352FE Rebuild

Effie · Post by **Effie** » March 4, 2009, 9:40 am

Well, the engine in Little Black runs good, but it has very low oil pressure - 0 at idle, 25psi running down the road. I had a fresh 352 out of my old blue truck, so I decided to open it up, check out and build it to put in Little Black before the truck show in June. I'll keep all the pics in this thread. Stay tuned.

Finally got the frame and engine back home. I'm gonna use the bed to make a trailer to pull behind the '66, disc brakes from a '73 F100 are under there, too. Oh and that's my nephew, helper and partner in crime.

Doesn't look too bad for being under a tarp out in the yard for the last 10 years.

No good. And to think my dad said it should be fine to just run like it is.

I mashed my wittle thumb.

Pistons are already .040 over.

I knocked the pan of coolant over.

Crank has been turned .1010.

How do I get rust out of the water passages? My dad said something about running it for break-in, get it good and hot and then drain the coolant, fill it back up with water and vinegar and let the vinegar clean it out, then drain and refill with coolant. Anybody heard of this?

36truck · Post by **36truck** » March 4, 2009, 10:37 am

If you are taking the block down to bare take it to a machine shop that can bake & wash it. They come out pretty clean after. How much are you doing to it?

deviant1 · Post by **deviant1** » March 4, 2009, 11:03 am

The vinegar and water should work if you are not taking it to a machine shop. Make sure to leave the vinegar in for several hours to do its job.
For future reference, to clean a dirty coolant system and block, drain coolant and fill with dishwashing detergent(the kind for a dishwasher)and water. Then run engine till it is hot and drain when safe. Repeat process till it is clean.

DCarr · Post by **DCarr** » March 4, 2009, 12:07 pm

Yeah,Effie-rust on the rockers definitely needs to disappear. Nice post on engine build.
You'll get a lot of opinions. Mine is-keep it clean.

ICEMAN6166 · Post by **ICEMAN6166** » March 4, 2009, 1:11 pm

if you cant get the rockers cleaned up and need some send me a PM i have a lot of them.

Effie · Post by **Effie** » March 4, 2009, 2:46 pm

deviant1 wrote:The vinegar and water should work if you are not taking it to a machine shop. Make sure to leave the vinegar in for several hours to do its job.

How much vinegar should I use?

ICEMAN6166 wrote:if you cant get the rockers cleaned up and need some send me a PM i have a lot of them.

Ok, thanks. Brother seems to think I can just use the brush on the bench grinder and get all the rust knocked off.

jakdad · Post by **jakdad** » March 4, 2009, 2:55 pm

Your Dad wasn't to far off. We used to take old motors like that and first see if we could turn them over by hand. Next would come spinning them over with the starter. After that, we made sure the oil was decent and fire it up. Usually had to put points in them and replace or clean the plugs. Many times they ran well and we used them. Most of the time we had to do a couple of oil and filter changes or until the oil cleaned up. That would get us by until we had time and money to build a fresh engine. Good luck on that one.............

Effie · Post by **Effie** » March 4, 2009, 6:22 pm

Well, the frame/engine was in my brother-in-law's backyard. He originally bought it from me because he was gonna put it in his dad's '68. He said he went out there a couple times a year and turned it over by hand. The cylinders look good and its really not in too bad a shape, its just the water passages are rusted. It didn't have a whole lot of anti-freeze in it.

Effie · Post by **Effie** » May 2, 2009, 9:41 pm

I didn't take a lotta pics of the actually putting it together, but I have a few...

Don't see this everyday. RED. Didn't want black, but didn't think blue would go with the red and black.

Sand blasted the intake:

My dad would probably whoop us for painting the intake black. OH well. It's just some sneakery.

Mock up to see how the red and black looks.

I got some high temp flat black paint, then some high temp satin clear for the exhaust manifolds.

ezernut9mm · Post by **ezernut9mm** » May 2, 2009, 10:15 pm

hey, effie, i'd like to know how that paint holds up on the ex. manifolds.

Effie · Post by **Effie** » May 2, 2009, 10:19 pm

Oh I'll let ya'll know for sure.

The black is actually something we had at work and says is only good to 1200*. The VHT stuff is good to 2000* I believe. I put on at least 3 coats of the satin clear.

Post by **Greg D** » May 4, 2009, 6:24 am

Red is a great engine color!

Effie · Post by **Effie** » June 21, 2009, 12:05 am

It's alive! The new ticker for ol Little Black runs! Very tight at 60psi oil pressure at idle.

I'm too tired to get into it much...just had to post the short vid.

Anthony · Post by **Anthony** » June 21, 2009, 11:08 am

Boy that sounds smooth, and looks like it is at home, you know, pretty red motor iside a black engine compartment. THAT POPS!!!!

Nice Effie, real nice......
Anthony

deviant1 · Post by **deviant1** » June 21, 2009, 11:25 am

Looks and sounds nice!