So I decided I'm going with a 410 build over my 428 idea. I've found a 428 stock journal 1U crank here locally which should clean up with a polish and I got a couple questions...
I've gone ahead and bought a 770 truck avenger holley carb for this build figuring I will need more carb. Is this a good choice? I will hopefully be running edelbrock heads with the cj valves and an edelbrock rpm intake to match with porting. Now my pistons in my current 390 (which will be my my motor) already has .030 over forged 4 eyebrow pistons. I'd like to possibly reuse these if me and my machinist can figure out the amount of shave off the top. I think .010 is the amount but not sure ,still needs to go to the shop. Good idea or bad??jus looking to save $200
Other question with a good rv cam and electronic ignition and headers what kind of power #'s could I be looking at?

 

i have a 770 avenger on my 416 and it runs pretty good but i think theirs better carbs out there. i prefer a mechanical secondary vs the avengers vacuum secondaries. I really like demon carbs i have an 850 mech secondary that i used to run on mine and it was alot of carb for my 416 but should work great on the 460 i plan to build. with aluminum heads and a decent cam and compression 400hp i think is a good estimate maybe more. see my post sellin fe416, i listed most of my parts and mine i think is around 400hp and it runs and sounds very good. I'd look at the Lunati Voodoo cams as well some good grinds and they make good low end for the amount of lift and duration they have

 

I need a carb for offroad and extreme angles. My 650 offroad edelbrock was ok it just seemed to have bad throttle response from idle speed with a bit of a sputter when you step on pedal quickly.

 

same here so i upgraded to a 750 and there was no difference, so maybe up-grading the jet and float might fix the problem

 

I dont know if i've had mine at the angles ur talking about but i have spent some time climbin hills with mine and where i've had others cough up this things stays running the same as it did on level ground and ive been through edelbrocks which are my least favorite carbs and holleys and a demon and i havent done anything to the avenger but change jets so it may very well be what ur lookin for. i do think u can set up just about any holley to work at angles but out of the box the avenger is a good unit. If i can remember right, it seems like i had to have my 410 pistons shaved a little to get my cr down but i dont recall how much. with the heads u plan to use i would expect it to have a bit more hp than mine i think u'll be happy, are u using a 4sp or auto

 

.. the ones with a slight dish in the top of the piston and the 4 winks?

 

Yeah think so

 

Well if you do, those are the factory type higher compression pistons that were found in all sorts of car 390's and pickup truck 360's. The 410 and pickup truck 390's actually used the other piston I mentioned second in my previous post with the slight dish and 4 winks. The two pistons have a different pin heighth. I dunno if you can use yours or not but you might be able to with some machine work. I'd look into this a lil more though because the factory compression ratio for the 410 was 10.5:1 I believe and even with your pistons cut down, it could be over the edge of being able to run on pump gas. Now this is without factoring in your cam, heads, chamber volume in the heads, thickness of head gasket, whether the block has been decked or not, whether the heads have been shaved/milled or not.

 

Yeah lots to keep in mind. I'll have my machinist measure it all up and see what can be done. According to my Steve Christ big block book looks like these pistons are the higher compression ones like you say. My heads I think have been machined down from previuos builder as my edelbrock intake didn't fit last year when I built my 390 so we machined the head sides of the intake. It wad out about the thickness of the manifold gasket about .030 if I remember. So compression might be bumped up . My last machinist said it was about 9:5:1 last check. What is the highest compression I should go for best performance?? 10:3 I was kinda thinking....

 

Well the highest compression you should go for the best performance is pretty argueable but I think I've read of guys stayin under 11.5:1 on a non crossbolted FE. Unless your gonna start to dump some serious money and mods in it though, I probably would try to keep it around 9.5:1 and no more than 9.75:1 There are some exceptions to this where you could probably go higher than those numbers and get away with it and have more power but those are probably some safer numbers to hang around. Has a lot to do with your particular setup (engine and specifics, weight of vehicle and how it's used, fuel quality, etc.) You might wanna ask some of your questions at FordFE.com

 

I'd look at those pistons real carefully before going ahead with that one, cutting the tops down was a favorite trick with the old 427 low riser flattops to build a 447, but those particular TRW pistons have very thick decks and are also pretty heavy, and have the wide-ring package- I don't think the 390 pistons will be thick enough to take the cut and stay together for long- which is a nominal .100, not .010, pretty good cut. Measuring the deck height and cutting them for good quench might bring that number down some if the block hasn't been decked, but be careful. When measuring the thickness of the piston deck, make sure he also checks the valve notches, as you'll also have to cut them down the nominal .100. I think you'd be much better off getting correct pistons than going this route- and remember you'll have to pay your guy to do a couple different machining operations and spend time measuring and theorizing if yours are thick enough- and if he guesses wrong-
BTW, I've never heard of anyone successfully doing this with any FE piston except the old "bumper top" 427 TRW flattops I mentioned- and again, they are exceptionally thick. Sounds like you'd end up paying your machinist a fair amount of dough to chase a wild goose

 

You probably allready knew about this but when converting to a 410, you have to get the crank internally balanced unless you have the parts to keep it externally balanced like all factory 410's and 428's were.

 

I have a 418FE. And had my pistons shaved .064" to get them to work. I use the passenger car pistons for a 390 which were the higher compression 390 flat tops. The pistons actually come .004" out of the block. I don't have aluminum heads i have C8AEH heads with 2.09/1.65 valves in them. I estimated my compression around 11.75 - 12 to 1. I race this truck on occasion and I run 93 octane in it on the street with no issues. I am also running holley 950 on it. Truck has made some 12's runs in the quarter. I have a Scat 428 crank in it. Never had any issues with pistons or with predetenation. One thing that will help lower your compression is the size cam you run. Or the overlap that is built in the cam. Jsut getting it to hook up right is the issue

 

Most likely going with my d2teaa truck heads now with cj valves. edelbrock heads were on Ebay when I was bidding them. It was the whole top end including performer rpm and 800cfm edelbrock. Ended up going for $1550 little over my $1450 bid. O well I can make these heads flow good.
I got my holley 770 the other day and man this thing is much heavier than my edelbrock. Pondering if I might just punch this block out to an overall.080 for some 428 pistons now....I'm so undecided. I'm going to get the block sonic checked for wall thickness because I got a set of stock cobra jet pistons I can get cheap so we'll see how this goes!

 

If your heads have allready been shaved down a bit (depends on how much), and your contemplating running you milled down 390 pistons with the 428 crank, you'll probably want to check your piston to valve clearance. I'd probably have your heads cc'd to see what the chamber volumes are to help you calculate your compression ratio. I wouldn't bore your block out any more than is needed, if at all. It may just need honed. You leave more metal in the cylinder walls which means more strength and rigidity and a cooler running engine. If you do decide to try the 428 bore size route (which I don't think makes much sense if the cylinders in your block are good at .030 or .040 or .050 or even .060 over), before you go spend the money on sonic testing, pop the center freeze plugs outta your block and see if 428 is cast into the water jacket. Then remove the rest of the freeze plugs and do the drill bit test to see if the block is even a candidate for sonic testing. I don't believe I've heard of to many guys gettin worried about an FE block goin .030/.040/.050/.060 over but I have read of some being at marginal status at just .030 over so it just goes to show ya never really know without gettin 'em tested. My C7 block is at .060 over and has been fine but it does run "warm". I usually go to a 180 thermostat in the summer as the 190 stat let's it get warmer than I like to see. I may try a 160 this summer and see what that does.

JC