Hello All!
I am new to the forum - been lurking for a bit but have joined! I am working on a 1964 Thunderbird with a 390FE. Long story - car was bought as a project during my mother's treatment for cancer (I was a partial caregiver for 3 years, worked full-time, went to graduate school, and tended to my multiply disabled brother) - she wanted to help me with it and ride/drive it when she was well - she passed away May 22nd at 12:15pm... Things did not go to plan obviously and it is heartbreaking, but I am trying to honor her.
So, the bird is going to be somewhat of a tribute now. I have worked on the car during my grief and have made a great deal of progress due to sleepless nights and so on - also lots of help on my hacked up electrical system via the thunderbird forums - great guys and gals. The old girl runs pretty good, but does have some blue smoke when I get on it and so on.
I want to perform an overhaul. I do not have a great deal of money but I have accumulated many tools over the past few years and want to tackle this job myself. I would like to pull the motor, tear it down, make sure it is within reasonable tolerances, if so, rering it, replace the gaskets, oil pump, have a valve job done on the heads by a machine shop but keep the stock heads and intake. I hear moly rings can be more forgiving. I also think that maybe I should consider a slightly more aggressive cam than stock, but only slightly as I don't want to change the profile of the motor too much - just something that would be a slight upgrade, more for power than sound (maybe its a bad idea - if so then I guess a good stockish replacement cam and lifters. I bought the Big block books I could find and will start in on them soon and am watching videos. However, I wanted to ask what you all thought of my plans, maybe give me some pointers, recommendations on a cam and lifter set - and an overhaul kit.
This will be the first time I have pulled a motor - so many firsts for me. The car is not in the best shape, I am still working on it, but it is more of restomod than anything else. Keeping original where it makes sense and so on.
Thoughts, considerations - warnings?