This 390 is for a customer's 1961 Thunderbird.
He sent it to me a few months ago so that I could figure out where the horrible thrashing sound came from. When I received it, I went ahead and put it on the dyno and wasn't even able to make a complete pull on it because the thing sounded like a combine on the inside. There's a good reason for that, the previous builder put a new style cam/timing set in a block that was not drilled/tapped for a thrust plate. The cam was moving so much that lifters were being actuated by the wrong lobes! I digress...
We have corrected that little faux-pas by drilling and tapping the block for thrust plate bolts.
In addition, it got a new set of Racetec custom pistons, the rods were resized and fitted with ARP bolts, the crankshaft was ground, a custom hydraulic roller camshaft was slid in, the heads got 11/32" stainless SI valves along with some modern dual valve springs, and the cast iron intake was ditched for an early aluminum that has a breather hole on the rear instead of a road draft tube connection.
I had originally stripped and repainted (Ford Argent Silver) the factory Thunderbird valve covers, but after putting them on the engine, they were so bent/warped that I don't think they will ever seal up. I'm not a body man, so my customer asked me to put on a new set of baldy valve covers and if he ever wanted to swap back to the originals, he could find someone to try and straighten them.
So, here's what we are looking at:
Waiting on a fuel pump to show up along with a few other minor details, but it should be ready to dyno as soon as all the planets align.
Per the spirit of the game, the one who gets closest to the corrected peak hp without going over will win some Lykins Motorsports goodies.
The specs:
*Factory 390 block, honed with torque plates to 4.091", mains honed with ARP main bolts, decks squared
*Factory connecting rods, resized, fitted with ARP rod bolts
*Factory 390 crankshaft
*9.6:1 compression ratio
*Mahle 1.5/1.5/3mm standard tension ring pack
*King main bearings, coated Federal Mogul rod bearings
*Custom Lykins Motorsports hydraulic roller, 219/227 @ .050", 109 LSA, 103.5 ICL, .590" lift
*Morel standard travel hydraulic roller lifters
*Factory style pan with Melling M57B oil pump
*Factory distributor recurved and fitted with Pertronix module
*Cloyes billet timing set
*Factory C1AE cylinder heads, 2.09"/1.65", 11/32" SI stainless valves
*Lykins Motorsports non-adjustable roller rockers
*Trend pushrods
*His carb is a Slayer 650, but he's wanting to try other carburetors and hopefully end up with something that will look more period. For the intents and purposes of the dyno session, we will be using the Slayer.
Happy guessing!
