Popularity: If it's a Bird, it'll always be worth something. I think the most popular, excluding the '55-'57(everyone loves those) and the Sportster, the popularity list seems to be the '61-'63 "Bullet Birds", the '58-'60 "Square Birds", then the '64-'66 "I don't seem to have a nickname Birds". The suicide door models are somewhat popular, but not as sought after by most. I won't comment on the '70's, '80's or '90's Birds as I have no real reference or knowledge (not that I have much knowledge anyway ;-) )
Reliability: The reliability is, judging by my brother-in-law's '66, about as good as any other '60 something FoMoCo.
The 390 is a good engine anyday. Get it rebuilt, if it needs it, and cruise to your hearts content.
The price isn't really something I can comment on, since I can't see car up close and I'm not any kind of judge for that kind of thing. Again, T-Bird's are always worth some money.

If the car is rust free and the engine is sound. the price seems very fair. A 390 T-Bird is not a record setter for speed but they are/were very reliable fashionable and comfortable cars. With the way Ford built them back then they are a pretty safe car also. One of the nicest features to me is the lack of a lot of the mandated emission devices. The worst feature is the fuel economy or shall I say lack of? Should you buy it I would suggest a Petronix type of ignition because of it's lack of moving/wearing parts which will improve the performance and fuel economy as well as reliability. It's one of those things that, once you've installed it you don't have to look at it again. Good luck with your new car.

Agreed, they are very nice cars! Very few squeaks and rattles, in the coupes, at least.

seen a 1964 at a local car show, it had under 40k miles, gold with gold interior,for 5900
if anyone is interested, say so and i will try to find the guys #

n/m

Dave, you are very fortunate to have made the wise decision to hold on to your '60 Starliner all of these last 38 years. My opinion on the value of your 406/405, and it's an opinion based on some experience in shopping for and selling a few of these fine FEs, is this: Good '62 406 block, $500; 406 crank (nothing too special about them other than fully grooved mains), $200; 406 rods, $100; Pistons, to replace with cast as was stock in '62: $200; cam, thrust button retention cams are rather undesirable but still original and correct in good condition: $50; '62 406 heads, $300; complete tri power induction system: $1,500; shorty HP exhaust manifolds: $350; Dual point distributor: $100. I may have forgotten a few valuable parts/pieces but that basic parts list totals: $3,300 if sold or purchased individually to create a correct '62 406/405. Now you have to decide what it's value is to you to sell as a complete, running unit. My personal opinion is I wouldn't even consider letting it go as a total performance package for under $6,000.

I would really appreciate hearing the full story on your Starliner. I'm a complete freak for the '60 Fords. I'm fortunate to own a '60 Sunliner that is a 360 horse HP 352. It was a drag strip weekend warrior until '68 when a keeper let loose allowing #8 exhaust valve to drop into the cylinder. It's about half way through total restoration with a few mods. Is your car an HP car? Quickest way to tell if a lot is missing or whatever is the fuel line. Is it a 3/8" line? Is so, it's a 360 horser. Is it a 5/16" line with Y code engine designation? It's a 300 horser, lo-po indeed. I hope to someday start an on line registry for 1960/61 true HP cars.

I've got a copy of that article. I would need to send it by mail. Can't e-mail it.

Tell us more about how it's flooding the plugs.

Is it popping? Does it foul the plugs? (black sooty stuff on plugs). Or are the plugs wet? How does it run? Does it put gas on the plugs *all* the time? Or just when you stomp on it? Is the carb new? Are all the plugs wet, or just a couple?

My first reaction to your original post was that you may have garbage in the needle & seat. When that happens, gas flows through the carb (into the intake) all the time. You should be able to smell the gas. This makes a mess. It will dump a *lot* of gas into the oil, and plugs. You can fix it by replacing the needle&seat or just cleaning it out (but they're cheap so why not make sure you're getting a good seal). If you find that's the problem, make sure you replace the fuel filter. - and your oil!

If it has backfired, even once, through the carburetor the power valve could be damaged. You should check it with a hand or motor operated vacuum pump. You could also just suck on it to see if it operates or if air gets through it. Your carb is not so big that you really need to worry about it. Ford put a 780 cfm Holley on the 1969 Boss 302 anf they were raced with dual 780s as well as some having dual 1150 Holleys.
Are you certain that your cam is timed correctly?

n/m

I'd like to hear more about how your car is set up. Just knowing about your carb doesn't paint much of a picture.

Shoe.

I'm new to this see the post above...

When you are have problems like that, your doing damage to the rings and cylinder walls(BLACK DEATH) an old racing turm. Get a carb that you know that works, orther wize you will damage motor, to the point that it will need to be rebuilt. I've seen ware it did damage to the rods/mains!. PS if you your going to snoozes going to lose. Ray

I have the 80508-1 4160 Holley 750 Carb. I Just went to smaller jets (66's) with no change. Although this time I raised the secondary speed adjustment screw and completely loosened the primary screw. This made it smoke worse at the same speed. Also when I shut the Car off a light haze of smoke comes from the secondary throttle plates. This makes me think it's getting way to much fuel from the secondaries. Does anyone know if this type carb has problems with the secondaries? I'm thinking that if I replaced the secondary metering plate with holley's conversion kit (Metering Block) that this might solve my problem. Does anyone recommend trying this? Tim

If I remember right, you already have 10.5 to 1 compression.

I was fortunate to have several OEM cammer blocks when I built mine. After doing a lot of comparing but no machining I came to the conclusion that the material was there to actually drill the block for the oil return. When you study the side oilers you might take note of a bulge in the casting that runs down the block to just above the block's skirt area. I don't know if there would be any sand from the mold process in there or if you would just drill through iron all the way. I don't think the water jacket is in the way at all.

I suspect someone installed your torque convertor with the drain plug in the wrong position so that it is distorting the flexplate.

Look at the four 9/16" nuts which bolt the torque convertor to the flexplate, note that as the engine is manually rotated that there are two larger holes (maybe 3/4" in diameter) between these nuts , and one of these should have a (7/16"?) pipe plug poking thru so you can drain the convertor. I suspect that neither hole has this plug poking through, because it's positioned 90 degrees away, at a location which doesn't have a drain hole in the flexplate - this forces the flexplate to warp.

If this is so, I suspect that removing the four flexplate nuts, and then loosening the tranny crossmember bolts a little, and then loosening the bellhousing bolts and prying the tranny away from the engine about 1" will allow you spin the torque convertor to the correct position and reengage the flexplate at the correct position.

Just my suspicion.

Shoe.

They go for a lot of money, as much as 15K could be reasonably asked, maybe even more. As a side note, in standard form the Medium riser make only 1 hp less than the high riser on Ford's engine dyno. . High riser set-ups are awesome to behold though. Oh yeah, you will have a problem with the hood if you don't have a scoop.

Like gold nuggets they were scarfed up along time ago. Finding a rebuildable period HR is about as rare as finding gold nuggets laying in the bottom of a creek. good luck.

I think the H.R. engine in near perfect or NOS condition could bring as much as $15,000, especially from someone that "just has to have it" for his Cobra or restoration of an A/FX car. Also a "correct" H.R. engine is not the same as just any old 427. The H.R. is the second generation of Ford's serious racing program. The first revision of the 427 was the 7,000 rpm kit that was offered in parts form which offered; Camshaft, Lt. weight valves,Lt. weight, deep lifters (actually truck parts), and matching long push rods. Then for the more serious racer there was 2 different steel Crankshafts, Cap screw con rods and domed Pistons, 780 cfm Carburetors and lots more. There was even a 7,000 rpm Oil filter! The H.R. engine was in all reality a race engine that was equipped with all of the above and a higher nickel block casting with screw in core plugs and the H.R. heads and intake manifold (which could also be ordered as a part of or addition to the 7,000 rpm kit).
Ford typically held the best they had for the corporate racers and everyone else had to get whatever they could as Ford made it available. There were very few H.R. equipped cars sold, mainly because of the need for the tear drop hood scoop and Ford was afraid of liability due to accidents caused by restricted visibility. Then the Med. Riser was released.
Shelby american still installed the H.R. engines for a while.