1961 Thunderbird 390...

[stubbie]

A 1" spacer would be good as a lot of birds suffer from heat soak. The spacers are angled also.

[wayne]

I had a 390 out of a bird like that years ago in a 69 ranger pickup put a small crane cam 300- 500 or something like that.Stock iron cj intake headers and a 3310 -780 holley it ran real good.A friend had a chevy 1/2 ton with a 396-325 with headers it could bust his butt with  half a load of wood in it. This will be a fun build to watch.

[blykins]

Gonna try and dyno it next week to get a baseline.  New intake manifold will be here Tuesday, so I may even try and swap it on the dyno to see what difference it makes. 

[blykins]

Dyno'ing the "before" on Monday.

[philips66]

Brent glad the intake will work for you.  Hopefully it was packaged good enough to survive the journey.

[64gal482]

My guess is 261 as is

Jose

[blykins]

Brent glad the intake will work for you.  Hopefully it was packaged good enough to survive the journey.

It would have survived Nagasaki the way it was packaged.   

[WerbyFord]

Gonna try and dyno it next week to get a baseline.  New intake manifold will be here Tuesday, so I may even try and swap it on the dyno to see what difference it makes.

Don't forget the 1" 4-hole spacers on top, both those old intakes like that.
Maybe even try a fancy cloverleaf high-dollar spacer or something.
Plenty of room under most hoods for the spacer on those.
Good luck Brent!

[blykins]

Gonna try and dyno it next week to get a baseline.  New intake manifold will be here Tuesday, so I may even try and swap it on the dyno to see what difference it makes.

Don't forget the 1" 4-hole spacers on top, both those old intakes like that.
Maybe even try a fancy cloverleaf high-dollar spacer or something.
Plenty of room under most hoods for the spacer on those.
Good luck Brent!

I don't think I own any 4 hole spacers.  I will try a Super Sucker though. 

This thing is a complete variable.  Have no clue what's gonna happen LOL

Got new plugs and an MSD in it, filled it with oil and primed the pump.  We will see. 

[wayne]

WerbyFord do you know how much a t bird 3x2 intake gives up to a full size car 3x2 setup.I think it is flat and dont have a rise front to back i had one years ago and sold it to the t bird store (now npd).I know it had a fitting under the center carb for power brakes.Not much i am sure but some i would think.

[blykins]

It was rebuilt by the "Proformance" guys in NJ.

In that case, I'd be surprised if it survives the dyno pulls. Those guys strike me as snake-oil salesmen.

Doug called it.  Couldn't even make a pull on it, got it up and running and the thing was so noisy we shut it down. 

I got it home and stripped some of it down.  Cam was trashed and it wasn't because the lobes were wiped, it was because there was a problem with the installation so that lifters were contacting adjoining cam lobes. 







So this is a '61 engine that did not come with a thrust plate.  However, when I tore it down, it had a spring/button that was located on the cam bolt.  One-piece eccentric, with a newer style cam gear.

I'm a newbie to these old style setups, I don't recall seeing one before.  Did the original old style camshafts have anything different on the front of them?  This one has a typical nose like I'm used to seeing.

[Heo]

The Earlier cam is different in the nose if memmory dont fail me

[blykins]

Should be a washer in there too I think.  This one didn't have it.

[Royce]

Brent when you redo it chuck the old cam hardware drill the block for a thrust plate, and proceed as normal.  That is not the first 390 to suffer from old and new parts mix..

[blykins]

Its hydraulic roller cam came in the other day but was hoping to get a nice before/after dyno session.

Had already planned on converting it.