This is about one of the oldest FE's made. The reason that I wanted it, was because I always wanted to work with one of the early engines, that had machined combustion chambers. I believe they were only made in '58 & '59. My parents got a '58 Citation in '59, when I was 15 and I got my Corsair, when I was 19, the Corsair and Citations, were only MEL engined and I didn't want to work with a MEL. Unlike some, I have always liked the '58 Edsel but, only the '58 so, since I've always loved FE's I went this route. In '58, The 361 was only available in the Ranger and Pacer.
The Citation was the top of the line, the Corsair, was the sporty model of that car and they had a built in 5K tach. Those 2 models, were on the Mercury chassis. The Ranger was the bottom of the line and the Pacer was upscale from it and they were on the Ford chassis. All had the Steering hub mounted, push button trans shifters and they were trouble free, at least, from '59 to '64.
I just got it back from the local machine shop (Keller Motor Supply, Medford OR) I've dealt with him for more than 30 years and he is the best in my area, for precision work. He had to dunk it, over night, twice to get most of the baked on slug off and it still has small areas that didn't come clean. Hot tanks don't remove rust so, there's lots of it left in the water jackets. I bought it from a forum member at a excellent price and I thank him. I won't say who it is but, if he wants to ID himself, he can
With the slug off, exterior of the casting is fairly crude and inside and out, there are areas that have fairly large cast flash. I don't have pictures of the heads yet, as they are getting seats installed, before coming home. The valves will be 2.09 x 1.65.
This how I want the build to go, I may modify some things but, it will be a 419 ci, with new pistons and crank, in hand, valves on the way. The cam will be HFT of 226 x 233 @ .050, ordered from Howards but, they have notified everyone that they are out/low of cam cores. They only use US cores and this pandemic has hurt them and every other cam maker that use US cores. I'm trying to keep the Static CR, under 10/1 and the dynamic, under 8/1, to run my local 92 octane gas. Haven't decided on whether to go 108, 110 or 112 LSA but, I'm favoring 108 unless it will effect fuel mileage, unfavorably.
Trans will be a stock C6 out of a pickup and I'm trying to get a '62 Galaxie 500 to put it in but, the guy has title issues on it! If not, I'm not sure what it will go in but, my first choice is a '60 Galaxie.
The original pistons, are pretty interesting. I'll post a little on them, too.
I'll try to take lots of pictures, as I go.