The brown and white camper special I posted in another section has a pretty low mile 360 that is in good shape but has some issues I don't want to mess with right now and it still drives, sort of. Going to throw a 390 in it so the truck is in an undriveable state for the shortest time possible. I've got a 4.110 390 that the block was still good on, so I lightly honed it on the Sunnen and going to run it (it's not perfect but its serviceable). It's going back together with low buck stuff mostly, hyper pistons, etc. Has C1AE heads, running those because they already had hard seats, new valves, decks were flat. I cleaned them up, freshened up the valve job, PC seals, and prepped them for the appropriate springs for the hyd roller Brent had ground for me,227/235 @ .050", .565"/.587", with a 111 LSA. It's between 9.5 and 10 to 1 (I need to re CC the heads to verify but should be 9.7).
This truck will be the new shop truck, isn't really going to be a work truck. Mostly fetching parts, might pull a small trailer but doubtful. The truck is a 73 F250 Camper Special (pics posted in the projects forum), C6, 4.10's.
So after that long winded story....I've got a couple intakes laying around I've collected over the years and I'm trying to talk myself out of buying an RPM. I've got an iron S, which I'd like to avoid because my back hurts just looking at it. I've also got 2 Performer 390's (because they got swapped for better manifolds already).
I think the RPM would be a better choice, but I'm trying to convince myself it isn't 450 bucks better. Since this won't really tow much, if anything, and with 4.10's and stock 16" tires with the C6 it spends most of it's life above 2500. But it's also sort of on the fence. If it was build strictly as a work truck I'd put the S on it.
Also, what is the prefered method for the side seals on the rear main cap? The last time I went this far into an FE I was in my teens and the leather seals (out of production by then I'm sure but still tons laying around) swelled and sealed instantly once oil hit them. A lot of the FE's I see running around here seem pretty wet, especially rear main seeps/leaks. Skim coat of RTV on the neoprene? Someone offer a better quality seal strip?