Switching to a solid roller, don't need this one anymore:

265/275 @ .050", 112 LSA, 112 ICL, .660"/.686" gross lift. 

$300, free shipping. 

Got this one scheduled to be dyno'd on the 1st of February, so you have a lot of time to get your guess in.  Same rules as always:  I will post the uncorrected horsepower and whoever's guess is the closest without going over will win some goodies. 

*BBM block, 4.310" finished bore size
*RPM steel 3.980" crankshaft
*Molnar 6.800" connecting rods
*Racetec forged pistons, 12:1 compression, 1.5/1.5/3mm piston rings
*Trick flow cylinder heads, 2.190"/1.650" valves, no port work, setup with Manley Nextek valve springs and Manley titanium retainers
*BBM Tunnel Wedge intake manifold, no port work, with (2) HVH 1" Super Sucker spacers
*Carbs are Quick Fuel 725cfm custom carbs, no choke horns, etc.
*Camshaft is a custom solid flat tappet camshaft, nitrided, 262/270 @. 050", .640"/.663" gross lift with .018" lash, 109 LSA, 107 ICL
*Trend tool steel lifters
*T&D street rockers
*MSD Pro-Billet distributor
*Melling HV oil pump, with Milodon oil pan
*Powerbond race balancer
*Electric water pump, but turning alternator


A couple of build notes that may help some people in the future:

1.  The Trend tool steel solid flat tappet lifters pass a tremendous amount of oil the way that they come from Trend.  They have a .015" EDM hole in the face of the lifter for oiling but they have a .030" orifice under the pushrod cup to pass oil to the pushrods.  Trend also sells different pushrod seats, so I replaced the ones that were in it with .014" seats.  With full oil to the lifters, a .014" orifice in the pushrod seat, and .050" restricted pushrods, the oil to the top end is where it should be. 

2.  The BBM Tunnel Wedge has a cover plate that bolts to the bottom of the intake that's almost 1/4" thick.  It's held on by 1/4-20 socket head screws.   I had to cut the intake flanges .060" to get the intake ports to line up with the head ports correctly.  The intake *may* have sat down ok without cutting, but with cutting, the cover plate contacted the lifter valley bracing ribs on the BBM block.  There was also one bolt that was close enough to a rib that it would not allow the intake to sit where it needed fore/aft on the block.  It would contact the rib and would lock the intake in so that it couldn't be moved where everything lined up. 

3.  The T&D street rocker stands had to be milled a little over .200" to get the rocker arm pattern where they needed to be with the TFS heads.  Fortunately on the TFS heads, the rocker stand pads are so high that even when you whack the stands down, the head bolt heads are still below the surface of the pads.

It took me the better part of a year to get it assembled for testing due to customer projects coming first.  I had good intentions of throwing some new cams in there and doing more testing, but I'm just not sure how soon I'll be able to get that accomplished, looking at my 2019 workload.

A link to the setup is here:

http://fepower.net/simplemachinesforum/index.php?topic=6779.0



A solid 540 hp 390 that would make a great mill for a street/strip car.   All high quality parts, dyno tested and ready to roll.  Only "used" parts in this are the block, crankshaft, CJ heads, carbs, and the timing cover.  Everything is brand new, including a new BBM Tunnel Wedge, Molnar rods, Racetec pistons, XCeldyne titanium intake valves, custom Ferrea stainless exhaust valves, billet Comp Cams camshaft, Morel short travel lifters, MSD distributor, Powerbond balancer, Milodon oil pan, etc.

$8000 including free freight to anywhere on the CONUS.   Would accept reasonable offers. 

Performance Summary:
      Cubic Inches:     391          Dyno brand: Stuska
      Power Adder:     N/A          Where dynoed:  Dale Meers Racing Engines, Buffalo, KY
      Peak Horsepower:  542 @ 7000
      Peak Torque:  460 @ 5500

Horsepower and Torque Curves:


Engine Specifications:
   Block brand, material, finished bore size, other notes:  Factory C6ME, 4.060" bore, 10.145" deck height, half-filled with Hard Blok, bronze lifter bore bushings
     
   Crankshaft brand, cast or forged, stroke, journal size:  Factory 2U,  .020" on rods, .010" on mains
     
   Connecting Rods brand, material, center to center distance, end sizes, bolts:  Molnar 6.490", ARP 2000, factory FE rod journal

   Piston brand, material (caster, hypereutectic or forged), dish/dome volume, static CR:  Custom Racetec forged, 4cc dome, 11.1:1

   Main Bearings, Rod Bearings, Cam Bearings brand and size:  Federal Mogul 125M10, Calico coated Federal Mogul rod bearings, Durabond FP-33

   Piston rings brand, size, other notes:  Mahle 1mm/1mm/2mm

   Oil Pump, pickup, and drive:  Melling M57HV, Milodon pickup

   Oil pan, windage tray, oil filter adapter:  Milodon front sump, no tray, factory adapter

   Camshaft brand, type (hyd/solid, flat tappet or roller), lift and duration (adv and @.050"): Custom Lykins Motorsports hydraulic roller 259/269 @ .050", 114/107, .635"/.635"

   Lifters brand, type:  Morel 5329

   Timing chain and timing cover:  Cloyes billet, factory cover

   Cylinder heads brand, material, port and chamber information:  Factory C8OE-N, 74cc chamber, 162cc intake port volume

   Cylinder head flow in cfm at inches of lift (28" H2O pressure drop):
      Intake               Exhaust
      .100   62              .100  54
      .200   126            .200  107
      .300   197            .300  134
      .400   260            .400  156
      .500   279            .500  171
      .600   281            .600  183
      .700   289            .700  191
      .800                    .800

   Flow bench used, location:  SuperFlow SF600, Lawes Mayfield Motorsports

   Intake valve brand, head size, stem size:  XCeldyne, 2.08", 5/16" stem, titanium

   Exhaust valve brand, head size, stem size:  Ferrea stainless, 1.63", 7mm stem
   
   Valve springs brand, part number, specs:  Comp Cams 7256

   Retainers and locks brand, part number, specs:  PAC titanium retainers, Manley locks

   Rocker arm brand, type (adjustable or non-adj), material, ratio:  Lykins Motorsports non-adjustable, roller-tip, bronze bushing, aluminum body, 1.76:1

   Rocker shafts and stands, brand, material:  Harland Sharp HD

   Pushrods brand, type, length:  Trend 5/16", .105" wall, all around 8.900" +/- .030"

   Valve covers, brand, type:  Repop GT chrome

   Distributor brand, advance curve information:  MSD Pro Billet, locked out

   Harmonic balancer brand:  Powerbond ST

   Water pump brand, type (mechanical or electric):  Rebuilt factory

   Intake manifold brand, material, porting information:  BBM Tunnel Wedge, no porting

   Carburetor(s) brand, type:  (2) Holley 1850, custom from Drew Pojedinec

   Exhaust manifolds or headers brand, type:  Dyno headers, 2" tube

....to all my FE buddies.

I've been working on getting this done for the past several months and finally received some part samples from Harland Sharp yesterday. 

Some features:

*Bronze bushing fulcrum, with oiling passage to allow oiling from pushrods or from rocker shafts
*Lightweight aluminum body with full roller tip
*Hardened pushrod cup insert
*Will accept up to 700 lbs of spring pressure
*Uses readily available 5/16" ball/ball pushrods instead of having to rely on full custom 3/8" ball - 5/16" ball pushrods or 3/8" cup - 5/16" ball pushrods
*Works with factory diameter rocker shafts
*Same width as factory rockers to allow either use of factory stands or aftermarket billet stands
*Will work with spring spacers or solid spacers
*1.76:1 rocker arm ratio

The forethought for this revolves around hydraulic roller FE's.  I have customers that occasionally want higher rpm engines but they don't want to go with a solid roller because of the extra expense, maintenance, etc., and they don't want to go with a solid flat tappet because of camshaft break-in issues that occasionally plague us.  Hydraulic rollers are an excellent choice for street engines since they are basically an "install-and-forget" scenario:  no maintenance, no camshaft break-in, etc. 

In years past, we have seen a "brick wall" on rpms when it comes to the hydraulic roller camshafts and this is because of several variables:  camshaft lobe aggression, lifter choice, oil choice, and valvetrain weight.  If you use an overly aggressive camshaft lobe, then it's hard for the valvetrain and lifters to keep control of things.  If you use something like a Morel lifter, then the lifter component tolerances are much tighter and the resulting oil viscosity has to be eyeballed so that the lifters can operate the way they were intended to operate.  If you use a heavy valvetrain assembly, i.e. 3/8" stem, large headed valves, steel retainers, adjustable rocker arms, etc., then you have a lot of unnecessary weight that the lifter plungers are having to deal with.  Over the years, we have gone from seeing 5800-6000 rpm limits to 6200-6500 rpm limits and a little higher.  We have been able to get to those milestone points with FEs because we have been "slimming" things down and finding component relationships that work.  Less aggressive lobes are being used in correlation with higher-quality lifters, smaller stemmed valves, and the use of non-adjustable factory rocker arms.  I have routinely seen rpms of over 6500 and I do believe that Blair has had a few engines where he has seen 7000 rpm with a hydraulic roller camshaft.

I feel that the rocker arm choice is a big player in this as it can either help or hurt the valvetrain weight.  Adjustable rocker arms with large adjusters, jam nuts, etc., add unnecessary weight.  Unnecessary weight can make it harder for the lifter to do its job.  A lot of us have seen the results of using the non-adjustable factory rockers:  in engine combinations that have usually lost control of the lifters at around 6000 rpm, the lighter rockers allow the peak horsepower rpms to creep up by several hundred rpm or more.   Again, you have to look at the overall picture and choose a combination that works, but the rockers do play a large role.

However, there are constraints with the factory rockers.   The shoe style rocker tip leaves an undesired wider pattern on the valve stem and in extreme situations where we're using very small stemmed valves, that can pose a problem without adding lash caps.  The rockers themselves are not meant to carry large valve spring pressures or large valvetrain loads.   It's not hard to find good rocker cores, or even very nicely rebuilt pieces from companies like Rocker Arms Unlimited, but again, their original strength and design capacities can be quickly overran. 

The beauty of these rockers is that they are basically universal.  They will work as a "performance upgrade" to factory pieces by using factory shafts, stands, and springs.  They will also work as components of new systems, where they would be used in conjunction with new shafts, Precision Oil Pump billet stands, Precision Oil Pump spacers, etc.  They will work with hydraulic rollers, hydraulic flat tappets, and if careful consideration and measuring is taken in assembly, they can also be used with solid flat tappets and moderate solid roller camshafts.  We have seen recent instances where Cup engines use non-adjustable rockers so that spring pressures can be reduced and the rockers are used in conjunction with careful pushrod length measurements and/or lash caps.  There's no reason why this couldn't be completed with an FE solid flat tappet or solid roller camshaft to allow for lower valve spring pressures and lower maintenance intervals. 

I have also discussed several options with Harland Sharp, including needle bearing fulcrums (would require larger diameter shafts) and lightening programs which would further reduce the weight of the rocker arm. 

Overall, I'm very excited to get this going and will be doing some testing with them in the next several weeks.  I need to get a few customer builds dyno'd and delivered, which will free up some time for me. 

I have 15 sets of Morel/Eaton solid flat tappet FE dumbbell lifters on the way....

$75 with free shipping to lower 50 for a set of 16. 

Got a small shipment of BBM blocks coming in hopefully in the next week or two.  One of them is earmarked for a 465 cube bracket engine build for Steve Dodson's AFX Falcon.

Specs are:

*BBM block, 4.310" bore
*RPM 3.980" steel crankshaft
*Molnar 6.800" rods
*Custom solid flat tappet camshaft, 262/270 @ .050", 109 LSA, .640"/.660"
*Trend tool steel solid flat tappet lifters
*Custom Racetec flat top pistons, 12:1 compression
*BBM Tunnel Wedge intake
*Custom Quick Fuel 725cfm carburetors
*Trick Flow cylinder heads, ordered bare, assembled with small diameter dual valve springs and titanium retainers
*T&D roller rocker arms

We (collectively as a forum) have been struggling with good comparisons for these cylinder heads.   The goal is to do an engine with really only the cylinder heads as the variable to at least get a feel for how well they do.  I think the 390 I just dyno'd did pretty stinkin well for a relatively simple combination. 

In this situation, I have a 465ci Tunnel Port engine that I can compare to.   Basically the same compression ratio, same bore/stroke, same rod length, similar camshaft durations and LSA's, same carburetors, similar-ish intake manifolds, etc.  That TP engine made 696 hp and 588 lb-ft of torque.   I expect this one to be pretty healthy as well.