I believe the gear vendor is 0.78:1, fwiw. 

Also, the electronic controller that comes with the gear vendor will not let you use it in all gears.  The output shaft has to spin a minimum speed to build enough fluid pressure or it won't shift to overdrive.  I guess that could be bypassed so you could have overdrive in the lower gears and even reverse but that would likely wear on the gear vendor.  Not sure how TomP gets the gear vendor to shift in all gears with the T19.  I can only use it in 3rd and 4th which happens to be where I need overdrive for towing.

I really like the gear vendor behind my np435 in my pickup though I would prefer a 5 speed or better yet a 6 speed if I could find one to mate to my FE with the gears I want so I could have just one gear box instead of two.  The tremecs would be great if I wasn't towing anything...their 1st is too fast.

I can understand your reasoning because in general "like dissolves like".  However, I've never seen silicone dielectric grease hurt any kind of rubber.  I use it on all spark plug boots, brake slide pin boots, intake plenum gaskets, and anywhere else I want to stop rubber from drying out.

For suspension bushings, I can understand products like fluid film, brake fluid, and diesel fuel softening suspension bushings but not engine oil...that's kinda weird. 

I learned (almost the hard way) that diesel fuel is bad for coolant lines.  Volkswagen ran a coolant line under the lift pump on my wife's diesel car.  The lift pumped leaked just enough to turn the coolant line into mush.   You'd think they'd see that coming.  I rerouted the new coolant line.

Unless your crankcase ventilation is sucking a lot of oil, I wouldn't think you'd need a catch can with carburetors or port injection.  If you're seeing build up on your valve stems, you're likely sucking enough oil to overwhelm any catch can.

With direct injection (like my wife's volkswagen diesel) I installed an aftermarket catch can.  Before I did that, the inter cooler was acting like a "catch can".

Any idea how to know if the timing is optimal?  My guess is fine tune on a dyno or measure emissions.

I’d be a little surprised if a timing adjustment is needed for  0.45” stroke change.  Since it’s compression ignition, I’m wondering if changing the compression ratio would require a timing change.

How many times do the injectors on this engine fire per compression stroke?

I’ve never played with these variables.  I just change stock parts when something wears out whether it be electronic or mechanical injection. 

If I had the time and money, I wouldn't mind trying it for fun.  If we're talking FE's, I probably would stay relatively low displacement...like 352ish.  I have an FE I like for towing and it's about the limit (just over 600 lbft) I feel okay with considering the tranny choices that attach to FE's. And it's plenty for what I'm towing.

Are you talking about adding one to an FE and what tranny would you use? 

Think I found the smoker. I’ll replace the coil and fix up that connection. Any suggestions on a coil for a 427 top oiler?

Pic: https://ibb.co/2FvGGhw

You mean the bare wire shorting out on the bolt?  Wonder it didn't melt itself in two.

Trying to respond to as many ideas as possible...

Appreciate the offer on the ported intake.  If (and that's a big IF) I swap intakes, I'll want to see what the out of box 390 does first.  At this time, I'm planning to stay with the RPM

Yeah, I'm definitely running a vacuum line through the firewall to watch vacuum at various scenarios.  Spent too much time reading on power valves and carb circuits last night...steep learning curve for me there.

There's been a few questions on the carb...it's a 780 Quick fuel. All I've done to it is switch to a manual choke primarily so I can manually set a fast idle for warming up.  Rest of the build is in the dyno section.

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If that's the case, your peak hp @ 5200 and peak torque @ 3700, would seem to be wasted hp, torque and gas.
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Maybe so.  I'm curious what moving the hp and torque peaks would do but no plans to find out. 
- We really like our duramax and have no plans to tune it or get a newer truck...it pulls our fiver well.  This 482 pulls our camper in overdrive with throttle left over and will out run the duramax up hills with the camper...without passing 3500 rpms.
- If the engine changes that move peaks to a lower rpm also result in less torque then I'll likely stay where I am. I'm at 580 lb ft now at 2500 rpms.  If the torque peak was moved to say 3000 rpms, would I have more or less than 580 lbft at 2500?
 -Then glancing at the current Ford 7.3 gasser, its torque and hp peaks are both 300 rpms higher than my 482.  And at 2500 rpms my 482 has more torque as a percentage of its peak than the new 7.3 gasser has.  My 482 makes 93% of its peak torque at 2500 rpms.  The 7.3 makes around 90% of its peak at 2500 rpms.
 -Even if I currently had a torque peak at say 2600, I'd be wondering what if the peak was at 3000 or 4000.


For gear changes, I've spent a lot of time calculating and theorizing.  Going to a 4.56 rear is something I haven't considered but will have to think about.    BTW, the gear vendor is 0.78 overdrive.