oil pressure fe 390

[Barry_R]

Fun to listen/read about FEs needing special treatment and tons of oil pressure. Sadly its just not true. FEs have their quirks, but they behave and react exactly like every other engine. And they dont need very high oil pressure to live.

I have made thousands of passes with mine over the years, and never see anything beyond 60-70 psi hot at any RPM. My Engine Masters FE made 752HP on 91 octane, survived 3 consecutive pulls on the dyno, and had only 50 pounds +/- a few all the way to 6500RPM. I suppose if I had 10 at idle my teeth would be chattering too, but 30 is plenty. If you open it up I'd check the bearings - - its too easy - - and I might cut the oil filter open to see if anything metallic is getting caught in there...

[Carnut427]

Originally Posted by Barry_R

Fun to listen/read about FEs needing special treatment and tons of oil pressure. Sadly its just not true. FEs have their quirks, but they behave and react exactly like every other engine. And they dont need very high oil pressure to live...

Some clarification is needed on this issue. We’re comparing apples, oranges and grapes.
The “top oilers” all Fes except 427 side oilers with standard FE-sized rod bearings of 2.438”,
“Top oilers” using cranks with BB Chevy-sized rod bearings of 2.200” and a bit wider than the FE bearing.
427 side oilers with standard FE-sized rod bearings
427+ side oilers with BB Chevy-sized rod bearings of 2.200” and a bit wider than the FE bearing.

I’ll give in to your oil pressure requirements on side-oiler blocks when using cranks with BB Chevy rod bearings. However, the others are a different animal, and IMO especially the top oilers.
Most machine shops, where a lot of engines are built, build more Chevies than anything else, so they know what clearances work on them. Along comes a top-oiler FE, which oils the cam first, then the mains, and finally the rods get their oil from the oil pressure surrounding the main bearing. Add to this their larger diameter rod bearing. Using the rule of thumb of .001 clearance per inch of diameter, the standard FE naturally needs more clearance than the Chevies most shops are used to. Also, with a larger bearing size comes more surface feet per minute, meaning there is more friction on any given spot on the rod bearing because of the larger diameter of the rod throw. If you’re building a stock or mild top-oiler, everything will be fine. However, modify your heads, put on a good intake and add a cam so that you’re pushing 6000 rpm or more with it’s higher hp, and you’d better make some changes to the stock oiling system if you want the motor to live. If Ford thought it wise to increase the oil pressure to over 100 psi on the side oilers, doesn’t it make sense to make the same modification to a high performance top oiler? I certainly think so, and IMO high volume pumps are a given in anything except your standard grocery getter. They’re cheap insurance.
Obviously, everyone isn’t going to agree with me, and there’s nothing wrong with that. The better oils available today help considerably, especially the synthetic and diesel oils that still contain zinc.

Dan