's beer (Rolling Rock for the southern Ohio boys) in your lunch box.

The GM plant was basically the same...

Don't get me wrong, working on cars while sober does suck.

patrickt · #3 (**permalink**) 03-03-2009, 04:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Danr55

THanks guys.. Patrick, I found that page using Google.. Actually I found lots of good information including the info on the letters on the back of the block. As long as it is an A or a C, I can tell you what it means. An S .. I've not a clue. I'll keep looking until I figure this rascal out. Thanks again..

Dan, the problem is that the scratch marks are not always consistent. There are examples over on www.fordfe.com of almost every type of block with almost every type of mark. The definitive method of testing is to measure the bore, look at the crank saddle for extra webbing, and then the next time your freeze plugs are out peek inside and measure between the bores. The date code is reliable, though. FWIW, my 428 FE has no casting numbers over on the side of the block. This is fairly common.

Ron61 · #4 (**permalink**) 03-03-2009, 04:48 AM

About the only thing I have ever found consistent an an FE block so far as number go is every one that i have owned from my 332 PI to the 427 TP had a 352 on them. The engine in my 69 Cobra also has that 352 and I never did know what it meant unless it was just a series stamp meaning FE series or something.
If the heads came with the engine, inside the valve covers and about the center of the heads they will have the same date code stamped there.

Ron

patrickt · #5 (**permalink**) 03-03-2009, 04:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ron61

About the only thing I have ever found consistent an an FE block so far as number go is every one that i have owned from my 332 PI to the 427 TP had a 352 on them. The engine in my 69 Cobra also has that 352 and I never did know what it meant unless it was just a series stamp meaning FE series or something.

One of the better answers floating around www.fordfe.com as to 352 is that, since the front on most FE's are machined the same, the jobsetter on the machining line set his tooling according to "352" specifications. Who knows.

Ron61 · #6 (**permalink**) 03-03-2009, 05:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by patrickt

One of the better answers floating around www.fordfe.com as to 352 is that, since the front on most FE's are machined the same, the jobsetter on the machining line set his tooling according to "352" specifications. Who knows.

Patrickt,

That would make as much sense as anything else I have heard. Only one thing wrong with that IMHO. The 352 wasn't the first FE engine. The 332 was. So if the 352 came a year after the 332, which had the same front as every FE from it on up through all the rest, how did the machinist know the 352 specs?

Ron