Glad to hear your okay and the only thing that's hurt is your pride and the car, they can both be fixed. I have a '64 Galaxie with no cage or bar knocking on the 10.99 door. I'm making the decision to slow the car down since I don't wanna put a cage in it. I'm building a purpose built drag car with a cage and all the proper safety gear. It's fun to brag about having a fast street car but a lot can go wrong at 120 mph especially with no bar and lap belts. 

Fred

I have one of those "unicorn" 390's from a dump truck with a C scratch on the back. I got it at .030" over, put 2 .090" wall sleeves in it and never hit water. I run the block .060" over and still half filled it for piece of mind.

I had a '64 390 that I bored .020" over (no fill) and it split from the center cam bore to the cylinder on a 500hp pull @ 6000rpm on the dyno.

I'm with Brent on this one.  Take minimal amount of material and leave em thick as possible. If you want cubes stroke it. Or buy an aftermarket block. The money your going to pay your machine shop boring .125" over and then putting in sleeves when they hit water can be better spent elsewhere.

Fred

I had a iron head 390 with 10.7:1 compression in my Galaxie before. C1AE heads heavily worked, comp 294s cam, 4500 stall converter and 4.11 gears. Ran fine on pump 93 in upstate NY. I believe I ran my total timing around 38.

Does anyone have any experience with having detroit lockers rebuilt? Are they rebuildable? Is it worth it? I've got an older one that has turned into the mystery locker.

Fred

Does anyone have any experience in going from a 5.4l to a 4.6l? Here's the back story.... My dad has a 2005 F-150 4.6L 4X4 he bought new. Plain Jane no power windows, locks, vinyl floor mat, etc... Upstate NY winters have taken its toll on it for sure.. The box looks like swish cheese and cabs showing the same signs. But amazingly the frame is still in nice shape and the engine runs like a watch. So he recently just bought a 2004 FX4 F-150 with a grenaded 5.4L 3 valve engine. The frame is totally shot on this truck BUT the cab and all other sheet metal is pretty nice. Plus this cab has Power seats, windows, locks, sliding rear, Cd and Cassette player(I think that's why he bought it).   We're thinking about taking the nicer cab and putting it onto his frame and drivetrain. I am going to assume its going to be a wiring nightmare. Will the 4.6 engine harness plug into the 5.4l pin connector? Will the computer need to be reprogrammed? I've searched truck forums and had no luck getting a straight answer.. Just guys bashing the 4.6 and saying the 5.4 3V is the best engine ever! Any advice is appreciated.. Just trying to help my dad out.

Fred

I guess the thing that I don't understand is that IF there were excess clearance or a internal oil leak somewhere, wouldn't I be seeing a drop in pressure across the board? Like I said the only time it dips to 5psi is after the engine is hot and at idle in gear(900rpm). How much volume is getting to the bearings at 5psi, I don't know... Initial start up the gauge goes to 75.... after I get heat in the engine (160-180) and back out of the shop and it will idle on its own at 900 rpm the oil pressure is still reading in the 40-50 psi range. Seems normal enough there. The drop is only after I run the car and get the water up to 190-200 (who knows where my oil temps are at this point). 

If a galley plug was missing, or the pump was sucking air or the clearances are 2X the size I measured.... Would it still be able to get 75psi at WOT and hold steady and not fluctuate? You would think you would see some sort of fluctuation.

I have 3 different gauges to try. I'm going to hook them all directly to the oil filter housing. Spin the pump with a drill while the engine is cold and see what each of them read. RPM will be a constant. Oil temp will be a constant. The only variable will be the gauges.

This engine used to have 10 psi hot at idle when my mains were @ .0025".. The only thing different during the rebuild is using cleveland mains to open up the clearance to .003"... The engine DID take out the cam bearings but I do not believe that was a oil related issue due to the fact that there were no signs of oil starvation to the cam bearings, the main bearings looked as good as the day I put them in and the rod bearings also looked beautiful. You would think if I had a oil delivery issue the rod bearings would be the first to go.. Especially when I was spinning the engine to 7500 rpm..

Brent-  have you ever checked oil temp before on a filled block? Just curious what kind of difference I will see in temperature by adding the cooler. And the better question is what kind of affect does that temperature difference have on viscosity? I picked up a pretty decent size cooler. I believe it’s 32 row 11”x8”x2”.

Whats the smallest someone has safely gone? I'm running edelbrock heads with precision pumps bronze bushed rockers. Precision pump M-57HV oil pump. I have a holley 78 jet in the heads now. Priming the pump to 75psi with the valve covers off will flood the heads. I have .003" main clearance and .0025" on the bbc rods. Engine hot @ idle is about 5psi, 50psi @ cruise and 70-75psi @ WOT. The block is half filled and the car runs warmer than I would like. I'm installing an aluminum radiator, electric fan and water pump. Also installing a oil cooler.. I'm just curious if I can go a little smaller to keep some oil down low without completely starving the rockers.

Fred