i get "open" and "closed" for choke mixed up.  The choke is manual, no electric or thermostat or nothing. 


If you set the choke as though you were driving down the road with the engine warm, it won't take fuel.

If you set the choke halfway, as though you were trying to warm up the engine, so that its getting more fuel, it revs and runs fine in the yard. 

My dad thought it acted like old points and condensors would act if you set the point gap too tight.

I pulled the plugs and they had a red tint to them which from what I read, indicates an additive in a fuel I've been using.  87 octane, no ethanol when I can find it. 

I'm pretty sure I counted the cylinders right.  I've built three Ford 302's for people, built 2 FE blocks... I don't count like a Chevrolet man

It was a brand new Edelbrock, right out of the box and onto my intake!  Has anyone ever known them to have problems out of the box?

I know there were a couple of different firing orders for FE's so I could check that.  What should mine be again, exactly?  I went by whatever is on my intake.

The choke was hte first thing I checked.  It is closing and opneing properly without any "flop."

The carburetor does have a 1" spacer.

The air cleaner has a spacer to be above the carburetor as well (Edelbrock air filter won't sit on an Edelbrock carb without a spacer - go figure.)

I haven't got a gauge or anything to check the fuel pressure. However, i've had three different fuel pumps on the truck.  The fuel bowl in the filter near the carburetor is staying full.

I haven't checked the spark yet but all components of the ignition system were new.... doesn't necessarily mean a lot!

I used stock pistons.... some were marked 390 4v, some aren't marked at all and I presume they're 360 pistons.  I can see no visible differences in the pistons anyway, I researched and found out several late model 360 engines came with 390 4v pistons.  Apparently, they were trying to knock the inventory down at the end of the run.

Okay guys...

First off, please don't give me crap like everyone else does about building a Ford 360 without putting a Ford 390 crank and rod set in it.... that's all anyone around here likes to talk about...... I've heard it.

Second, I built a 1975 Ford F-100 supercab longbed and built the original 360.  The heads needed work and I wanted a 4 bbl intake and I found a set on craigslist, C8 heads without the emissions, and a c5 intake.  However, I figured out when I put the thermostat on that this was not a regular old 4 bbl intake.  it had a huge thermostat opening and was a relatively tall intake.  I'm thinking it came off something like a 361 or a 391. 

I also put an Edelbrcok 600 cfm carburetor on it (my 390 in my '68 Torino had a 650 I believe, so I figured it should be fine), but the whole time I've owned it, when you would punch the throttle, it would overload with fuel, surge, and just not accelerat.e  Plus, when cranking it, it was easy to flood it out and took a lot to play with the choke and the such.

Then, the other day, it got to where it would hardly take fuel at all, and I barely nursed it home.  I fouled the plugs out flooding it so much I believe, haven't had a chance to pull the plugs out yet, but that's what it acts like.


So the question... could putting a 361-391 4bbl intake on a set of stock built c8 cylinder heads off a 390 be a problem, or should I buy something like a Edelbrock with a 500 carburetor?  Or both?