True!!! Not wanting to take the intake off right now, hoping I can nurse it till winter and I'll rebuild the motor. Yea you're sending all the rain up from OK...Lol Kids are on spring break and I took a few days off so my sons and I could work on the truck... So now I'm glued to the laptop I guess.

 

Looks like a very solid and nice truck there. Thanks for starting the thread and keep us posted on any progress you make. Also, make sure you take some straight on good pics of those decals (if you haven't already). That way if you ever get to a point of repainting the truck and want to add those decals, you have a nice pic to get them reproduced. You can't just buy them anymore.

 

Great advise bucks, thanks. I'll take some good side photos s soon as the sun comes back out. Noticed I couldn't find those in decal or mask in the LMC catalog.

 

Yeah, there's a link to it posted in post # 5 of your other page (Just drove her home).
I'm trying to get mine ready for paint, then after that (hopefully) it'll be down hill.

 

Mike I saw your link, great page man! If you need any photos for reference let me know. That is if your going with those rocker stripes

 

Just a note, FE rocker arms don't get their oil through the pushrods like other Ford engines. These are old technology, they get their oil through the rocker arm shaft, from passages drilled into the oil gallies.
Here's a drawing of the lube system for the 360/390.

 

Thanks, I've got a NOS stripe kit but I'm not going to use it. I'm having the stripes painted on, they are going on under the clearcoat.
There are two reasons I'm doing that. First the kit I bought got damaged so I don't have a complete kit anymore and second the stripes are no good anyway. These kits only have a shelf life of about two years. After that the adhesive deteriorates and is no good anymore and the masking paper won't peel off.
I bought the kit like that knowing it wasn't any good. I just wanted to use it as a template for when the stripes get painted on.
Another plus to painting is the stripes will never crack, fade, or peel like the stock vinyl stripes will do.

 

Mike I just spent the last half hour going through your build page, man that's just awesome.. I'll be using it as a reference I'm sure... I agree with painting the stripes, leaves a smooth finish that stays colorfast. I'll do the same if I repaint, base/clear maybe House of color mandarin Orange/ whit stripes. I just gotta leave the orange though, loud as heck and everyone just loves it. Was your 390 a factory 4V? did you do anything with the compression when you rebuilt it? I'm hearing 360 pistons will bump the compression a touch over stock. Hope you don't mind the all the questions. I'll rebuild my motor over the winter this year if it can make it through summer. Oh, thanks for the diagram... So the lifters and pushrods get no oil other than drain back?

 

Lifters and pushrods get plenty of oil, in fact too much oil. It's easy to pump a lot of oil into the valve area. A common (and cheap) mod to the lube system is to install a Holley carb jet in the oil feed galley. This will restrict oil flow to the head and keep it down where it belongs.
Mine was originally a 360 2bbl. When I rebuilt it I bumped it up to 390 specs. 360 pistons are pretty much the same as 390 pistons. I've torn down stock, untouched engines and found both 360 and 390 4 bbl pistons in it.
Another thing to check just to be sure. If that's the original engine in your truck, confirm that it is a 390 and not a 360. The fourth character of the VIN will be "H" if it's a 390 and "Y" if it was originally a 360.

 

Yea Mike, it's the original "H" motor I checked it the other day to be sure. I've been hearing that the 390 2V was 9:1 compression???? Not sure if that's correct though. Heard by putting the 360 pistons in it raises that compression closer to 9:5 or better. Now this is considering the stock heads I'm using 74cc??? I'm researching cams right now for the future rebuild. The Lunati Voodoo is looking pretty good to me right now.

 

Very nice truck, Do Grandpa proust.

 

The 390 2V back in the 60's had ~9.5:1 CR. The truck 390 from 68 to 76 was around 7.8-8:1.
The older 390 2V pistons became 360 pistons, and 410 pistons found their way into 390 truck engines.
Bumping the CR into the low-mid 9's and a mild-ish cam, can really wake up one of these old truck 390's. Lunati has a pretty good reputation for FE cams.

 

Thanks for the info Rogue, so when I go to rebuild this motor I can use a 360 piston to bring the compression up? Not looking to overbuild just want a nice healthy motor that sounds good but dependable (as possible) lol Been hammering the fe thread to see what everyone is putting together.

 

360 pistons are a common swap into a 390, as they will bump the CR back into the 9's, and cost no more than any other "stock" piston.
Combined with a mild-ish cam, (like the comp 268- very similar to the factory 390GT/428CJ cam) and recurving the dist (if needed) to match, gives a decent return on power/torque without sending the MPG any further into the toilet. Under the right driving conditions, it can actually give a mild boost to the MPG, as the engine doesn't have to be worked as hard to make the same power as stock.
If you're already looking in the FE section, you should be able to find many threads that talk about this very subject.

 

Still raining like crazy today but the radiator shop called and said my new one was in, heck with it I went and got it!! Plans for today get that baby back in and get the old girl up running again.