Who out there has rebuilt a 352 with good horsepower ?

[rcb1020]

I know some of us out there have the 352 2BBL and would like to rebuild our original motors. I'm interested in which aftermarket parts you would recommend. I'd like to replace my heads , cam , intake manifold , ect

Just looking for ideas , pictures , links ect ..

Not interested in a 360 , 390 , 460 for this thread , please try to stick with ideas for the 352 Thanks !

[chris401]

Ive built a few. Ive gained a lot of good ideas and knowlage from the guys at fordfe.com You may already have the ideal street heads. C4AE G or C6AE R are the only head Ive personly seen on the 65 66 352s. If your engine is standard bore you may have flat top pistons wo/valve reliefs. I have a set but cant use due to taper. When I rebuild mine Im using .040 over pistons, a Performer or factory 4v intake, the stock C4AE G heads, modest idle to 5500 hydrolic cam and headers. A 352 will really wake up with just 4v and dual exhaust.

[Johnny Canuck]

Mike, alias strongerat fink on this forum has the nicest, strongest 352 i have seen or ridden in. He calls his truck Miss Daisy.

[R Pope]

Years ago a buddy blew the 428 in his Mustang. We put all the 428 stuff on a 352 block assembly and stuck it back in. Not as much low end, but that thing sure would rev! It was likely 50 horses shy of the big engine, but it wasn't all that bad. And it got way better mileage!

[Roger Carter]

Ford offered a 360 hp 352 in 1960. It was a high compression, solid lifter single 4 barell carb engine. That seems like it could be a good place to start.
I would think with an additional 50 years of technology it shouldn't be too difficult to match those numbers, even with today's fuel.

Roger Carter

[rcb1020]

I read that 390GT heads.(C7AE-A) heads will work good because of the smaller bore. Bolt right on and require the 14 bolt pattern exhaust manifolds or headers. The exhaust in that engine is so restrictive that it can tolerate almost any race cam without stumbling.

[64 f100]

The heads for the high performance 352 in 1960 are rare and have the smallest combustion chamber of all the FE heads. If I remmember right that is. I have a set of these heads and no, these are not for sale at the present time. The EDC heads have machined combustion chambers and are also fairly popular and considered to be a good head for reworking as these will work out to something aproaching the later hipo style heads on the 390 GT engines. I dfdo have some of the EDC heads that I would sell. These came on the 58/9 Ford 332 and 352 engines.Most all the FE heads are somewhat the same, with minor differeces in combustion chamber and valve size along with differences in port configurations. As to bulding a 352 foe more power. a 390 crank and rods along with 36o pistons which are 50 oversize for the difference in bore between the 352 and 390 will give you roughly 10 to 1 compression ratio with your present heads.

Rich

[Roger Carter]

If I were going for overall driveability, with power, and I was staying with the 352 displacement, I would most likely look at the following.
Make sure you have a compression ratio around 9 to 1, maybe a tad higher.
I am partial to Edelbrock heads and intakes. Look at a Performer kit from Edelbrock. Include the cam and cam kit, complete heads and intake. The aluminum heads will allow a bit more static compression than iron heads will. Don't forget the significant weigh savings when going to aluminum heads and intake.
I would go with a Holley 670 cfm Street Avenger carb, nothing larger if this is going to be a street driver. Again, personal preference.
A good set of long tube headers, 30" or so. Try and get header tubes in the 1 5/8"-1 3/4" range. Also, look for 3/8" flanges minimum and 14 ga tubes. No real performance adders, just signs of a quality header.
For ignition I favor the Ford Duraspark distributor and a MSD 6 box. Good solid performance and no points to worry about.
Be sure to check the valve to cylinder wall clearance if you run the 352 bore.
Adding the 390 crank, rods and pistons will most likely give you an additional 40-50 horsepower due to the additional displacement. This would be the cheapest horsepower you will find.

The listing above is a base I have used many times, on many different engines. You will find as many receipes for building horsepower as there are people offering the advice. None are wrong, just as none are right.
Just my

Good luck.
Roger Carter

[rcb1020]

Good Stuff Guys ! I was leaning towards boring my 352 block to a 390 bore and using 390 crank , rods and pistons. The guy helping me build the motor told me to use aftermarket heads due to the 45 years of improved technology. I do like the idea of using 360 pistons with 390 crank and rods also. Lots of good ideas and learning new stuff !

[Astrowing]

That 360hp Thunderbird Interceptor Engine ran 5 laps at 150+ in 1960 at Daytona in a modified Thunderbird. It basically had an aluminum intake manifold and solid lifters over the stock engine. I have the 300 hp version in my Thunderbird and it does move pretty well and I'm sure the 600cfm 4 bbl has a lot to do with it as well as the dual exhausts. Of course, you could always build up a 390 with the 3x2 carb setup.

[charliemccraney]

The guy helping me build the motor told me to use aftermarket heads due to the 45 years of improved technology.

That is great advice. Absolutely, if modern heads are in the budget, do it. You'll get more power and economy, everything else being the same. It may even be cleaner burning.

[chris401]

If you go the aftermarket route you can pick up 100 to 200 extra bucks for your heads depending on the casting #s. It always helps to pick up extra bread to fund the project.
Chris

[brandon66f100]

It just came off the dyno... 340hp...370 ftlbs of torque

4.050 bore
390 rotating assembly
edelbrock 1405 600 cfm carb
edelbrock streetmaster intake
lunati 268/276 voodoo hyd cam kit

[bunchoftrucks]

I did mine about 60,000 miles ago and built it like a 390 of the day. Edelbrock has some nice matched components. I didn't use their heads but used the cam,intake and carb and was really happy with the result.
The big difference comes from the cam, I don't klnow what your looking for in the HP dept. but a torquer type of cam will give you usable horse power in the rpm range most of us drive in, i.e. under 5000 rpm. Add a decent ignition of you choice and a good set of dual exhaust and I think you'll be very happy.
Just so you know a 352 bored become a 360, hope this helps.

[Uncle Skip]

RCB, unless you're going to drop a bunch of bucks in aftermarket heads for what is going to basically be a360, find a set of C8-AEH heads. They are the same as the GT heads without the extra exhaust drilling. Consider having hardened seats put in when you get your valve job done.
A good used aluminum dual plane intake and you're golden. See if you can find a good set of aluminum rocker arm spacers and don't forget to restrict the oil passage to the rocker arms.
Forget Save the Whales, save the Valve Seals. :wink:

[Uncle Skip]

And always remember the golden rule. "the only thing that out runs cubic inches is cubic money".

[rcb1020]

Like these Uncle Skip ?

68 390 Heads Rebuilt - Dallas - Craigslist
Oct 23, 2011 ... I got a fully rebuilt 390 heads C8AEH hardened seat, stainless steel valves, new spring. I was gonna use it for my 67 mustang but found the ...
dallas.craigslist.org/ndf/pts/2665194713.html


I clicked on the link and seller deleted the posting , Sold ! Damn ! LoL !

[Uncle Skip]

Yo dude. Those be the ones you want. How much is he asking?

[rcb1020]

I clicked on it and the posting was deleted , must have sold them

[chris401]

The hp is pretty good depending on build. Torque is down. Let us know what components your running. Tweeking and tunning should bring torque back up into the lower 400s where it should be.