The head casting C7AE-A was common on any 1967 FE. Could be 352, 390, 410 or 428. Parts often get swapped around over the years too so it won't help identify the block in any way.

FE block casting numbers are not a valid way to identify them either. You can find out when it was cast by looking at the date code cast into the block right next to the oil filter adapter. The casting number on the passenger side of the block will identify it as being from a certain period of time, not much else.

You really need to measure the bore and stroke to know what you have.

Royce

Short answer -no.
Longer answer -not a lot...maybe 20 or 30 or so if you tuned for the mods. But the only way to tell is by scientific methods like a chassis dyno where you use a baseline measurement, make your mods, and do another run. Obviously you didn't do that so you have to deal with it on an objective basis. You could take it to the drag strip and gather scientific data but you still don't know where you started, only where you finished so you have no basis for identifying any proovable gain.

In the bigger picture, it really only depends on how it FEELS to you now. Do you have more torque where you want it and can you feel it in the seat of your pants?

The truth is that most of the mods that improve the breathing ability of the engine only pay off when you look at cam timing. The only time when you see big gains in intake, exhaust, and even cylinder heads is when the engine was being choaked by those things and limiting the potential of the camshaft. FEs, even in their most pedestrian configurations, have pretty good flowing intakes and heads. With few exceptions, the exhaust manifolds are fairly poor and you can see some gains in going to a free-flowing exhaust as you've done. But all the modifications that most folks make are cumulative and make their full contribution when you get to the heart of the matter and that's the cam.

The cam is rather mild, so headers won't help as much as you'd like. If there was more cam overlap, the exhaust tune would be more critical, still a free flowing header will help, and the excellent intake upgrade will also make the headers more useful. The mufflers won't really do diddly to performance until you get a wild cam.

The intake manifold was an excellent choice with stock heads (or otherwise), and it'll let you wind the engine up as far as the cam will allow. The carb will also help, though you can expect a bunch more power with a nice easy performance cam kit. The carb is big for what ya got, but it'll run great and you can grow into it as more things change under the hood.

A cam kit is not that cheap, as you MUST replace the lifters with ANY new cam, and new springs will also be in order to close the valves at higher RPM the new cam will allow. Since the stock valve retainers are cheap stamped jobbies, you'll need to replace them (they're a part of the cam kit anyway), but the valve locks and grooves in the valves are not properly positioned for performance valve retainers, so in go new valves and locks. Only the pushrods and rocker assemblies can be reused if you upgrde the cama little.

It sounds like you'll be having some fun this summer. Perhaps the next step is not a cam, but is a set of gears that'll let your engine wind a bit quicker. Some 3.25:1 will be a nice start, 3.50:1 if you don't mind it revving a little on the freeway (still fine cross-country), and 3.70:1 if you plan to add a cam and get competitive.

If you do get competitive, you'll find the engine needs to be gone through, as lotsa nagging things start to happen when you start twisting the block more than usial - things like leaks and creaks. If you plan to drive in spirited fashion, open the block up and get to know the condition of all the parts. You don't need to replace everything you see, but you need to know what the baseline condition of the engine is, so the NEXT time you opo it open, you'll recognize whether anything is changing (wearing) in unusual fashion.

Just rambling,
Shoe.

I have a set under my chrome '68 "Power By Ford" valve covers. I have also used them under Lemans style covers.

Royce

I believe 1963 was the last year for the Borg Warner overdrive in Ford products. It came behind a three speed manual transmission. Anyone know if it was offered behind a 390? I have seen it in a '62 with 292 power.

Royce

There were several variations of the so-called "Borg-Warner" transmisison. In many cases, the factory (Chevy, Hudson, Nash etc) would have BW manufacture their OD housing to mate to their transmission, but it would be referred to as BW's. Ford did this to some extent in their cars in the late '50s and early 60's. Hawkrod is far more knowledgeable on the cars than I am.
The BW's own T-85N is a very durable and sturdy OD transmisison used in F-100s, but it is a very heavy thing, weighing out at over 175 pounds empty. I have never seen this one in a Ford car, though.
I have attached a pic of it; you can see the belly of the thing that makes it big and heavy.

Lentech makes an overdrive for the FE. It’s supposed to be an awesome transmission. It’s expensive. I have read about them in a few magazines. Check them out at http://www.lentechautomatics.com/home.htm

The formula for figuring total displacement is BORE times BORE times STROKE times .7854 times number of cylinders: 4.080 (.030 over 390's stock 4.050" bore) x 4.080 = 16.646 x 3.78 (390's stock stroke) = 62.923 x .7854 = 49.420 (this is the displacement of one cylinder) x 8 (the number of cylinders) = 395.360 (the total displaced volume of a .030 over 390 Ford).

If you don't feel like doing the math there are plenty of displacement calculators online that only require you to plug in the variables (bore size, stroke, and number of cylinders).

The first goal is to get a 390 stuffed between the wells. You can pick up a "correct" engine AFTER you're having fun. It's cheaper that way.

Pick up a nice 390 out of a 390 pickup truck from the 1970s. They are simply the most common nowadays, thoug any 1964-later 390 will do. You can identify a 390 in a 1973-later pickup because it's got the 4-barrel. 1972 and before requires a peek at the crank flange, to be sure it doesn't have the football slice cut into it in order to drill out the short 360 throw. If you can crank it over with a socket wrench, they go for $150.00 at the good outstate yards, don't even bother looking in the city, and ebay 390s are typically advertised as 427s, so you rarely find them when serching for a 390. The block, crank, rods, heads, damper, timing cover, valve covers, water pump, and a buncha other stuff from the prize pickup are gonna be the same as found in a 1968 Mustang, though the text markings may differ a bit (let's just pretend the truck markings are BETTER than the stock Mustang markings).

Beware, salvageyard blocks might be cracked in many locations because rainwater or weak antifreeze froze in them over the winter. Always be aware of this.

This engine will leave you without an exhaust or an intake, carb, or cam, but this is good, since the aftermarket is really whare you want to be with these parts. Did I already mention you do NOT really want a numbers correct engine? What you need to be looking for is a "period correct" engine, except you want it done right because they always screwed up 390 builds back in the late '60s. Honest they did.. "Period correct", this is where life begins. The next time a car show judge mentions your ride ain't concours correct, just be sure let him know it's got more personality than his entire family.

O.K., having gotten past this "numbers correct" stigma, an Edelbrock Performer RPM intake (be sure it says RPM, not the wimpy plain one) will buy you power, streetability, quality, and reduced weight, all at a top dollar discount. This will be perfect for your D2TE-AA heads, no port matching necessary. If I was you, I'd end up painting the intake blue with the rest of the engine, as this makes the engine look more stock. I always paint my intakes, as I don't like bragging. I much prefer insults.

A fresh cam naturally requires fresh lifters, as well as the matching valvetrain goodies. Nothing fancy, but if you wanna torque the nuts off the wheels, a mild hydraulic roller grind will do the trick. Since this is way beyond most budgets, there are lots of hydraulic cam kits that will take you where you want to go.

The exhaust is simple: Avoid the stock 390 Fairlane/Mustang manifolds with a passion. they're the worst exhaust manifolds ever cast for the FE, log manifolds included. This is where you need to ask your wife's permission to do a little bit of hotrodding, becauise instead of buying a set of repopped CJ exhaust manifolds, you really need to buy some FPA (fordpowertrain.com) headers for your car. Not cheap, not expensive, but they'll put a smile on your face, especially since they are the easiest header ever made to install on a Mustang (not that this is easy), and ground clearance is only topped by the workmanship of the header (I've never yet owned an FPA (because I'm poor), but I've heard bunches about them).

You'll do well with a smart looking 780 CFM Holley, or a lower maintenance Edelbrock carb of similar specs, but be sure to use a stock 1968 Ford air cleaner assembly, as these suckers breath better than any aftermarket air cleaner that you can find. In late 1967 Ford really stuffed some technology to the air cleaner, and the stock looks are a really nice touch, though the genuine "GT" air cleaner has a snazzier, meaner look. Still, there's no sin with sticking to a 302 aircleaner (like I do) and running a 1971 429 CJ air filter in it, so the lid sticks up a half inch over stock, megaphoning the intake valve howl to everyone within running distance.

The 302 frame mounts can be adapted to FE specs be adding one hole, but you still gotta buy motor insulators (common) and engine plates (readily available - don't be afraid to get the wimpy import plates, as the modern insulators will fail before anything else). I've still got to do this conversion to my '69 Mach, and I think I may need a different tranny crossmember, but am not sure right now, as I've never much worked on Mustangs before.

Obviously, you need to be careful when listening to my opinions. Still, you need to be even more careful when talking to folk who insist you try to match numbers. Those folk can put snails to sleep.

Good luck with your conversion. I sure hope you can find someone to offer good advise on the project, as I won't be held liable for any of the miscalculations I've advised in this post.

Shoe.

n/m

If you are talking about the Edelbrock Performer RPM intake, your "restriction" is probably somewhere else. That is a great street-strip intake. Give us some other specs on your engine and type car such as carb, headers, trans, rear gears, etc. It takes an entire combo to make usable power. Also what are you looking for in performance?

Could the bigger valves in your 76cc Edelbrocks for 427's be shrouded by the smaller 428 bore? Their 72cc head for 390-428's uses 2.09" & 1.66" 428CJ valves.

Also, is your timing mark and dampener actually at true TDC using a piston stop? The timing pointer on my SCJ was 6 degrees retarded; i.e., I was getting 32 degrees when I thought I was getting 38....only ran 104 mph in that state as well.

(I assume you degreed the cam off true TDC?)

Randy, most FE`s wont have enough power to get out of their own way at 36 deg.s. Try using a premium grade fuel and setting your timing to 40 and all in by 2000rpm`s. I think you will be really suprised! Oh yeah...and I think your cam is too small also. Try a more modern camshaft such as one from Lunati or comp. and look at a lift closer to the .600 mark. Keep us informed!

I have a 428 CJ that is running 11to1 out on the street everyday for a daily driver!!

http://jcoconsulting.com/ForumFE/reply.aspx?ID=29389&Reply=29389

I believe on one of the forums someone said that jeep had 23 tooth gears that would work. I don't have 1st hand experience with this but it might be worth checking out. Also www.baumannengineering.com sells these.

A 390 with a toploader? Your specific requests for information are difficult to provide answers to without a little more information. But here's an attempt to hopefully help you a little.

First, tranny info can be found on a metal tag attached to the side of the toploader(4 speed I'm assuming but there are 3 speed toploaders that were attached to FEs) but it's about 1/2" by 1" and it'll say RUG-.... this is the info you need to find out what the trans you have was originally bolted to.

It's very likely that you have a rather common big block toploader 4 speed that featured a 2.32 low gear with close ratio gears. Which in combination with your 2.75 rear gearing should provide for quite a slug pulling away from any line, stop or drag strip.

Personally I have found 3.89:1 to be excellent all around rear gearing with a 2.32/close ratio trans and mildly built FE. The 3.50:1 isn't bad either again for all around driving.