There are 3 small town car shows within 80 miles of me that are including 150 foot main street drags now and rumor is more to come. I just run mine in one last week and no traction at all. I want to buy some slicks to play more. So i need some help to go to the 1/4 mile track once in a while and for these 150 ft hole shot drags.
My car is a 63.5 Galaxie 500 XL with 390, tripower, 406 shorty cast iron headers with 2 1/2” exhaust with dumps, 350 traction loc, 68 big in big out 4-speed toploader close ratio with 2:32 1st, 275-60-15 Cooper Cobra Tires and traction masters,
I realize people will say get ride of the close and change it to wide, but I actually like driving the close ratio.
Engine is 68 390, .060 over, H304P with 12cc dish, 21cc deck clearance with these pistons, 69cc 63 heads no head work done, .030 Cosemetic head gasketFord tripower, no work done, Comp 270S cam with 282S exhaust lobes, petronix lll curved distributor by Faron Rhodes,
I like the 3:50 gears to drive down the highway, 2550 rpm at 65 so probably will not change the rear gearing, and probably will keep the toploader the way it is although I did buy the 1 3/8” input, 2nd and 3rd gears and cluster wide ratio stuff a few years ago safely sleeping in a box on the shelf.
Not doing this for money, just like grabbing gears and having fun.
Which cheater slicks or whatever they are called and size of tire does anyone recommend?

Going to run dual alt belt on my street driven 63.5 390. I also have added Power steering and AC, so I need a couple of 3 groove pulley. Also I was looking a  I was looking at the CVF pulleys to purchase a 3 groove water pump and a 3 groove crank pulley. But they both only come in the 5.4" diameter. My pulley that I have for the FE are 6.5 on the crank pulley and 5.9 on the water pump pulley which gave it a 1.1 overdrive ratio, which are just some pulleys I found in some old parts I had but the are only 1 groove anyway. The crank pulley is the old original 390 harmonic balancer type with the integrated 3/8 pulley but I do not know what was on the water pump originally. Have no idea what was original on these cars 58 years ago. Also my Power steering, dual groove alt, and AC pulley are all 12mm as are the CVF pulleys.
Has anyone put 1 to 1 ratio for the water pump on their Street driven FE and had any cooling issues.
What ratio did Ford use on these back in the 60's?
I would like to get the combo right the 1st time rather that pull the fan and maybe radiator later to switch out the crank pulley.
so I am going to use two grooves of the water pump and crank pulley for the alt as I am running two belt on the 3G Alt. And then I am going to run the AC and PS belt together on the third groove of the water pump and Crank pulley

Anyone know of a good tool to replace valve spring on car for our rocker shaft type heads. I tried a search here but came up with nothing. I have dual spring and was going to leave the inner one out to break in cam.

I installed later bell housing and later starter on my 63 engine with the cast shorties. I noticed the starter wire post is within a 1/2 inch of the header.
I have heard there is a later Fe starter with the starter terminal coming off the back by the brushes, anyone know what year and model to ask for to get this starter?

Would a step dish piston such as the KB 150 be more efficient in burning the fuel and therefore make as much power at a lower compression as a circular dish at a higher compression?  Would the gas mileage be better with the step dish or maybe run 87 octane instead of 91 octane with the same seat of the pants thrill?  Why does KB site say there is no quench on a circular dish piston?
For instance, same cam, head, but different head gaskets as H304p has a compression height of 1.759 and the KB150 is 1.780.
H304p circular dish with 12cc and .027 gasket with 4.250 bore and .021 deck clearance gives SCR of 9.94 and DCR 8.03.
KB150 with 20cc and .041 gasket with 4.4 bore and 0 deck clearance gives SCR of 9.28 and DCR 7.50.

I've got some old MT ribbed valve covers I am thinking about running. Does a pcv work any more efficient from the top of the valve cover with the other valve cover having a breather in it than it does leaving it in the rear of the intake when still using the try under the intake? Also will have a breather on tri-power oil fill spout. Or do most of you keep it at the rear of the intake?
The MT's already have holes in them and was going to use some baffled grommets from Moroso  and also the push in breather has a built in baffle that I would hook the pcv to.

Changing my mind and going with solid lifter cam. Have a brand new in box cam and lifters. Cam is from Cam Research. Lifters were broke in on their CamKing machine. All lifters are inscribed as to what hole they go in. Cam, lifters cost $190 and another $60 for break-in plus shipping. Will sell for $160 plus shipping.
Email cebahr@hotmail.com
      Hydraulic Camshaft data

Lift                                In 540 Ex 565
Advertised duration      In 291 Ex 298
Duration @ .050           In 226. Ex 234
                 Valve Timing
                   Open.           Close
Intake      BTDC     8      ABDC   38
Exhaust.  BBDC   52     ATDC     2

Lobe separation       109
Intake Centerline.     105

4 degrees advance built in
Install straight up

  Recommended Valve Spring Data
Installed Ht    1.800       Lbs   115
Open Ht         1.200       Lbs   315

So I went to the united engine site and used their calculator with my cam info and come up with all the following head gasket info:
Running 91 Octane, the best we have here, in my 390 Galaxie, What would you go with? These are all with a 12 cc dish. If I go with a flattop it starts out with the .051 gasket at 9.879 static and 8.528 dynamic. These pistons are the 1.759 compression distance.
Changed gears since my last post. 3:70 gears, 29 inch tires, 4 speed

Brand           Compressed Thickness           Gasket Bore          Quench             Static Ratio              Dynamic Ratio
Felpro                        .051                              4.250               .082                    9.255                        7.999

Felpro                        .041                              4.4                  .072                    9.393                        8.116

Cometic                     .040                              4.250               .070                    9.473                        8.184

Cometic                     .040                              4.165               .070                    9.504                        8.210

Edelbrock                  .038                               4.4                  .069                    9.457                        8.171

Mr Gasket                 .038                               4.4                  .069                     9.457                       8.171

Cometic                    .036                               4.4                  .067                     9.501                       8.208

Cometic                    .036                               4.360              .067                     9.516                       8.221

Cometic                    .036                               4.250              .067                     9.553                       8.252

Cometic                    .036                               4.165              .067                     9.584                       8.278

Cometic                    .030                               4.4                  .061                     9.634                       8.321

Cometic                    .030                               4.250              .061                     9.679                       8.359

Cometic                    .030                               4.165              .061                     9.705                       8.381

Cometic                    .027                               4.4                  .058                     9.702                       8.378

Cometic                    .027                               4.250              .058                     9.744                       8.414

Cometic                    .027                               4.165              .058                     9.767                       8.433

Mr Gasket                 .020                               4.420              .051                     9.862                       8.514

Thank you for the help
Carl