Thread: New Guy, Thirsty For Info! 390FE Questions Questions!

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Hello all, I'm Danny,got a nice 64 Galaxie 500XL Convert. with the 390 and 3spd Cruis-o-matic tranny. My father's had the car since the mid 70's and I have slowly inherited it over the years. Anyway I decided this would be the year to freshin' up the engine and drivetrain. Mainly because the engine rear main and oil pan was leaking and the tranny was leaking like swiss cheese bucket from either the front seal or the tourqe converter. I can't tell where but it was leaking about a quart a week! So let me bring you up to speed. I have the motor and tranny pulled,seperated and cleaned, about the take the heads off this weekend to see what the insides look like. I think I won't have to do a complete rebuild cuz It was rebuilt in the early 80's and has only 8,000 miles on it since. Doesn't blow smoke, just when you first start it which tells me it may need valves. Also I believe I blew a head gasket this summer on the drivers side head. (overheats and the gasket area around the head is damp....but i can't see any coolant on the dipstick.) What I do want to do is...all new gaskets, seals, redo the heads, new "hot" cam, timing gears,oil pump,fuel pump, maybe a aluminum intake with my current 650 holley 4V. I was also gonna replace the front and rear seals of the tranny as well the pan and filter. I don't know if it's the converter or the front seal of the tranny that is leaking so I may put a new converter on. See let me tell you all what I'm looking for I want this car to squeal when I punch it. That initial takeoff that throws you back. and leads to a nice topend. Don't get me wrong the stock setup when it was in it's prime a few years back was awesome but I'm looking now for some inexpensive ways to bring it up a bit. My main 2 questions now that I've rambled on are... What kinda cam should I use (like Lift, duration, durations @.50 and RPM)? My second question. Is the Cruis-o-matic the same as a C6? My 1964 Ford Shop manual has the auto options as C4 and 3spd Cruisomatic. Reason I ask is I'm looking at trying to get a highstall converter for the tranny. Any help would be great. thanks all -Danny

Hi Dan welcome to CHR. The C6 is a refined version of the Cruiseomatic. I'm not certain if the converters are the same tho. Comp has some nice selections on cams. Just watch your lift over .525 with the non adjustable rockers. If you go with more lift it's time to get adjustables. Match the valvesprings to the cams lift and pressure specs. Most will list the proper springs with the cams. The blue smoke could be from valve seals or valve guides. Once you get them apart it's easy to see and check for loose guides and hardened seals. The oem seals are just rubber and become hard over time. You'd want to look into headers also. Stock exhaust main's are a cork. There are the cast iron oem headers both short and long versions. They do run on the expensive sdie tho. Hooker, FPA and Crites all sell Gal headers for reasonable money. You can look for used also. Maybe look at the exhaust too. Without spending a ton of money cam and springs, headers and exhaust are your best bet.

BTW if your 390 still has the old stock cam it's a .232/.401 on the in and ex. The 390PI cam was .264/.440 on the in and ex. So you can see the stock springs are nowhere near enough for most of todays cams.

Thanks For the info! I've looked into headers and all the catalogs say I can't use them because of the fact I have a Convertible. I don't know why though I thought the front clips of all the body styles where the same. So if I ever find something that works I'll definately do it. Is there a website or anyone here that would know if a C6 Torque Converter would fit a Crusie-o-matic? -Danny

If you go with a cam, I'd suggest getting the cam package. As G mentioned, the valve springs have to be compatible with the lift of the new cam, and new retainers and keepers are just a good insurance policy!!! The stock components have got to be suffering from a bit of age fatigue by now so new one's would be a good investment.

For the street, the old 390 GT cam and valve train is pretty tough to beat! Lots of the manufacturer's offer cams with specs similar to the stock GT cam. For an intake, if you can find one and don't mind parting with the $$$$, the factory aluminum PI intake is a very nice one, and there is also a good Weiand intake I can never remember the number for, but G always comes up with it for me!!!!!

Only reason I can think the headers wouldn't work on your drop top is there may be some interference problems with the extra bracing on the frames for the convertibles.... Can't say I've ever put headers on a convertible of that era, so I can't say for sure, maybe someone else has some experience with them......

Anyway, FE's can be made to produce a bunch of torque! I have a 428 in my T-Bird that I'm looking forward to getting into sometime this winter!!!!! Good luck with your Galaxie!!!!

From what I understand the Cruiso takes a unique convertor. There were some aftermarket units available for them years ago but they are pretty rare now. One option that is pretty straight forward is a C6 swap, not that the old Cruiso was bad, just that the C6 is more supportable.

As far as headers, the factory shorty 60-64 headers will work. It's been a long time since I was watching them but you used to be able to pick up a decent set off E Bay for about the price of Crites headers.

Man that's a beautiful machine here's mine.... I hope someday to have those shorty headers.... Is there an Items wanted section of this site??


Pulled 390.jpg

390 On Stand.jpg

If you happen to find an old Edelbrock F 427 at a swap meet they
work well also. ( intake manifold)

Those shorty iron headers are $600-800 depending on the condition. Some have cracks welded,ears broken off etc... so that's something to watch for. Fixed right they are still fine and sometimes you can't see the repair once installed. You can save a few bucks on those if you don't mind them not being perfect. Last set of those I sold was 3 years ago and they went for $600 in real nice shape. At the time I would have been happy with $200. Had no idea they were that expensive. I'm surprised no one repops them like the iron ex CJ mani's.

I'm not sure Denny. I don't know if there was any extra bracing like Dave mentioned under the hood. I don't think so tho. I do know that a 64 with power brakes will interfere with one tube with some headers. Or at least they did. I'm not sure if Hooker found a solution for that? You'd have to check the Holley/Hooker site if see if there was a tech note of some sort. Maybe that's the problem? Dan? You have power brakes? Maybe the bell/starter area with the COM tranny? Not sure.

That's about the only thing I know of that might be a problem.

The shorty headers must HAve gone up. I paid $300 for my pair (the only defect was the bit of the top hole on the rear tube being broken off (you can see it in the picture. I used to see them on E Bay on the $300-400 range on a regular basis. They were right around the same price as Crites uncoated headers at the time.

The long tube cast headers used to be in the $5/600 dollar range.

Huh. I'll email and ask the seller why and see if he knows. This has me curious to know now. I'll post if he answers unless someone else chimes in.

FFR428, yeah I have Power brakes,Steering,windows,etc.. Hey if anyone has a pic of a 64 ford hardtop engine bay I could tell you if it's different from my convertible....huh hang on I'm gonna poat a pic of MY engine bay.. I also put a pic of the whole car , just to show what I'm working with. hope someone will recongize a difference. -Danny

My picture is a little to far away to see it clearly, but my 64 Post car does not have the bracing you see in your 2nd picture (the one the drivers side exhaust pipe is going over that looks like it might have been painted red at one time).

The engine compartments themselves are identical.

If you haven't come across it, here's the post about my 64 Ford project. It's an on and off project (currently off) that I work on in between other projects.

http://www.clubhotrod.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16968

That's a nice looking ride!! Guy on ebay did answer me. He said the frames are different and heavier on the verts.