Thread: 396 Chevy- 390 Ford

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Actually there were no 390s in the Thunderbolts. For those cars, Ford used the 427 FEs.

".... I don't know why you almost always see them in Galaxies......"

That's pretty simple......The last year Ford produced the 406 was 1963 and at that time Ford did not produce a body other than the Galaxie that the FEs would physically fit in.

If you do some checking you will find that in the FE world the real heavy lifting for racing was done by the Ford 406s (usually in Tri-Power form) until 1963 and from that point on it was the 427 FEs and later the 428s. Ford actually did very little performance development on the 390s. As an example, far as I know the only “performance” manifold was the 62-63 M code Thunderbird (only) Tri-Power intake and any benefits gained from those was negated by the stock log time exhaust manifolds that those cars came with.

In all reality the 390s were designed to be Fords basic grocery getter FE and entry level performance big block….it was at the same level as the 335HP 383 Mopars and 325HP 396 Chevys. Back in the late 60s when I was first getting into the whole street racing/drag racing thing we only had 2 390 powered cars that would come out and play a Fairlane GTA and a 67 Mustang……neither ever won too many races.

As far as the 396, you had to be careful which flavor was under the hood of that SS Chevelle or Camaro you pulled up next to. Unlike the 383 Mopar Magnum engine or the 390 Ford which which could be had in only 335HP and 320HP respectively (1968) the 396 was available in 325, 350 and 375 HP versions.

When you look at who was winning races back in the day when these cars still covered the earth, you will find the Ford FEs well represented in everything from sports car racing to NASCAR to Drag Racing, but it was not the 390s that were winning it was the 406, 427 and 428s.

Don’t get me wrong I’ve owned a few 390s over the years and worked on a bunch more. They are a good engine and with a few tweaks can be made to run pretty well……but the same can be said comparable engine of the time made by GM and Chrysler.


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