Thread: 390 Rebuild on a $2,000 Budget

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Craig; Go with harden push rods and soak the lifters over night in oil, so they are already pumped up. This will help you to keep from bending a push rod. One other thing that I can think of that may be a concern is the oil pump driveshaft. The FE's have been known to break the oil pump driveshafts and if the thin hexagonal shaft flexes against the load of the oil pump it can cause spark scatter in the distributor. Ford power parts offer a more strong 7/16 chrome-moly steel shaft center one. Also you might look around the junk yard for some 352 heads,58 thru 66 ID for the years would be [B8-B9 then C0 thru C6. The letter is for the decade, if you didn't know? Some of these heads had the adjustable push rod set up and can be used on the 390 heads. The heads them self are interchangable.You will have to watch you valve to piston clearance though because some of these came with longer valves. Hope this helps you some.

Vegas

Thanks for all the help guys!

480 HP for under 2K is asking a lot unless he is willing to ignore some pretty important stuff during the basic build - like balancing - bad idea. I would start with a 428 crank and rods, more cubes and more torque right up front. With a .030 overbore that will bring him in around 416 C.U. My next choice would be a solid lifter valve train. The lumpy idle always sounds cool but for stoplight light to stop light it's not really best to go with big lift, long duration profiles. Something around 280 would be more reasonable. As for exhaust, well, there is no such thing as a free lunch. He could spend 4K but if he uses the stock manifold it will still be a dog. Sandersonson makes a nice set of shorty headers at a reasonable price. Most all of the upgrades can be acheived with OEM stuff if you are willing to do the leg work. Stick with the cast iron stuff and break out that die grinder. With those mods if you can make the engine breath you will almost be there, but 450 H.P. and around 470 to 480 ft lbs of torque is more realistic. You didn't say what he has for a tranny or rear end gears - big part of the equation.