These heads are CJ's. He sold some 5k converter to someone else on Craigslist, who also looked at this engine and told him he had rare heads on it. Not a glowing endorsement, but still.
Holy cow! I didn't realize that engine had CJ heads on my first read-through. I did see the F427 intake. That's fantastic. You have good heads and a good intake. That's half the battle already won. If your short block checks out okay and you can get the compression at least close to 10:1, you're golden.
I tell you what. I like this line of thought, be it the Crop-Duster or a similar Ford (Sand-Chero?). I will donate a torque convertor to the cause. That is if you want it. I have a 10" convertor for a C6 FE application. It stalled at about 3800 rpm behind my old 428, which was too high for the combo. The guy I bought it from said it stalled at 3300 rpm behind a 390. It's a convertor of unknown manufacture. I don't know if it's a great quality piece, but I have run it and it does work. Let me know if you want it.
paulie
edit: I have a Holley 3310 I don't need, as well. Needs rebuilt. Free to the cause of increasing entropy.
You're a stand-up guy, paulie, no matter what they say
However, I must direct you to my sentence "too many choices". Although I am deeply humbled in the 390 department by the ad in the other forum by Robert Jantzen, you should assume I have everything in parts already. I just go buy this stuff as it appears because I have nothing else to do besides reroof a garage, put up 400 feet of wood fencing, build two new gates, and clear out about 20,000 square feet of dried brush, in 110ยบ weather. Come to think of it, I may not actually survive this summer to put anything together.
The first effort will be pump gas with the cast pistons previously mentioned in the engine from the wrecked truck. For compression later, I have fish heads, 2292's with both full and half domes, and small bore shims. I also have a set of pro-ported doorstop heads with lightweight FPP's and other goodies. I've measured the valves in the heads at 2.15 and 1.73, and I don't think they are going to clear a 4.08/9 bore. They were built by a previous to go on a .040 A-scratch filled block, which I have also.
You were right about a Ranchero, although not the world-famous El Alacran you saw a while back in the other forum. This is a yellow '69 H-code that the previous owner stopped short of a full resto on, maybe because he discovered that painting over rust bubbles doesn't actually stop the rust. Anyway, it's a 20-footer that needs an interior. It's pretty light, but the challenge will be getting it to hook on the cheap.
So the engine in Pat's Fairlane is unhooked, and I'll be picking that up tomorrow.
