Hawkrod has no trouble rattling off the correct part numbers to make sense of the massive confusion surrounding the front dress of an FE but, even if I were to be prepared to go through the task of re-finishing a set of pulleys after finding them, I'd be right back to stock. So I went with March.

Kim March has been very helpful to me on several occasions before they moved the company from Westland MI to Florida. And since I used an ATI damper on the engine in question, I needed pulleys to match. (ATI FE dampers are a bbc piece with an FE hub substituted. So I had to match a bbc crank pulley with the other stuff, including the crank trigger.)

I'm at the point of ALWAYS using March. I've had no trouble of any kind!

KS

As some of you know, I'm in process of modifying a four litre Jaguar engine for my Lincoln LS Maxton top speed car. The new engine will make use of a pair of turbos; therefore the intake manifold---composite from the factory---will be subjected to forces that almost might be considered as the opposite of the original design.

Tony Gentilozzi, who's head of the engine program at RSR, the factory race shop for Jaguar, is of the opinion that the factory manifold is max'd out at around ten pounds of boost, and is likely to flex and leak, or perhaps have a catastrophic failure at much beyond that figure. RSR went to the use of the blower manifold from the Aston Martin, which is a cast aluminium piece. I'm going to try to use the factory Jag piece first, since the A-M manifold is rather complicated to come by and A-M is VERY proud of them. ($$$$)

I'm not concerned about the non-heating of the incoming charge factor, because I'll be spraying methanol when the engine is in boost

We shall see what we shall see!

KS

Mallory has had 'vacuum' distributors available in various forms for many years. The first one I had was for a flathead.

KS

Hi Jay---
Just a thought, but do you suppose a POLITE bombardment of calls/emails to the Hot Rod offices on behalf of your clone might get them off the dime? I'm sure a request for help both here and over at the FE Forum could well generate several hundred contacts.

KS

'Back in the day', it was fashionable to sneer at the 390. Brother Lon's '63 Gal convertible had a few detail changes, including a set of 406 short exhaust manifolds. It took that much work, and the replacement of the valve springs and lifters, to be able to best the typical 327 chibbie.

On the other hand, I had no trouble, with a 397 inch PI engine and modern replacement parts, going past 500 both on the Hp side, and Tq as well. I asked Comp Cams for a roller with the street manners of the 'AA' that came in my '64 'R' Code. It worked.

With the costs of stroker cranks, rods, and pistons falling so close to the cost of factory stuff, it now makes no sense not to go up in the CID department. But don't short the possibilities of the standard size 390!

KS

I've found that installing the cap while making sure that the entire side-seal areas are clean and DRY, and then  shooting a jet of 'The Right Stuff' into the hole and watching the ooze-out to be sure it's filled clear to the bottom works best for me. I've never been happy with the rubber things and Carl Holbrook ran out of his stash of rawhide far too long ago!

KS

I'm Ken Sheffer

Since the family car was a '53 Merc when I learned to drive, you can easily guess that I've been a Ford fan for a long time. I managed to treat that car to a complete header exhaust, Mallory diz, etc, 3 Strombergs on an Offie manifold and get my first ticket, for drag-racing, while on Woodward at about Square Lake Rd going south. And my Mother drove it to work as a schoolteacher every day.

Next car was a '34 five window, channeled eleven inches and sectioned, running, when I got it, a 59A configuration that was too rough for street driving. I sold that powerplant and put in the engine from the '53 Merc.

Next I got a '54 Customline, and installed first a 292, and then a 312. I built headers, converted it to a stick-shift, put on dual quads and finally a Paxton blower.

KS

In November of '63 I went to work at T&C Livonia and in February of '64 I bought a new 'R' Custom Ford. The only option was an AM radio. Every other checkmark had to do with going fast. It had the 'T' ignition and a 4.11 gear to go with the mandatory four-speed (a T-10---changed to a pre-production top-loader that took a bunch of talking at work to acquire.) In addition it had the big brakes and HD suspension and 15" tires. Daily driving and getting married took first place and meant that the best the car ran that season was 13.27 at 107.

I sold the '64 to Brother Lon and bought a new '65 1/2 Mustang GT fastback that I quickly converted to a GT-350 clone complete with a Paxton blower and a deck exchange for the back seat. Shortly thereafter I finally got an AB in Chemistry and became a metallurgical process engineer in QC at Livonia Trans.

Before long I got a '67 XR7GT Cougar and assembled a 427 to replace the 390. And during that same time frame, I was working with Brother Lon on his '67 Mustang/TP and racing with the Corrunker Brothers with their T-Bolt and the Romy-Hammes-sourced CJ Mustang with which we held the Super E Automatic MPH record for most of that season.

Other projects have included a chopped-top, full-frame-and-cage '72 Pinto with a 385 SCJ-based 466, several bottle-fed Ford Turbo cars, the '63 F-100 ICB short-bed with a succession of FE engines and a Volare front suspension that I've owned for more than 20 years, and my latest project, an '02 Lincoln LS, bought new, and now with roll-cage and fire-suppression system and belly pan Maxton E/F CC record holder.

And finally, a more serious Land Speed car that'll be FE powered. The goal is to better 300 MPH with a car you can drive to the store. It's wonderful what a pair of hair-dryers, a bottle, and overhead cams can do.

All the ebock heads I've ever looked at show very clear evidence of indifferent touch 'n' go-work in the runners. The basic cnc work only extends into the runners an inch or so and it's evident where the cutters stop. Blending of the cutter marks, and any evening out in the roof areas will bring dividends.

Remember that the ebock head isn't quite as good as the factory MR to begin with.

KS