Building a Stroker!

[UP Farmer]

Hi Guys,
I just yesterday picked up a complete, used 390.
It's out of a 1972 F250. Manufactured in August/72.
This will be my first ever attempt at doing a complete rebuild on an engine.
In fact, it will be a project that will take me several years - due to time and $.
The 390 in my 71 Pick Up doesn't need rebuilding, and is running fine.
I'm doing this for the experience.
I got the complete engine for $100.
When I say complete - I mean air cleaner, alternator......everything!
Questions:
Shouldn't this FE be the kind that has the extra webbibg in it?
What's the best (value) 445 Stroker Kit that you guys are aware of?
I want quality, but don't want to take out a 2nd Mortgage.
Also - Has anyone ever heard of where you can buy the Stroker Kit piece by piece?
That's probably what I'll have to do. I'm not cheap, just poor.
Thanks!

[cstoyer]

JEGS, SUMMIT will allow you to buy pieces without springing for a kit like you could get from Survival Motorsports. PLAN, PLAN and PLAN before you spend a dime or you will not be happy. I would even suggest talking to an engine builder in your area about your plans and maybe he could guide you. If you say FE and he says "I've heard of those" find someone else. Besides you will need their help for block prep and rotating balance.

Oh last thing.... FE isn't just for the motor name because you could build a cube for cube a 385 series block for less.

cstoyer

[UP Farmer]

Thank you very much for the advice.
I have a guy at my local mechanic shop who for years was a professional engine rebuilder.
And, while he's more of a GM guy, knows FE's as well, inside and out.
He has the machine shop equipment to bore the block, do the heads w/hardened seats, etc.
They are real good friends of mine, and really know their stuff.
Once I get a little of the grime off this engine, I'll post some pictures.
I'm so excited. This is what I'll be tinkering with out in the garage during the Winter.
I plan to post pictures of my progress, and maybe that will help any other novice mechanics like myself. I know a lot of you guys could do this stuff with your eyes closed.

[Clunker]

You might want to take a look at a book called, "The Great FE Intake Comparo." The purpose of the book was to test a bunch of different intake manifolds on a set of several dyno mule engines to see which ones performed best. One of those dyno mules is a 390, bored to 0.040" over and stroked to 4.25", resulting in a 446 displacement (500HP). The author details every component used in the build and why some of them were chosen/changed, so it might be a good starting point or at least a good source for ideas. Sounds like a fun project.

[My427stang]

I have built a bunch of these strokers and they really breathe life into an FE, especially in a truck.

My Mustang is a 489 inch stroker and my F100 is a 445. You can build a 460 based motor cheaper, but look close at cost of headers and a conversion flywheel if you are running a 4 speed, it adds up pretty quick.

As far as who to buy parts from. I piece together mine because I have done a lot, and can same a little here and there, but if this is your first, I do not recommend it. The strokers run BBC rods, but you need the right rod bearing to give room for the chamfer on the aftermarket cranks and there is a wide range of main bearings with only a few good solution, piston choices are pretty wide, and balancing the combo is easy, but documentation of what is really balanced can be confusing.

The cheapest way out is an Eagle stroker kit, but there have been some broken Eagle cranks, so you won't find us diehard FE stroker guys using Eagle cranks. The most common way out is a SCAT based kit, SCAT rods and crank, internally balanced, with your choice of pistons and rings is what most of us do,

One thing to remember, Eagle and SCAT both show that their cranks are internally balanced, NEITHER are. You HAVE to have the engine balanced. Easy for a good shop, and I have no idea why we cannot get SCAT and Eagle to fix their web pages, but bottom line, if someone didn't balance the crank using added "Mallory Metal", it's going to shake itself apart

For suppliers there are three good ones, Brent Lykins at Lykins Motorsports is real good and in the southeast, he will push you to Racetech/Autotech pistons built for your application, which are really nice and affordable

http://www.lykinsmotorsports.com/

Barry Rabotnik at Survival Motorsports is in Detroit area, he is real good too, and will likely push you to a set of his own branded Mahle pistons he had made for these applications.

http://survivalmotorsports.com/

On the west coast, Doug Garifo at Precision Oil Pumps has been doing this forever and supplied me with the whole setup using DIamond Pistons.

http://stores.precisionoilpumps.com/

I used Probe pistons on my F100, but they have since went out of business. All of these guys are friends and honest people.

I'd start with Brent because he is one of the best and easiest to get in touch with, but those are the top three in FE circles

[UP Farmer]

Thank you so much for the reccomendations.
I have spent a lot of time on Survival Motor Sports site - educating myself. And, he's up here in Michigan.
I love the "Prison Break" 445 Kit he sells.
I've been so swamped with work/farm that I haven't even started looking at my 390 Project yet. I suspect it has the D-type heads, cause it was in a 72 Truck.
This is one of the things I'm kicking around in my mind - I really don't want to go over 9.5 - 1 Compression.
I'm wanting to use the heads I've got, and just have then re-done.

[My427stang]

So Barry is a friend, and he won't do you wrong, but even with shipping you may want to give Brent Lykins a call. He can hit exactly the compression you want with a Racetec piston at about the same prices as everyones kit. He does a ton of these, and all three of those names I respect greatly, but especially Brent.

Keep in mind, I have been building FEs since the 80s and although they are buddies, I do all my own and get jobber prices, so when I recommend those guys, it's because they have passed my ":bs:" test LOL