One of the best designs 'Henry' ever came up with!    IMO

I've  "heard" those panel wagons...thou they look SUPER cool..are a booger bear to navigate (when changing lanes etc.)  and all the sound dampening material in the world can't stop that 'hollow-tube-roar'.
Nice paint fer sure.
I would put a 39 Deluxe grill on it if it was Sally's!!!
6s6

People putting 350's in old Ford's probably saved me from getting divorced over the years. LOL Seen a lot of cars I fell in love with until I seen what was under the hood.

I know that place!   You were in Ofallon.

BobE wrote:

TKOPerformance wrote:

Yeah, and the LS series only seems to have made it worse.  I blame Ford for a lack of options.  Had they simply updated the OHV design and kept its inherent simplicity this would be less common.  Instead they went to OHC and sealed their fate. 

TKO – I agree with you on recent history, but I always thought Ford really screwed up when they went from the Flathead to the Y-Block.  That Y-Block engine was heavy, had questionable cylinder port head design, and a poor oiling system.  The FE engine was a good design and served them well.  By the time they came out with 221-302 small block, Chevy was far ahead in performance, etc.  And the thin wall cylinder design and short deck made it difficult to increase cubic inches to compete with the 327-350.  By the time they came out with the Cobra Jet and 351W/351C engines, the time for performance cars was just about over.  Anyway, that’s my opinion.

 

I think that's a great assessment Bob.  I'll add that in reading Barry Rabotnik's book on the FE engines he explains why the FE didn't take off as a performance engine, and why it was neglected by most for so long.  Basically Ford put all the development dollars for the FE into winning in racing.  Race engines make poor street engines, so the street FEs were mostly under powered and installed to meet homologation rules or to provide torque to move land yachts..  They built some potent street FEs like the 406 tri power and you could get a 427 in stuff if you didn't mind paying an arm and a leg for it.  The best street FE was the 428CJ, but that didn't come out until '68, and was also pricey and thus built in limited numbers.  As Ford stopped putting the FE in anything performance oriented by the early '70s, and then moved on to the 385 series engines, the guys who were racing them basically used up all the good parts and Ford wasn't making any more.  By the '90s you had an engine that was very expensive to build and the expensive parts were also mostly used up race parts that already had decades of service on them.  I'm glad to see the FE finally got a revival in the '00s, but its still pricey to build. 
 

The Y block might not be Ford's best effort, but man what a cool motor. I've got a 56 T-Bird Special 312 E code stock bore I'd love to find a project for to rebuild.

What Chivy basically did in their LS was build a Windser. Ford crapped the bed with their mod motor.

Steve69 wrote:

TKOPerformance wrote:

Yeah, and the LS series only seems to have made it worse.  I blame Ford for a lack of options.  Had they simply updated the OHV design and kept its inherent simplicity this would be less common.  Instead they went to OHC and sealed their fate. 

   I wonder if the new 7.3 Gorilla will help in that area.  Looks like its about 2" wider than a 351W.   
 

I really doubt it.  Its a recent offering, and the LS is WAY ahead in terms of the availability of swap parts, aftermarket support, etc.  Plus, you can get LS engines cheap in junkyards.

Toploader wrote:

I must have been living under a rock for many years...
I started going along to car meets and there is a strong hotrod presence there. Nice bunch of fellas. When I started paying closer attention to the engine bays on the hotrods, I would notice the distributors were at the rear of the engine. Not just on some of them, but about 95% of them. When I asked why, the answer was it was cheaper to put in a Chevy engine and maybe parts more readily available 🤔
I still could never do it...
I did know of one guy who had a Chevy hotrod and he put a Ford engine in it. Boy that stirred the pot in the hotrod scene 😆

The small block Chevy engine fit the hot rodder’s needs as the compact design fit well in the engine compartment of those early vehicles, and its light weight, and the performance was outstanding.  Also, Chevy performance parts were much more readily available in junk yards and dealers, and cheaper.  As a Chevy drag racing friend of mine used to tell me back in the early 70’s “You can buy parts at a hardware story and make a Chevy run in the 10’s”!

 

Yep, we got a solid decade of just kicking GM's teeth in with the 5.0, until Ford decided to commit suicide and switched to the mod motor.  4 years later GM dropped the LS1 in the F-car for the last 3 years of production before also committing suicide.