6 Of The Best Engines Ever Put In A Ford

Ford is one of the United States' most enduring automakers, with a legacy that goes back to 1903 and got a hand-cranked start with the 1908 Model T and its 22 horsepower T-4 engine. Ford would eventually sell more than 15 million Model Ts before discontinuing it in 1927, but later produced industry icons like the Mustang and F150 pickup, which has ranked as the best-selling model of any type in the United States for 42 consecutive years and counting. 

The first Mustang to hit the road in 1964 did so with a relatively underpowered 170 cubic inch straight six engine as standard equipment, and the 2024 Mustang Dark Horse Edition has a high-output 5.0 liter (305 cubic inch) V8 that makes 500 horsepower and 418 lb-ft of torque. In the years between the Model T and the Dark Horse Mustang came a long list of capable and dependable engines that land in the wide space between them in terms of performance, but all fit comfortably in any catalog of noteworthy powerplants.

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Ford's Windsor series of V8s began with the 221 cubic inch version used in 1962 Fairlanes and Meteors, and the engine grew twice in 1963, first to 260 and then to 289 cubic inches. The 289 was an upgrade option on first-year Mustangs, and Ford issued several variants with different carburetion options, compression ratios, and piston designs. The most potent version was the K-Code high-performance engine that produced 271 horsepower. The hi-performance 289 had a reinforced block and cylinder head with hardened steel valve seats and stainless-steel valves. It also had a hot cam, high-capacity fuel pump and four-barrel carburetor, and free-breathing exhaust manifolds. 

It was first used in 1963 models and became a highly desired option on the 1964 1/2 Mustang, and when tuning legend Carroll Shelby got his hands on it, the 289's output jumped to 306 horsepower. The 289 was used in the earliest GT40 endurance racers, but late-race failures, most notably in Dan Gurney's 1966 LeMans car, led to a redesign of the engine that boosted output to a bone-shaking 285 horsepower.

A detuned street version of the 289 was used in the Shelby Cobra and first-generation Mustang as well. In the 1966 Mustang, the 289 made between 200 and 275 horsepower, depending on which carburetor was bolted atop it. Four twin-choke carburetors gave the 289 in that year's GT40 an impressive boost to 390 horsepower.

In 1968, Ford increased the stroke of the 289's block to form a new engine with a capacity of 302 cubic inches. The base 302 made as much as 230 horsepower and 310 lb-ft of torque with a four-barrel carburetor. A version with larger valves, a high-rise intake, and higher compression ratio went in the Shelby GT350. This was the first in a series of 302 cubic inch (5.0 liter) motors issued by Ford, followed by the Mustang and Mercury Cougar's 290-horsepower Boss 302 and the high-output 5.0 liter beast that first appeared in the Fox body Mustang in 1982.

Like the 289, the 302 Windsor engine took its name from the Windsor, Ontario facility where most of them were made. Some were produced in Cleveland, Ohio; these engines have a  'CF' mark cast on the block and head to distinguish from their 'WF'-branded Canadian brethren. The Windsor 302 suffered from creeping emissions restrictions and a change to net horsepower ratings in the early and mid-'70s, and was eventually renamed the '5.0' as part of Ford's move to the metric system. The 302 wasn't only found under the hoods of Mustangs and Cougars; it was used in the Fairlane, Ranchero, Torino, Fairmont, and Crown Victoria and Mercury Marquis, Montego, Zephyr, and Capri cars. The 302 was also used in Ford trucks and vans, and remains popular with modders and tuners today.

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When Ford released the newest version of its FE series V8 in 1963, it rounded the displacement up from its actual figure of 425 cubic inches to 427 to match the maximum allowed on many racing circuits. The 427 was a replacement for the 406 and had several upgrades over its predecessors, including stronger castings, solid lifters, and a forged crankshaft. Weight was saved by using steel instead of iron for the block and heads, and the 427 first appeared in the 1963 Galaxie. The 427 was an immediate success on the NASCAR circuit, hurling Tiny Lund to a Daytona 500 win in which 427-powered Fords took the top five spots. 

After Ford's notorious breakdowns at the 1964 24 Hours of LeMans, Shelby got to work in the wind tunnel while engineer Roy Lunn was tasked with modifying the 427 to fit in Ford's GT40 endurance racer. His team lightened the engine by 130 pounds by replacing many of the steel components with aluminum or magnesium ones. The 427-powered GT40 was rechristened the GT40X and swept all three podium places at LeMans in 1966 before giving way to a race-tuned version of the 302 V8. Ford later offered the 427 back to Shelby for use in the Shelby Cobra roadster, which could go from zero to 60 in 4.3 seconds, according to Car and Driver. The street version of the 427 was used in the Fairlane, Thunderbird, Torino, and F100 pickup as late as 1976.

When Ford upgraded the small-block Windsor V8 to 302 cubic inches in 1968, it also introduced the big-block 429 cubic inch V8 that would become the Mustang's Boss 429 the next year and the wedge-head Cobra-Jet in 1970. Ford also chose 1970 to give the Windsor series an update, replacing the 351W with a completely redesigned version made at Ford's Cleveland engine plant. According to a press release quoted by Motor Trend, Ford spent $100 million developing the Cleveland 351, including the cost of adding more than a half-million square feet to the manufacturing facility.

This was a top-to-bottom redesign of the 351 and included a new block, valves, pistons, and camshaft. The heads were carried over from the Windsor 302 but got larger cooling passages and were cast differently for two- and four-barrel versions. Four-barrel Cleveland 351s also got stainless-steel head gaskets, higher valve clearance, and dual exhaust. The four-barrel made 300 horsepower to the two-barrel's 250, and the 351 got the Boss treatment for the 1971 model year.

That meant stronger, lighter internals and a reconfigured overhead valve system, along with a Ram Air system to help feed the Autolite spread-bore four-barrel carb. For 1972, the Boss was renamed the 351 H.O., and soon after that fell victim to new horsepower calculations and emissions regulations. A Cleveland 351 can be distinguished from its Windsor uncle by the sharp angles on the valve covers; Windsor 351 covers are slightly rounded at the front and rear corners. 

The Thunderbird was an instant hit upon its release in 1955, but initially could only be purchased with a 292-cubic inch Y-block V8. For the 1956 model year, a 312-inch version was added to the option sheet, and in 1957 Thunderbird buyers could add a supercharger that upped the 312's output to 340 horsepower and 450 lb-ft of torque. 

The FE series V8 replaced the Y-block in most United States models in 1962, but the Y-block V8 stayed in production abroad through 1982 in cars until 1986 in pickup trucks. During its peak years, Y-block Fords were nearly unbeatable on the racetrack, taking the checkered flag in NASCAR and USAC races and on Pike's Peak. The quirky design kept the Y-block's size capped at 312 cubic inches in an era when displacement numbers sold cars, but Ford touted the short stroke and "turbo-wedge" combustion chambers as performance-enhancing tweaks in a 1954 promotional video. The Y-block 312 doesn't have the aftermarket support of some of Ford's more popular V8s, but the low center of gravity helped keep it in Ford's truck line after the Windsor V8 knocked it out of passenger cars in 1962.

While some of the above Ford V8 engines produced eye-popping performance, a spot on this list must be reserved for the 300 cubic inch straight six that Ford used from 1965 through 1996. This engine's high torque output and famed reliability landed it at No. 4 on our list of the auto industry's best inline six engines ever, and Jalopnik's David Tracy named it "one of the greatest engines ever." Unlike most of the sports and luxury cars that got the bulk of the V8 engines featured here so far, the 300 I6 was used mostly for workhorses like farm trucks, tractors, delivery vehicles, irrigation pumps, and other industrial purposes. The 300 and its little brother, the 240, were both made in Ford's Cleveland engine plant, but only the 240 was used in passenger cars; it lasted about a decade.

Three elements help the Ford 300 I6 last longer than many of the trucks it went into: its cast-iron construction, block-mounted camshaft, and use of timing gears instead of a chain or belt. While timing gears are noisier than belts or chains, this setup eliminates the possibility of a loose chain or broken belt throwing off the timing. Even if the gears slip or break, the 300 is a non-interference engine, meaning the pistons will not do damage to the valves.

Commercial versions of this engine used steel timing gears and were sometimes fueled by compressed natural gas (CNG) or liquid petroleum (LP) gas, and powered many of the trucks in the UPS fleet for years.