Thoughts on 390's

don't know much about cost but the 406,bored390 and the merc410 stroked 390 were to of fords best motors in the day dom the drag strip,I believe ford only had them for a yr.

Thanks This one runs strong although no I have had it sitting for almost 5 years. I did some reading on these and see the 360-390-428 were the same block.Ford employees were lazy and did not always change the castings so some were thin wall and some thick. I have not pulled mine down since it runs awesome or did. Looks like from my running the numbers it is a 76 block with 72 heads.
Heads D2TEA Block D6TE. 

OK it did just need to scroll it a little.

I had a few tonight and for the first time in 30 years the other half got to drive the Cougar. She Stalled it 4 times then let her rip posi. Woot Woot.......

I just have to pipe some info in on the FE thing. My 390 I had in my Mustang would run circles around my 351 windsor. Have a buddy with a 390 in a 71 pickup that will run circles around anothers 77 with a 400M. FE's do well without having to spend a lot of money on the build. The worst flowing factory FE head flows better than the best FACTORY small block. They are also, to many peoples amazement are not that heavy, like 150ish # under a 385 series. Now if you are going VERY fast, then yes the $ ad up.

That being said I would see no reason to try to put one in a 70 or newer Torino. The Cleveland is like a direct bolt in.

Sorry for the rant but they can run. My current engine in the Mustang is a 431FE, very mellow cammed, factory C6 with a 325! gear will pull 113 in the 1/4!!

It is a major swap that involves tower elimination, R&P steering, and major reconfiguration of the engine compartment. However, I've had the car since '86 or so and don't mind doing the work. It moved well in my friend's Cobra before it was wrecked, price was really right, and came with everything from the donor.

I had a couple of those Town Cars - smooth, reasonably quick and would get unreal (for a big car) MPG on the highway.

Good choice on not going with the 390. I love those engines, but they can slowly (or quickly) drain your wallet. I have an S code '68 Cougar XR7/GT and am pulling the built 390 (original engine) back out and going to the trouble of installing a supercharged 4.6/6 speed in it. Why? The 390 would never be able to equal the power and reliability of that 4.6 combo and while a 390 sounds good, sound isn't everything.

I did a lot of reading on it and found all the casting numbers. Sounds like when the blocks were cast the employees were lazy and did not always fully change the cast setup every time so the cylinder wall thickness to water jackets could vary on the castings.

Looks to me like it is a good 390 for a truck as it runs perfect so just going to unload it. Someone did put some work into it as it has a 750 holley and headers on it still not sure what else but was told the cam and chain were done also. I did drive the truck before it was pulled and it rolled the tires pretty good!! Truck was beautiful a plus condition but was parted out over a title problem.

The Springs Retainers and lifters all came matched with the cam kit That went into the 351M (272 duration with 524 lift both intake and exhaust).

Anyway going to stick with the M for this summer and just found a complete 351CJ that can sit in the corner where the 390 is now.
Thanks for the input! Robb


Edited by Robbdtme - 01-July-2012 at 1:29AM

There will be many that disagree with me, but I'm not a big FE fan. I have spent months in my garage, and over $3000 trying to fix up the 360 in my 71 F-250. It still has problems of various small sorts, and I'm about ready to throw it away and simply get a 460 and put it in - or rebuild the 351W in my 75 Sport for the F-250.