Hey i got a 390 block fresh from getting hot tanked and checked for cracks and its time for a rebuild. My truck is a 73 with 11 inch lift 44's and 410 gears. I need something with torque so i wanna put in a crane cam 343941. Pistons i've been told are a 9:2 30 over. Heads have been rebuilt d2teaa(nothin fancy but new springs) putting in hv oil pump, all the oil galleries have been opened up from previous owner(who happens to be a race car builder his name was stamped in the block. could only see after hot tank) and oil has been limited to the rockers in heads with a .90 restricter plug. Now i'm thinkin of goin with a performer 390 edelbrock intake and i have a 600 (1405) edelbrock carb . Should i go 650 cfm??? i have msd ignition box with crane cam electronic ignition,headers, and flex fan. Not planing on changing pistons but any input on some tricks to build this motor would be appreciated. Any thing u dislike lemme know nothing is built yet

 

I'd skip on the HV oilpump. Use a std volume high pressure instead.

 

why's that??? i did hear somethin about burnin out cam gear???

 

73, I put a HV oilpump in every engine I build, standard pressure. Its cheap insurance, and there are no downsides to it. As to the carb, I've always had better luck with the holleys. That may only be because I'm more familiar with them. I think you'd be fine with either the 600 or the 650. But can you tell us what pistons you have ? Like, with a part number ? I ask because 99 out of 100 390s get rebuilt with the wrong pistons....and all to frequently by folks who should know better. There ought to be numbers stamped on the tops.....DinosaurFan, on work's old 'puter

 

dished pistons with eyebrows... does that mean anything to u??

 

Can you expand on that statement Dino.. just bought a kit and the pistons are at the machine shop for final honing. I did have hell finding .030 pistons through "all the online guys" summit, maddog, northern, survival..no one had them in stock. Ended up with a set of badgers that have a dish and eyebrows as well.

 

Just that they normally don't need HV. Unless you're building it with loose tolerances and/or solid lifters.

 

I find it amusing to read on a FE forum that someone needs some torque.

The FE is probably the torquest V8 Ford ever built. IMO


John

 

Of course the FE has torque. We all just want more. It is a sickness.

 

I agree,I also have torque sickness-Also a '73 w/390 cubes

 

I just want those 44" swampers to dig like a *****.....besides opinions on oil pumps seems to be no other concerns what i'm building. what about that 343941 crane cam is she a goodie???

 

73, the the old wives tale about a HV pump damaging the cam gear is a myth. Nothing more. Think about it......how does an increase in load of 25% cause a gear to fail when that gear is already 10 times as strong as it needs to be ?
As to the pistons, dished with eyebrows doesn't tell us enough. Suppose for example that you had silvolites, dished with eyebrows could be 1131s or 1139s. They look almost identicle, the only differance being the pin height. The 1131s will give something like 8 1/2 or 9 to 1, the 1139s, with the normal composition gaskets, will give you 7.8 to 1 compression. Unfourtunately, if you go to a shop to have a 390 rebuilt, the low compression piston is what you get. If you want to have more than 7.8 to 1 compression, you'll have to order special pistons. There are plenty of choices available, but you have to choose carefully. And if it were my engine, I wouldn't use badger pistons if you gave them to me. DinosaurFan, on work's old 'puter

 

Considering all the other items and that you are running stock heads, the 941 cam should do the trick.
--Mike