In addition to FE's, what other engines/families do you dabble in?

[blykins]

I'm 99% Ford.  I can count the number of Chevy engines I've built in my lifetime on 9 fingers.  I've never turned a screw on any Mopar stuff.

But I will say that I have a soft spot for Pontiacs....only have built 3 of them but I like them. 

What about everyone else? 

[NIsaacs]

Allis Chalmers gas and diesel back in the day, I few Buda diesels. Detroit diesel and of course lotsa Cummins. Way back, a few flat head Ford v/8's.

[My427stang]

Used to do a lot of Rat motor and of course usual small block Chevy builds in Vegas, non-existent in Omaha area it seems.  Lots of Chevy builders for the dirt track guys here, but haven't had one come through in 10 years for a street/strip build

Brent knows that a long long time ago, I was into Ponchos, had a 389, 400, 455, but other than a buddies 400 GTO, also not much walking through the door. I do like them, very easy to work on and run pretty well. At that time I was a fan of the Ram Air IV repop cam on the street, it seemed to wake anything up, although there is certainly better now.

Omaha is an odd place, decent car scene in terms of seeing them out and about, but no real racing and no good income from it.  Machinists focus on farm, truck and general stuff.  Ironic that it's the least car-centric place I have lived and where I am going to end up retiring from the military.

[ToddK]

I’ve owned a couple of mid ‘60s Pontiacs, but never got to do any engine work on them. But they still hold an interest in my automotive world.

I’m currently rebuilding the Max Wedge stroker to go in my ‘63 Dodge 330, after blowing a head gasket.

[blykins]

I’ve owned a couple of mid ‘60s Pontiacs, but never got to do any engine work on them. But they still hold an interest in my automotive world.

I’m currently rebuilding the Max Wedge stroker to go in my ‘63 Dodge 330, after blowing a head gasket.

One of the best little engines I ever built was a stroked 400 Pontiac.  Came out at 434 cubes, had some Kauffman high port heads, a little 229/229 @ .050" hydraulic roller, and a Performer RPM intake.  Crazy thing made 600 hp at 6000.  Stupid easy. 

[machoneman]

Long ago, I built up a supercharged 392 Hemi for my brother's pal Kenny. Ken had a dream for a '67 Plymouth in pearl white with a black vinyl top. While he worked on the body, my brother Jim gave me a hand with the the engine. Ken had picked up a bunch of 392 engine parts from a Chicago Tribune ad placed by an Allied Van Lines storage facility. We three all went to look at the parts, surrendered to the Allied agent for non-payment of storage fees. I was stunned to find heads, a short block unassembled, a 6-71 blower manifold, steel rods and pistons, rocker assemblies and more.

IIRC, the agent wanted $500 (!) but as I kept pointing out how much work it would take to assemble it, Ken was able to get the whole shebang for about $225 or so. Later, we fell over laughing when we realized that all the machine work had been done and with a piston check, the about 8.5-1 C/R was perfect for a well-overdriven 6-71 on pump gas.

Later, Ken did shell out some serious simoleans for the new blower, blower drive and accessories from a famed Chicago area supplier. The dual Holley carbs, linkage and carb-to-blower manifold weren't cheap either. Anyway, we got it running after I poured over build specs from mainly old Chrysler manuals and hot rod magazines (way before the 'Net!). Fired it up and it ran great except when hot and at idle, the oil presssure was only about 18-20 lbs. After some more reading about the 392 oiling system, I pulled the ditzy and low and behold, I missed an oil galley plug in the back china wall area. With some real contortions w/o pulling the engine, I was able to thread in an Allen plug and was rewarded with 50lbs. pressure.

The car ran like a raped ape, Ken even drove it to a Car Craft sponsored show in Kansas where it later appeared in the magazine! Not just a pic but a small write up as one of the very first blown cars to travel such a distance yet be tame enough to drive all over town. And lordy in 2nd or 3rd (Torqueflite) this car was blazingly fast!

I'll admit that of all the engines I've put together, many non-supercharged race engines too, this was the most fun engine to put together and it was pretty unique for the era. Now, where is that late(r) model 426 Hemi I've always wanted to build!
 

[cjshaker]

I'll list them in order...

#1 FE
#2--
#3--

That about covers it.

I used to mess with flatheads with my dad, but that's been a while. Got rid of all my small block stuff years ago because they don't interest me anymore. I do occasionally help a friend or two with their small block Fords, but that's pretty much it. I do miss working on the flatheads. Got 3 complete engines left that I'll be getting rid of because I don't have anything left to put them in. I still think they're one of the coolest engines out there though!

[chilly460]

They're almost as common as SBC now, but I like the Windsors.  Not much imagination needed to build a pretty stout one, and compared to the FE they're simple and cheap.  I've had this 408 forever, still trying to figure out what to put it in....I need to stop messing with FE's for a minute to let the budget breathe and get a cheap recipient.  570hp/535lbft with a hydraulic roller and pump gas. 

[Falcon67]

LOL, I've worked on a total of one (1) 396 in the way-back.  Mostly 302, 351C these days. I did a bunch of bolt ons and trans work on my 79 Trans Am to make the Olds 403 run better.  The aging mostly stock 302 in the Falcon would still run off and leave it in a drag race lol.  Done some bolt ons, tuning on an old VW in the way-back also.  But mostly Fords.  My first tune up was the family 292 in my moms 57 Fairlane, after dad passed.  So I'd been 11 at that time.  As a kid, I also did a bunch of hacking with lawn mower engines - there was a mower "junk yard" place across the tracks from my house and I'd score cheap cores of unknown motors, the mount them on the go cart.  "Honing" was 400 grit + WD-40, "shaving a head" was 220 and 400 on a table saw table top.  I even ran the thing on a butane torch cylinder for a while, the throttle was the knob on the torch head.  Blown head gasket?  How about blowing a head right off a motor.  Ah, good times. 

[Joe-JDC]

I started off with a '56 Fairlane Victoria with 292 Y Block, and loved it.  Dated my wife at college in that car, and bought a new '66 Mustang when we got married.  Worked SBFs until I bought my '69 Fairlane Cobra with 4 speed, and was hooked.  Next, Shelby GT-500 with CJ, and had CJs ever since, but kept several mustangs/fairlanes with Windsors.  I raced 302W/351W up until the '86 GT mustangs came out, and installed a 351W with EFI in that.  Still have that car with 383W.  I raced my '69 Mach I with 428 CJ/427MR/452MR for about 30 years as a bracket car.  As many of you know, Royce B got me back into Y Blocks, and I am hooked on how easy they make power.  I am building a 289 W and a 292 Y for this year's Masters of Motors competition because I really do like the way these engines respond to hot rodding principles.  Joe-JDC

[475fetoploader]

Did a fair amount of big block chevys. Played with many things in the diesel world. Especially when diesel pickups came about. Did many power upgrades on 90’s Dodge pickups. I’ve actually been wrestling between a 428 and a 5.9 Cummins for my 1975 hiboy. The 428 will win, but it’s very tempting to do a p-pump 5.9. 

[AlanCasida]

Wellll, I do have a certain fondness towards Ford 385 series motors.

[drdano]

I've done flatheads and windsors in the past.  The flathead was by far the most expensive and least powerful.     Looked great though.     Outside the V8 Ford realm I've fallen into cycles.  I've built several XS650 parallel-twin motors the past 10 years.  The last was a first-year 1970 XS-1 motor for my restoration project.  Love the dickens out of this bike, by far my favorite cycle build thus far.

[Heo]

Before my strokes i never said no to a work that gave me an profit
so i have built a lot of Volvo B 18-20,-21-23-230 I live in Sweden
so that's natural
 Mercedes Diesels and gas engines. Ford Model-T-A-B, flathead, Y block to 460
Chevy six, sb, bb, 409.  Olds Diesels  . Even a couple of Studebaker champion
flathead sixes for my Snow weasels. Triumph twins, and a lot of 2 stroke 50 cc engines
as a kid. But no Pontiac, helped disassembled a couple. I want to build a Pontiac and a
Olds engine
Have a flathead a 400 Cleveland, my own 447 FE, a chevy 400 sb in the
works now but slow progress due to bad healt

[RJP]

The "other" engine family I mess with is the 429-460 '385' series engines. Great engines, almost non destructible, makes more power than the FE [sorry guys] and they are cheap...so cheap the last 4 460s that came to me were free, can't get much cheaper than that. Cheap to build as well.  I have 3 460 powered vehicles, one car and 2 V-drive hotboats. I have also messed with Cummins 855" N series engines that powered my 68 and my 89 Kenworth when I was working, [now retired] I've built a few Y-Blocks, Ford Inline 6s, SBFs, Clevelands, an Oldsmobile for my 21' daycruiser jetboat, a few SBCs and BBCs. After all these years I still love the FE, mostly because of the race history and heritage. After all no Chevy can lay claim to have won Le Mans 4 years in a row.