360 conversion (see: please don't kill me)

[wordforge]

Okay, the other day I started up my bump for the first time in a year and moved it into my carport. During that process I noticed that an absurd amount of oil was burning out the back. therefore I have decided to start a conversion and what I hope will be a successful 360 to 390ish conversion. (fingers crossed)

seeing as the truck doesn't need to move anywhere anytime soon, I figure since I'm tearing down the engine anyway i may as well make some upgrades while I'm there.

the engine as it sits now:


Now what I would like to do would be to build a decent street motor capable of driving my drag bike to the strip and back. so from the information that I've gathered here, i can say that I need the following:

- New rotating assembly (crank, rods, pistons, bearings, etc...)
- Block machine work (align hone, bore, deck)
- new gaskets
- new bolt kit

what I want:
- New heads or port job on old heads
- new intake manifold
- 4v holly
- headers
- electric water pump
- electric fuel pump
- larger oil pan

sounds ambitious I know, but i've got time.

[court1100f]

Hey Brother I'd axe the 390 plan in favor of a 410Cid Plan 415 if you bore it .030 over or at .040 a 416-417 the only part in your list that'd need modifying is the crank stroke. to get your 390Cid you'd be getting a 3.78" stroke crank all that'd be needed to go with a 410-417Cid would be a 3.98" Stroke crank like was found in stock 410s and 428s and with that longer stroke(Read as the same stroke as a 300 Straight 6) you'd get butt loads more torque not to mention the old addage no replacement for displacement

[sideoilerfe]

Why do you need a larger oil plan? yours will work just fine.

[Wes]

Hey Brother I'd axe the 390 plan in favor of a 410Cid Plan 415 if you bore it .030 over or at .040 a 416-417 the only part in your list that'd need modifying is the crank stroke. to get your 390Cid you'd be getting a 3.78" stroke crank all that'd be needed to go with a 410-417Cid would be a 3.98" Stroke crank like was found in stock 410s and 428s and with that longer stroke(Read as the same stroke as a 300 Straight 6) you'd get butt loads more torque not to mention the old addage no replacement for displacement

You will also need the 428 balancer and flywheel, 2 different weights available depending piston weights.

[willowbilly3]

Sounds like a cool build. Not sure I would do the electric water pump for a road truck. Most of them didn't used to recommend street use, haven't studied it lately though.
I notice the valve cover has the silver emissions sticker. Is that the original? My 1970 car 390 has a silver decal too, I thought truck ones were orangeish but maybe that was later. Just curious.

[court1100f]

Hey Brother I'd axe the 390 plan in favor of a 410Cid Plan 415 if you bore it .030 over or at .040 a 416-417 the only part in your list that'd need modifying is the crank stroke. to get your 390Cid you'd be getting a 3.78" stroke crank all that'd be needed to go with a 410-417Cid would be a 3.98" Stroke crank like was found in stock 410s and 428s and with that longer stroke(Read as the same stroke as a 300 Straight 6) you'd get butt loads more torque not to mention the old addage no replacement for displacement

You will also need the 428 balancer and flywheel, 2 different weights available depending piston weights.

Fair enough Could you have it internally balanced or would balancing and blueprinting alleviate the weight offset???

[DuckRyder]

Yes, you can internally balance a 428 crank. It will take a few chunks of mallory metal which will add to the cost.

[tybob81]

Itshard to find a good 428 crank with out spending an arm and a leg. Survival or blue thunder make stroker cranks for fe's that might be an option for you also.

[wordforge]

I was thinking about using something like this.

http://store.summitracing.com/partdetai ... toview=sku

so what would it take to make something like this work, other than a cylinder bore and a re-deck?

[tybob81]

That kit would work well. Summit is always a good place to get your go fast goodies and they have excelent customer support.

[convincor]

you mat as well go to the 4.25" kit from Survival and it's already balanced.
http://www.survivalmotorsports.com/FE-Engine-Kits.html
And Barry's customer service and knowledge will far exceed Summit's..

[convincor]

Also, new 428 cranks can be had for just over $500 these day's.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... &viewitem=

crank & rods
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Ford-428 ... .m20.l1116

Another crank
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/BRAND-NE ... 240%3A1318

[wordforge]

Why do you need a larger oil plan? yours will work just fine.

to be honest i'm not entirely sure that I will need one. but the reason I thought of one was because of this article http://www.carcraft.com/techarticles/cc ... index.html

seemed like a good idea.

[Wes]

Yes drag racing a fe w/o some sort of oiling consideration will starve the engine for oil on launches. I new a guy raced a super stock 428 mustang, rules didn't allow for other then stock pan. His solution was to add an extra quart when at the strip. This seemed to very well for him 1 motor made it 2.5 seasons.

[wordforge]

yeah I wasn't planning on drag racing the bump. But I figured, since I'd be down there and adding a windage tray I may as well put a new pickup and pan in place as well.