First year FE history lesson.

[FEDER]

I have a neighbor that has a Beautiful 1958 Ford Fairlane 500 2 door Hardtop. While talking to Him He says it has the interceptor motor in it. I want to go look and see what this sticker looks like. He says it’s the original,one. The car has 40 K on it and is really a nice car. My question is what was the availability and differences between the 332 and the 352. I kinda thought from poor memory the 332 was the interceptor motor. Did they come in both solid and hyd lifter ?  Was the interceptor a police motor only or could be had in any car. 58 was the beginning so how about a little history refresher.

[FrozenMerc]

According to Wikipedia:

Introduced in 1958 as part of the Interceptor line of Ford V8 engines, the Ford 352 of 351.9 cu in (5.8 L) actual displacement was the replacement for the Lincoln Y-block. It is a stroked 332 with 3.5 inches (88.90 mm) stroke and a 4 inches (101.60 mm) bore, and was rated from 208 bhp (155.1 kW) with a 2-barrel carburetor to over 300 bhp (223.7 kW) on the 4-barrel models. When these engines were introduced, they were called Interceptor V-8 on the base models and Interceptor Special V-8 on the 4-barrel models.[22] The 1958 H vin coded 352 was designated as Interceptor V-8 Thunderbird Special according to the 1958 Ford V8 Cars & Thunderbird Service Manual pg 483.

I wonder if the 4 bbl 332 also ended up with the Interceptor Sticker as well?

[RJP]

If I remember correctly both 332 and 352 were called "Interceptors" and 292" Y-blocks were still "Thunderbird Special" Early models used solid lifters/cam, machined combustion chamber with about 10 to 1 c/r [rated] The actual c/r was dependent on manufacture tolerances and could vary up to one full point when stacking all the tolerances. Early customer complaints was the inability to run on available pump gas with out pinging and having to adjust the valves as part of the scheduled maintenance. As a results the factory lowered the c/r to about 9.6 to 1, drilled the block for hyd lifters and install said lifters. Only difference between the 332 and the 352 is the stroke [332=3.30" 352=3.50"] Early FE cylinder [EDC] heads had a machined chamber with a volume of 69-72 cc, Some had a core plug at each end of the head, later "575" heads had cast chambers, no end core plugs and slightly bigger combustion chamber 70-73cc. Almost all info here is from memory so take with a grain of salt.

[wsu0702]

For the launch of the FE engine in 1958 both the 332 and 352 engines were marketed as "Interceptor V-8's". See pic from the 1958 Fairlane brochure attached.  It had absolutely nothing to do with any special Police engine.  In 1959 Ford switched to the "Thunderbird" marketing designation for all V8 engines (Y-blocks and FEs). 

[wsu0702]

Here is a concours restored 332 in a 1958 Sunliner.

[wsu0702]

Early customer complaints was the inability to run on available pump gas with out pinging and having to adjust the valves as part of the scheduled maintenance. As a results the factory lowered the c/r to about 9.6 to 1, drilled the block for hyd lifters and install said lifters.

Yep for the first couple of months of production the 332 and 352 were solid lifter engines.  The 361 Edsel FE was a hydraulic lifter engine from the beginning.  I agree with RJP that this was not a planned change but rather a reaction to customer complaints.  The '58 service manual even includes a procedure for setting hydraulic lifter pre-load with adjustable rockers.  My guess is that Ford was trying to use-up their stock of adjustable rocker arm assemblies after the switch to hydraulic lifters.     

[wsu0702]

Early FE cylinder [EDC] heads had a machined chamber with a volume of 69-72 cc, Some had a core plug at each end of the head,

The very early FE blocks also had extra core plugs in each end it wasn't just the early heads.

[FEDER]

Thank You all for the information. It was just what I was looking for.

[FERoadster]

I got a very early 361 engine out of a 1958 Edsel being scrapped about 12 years ago. The VIN indicated it was in the first 4000. (still have the tag) # 3711. As stated it was a Hydraulic lifter engine and has the core plugs in the ends of the heads. I sent Werby the cam for him to document. I've also got another set of the EDC-C heads I bought on HAMB (core plug and machined chambers) but will have to check and compare dates.

Date on the VIN seems to be Dec 22 1957.

Richard >>> FERoadster

[C6AE]

A friend's father when I was in high school had a '58 Fairlane hardtop. Black with a bit of yellow trim, solid lifters and the emblem on the glove box door is about all I remember...

[RJP]

As with many other quirks of FoMoCo nothing is cast in stone...I have 2 sets of EDC heads with machined combustion chambers [unknown date code] that have no soft plugs in the front and rear of the head. Could it be that either heads were from different casting centers?

[TomP]

I have had several pairs of those heads and none have had those end plugs, perhaps just very early in the model year. Weren't Edsels a "57 1/2" car, with production started in Spring 57?

[wsu0702]

Weren't Edsels a "57 1/2" car, with production started in Spring 57?

Nope "E" day was September 4th, 1957.  The new '58 Fords did not launch until late October IIRC.

[thatdarncat]

As with many other quirks of FoMoCo nothing is cast in stone...I have 2 sets of EDC heads with machined combustion chambers [unknown date code] that have no soft plugs in the front and rear of the head. Could it be that either heads were from different casting centers?

It’s just the very early EDC-E heads that have the plugs on the ends. I’ve been trying to document the dates recently to try and figure out about when the switch happened, but not enough info yet. One set of heads with plugs that have been advertised had a June 1957 date code. By a few months later for sure the plugs were gone.

[chris401]

Here is a hydrolic lifter 2 barrel 332 from a 1958 Ranch Wagon. The dates are in February 1958. No extra core plugs in the heads or block. The air cleaner that was with it says Interceptor. Doing the math on the paper air filter it was good for a 292 @ 5,500 RPM. Seemed it was in the 4,500 RPM range for an FE. Maybe it was a left over from the Y Block days?