how much horsepower can I pull out of a 390? If I bore it 30 over and put a 428 crank in it? I'm trying to make a decision on what motor to look for.

 

check the FE part of this forum we just computer dyno'd I believe 4 different 390 combo's that should put out up to 450+hp

 

I was hoping for 500+. Got a power addiction.

 

500HP is not hard to accomplish at all but will require a lot of dough. Ported edelbrock heads and victor intake with 11:1 compression should allow you to cam it up to 500HP.

 

could I run that on 91 octane? I don't think so, but I'm not sure.

 

What am I talking about? 11:1 , no way that'd run on 91. I'd need an additive.

 

why not? with the type of cam you'd need for what you want it should be able to work, there's people with mouse motor's running 13.5:1 on pump gas, you just need a good plan and be willing to rev your engine more than everyone else going down the road. If you want to get 500 horse easier have you considered unnaturally aspirated engines? look into doing a junkyard twin turbo setup is probably your best bet

 

That is a really good idea, with turbos I could potentially have a daily driver still. What kind of vehicle should I get the turbos from? How much would they cost? For a cam I was thinking somewhere between 280 and 295 degrees adv. duration, does that sound good? I've never built an engine before, helped people and read alot of books, but I've got no experience.

 

I have 10.25:1 compression and I have to get really stupid with the advance to make it ping. My cam isn't all that big and it has a 114LCA which is not pump gases best friend. On 91 octane with 11:1 compression and a bigger cam with a tight LCA (108 - 110) you should have no problems on pump gas. We will never see an FE with 13.5:1 CR filling up at the local gas station. The little small block chevies are using "fast burn" heads which only need about 28 degrees of advance to run optimally. Our head design is just to old. Never know what edelbrock will come up with in the future though. The only reason I ever look at advertised duration is to kind of get a feel for the ramp accelertation of the cam lobe. If you have a cam with an advertised duration of 305 degrees and the .050 duration is 225 degrees you have yourself a worthless cam. On the other side of the equation if the gap is too small then you have a cam that is going to beat the living crap out of your valvetrain. The 343801 would be a great cam for forced induction if you ask me. Crower makes some nice forced induction cams also. Speaking of books, take a look at "How to rebuid a big block ford" by Steve Christ. I recommend it for any experience level. Lots of useful info. You can buy it from this site.
motorhaven.autoanything.com

 

Thank you. I am still not sure what I'm going to do. I'll have to read the book.