need some advice asap about building my 390fe motor?

[pman289]

hi guys im in the process of having my 390fe built but I haven't made any decisions yet. I have the 428 heads which I plan to use. its bored 40 over now but were thinking of going to 60 over, I want it to make a lot of horse power It will be a street strip kinda car. is it hard to get say 500hp out of these motors? or close to that? anyways I need to know the best cam to use id like a nice sounding cam but I want a cam that works good also. I also have a edelbrock performer aluminum intake. suggestions for the best set ups that some have already done and are using would be great. need input on what carb to use? cam set up? pistons? also should I buy the high volume water pump? and or fuel pump? which oil pan? the motor will be going into a cougar eliminator. thanks in advance for opinions.

[pman289]

also best stall speed to use? ignition? and I was thinking about headers but always hear horror storys about them leaking, no room to change plugs, and scrapping issues. I was reading about the set of factory manifolds that work well? and I have a set or 2 of them.

[Lenz]

Head to the home page here, click on articles and read the low buck 390 in car craft.  Great article that'll get you started and give you plenty of ideas.  Once you do that and figure out exactly what you want to end up with there's plenty of knowledge and help here to give you advice (including header choices) as you build.  500 HP isn't hard, but you need to build for it if that's your goal.  It's just like the old Ben Covey training deal they used to put guys through 20 years ago.  Plan you work, then work your plan, begin with the end in mind.

[cjshaker]

I'll second Len's comment on reading Jays "Low buck 390 build". A good place to start to set some fundamentals.

BUT, 1st, If you want that kind of horsepower, first ditch the Performer intake. You'll need at least a Performer RPM. The Performer is for low end grunt and not suitable for higher horsepower.

2nd, you'll NEED headers, regardless of the drawbacks. Any factory exhaust, short of the long tube cast iron jobs, will kill your horsepower.

3rd, to reach those goals with a 390, you're gonna have to stroke it unless you want it to be on the VERY ragged edge, meaning not streetable. The popular 445 stroker would get you there and keep its ability to be street driven.

[66FAIRLANE]

I'll second Len's comment on reading Jays "Low buck 390 build". A good place to start to set some fundamentals.

BUT, 1st, If you want that kind of horsepower, first ditch the Performer intake. You'll need at least a Performer RPM. The Performer is for low end grunt and not suitable for higher horsepower.

2nd, you'll NEED headers, regardless of the drawbacks. Any factory exhaust, short of the long tube cast iron jobs, will kill your horsepower.

3rd, to reach those goals with a 390, you're gonna have to stroke it unless you want it to be on the VERY ragged edge, meaning not streetable. The popular 445 stroker would get you there and keep its ability to be street driven.

Good advice from Doug. I will just add sonic the block and don't bore unless you need to.

[pman289]

sorry I do have the performer rpm intake already, so that's a plus for me

[Joe-JDC]

What 428 heads do you have?  Some 428 heads are the same as regular 390 heads, and not performance oriented.  Blair Patrick built two 396 engines for dyno test comparison, and listed many of the parts necessary for what you are looking for.  A stroker kit will get you there the quickest and easiest.  Joe-JDC

[ScotiaFE]

The best money spent will be on buying Jay's book and Barry R's book.
It can not be overstated how much info these two reference books have.

http://fepower.net/GFEIC.html

http://www.survivalmotorsports.com/literatureandvideo.html
 

[NIsaacs]

Like JDC said, Blair Patrick's 396's get the job done, 517/504 with CJ heads and 574/535 with BBM's. I would consider them both streetable. The build article is on BBM's web site.

Nick

[cjshaker]

The problem with those 396 numbers is that few people beyond Blair can reproduce them.

[bluef100fe]

I hope to have something similiar done later this summer.... You could also read on the members project about my 390 combo... It's an honest 450hp/450tq on pump gas and that's spinning the water pump and alternator on the dyno... I wanted the numbers to be as close to actual as possible... Even used my truck's headers on the dyno... The build is low budget and has proven to be street able granted everybody's idea of street able is different... It is pretty rowdy but I've still driven it to Kentucky and back to Wisconsin with the bed loaded twice... And raced 1/8 mile while I was in Kentucky lol.

My build is titled 390 pump gas deal... Good luck!