390 short block ????

[unclewill]

Nice!

[scott foxwell]

My current combo is an early 64 390 block  with the nubs that was cross bolted, filled with hard block and then bored to 4.130 and lined honed. It has an eagle crank, rods, weisco 13 to 1 pistons, Crain roller cam and lifters, ebock heads fully ported, with 2.15 and 1.72 valves, Crain springs, victor intake ported to match the heads, msd ignition. Use a cobrajet c6 with a tci kit and brake. In my mustang it has run 10.19 at 130 mph leaving at 3500 and shifting at 6000.

What stroke?

[George vega]

3.98, 428.

The marking pics are on my new block.

[scott foxwell]

I have an identical complete S code engine.

[George vega]

So far it looks like a good solid core.

[jayb]

George, do you have any pictures of the deck of the block?  From those you can tell if it has the 428 water jacket cores (and thicker cylinders).

[scott foxwell]

The block I have which I'm guessing is the same as the one George has does not have the 428 water passages but does pass the drill test and it passes the test between all the cylinders so you can rule out at least front to back core shift.
I'm going to punch mine out to 4.11 and use the Icon IC868 piston, 3.98 stroke steel crank and a 6.80 Chevy rod. I'm having Adney Brown build me an offset ground truck crank with a 3.98 stroke and 2.20 Chevy journal. The piston has a pretty big dish but it's going to be .008 out of the hole so I'll take another .010 off the deck, take .018 off the piston and bring the compression up to a little over 10:1. Only thing I wish I could do is get a better ring pack but 1/16 x 2, 3/16 isn't the end of the world for a 600hp street engine. I really like the Icon pistons.

[blykins]

Scott, sent you a PM....

[George vega]

George, do you have any pictures of the deck of the block?  From those you can tell if it has the 428 water jacket cores (and thicker cylinders).

I've  already looked Jay. The water passages are real clean. I looked at the center freeze plugs and at the floor of the rear water jacket. It does pass the drill test in all the cylinders.

[jayb]

I was talking about the shape of the water jacket holes in the deck.  The 428 water jacket cores leave a hole in the deck that extends down below the head bolt hole, while a 390 water jacket core hole doesn't, see the pics below.

390:





428:

[thatdarncat]

Jay, one thing for everyone to note - Dennis K, who supplied that blueprint you have referenced, has commented on the FE Facebook page, that the FE block deck water passage shape info ( short triangle for 390, tall triangle for 428, round hole for 427 ) ONLY applies to DIF cast blocks. The later MCC cast blocks ( like the D3TE & D4TE ) will tend to have the "428" style water passage shape, but do not have the 428 cylinder cores since MCC never cast 428 blocks. Just something to know so people don't mistakenly apply that tip to those blocks.

[fomocoloco]

i have one of those 64 blocks. it is at a fresh .030 bore. i have not had it sonic tested.

jim oberg

[blykins]

I would be very leery about taking any 390 block to 4.130".  I've tried several times and was able to do it 1 out of 4 times...wasted 3 blocks in the process, even after sonic testing them.  You would have to sonic test every square inch of a cylinder and even if you get a block that looks thick, it can really be thin in spots.  In addition to that, there's really no reason to do it, especially when you can make up the displacement (and a ton more) with a crankshaft.  Ring seal and reliability are paramount.

[Gregwill16]

+1 Brent. After Dale showed me how to sonic check one block and then let me sonic several others of my own, the person doing it has to have some integrity and move around and record the thinnest spot or the check is very misleading.

[George vega]

I was talking about the shape of the water jacket holes in the deck.  The 428 water jacket cores leave a hole in the deck that extends down below the head bolt hole, while a 390 water jacket core hole doesn't, see the pics below.

390:





428:

This is a pic of the deck Jay. It has flashing that hasn't been removed yet in some of the cooling holes.