All Images Courtesy Ken Godsey

Ford’s venerable FE engine was used to power millions of vehicles in its heyday of 1958-1976; but due to the fact that they haven’t been produced for nearly four decades, the number of engines still out there has dwindled significantly. Today, FE survivors are used mostly in period-correct drag race machines, such as the 1964 Mercury Comet owned by Ken Godsey. 

Godsey was in need of a new powerplant for the Comet, so he contacted one of the leading providers of FE engines in the aftermarket, Barry Rabotnick of Survival Motorsports in Michigan. Rabotnick has been building FE engines for years, competed int he Engine Master’s Challenge, and even written a book about the subject, “How To Build Max-Performance Ford FE Engines,” published SA Design. 

In his previous life, Rabotnick was the performance parts manager at Federal Mogul, responsible for the Speed-Pro and Fel-Pro performance labels, and was involved in the creation of numerous performance parts like Hellfire piston rings and Fel-Pro’s line of multi-layer steel gaskets.

“This engine runs in Ken’s Sox and Martin tribute car. We’ve built the engine for him before, but this is a refresh of his previous combination. The last time we built it, we made 767 horsepower, and this time around we upped the compression, put a bigger camshaft in it, and put an air pump in it to get it up over 800 horsepower. It’s a real doorslammer, not a tube chassis car and he even rows the gears in it. This thing is just cool,” Rabotnick tells EngineLabs.

It uses a Genesis iron engine block – the only aftermarket FE engine block. Siamese cylinder walls, cross-bolted main caps are the main features on this piece, and Godsey opted to add the billet main cap upgrade for strength. Inside swings a steel 4.375-inch stroke crankshaft and 6.700-inch Scat H-beam connecting rods topped off with Diamond dome pistons, providing a final compression ratio of 13.2:1 and a final displacement of 527 cubic inches.

The ring package uses .043/.043/3.0mm rings with a back cut to keep the compression in the chambers and the oil in the pan where it belongs. In keeping with his past, Rabotnick selected a set of Federal-Mogul race engine bearings to supply adequate oil clearance and smooth operating characteristics, along with a complete Fel-Pro gasket set.

Rabotnick spec’d out a custom custom solid roller Comp cam and lifter package and relies on a set of Blue Thunder High Riser heads that have been CNC ported to provide the bulk of the power production. The heads feature stainless valves and titanium retainers to keep the valvetrain weight down. T&D‘s offset rocker arms actuate the valves via custom-length pushrods.

A Dove Tunnel Wedge 2×4 high Riser intake manifold sits atop the engine fed by a pair of custom 750-cfm carburetors.

Oiling system components include a Survival Motorsports-prepped Melling oil pump, a Milodon deep-sump pan and corresponding oil pump pickup, a Canton windage tray, and an ARP oil pump drive.

The engine also incorporates an ATI SFI-approved Super Damper, an MSD billet FE distributor with bronze gear, and MSD plug wires. ARP fasteners abound throughout the build, used wherever possible to ensure adequate and accurate clamp forces are applied.

One of the upgrades in this engine build versus the last iteration is the vacuum pump system, which centers around a Moroso 4-vane pump and breather tank. The increase in compression coupled with the new camshaft and added engine vacuum provided an increase of 44 horsepower at the peak and assisted the engine in turning an extra 500 rpm on the top side.

A sweet engine that has a home in an awesome car. FE performance at its finest.