When I partially disassembled the 390 in the '65 Galaxies, I was pleasantly surprised to find a standard bore block and stock bearings. As far as I can tell, the engine has never been apart in its 55 year history...at least until I partially took it apart in 2018. It was still running good with no smoke either.
If you think finding an all original FE is hard, try finding a flathead in the same shape. I've sold 2 flathead V8s in the last year. Both were untouched originals with no cracks in the valve seat areas. They were pulled from low mileage cars many many years ago and had never been apart until I pulled the heads and oil pans to check the blocks and bearings. They even still had the nylon cam gears still intact. To say the guys who bought them were extremely happy to get them, is an understatement. I have one left, but will be keeping it to build up with some vintage speed parts that I have.
Did not know that Ford used nylon gears way back then. I swear, more Ford engines were lost to dried-up, cracked and fallen off nylon than any other cause. Too often, with years of hot oil and normal wear (loose chain slappin' around) the cam gear would shed a big piece of nylon, instantly losing valve control, and smacking pistons to valves, often breaking a valve head and or cylinder wall and holing a piston or two.
'Bro James almost lost his gennie 18,000 mile 1970 Boss 302 engine to this fate. Just cruisin' along and blam, one bent valve and wrecked head. Mike Sea at Warshafsky's now old and likely closed north side Chicago shop fixed us up with a good used head and valves.
Oddly enough, many an old full-sized Pontiac, circa '61-'64 with the 389 engines, also had bad nylon cam gears, gears we got very good at diagnosing and fixing. Good used tow cars btw, all of which we bought for a song as owners and even some shops didn't' know why the engine ran crappy or broke. Non-interference valves save the heads and blocks.
Anyway, Ford made a huge mistake as did GM in opting for those 'silent' nylon gears rather than noisy steel gears.
I'll ask how many others here either lost an engine or ran across mucho nylon in the oil pan.