Hello friends, long time member, has been a while since I posted.

My 73 F250 overheated on me and the last I checked the oil is like chocolate milk. When I pulled the oil plug, antifreeze came out first - not a good sign.

I have a spare motor that I picked up a few years ago. It's a 390, bored .010 over. My plan was to rebuild it and replace my aging 360.

Well, push has come to shove to get my act together as my current 360 in the truck is shot (in my opinion).

Here's the nutty part. When I got under the truck to drain the oil, I noticed the current 360 is a 105 block. My sitting in pieces, needing machining and assembly 390 is not.

Does it make sense to pull the current 360 motor to use as a core for my new motor (390)? Or is the 105 just a bunch of hype?

I use my truck for tooling around when I need it- it's not my DD and I'm not looking at tracking it or doing anything crazy with it. It's as old as I am, lol.

So sorry for the long read, my question is do I rebuild the current 390 parts and pieces I have that is 0.010 over and probably just needs a hone or do I put some stock in the 360 with 105 block? I have the 390 crank and rods. I'd probably get some new decent cast pistons to CC match the heads and run a RV cam.

There are some guys here in the CA bay area selling long blocks for around 2500. I recently rebuilt my 4 banger in my Miata and it was around 1500, doing the assembly myself (exception to the valve assembly).

I also have a ten year old project that I never finished and that was a turbo 300-6 motor in my old 79 truck that I got rid of. I'm seeing if my old machinist in Santa Maria still has my stuff. That would be fun to relive, but a lot of headache getting new perches, new tranny, and figuring out to how to deal with the fuel input, unless I swapped in a 90's FI setup. Yet, my wife is all over me about getting my truck rolling again.

I'm looking for creative ideas.

Edit: web page says I'm a freshman member...wow! I've been around since 9/11. Anyone remember Dennis AKA "Mil1on" ?

Thanks,
D

 

For what you're doing, the block from the 390 will be just fine. Especially as it might not need a lot of work to get it going again.

As for Dennis, yeah, I remember him... and not in a good way