360 head swap

[SMH1970]

hi everyone,

I'm 'refreshing' a 1970 F100 with a 360 and have a question regarding a head swap.

I'm doing my first 'rebuild', mainly to seal up some leaks, paint it up and to get a look inside to familiarize myself with this beast. The engine runs well, but it had low compression on a couple of cylinders. I tested compression both dry/wet, with no improvement, suggesting possible valve issues. I wanted to get to know the engine (first time I had one of these, and this is my first complete engine tear-down) and I took the engine down to the block just to get a look at all of the parts and freshen up what was needed (timing sprockets and chain, oil pump, etc) as I rebuild it. Once I got a good look at the heads I noticed that the cylinders with low compression had badly sunken exhaust valves, and all the other cylinders were visibly sunken. The valves, lifters and pushrods looked OK, but 13 (all but 3) of the valve seals were destroyed.

I want to do the work myself this time around, and I'm not interested in doing a whole engine overhaul at this time - just want to get it on the road for a year or so. I plan to get a newer 390 rebuilt and put in, and will have that 'professionally' done.

I have a 'spare' 360 with fewer miles (also out of an F100) that is in fairly rough shape on the outside, but it seems to be in decent shape inside with the same heads as my running engine (C8AE-H, if that matters). The valves are not sunken at all (although not hardened seats) and all the seals and guides look good, so I hope to swap both of the heads from the spare. Just wondering what else I should switch over - I'll obviously take the complete head, including valves and rockers/rocker arms, but should I also take the pushrods (or does it matter)? I expect it would be best to leave the original lifters in the motor, and not take those from the spare?

I'm new to this, so any tips would be appreciated. Thanks.

[DuckRyder]

Do not switch the lifters around, they need to stay on the cam lobe that they broke in on.

The pushrods should all be the same, I’d probably use whichever set was in better shape.

[Ranchero50]

I would just drop in the spare and rebuild your original 360 with a 390 rotating assy and Edelbrock performer heads. It's hard to justify rebuilding stockers for the cost / performance difference with the performers.

[SMH1970]

Thanks guys - that all makes sense to me.

For now, I'll swap over the heads and should have a decent stock 360 to get me on the road, then use the other block for my 390 upgrade when time and $$$ permits.

Appreciate the guidance.

[DuckRyder]

No worries of course.

I’ve said a number of times If I did mine over two things I would not do again are:

• Build 390 (would be at least 410)
• Rebuild factory heads (Edelbrock or Blue Thunder)

By the time you recondition a set of heads you’ll have spent what E-Heads cost... the same is true for locating and reconditioning a 390 rotating assy, just put a stroker rotating assembly in it...

[Ranchero50]

Ditto. Machine shop time is way to expensive to recondition stock parts. I wouldn't go beyond getting a good seasoned block bored and honed. I reuse the cam bearings and just wash the block in kerosene. If the old engine was just tired then the crank journals are fine. Drop in your rotating assy, a high volume oil pump and let it eat.

[SMH1970]

Thanks again guys - this all makes sense.

I leak tested the valve seats in the spare heads (just to be sure they were somewhat OK), and didn't see any obvious leaks - I'll check again later to be sure. So - I guess it looks like the heads aren't in too bad of condition. I'll swap both heads, and I'll keep the existing lifters, and make sure they stay on the cam lobes they came from (thankfully I didn't mix the order when I removed them, so I know where they go ). For now, I'll plan to run the stock heads without having a machine shop look at them.

Hopefully this gets me running until such a time I can rebuild the other block into something worth investing in (it should, since both engines ran fairly well before I tore them apart).

on to the next stage, I guess...