Ok, so a little bench racing here. Planning to build my 390 this fall after I get back from fishing in Alaska, so far I plan to use the survival motorsports 445 kit, a performer rpm intake, 4 into 1 headers with 2" primaries into 3 1/2" collectors with 3" dual exhaust. Performer rpm heads and msd ignition. The parts I'm not sure about are what cam to use and what size holley to put on top. This is gonna be a street/strip engine going in my galaxie. And if anybody has a good idea what I would be looking at for a hp and torque estimate I would love to hear Sleepy I know your running one of these, but obviously a different cam, any idea what kinda numbers yours is putting out?

 

Oh, also, is there a better head out there I can put on it that will still be atleast a tiny bit street friendly? I'm basically thinking along the lines of doing this build but step it up a notch if I can and still stay in the ball park as far as price, but performance is worth more than money too me. I still want to be able to run 92 octane so I can afford to drive the thing

Ford 390 FE - Car Craft Magazine

 

Mine is making about 450hp 535tq. Thats with mildly port and polished C8AE-H heads with CJ size valves. If I went up to the Ed heads then that would jump up about 30hp. The Eds should be fine for you. Honestly since you are going through Barry anyway, I would talk to him about cam choice. He builds them all the time and runs various cams. He can set you straight with the one that matches what you want out of your engine. That's how I ended up with the cam I have, and I'm very happy with it.
You might think of going with a single plane intake in your galaxie. The Victor comes to mind.

 

Sounds good. Ya from what I have heard Barry R is to FE's what Jon Kasse is to the 385 series. Once I get back in august I will look up his number and try to pick his brain. This is actually gonna be my first engine build, so it may be a little ambitious, but the principals are all the same just different numbers so I might as well go big if I'm gonna do it right Do you know off hand if Barry builds short blocks in the 445 configuration just to save myself some time and possible mistakes?

 

He'll build you a long block if you want him to. He competes in the engine masters challenge all the time and puts out some great stuff. Check out his book as well as Jay Browns (when it finally comes out some time around the beginning of may!!) What kind of numbers are you shooting for?

 

Will do. I'm shooting for 500 minimum, hopefully I can push it a little closer to 600 without breaking the bank too much. In the car craft build they pulled 500 hp with $6000 and 550 hp $8500. I will have at least a $10000 check in my pocket come august and I don't mind throwing most of it at it, but I gotta keep in mind I gotta upgrade the tranny and rear end to handle the power, plus I really got my mind set on picking up a welder, so we will see. Hopefully we will have a good season fishing and I can pull 15,000 to 20,000 and not have to compromise

 

I would stick to 550hp. You can use the rest of the change on the needed upgrades to the rest of the drivetrain. Have you seen any of Survivals vids on youtube? here's one, 547hp on 92oct gas:

YouTube - Ford 390 FE Stroker 445 inches, 547 horsepower

 

No I hadn't looked up there video's yet, i'll do that tomorrow while I'm at work. That one sounds pretty mean though. ****, I just remember I gotta finish battering up my tranny since I gotta work at 9 a.m., got caught up watching deadliest catch

 

So I also want to put a 5 speed behind it but am a little concerned about the weight of the car. Would something like a tko 600 5 speed be able to handle 550 hp/ft lbs while launching at the drag strip in a 4000# car? From what I have seen listed these types of tranny's are recommended for much lighter cars. I emailed keisler auto who makes their own version of this transmission and asked them the same question but haven't heard back yet. I could cram an Nv4500 in it that I know will handle the power and they have conversion kits that I can make it work, but the gear ratios are for truck use not racing.

 

Sleepy
What RPMs are your numbers at ??
Less than 6000 ??
just wondering where the torque curve is and how well it works in a heavy truck
thanks
Lonnie

 

Tq is at 3500 but that number is a little misleading. It's a pretty flat tq curve, over 500ft lbs from 2-5k rpm. Max hp is at 5600. It works great for me. Power comes in at about 1700rpm, it will bog if you try and run it beneath that. No big deal for me though. The trans and gears help starting a big load rolling. I've hauled 10k (including trailer) of scrap just fine. Comp XE274H cam by the way.

 

Nice torque curve for a truck VERY nice.......