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Non-FE Discussion Forum / Re: New Members - Introduce Yourselves Here!
« on: April 04, 2016, 05:07:52 PM »
Greetings,
I am your newest member, my name is Evan and I've been a fan of the Ford FE since I found that the FE powered some of the coolest fords ever like Thunderbolts and Nascar Galaxies in addition to the immortal Shelby Cobras and Ed Pink's overhead cam fuelie engines. I think that the the FE is the coolest engine ever produced by the Big Three, except for maybe ancient straight-eights or flatheads...
So, some years back while cruising my local Craigslist I found what I was looking for, a sun-bleached, only lightly molested chunk of american iron. I am the proud owner of a 66 thunderbird project car. This particular 'bird spent its whole life in either Mexico or Arizona, had only two rusty spots in the floor boards that were about as big around as a pencil, and came to me complete with the numbers-matching 428 FE. As I type this, the car is currently stripped down to a bare shell, the engine block and crank have been machined and confirmed to be stout pieces, and I need to find a place that will dip or blast the body so I can primer and start doing some engineering on the chassis. The car is a unibody, so it's not as easy as it might be otherwise, but my objective is to build a reasonably stout resto-mod with the FE and an automatic trans. Other planned mods are a six point roll cage, some floor stiffening, and a mod to the steering so if I ever have a prang I have a real seat belt thanks to the cage and the steering wheel doesn't uppercut me and knock my head off.
I am a little nervous about using the stock engine block, though. That block keeps getting more and more scarce. I have seen blocks on Ebay in much worse shape than this one and on their last overbore with an asking price 3X what I paid for this whole car and as I plan on this car being fun and maybe even seeing some nitrous oxide at some point it would be unfortunate to split the numbers-matching block in half. I am on this forum to learn what it takes to make this engine run well and live a long time. Maybe some of you can help me in this endeavor, and help me go fast, when the time comes to build my engine.
Thanks.
I am your newest member, my name is Evan and I've been a fan of the Ford FE since I found that the FE powered some of the coolest fords ever like Thunderbolts and Nascar Galaxies in addition to the immortal Shelby Cobras and Ed Pink's overhead cam fuelie engines. I think that the the FE is the coolest engine ever produced by the Big Three, except for maybe ancient straight-eights or flatheads...
So, some years back while cruising my local Craigslist I found what I was looking for, a sun-bleached, only lightly molested chunk of american iron. I am the proud owner of a 66 thunderbird project car. This particular 'bird spent its whole life in either Mexico or Arizona, had only two rusty spots in the floor boards that were about as big around as a pencil, and came to me complete with the numbers-matching 428 FE. As I type this, the car is currently stripped down to a bare shell, the engine block and crank have been machined and confirmed to be stout pieces, and I need to find a place that will dip or blast the body so I can primer and start doing some engineering on the chassis. The car is a unibody, so it's not as easy as it might be otherwise, but my objective is to build a reasonably stout resto-mod with the FE and an automatic trans. Other planned mods are a six point roll cage, some floor stiffening, and a mod to the steering so if I ever have a prang I have a real seat belt thanks to the cage and the steering wheel doesn't uppercut me and knock my head off.
I am a little nervous about using the stock engine block, though. That block keeps getting more and more scarce. I have seen blocks on Ebay in much worse shape than this one and on their last overbore with an asking price 3X what I paid for this whole car and as I plan on this car being fun and maybe even seeing some nitrous oxide at some point it would be unfortunate to split the numbers-matching block in half. I am on this forum to learn what it takes to make this engine run well and live a long time. Maybe some of you can help me in this endeavor, and help me go fast, when the time comes to build my engine.
Thanks.