Quote:
Originally Posted by RAO-3
Do you happen to have a pic of the other side as well?
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The other side is not nearly as exciting. Remember that you can
not tell a 428 from looking at the outside of the block. The driver's side (seen below) looks just like the other FEs (obviously no cross-bolting or a side oiler galley). Casting and other scratch marks are unreliable; sometimes they're there, sometimes they're not, sometimes the ones that are there fool you, and the date code only tells you the date, not what it is. The only way you can reliably tell if an FE is a 428 is to look on the inside. I might even go so far as to say the same rule almost/kinda holds true for a 427s since the cross-bolts could be aftermarket (or even super-glued on
) a side galley might not be drilled, it's been sleeved nine times, etc.) You really have to look on the inside to be sure of anything in today's FE world. I chose this pic of the driver's side because it has a nice view of the block, you can see the
oil filter connections over to your left (external filter & cooler on my block) and the motor mount. In 1965 or so Ford changed their FE blocks to have four holes for the motor mounts instead of two, and the newer motor mounts used three of them, but you could still use the older two bolts. ERA uses the older two bolt mounts (presumably because that will fit everything). For some reason there seems to be more threads on motor mount confusion than you would think and if you didn't know that you were supposed to use the old ones it would really throw you for a loop. I'm also including a pic of the engine when it was just sitting on the floor with the
oil filter still attacahed. Again, there's just not that much that's interesting on the driver's side of a non-427 or sideoiler block. You really
need to know stuff like this because you're going to have to tighten everything on your car after you've driven it for a while (and then periodically do it again, and again). I just had my car up in the air tightening stuff (including the motor mounts) a week or two ago. I have even been completely stranded (and had to limp home on other occasions) over nothing more than a loose bolt that was not easy to find, or that wasn't plainly in front of your nose. These are really very simple cars -- but having a big FE in them shakes everything. You just have to periodically tighten everything that you don't have safety wired. Take it from one who knows....
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