Quote:
Originally Posted by FUNFER2
Can you (and others) explain the side oilers differences and and why ? (not the other FE's listed)
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FE's come in 2 flavors- side oilers, and top oilers.
At a glance, I think that all the casting numbers you listed are top oilers.
Side oilers pump
oil first to the bottom end of the engine, and then push it up to the top end. Top oiler FE's push the
oil up into the top part of the engine first. that's the essential difference.
Side oilers were designed for racing, where long periods of high-RPM operation required fresh
oil in the main and rod bearings, in order to keep them well lubricated.
One of the other benefits of the first/earliest side-oilers were the beefier main bearing caps, with the extra bolts that came in from the side of the engine. (some guys see these side bolts on an FE engine, and immediately assume it's a side oiler, but you can find top-oilers that also have the cross-bolted mains).
In other words, all side-oilers use cross bolted mains, but not all cross-bolted FE's are side-oilers
Original, Ford-supplied side oiler blocks are much more rare than top-oilers, and they are getting rarer by the year (this is why they are usually much more expensive than top-oiler blocks)
for a street engine, the side oiler design would still be considered superior (from a lubrication standpoint) for building a long-lasting, and reliable engine (if money was no object, and if you happened to luck out and find a side oiler block that had never been over-bored).
But 99% of street-driven, original casting FE's out there (even heavily hot-rodded ones) are top-oilers.
Visually, Blykins already clued you in above on how to tell the difference: side oilers have a bulge/rib that runs along the driver's side of the block (where the oil flows from the oil pump, to the main bearings), and there is a screw-in plug on the timing cover, at about 5 o'clock.
All the other talk in this thread about "ribs versus no ribs" is about blocks that were originally installed in cars at the factory (no ribs), or "service blocks", which were cast to be used as replacements for damaged engines -
Early service FE blocks (pre-1970) had no ribs, while later service FE blocks (about mid 71-onward) did have ribs. (The ribs are purely visual, and would really only be important to guys who are restoring a car and want it to look "factory correct" )
For some average Joe who who just wants a strong, well built engine, a ribbed service block might be a great start, because the later ribbed blocks should have all the benefits of better foundry techniques, and tighter process control...
That's the VERY "high level" overview.... The conversation will go in 50 different directions when guys start talking about all the merits and demerits of specific casting number series... (at which point my ADD sets in, and I just wander off, looking for guys who want to argue about Ford versus Chevy, versus Mopar...
)