Thread: 391 truck engine

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I have a 1962 thunderbird that has a 391 truck engine with 390 heads and intake on it, and I would like some advice on getting more power out of it.
The motor has around 30K on a rebuild, I don't know how far it was bored or anything though, but it ran great before I pulled it out. I would like to leave the bottom end together and just change the carb/intake/cam/and maybe the heads. Also I am going to buy the headers FPA makes.
My question is, what would be a good setup to run on this motor in my car? I want it to take off fast but I also want it to run fast top end. I'm going to have the cruise-o-matic transmission rebuilt and install a trans go shift kit and a 2400rpm stall convertor.
Should I go with the edelbrock performer intake and carb, or the performer RPM? I also want the edelbrock heads but that will have to wait, is there a cheaper way to get power out of some iron heads?
Sorry I have so many questions, and thanks for the help in advance!

Later,

Larry

well, as most people would say, your cheapest power comes from compression, theres 2 routes to doing this, you can either go with a stroker kit which will run you about $1400 but give you good smooth power and much more reliable, or you can deck the block, thats not neccisarily gonna give you a lot of power or is it going to be safe but its definately cheaper, other than that, maybe a tricky little cam, and if you really wanna go all out you could supercharge it, i believe theres a paxton that fits the 390

Hi Larry good to see you here. Your 59 head castings with some porting ($200) will be fine for now if the Edel's are not in the budget. As I remember the 391 was a fairly low compression engine with a lot of torque. But adding the 59 5752143 heads with smaller chambers bumped this up a bit. You can use the steel shim head gaskets as well to help a bit. The Edelbrock RPM package is a good one and I would not use the std performer package. You want more top end power and the RPM will give you this. Add the heads later and you still have a nice running package that's well matched. As we discussed just match the springs to the cam. I would not fuss to much with the heads you have if you want to upgrade to the Edelbrock's later. To completly redo them the right way you will be close to the price of the Edelbrocks by the time your finished. JMO, G.

Thanks for the help everybody!
I probably won't go with the fuel injection though, it would be cool but I'm sure it's expensive!
I think I'll just leave the heads alone and buy the edelbrock's later.
I found some headers for my car made by sanderson, and I also found a cool little adapter to mate a 700R4 trans to an FE engine that I am going to purchase. I have a 700R4 tranny that I was going to use in my 47 coupe but the t-bird is my current project so I'm going to use it and find something for the coupe later on. Hopefully you guys aren't hardcore ford only guys! lol What do you all think about the 700R4 behind my FE? The cruise-o-matic just doesn't have very much available for it so I think the 700 will be a good swap, plus overdrive will be great!
Talk at you later,

Larry

I ended up with a 700 in my GN after rebuilding the 200 three times. I liked it and it held up well. The GN was a 425 hp V6 turbo Buick. G.

Personally, I would do a fair amount of research into the tranny your going to use the way your going to drive the car and mods your planning on making.

The old banna nose (61-63) birds were a pretty heavy car at well over 4000 pounds. That being said any engine mods your planning on making should concentrate on bottom end torque and let the HP numbers fall where they may.

The problem on a lot of intakes for the birds is hood clearance and this should be taken into consideration when choosing. One of my personal favorites is of course the Tri-Power set up. A word of caution, the 62/63 M series is a lower rise setup than the more common 406 style which will not allow the hood to close.

Althought other ratios were available the standard one for the birds was 3.00. Now combining the weight of the car with a lot of torque from the engine and sticky tires you going to put a lot of strain on the drive train when you put your foot in it from a standing start. Adding a high stall converter allowing will also multiply the shock the rest of the drivetrain will receive.

Considering the weight of the car an OD tranny with it's normally lower 1st gear ratio and a little deeper gear (say around 3.50s) should combine to give a fun car to drive. The OD feature should still allow you to have a decent topend and some type of gas milage. The 700R4may fit the bill pretty well, but depending on the year and history of the tranny you have, I would sure have a qualified tranny guy go through it to insure that it does have all the upgrades it's going to need to live in your car.

Thanks for that link.
It looks like I could get a well built C6 from them for about $1100, or I could buy the adapter kit to swap my trans for a 700R4 for $800. But then I would have to get the 700R4 rebuilt and I'm not sure what that would cost. Which way should I go on this, the 700R4 and adapter or the C6?
I want my car to run atleast 120MPH and I am running 18 inch wheels with 275-35-18 rear tires. I would like to get a locking type rear carrier that will bolt in my original rearend, but what gear ratio should I run with my tire size and either the C6 or the 700R4 to get the mph I want? Another thing...if I went with the 700R4 would the speedo cable work?
Thanks!

Larry

Larry try www.secondstrike.com scroll down and you'll see a tire/rear/tranny/speed calculator. Plug in your specs and you can see the differences in tire size, rear gear, top end etc....G.

http://www.customrodderweb.com/tech/0405cr_tranny/
Check that out, couldn't I just have that made by my local machine shop for like $200? The actual adapter plate is really simple, but what about the torque converter and flywheel? Would I just have to drill the 391 flywheel and use the 700R4 convertor or how would that work? I really don't want to pay $800 for that kit so if I can't have one made cheaper I will just go with the C6 or maybe even just rebuild my cruise-o-matic sigh....
Thanks for all the help everybody!

Larry

DOH sorry. I didn't even notice the automatic option wasn't there. To bad it's a pretty good calculator. I only ran stick calculations and never checked to see if there was an automatic selection. Oh well I tried anyway, G.