There has been much discussion here in the past on this engine. It definitely showed up in Ford advertising but there were questions if they ever built or sold any. I just got a very nice reprint of the Ford Technical letters on the 300 Horsepower Supercharged 312. There is a lot of interesting technical and historical info in this. One thing that stuck out to me was several references to the 285 Horsepower engine. The plan was to discontinue the 270 and 285 Horsepower engines when the supply of 300 Horsepower engines caught up with the demand. It all ended with the AMA racing ban. All those references lead me to believe that the 285 Horsepower engine was out there. The conclusion from previous discussions here seemed to be that none of the 285 Horsepower engines have ever been actually documented. Anyone else gone over this info and have an opinion?

This was provided by Don Antilla Take a look.

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It’s interesting that the Ford drawing for the EDB-D camshaft calls for 0.020” hot lash for the intakes and 0.025” hot lash for the exhausts.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

I recall seeing these valve adjustment specs before somewhere. I have a 312 in my stash of parts with a regrind of that cam in it. If I ever get it running again I'll have to try those settings. I always ran it at .019 and it was fine. I ran that engine both with the single 4 barrel and the E dual quads. Seemed like it ran a little better than the single 4 barrel cam. The local dirt track racers used that cam a lot back in the late '60's.

That booklet provided by Richard Stuck is a gold mine of information regarding the supercharger program but also provides other juicy behind the scenes tidbits.  Those memos do indeed confirm that the 285HP program was in full swing.  It’s too bad that those cars that did get those 285HP engines did not have their own engine code and instead were simply grouped with the other E code vehicles receiving the 270HP engines.  While there are some production numbers in those memos regarding the 270HP engines, I did not see any production numbers for the 285HP engines that were being produced.  What is needed now is an original new car invoice for that car actually having the  285HP engine as part of the order.
 
Another interesting piece of information in those memos was the continuation of the supercharger program for 1958.  Based on those memos, there was going to be a supercharged 352 Interceptor engine.  With the A.M.A. resolution banning ‘high performance’, that program was shut down and that memo is also included.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

I picked up on a lot of that info to Ted. Also interesting was a supercharger for the 58 T Bird. That would have been interesting. A 60 T Bird with the 430 Lincoln engine almost won the Datona 500 that year. Wonder how it would have done supercharged? The history is fascinating. The what if's more so.

Still, no real Cam  info on the 285 H.P. engine. However, in the specs it's listed for "Racing"  So, I still suspect, based on info from the 1960s that the Cam they were using or going to use, was likely the early E-2 from Iskendarian.. It was a somewhat popular Cam for Oval Track Y-Block's...
.. The following is just an observation, based on info from people who knew more about it than I, that Ford's power rating for the 1958- 4 Bbl 352's of 300 H.P. was a figment of some engineer's imagination!  I've heard estimates as low as 225 h.p for the standard 352 engine..Making them easy pickings in official Drag racing..           


Paul

.. The following is just an observation, based on info from people who knew more about it than I, that Ford's power rating for the 1958- 4 Bbl 352's of 300 H.P. was a figment of some engineer's imagination!  I've heard estimates as low as 225 h.p for the standard 352 engine..Making them easy pickings in official Drag racing..

Don't forget there were two versions of the 1958 352, early production w/ solid lifters and machined combustion chambers and the later w/ hydraulic valve-train.

That may be the reason for the rating. The late 352 was de-tuned. I had a 1960 352/300HP and while it ran good it was no 300HP, the same rating as the replacing HYD 390 that also wouldn't get out of its' way.

Just observing ...

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I really enjoying reading posts on this subject.  Your knowledge is amazing. When I was a kid, Y-Blocks were in their last days.  We loved them because they were cheap, readily available and easy to work on.  One Saturday, someone brought a 300 HP 352 around for us to see.   It sounded great with the solid lifters clicking away.  That car could turn the back tires to mush.  I had a good friend who passed away a few years back that worked for Ford.  He had one of the few 1960 430 Thunderbirds made with a manual transmission.  He sold it before I got a chance to check it out. It's too bad Ford was so conservative back then.  They caught back up in the sixties.