The fleet truck engine is based on the FE engine. Some parts from them will swap but not all. Like the heads are not interchangeable..

 

Tks jethat - I drove it into town this morning & will take it to the Ford dealer today to get them to tell me what it is & how they determined what it is.
Tks, DaveC

 

Drove it to local Ford dealership & spoke to same Ford dealership service manager as several years ago. He has recanted earlier testimony. He now says that I do not have the original engine that came with the '79 frame/body. What is in it now is a '76 or earlier FE 330 that would be identified at parts houses under the F-600 listings. He based his opinion on the following: It has dual thermostats for extra cooling capability, a 2 bbl carb, and center plugs on each bank cross each other. He said this was essentially a heavy duty use commercial-grade engine with lots of low end torque. He also said that the F-350 frames from '73 - '79 had the same cross members, could easily mount a number of engines, and that a lot of the external parts (starter, etc.) would be the same for various engines of this family.

I appreciate everyone's help and hope that this experience has been helpful to you as well.

Please let me know if this runs afoul of anyone's knowledge base (i.e., how come he didn't figure this out before & is this correct this time?). He's an older & very friendly guy so I appreciate his input, regardless.

Tks, DaveC

 

If it is as your Ford man says it is, it is not an FE. It's an FT engine. Very few parts will interchange between the FT and FE series especially the intake and heads area so be careful when ordering parts. The cranks are also different with the FT being a heavier made block. As it is, if it's stock, it's no torque monster but it is near bulletproof. I've never heard of anybody being able to destroy one. The best news, the FT series engines can be bored and stroked to the 428 engine. They have enough meat to make that big of a jump. THEN you'll have a torque monster. But if yer looking for a long life engine with reasonable amounts of power, you already have it.

 

I concur, having put one in a '68 F-250 pickup years ago. Got it used and cheap without realizing the differences. I don't recall any difficulties mounting it. It's the kind of engine you can hook to a load in the average pickup and run wide open until you die of old age. Later, I had the 361 version in a '70s era Ford bus. I also agree that the average light truck engine makes more power and torque, but they don't have high-nickel blocks, valve rotators, steel cranks, roller timing chains, hi volume water pumps, etc. In a pickup, it would be a forever engine!

 

I do believe that's exactly what I said it was - 330 FT. There never was a 330 FE.

That is in fact the original engine - U-Haul ordered their whole F-350 fleet with it in order to have a common engine with their larger trucks. When you buy as many trucks as U-Haul does, this kind of special order is not a problem.

 

LabNerd, JimAllen, & glc - Great input. I'll notify the local Ford Svc Mgr of your input, esp regarding U-Haul and FTvsFE. Because FT sounds a lot like FE, I may have misquoted him.

Bye the way, I gave these data (my post of 02-08-10) to both Crow-Burlingame & Gene's NAPA here in El Dorado, AR. Crow-B was unable to locate info on the thermostats after about 15 minutes looking by two people (I appreciate their attempt even though they couldn't find it), but Gene's NAPA found it in one of their catalogs in only about 5 minutes. Both advertise heavy duty truck parts in the local Yellow Pages.

I am grateful for this forum, and your interest in this topic, and the time you've taken to respond to a guy with an old truck.

I'll let you know what the local service mgr says re: FT/FE.

Tks, DAVE C

 

i sure as heck hope a 79 f350 didnt have a 351W...my 78 f150 custom i had had one and i found out it was only 160-165hp. couldnt fine torque numbers but i know the Windsor was the least powerful out of the 351s. it was geared low(no idea what ratio) but it was a 4 spd manual.

 

1979 F-350's were available with the 4.9 I6, and 5.0, 5.8, 6.6 and 7.5 V8's. The 5.8 was in fact a 351W with a 2 barrel carb.

 

ALL the engines from that era were dogs. The 351w can be built to be respectable pretty easily. in '69 the 351w was rated at 280 hp stock.

 

I bought a '69 Caprice for $750 when I was in the Army, needed a starter. I put the first few on myself, they kept getting chewed up, I shimmed them, nothing worked for long.

A Chevy dealer put one on also and also used shims.
Nothing lasted more than a couple of weeks.

I finally gave up on that beautiful car with a 265hp 396 V8.
Sold to a guy in the barracks for $300.

He took it to his dad who had a shop and they found out it had had a 335hp 427 in it and that's why flywheel and starter were tearing each other up.

Of course all this happened to me before the internet, back when computers were made of wood.

 

thats just insane. 69-78 and it got a loss of almost half it power??? jeez. but still yeah as long as its geared right it can pull a lot. my 78 was geared very low with a 4spd manual and 2wd. dont know the ratio but 1st topped at around 3mph, 2nd-15, 3rd-35 and 4th-90. but it would stall if i tried to start moving without pressing the gas. it was like riding a bull in a rodeo for 2 seconds.

 

1973.........

 

On paper, EXACTLY. However:

http://ateupwithmotor.com/terms-and-...orsepower.html

Read the whole article, Timmy - it should be right up your alley.

In the case of your 351, it's a combination of gross vs. net ratings, lower compression, retarded timing, and more restrictive emission controls.

 

Sorry this took so long. I thought I submitted the following info a week ago. The local Ford dealership service mgr said something like, 'Well, I guess it could be an FT, that was a long time ago & hard to remember, etc, etc, yeah, it probably is an FT'.

So, when required, I'll be looking up parts for a 79 F 350 chassis with a '76 or earlier 330 FT that can be accessed thru the F600 catalog.

I want to thank you guys again. You've educated me and the service mgr and a few online guys who have had similar questions.

I wonder if it would be worthwhile for someone to summarize this situation and forward to dealerships, mechanics, and parts houses? Dealerships probably don't care much anymore since at least some don't work on these old vehicles anymore. I'm not sure how that would be done. Perhaps this forum is the best bet for all of them.

From my standpoint my original question has been answered.

Many Thanks from south Arkansas.

DaveC