During a recent bench racing session with a cousin, he mentioned that a friend's grandma has a rotting Winnebago in her backyard, with a big block Ford in it. I haven't seen it, but he said it says "powered by Ford" on the valve covers and that it's freaking huge. Now I've googled casting numbers and all, but is there any visual differences besides that to separate an FE engine from a 385 engine while looking at the motor in the RV? I have no idea what year the camper is, or even for sure what manufacturer it is (my cousin used winnebago as a generic term.)
I don't expect it to be some rare Cobra Jet engine, but I know that this family of engines are capable of MASSIVE cubes and if I can get it for little of nothing, why the hell not, I can find something to put it in later, right? Isn't that the lie we tell ourselves.
FE's have the intake gasket under the valve cover rail-ie the intake forms the upper rail. If you can get under it, FE's have a round bellhousing pattern like mopars.
This is a 385 series long block. As was already mentioned, notice how the valve covers are mounted, and don't touch the intake manifold at all. Also notice that the WP attaches to the timing cover.
This is an FE engine long block. You can see that the intake manifold makes the upper rail of the valve cover mounting surface. The the WP attaches to the block and stands out in front of the timing cover, much like on a SBC.
Remember when building big inch Fords, FE stands for berkeleying Expensive.
If it's newer than the early 70's, it's probably a 385 series.
The 460 in my wife's '70 Lincoln says "Powered by Ford" on the valvecovers.
FEs were used in trucks for quite a while. Truck FEs had some interesting features like steel cranks in all of them that make them desirable for a passenger car build.
There were also engines of a name I can't think of, but they were like biggiesized FEs. (edit - Super Duty) They were in the 477 and up CID range. I don't know if a motorhome would be a truck enough to find one. I think the aftermarket for these engines is nonexistent but there are some big-insh pervs who shine 'em up and put them in street rods anyway.
Likewise there are passcar 385s and truck 385s. The only difference I'm aware of off the top of my head is that they never put 370s into cars, only trucks...
There were two other Ford "Big Block" engine lines but they date back to the 50's so I don't thing they are in the mix. One is the MEL which was in big Lincoln's and Mercs. Sizes went from 383 up to 462. If you see a Lincoln Cont. from the early 60's then it will have the 462 or 430 in it.
The other line is the "SD" or Super Duty. It was only offered in medium duty trucks. It came in 401, 477, & 534 sizes. IT was a "heavy" slow spinning engine designed for torque and not horsepower! With the introduction of more advanced diesel engines the use of gasoline engines in medium duty trucks faded in the 60's. These engines were also used to power stand alone power units for generators and/or water or hydro pumps.
Another "Big Block" Ford is the GAA but that was never used in a car or truck, just some tracked vehicles line the Sherman Tank of WWII.
A thought just occurred to me. If it is from the seventies it could be a 400 M. Cleveland / M series engines are physically quite large, although technically they are small blocks.
Ah yes, the 400/351M (400 with a 351W crank in it). Cleveland heads on a 385-sized deck height.
The neat thing about those is most had the 385 bellhousing pattern but SOME had the Cleveland (6-bolt V8) pattern
I had forgotten about the 400M engines, I've heard you can make decent power with them, but above all else I'm wanting to save another power plant from the shredder. Although from what I've heard about this lady's yard, there is no threat of that happening soon.
Thanks for the pics and heads up, now I'll know what to look for.
