My uncle called me up and said he needed to get rid of his old crummy out in his back yard. It's a '73 Club cab (4 door) with a 390 in it with electronic ignition. He says it ran good, but no gas getting to the carb now. I was thinking of driving my '75 hi-boy down and trailering it back. The body is pretty hashed, but he said motor ran good, besides the manifold exhaust leaks and, apparently, it burnt A LOT of oil.

My question to you guys is this......I've got a couple 390 blocks sitting around the house. Both need to be gone thru on the lower end. Skirts on pistons ended up in the bottom on one engine and the other spun some rod bearings. Should I put the money into one of them motors, or should I run with the 390 I'm getting from "Uncle Bill"? I would assume the motor I'm gonna get from him would need piston/rings. If I go that far, I might as well go down to the crank also and make sure she's fine? I've never torn into the lower end of the FE block, rather than replacing oil pump.

I was thinking of running with "Uncle Bill" 390 and boring 30 over and installing new car piston/rings. I've got a motorcraft 4V manifold/600 holley I want to install on and probably adding a 901 or 941 cam. Which cam would be best in this app? I do not have headers, but plan to get some after motor is finished.

BTW, this motor will be for my 75 hi-boy. She's got 411s with a factory C6 and she is used for hauling hay, car trailer and firewood. However, I do like to take the occasional trip to town in it, and when needed, would like to smoke the ricers. (not that I can't now with the 2V 3junky[er, I mean 360])

On a side note, I just put the 3junky in about 4 months ago. I bought her used in a 2 wheel 71 custom for $400 and she smokes when she sits and idles. Doesn't smoke when driving down the road, unless I'm on a downgrade and I drop her to second to save brakes, then she smokes pretty good.

I ain't impressed with the 3junky. Ain't quite got the umpf the 390 had.

Thanks for any input/advice/suggestions that anyone may want to share/give.

Mike

 

Take it!

After that, use the 941 cam and high compression pistons like you said. You'll like it. It sounds like you've got plenty of spare parts to work with.

 

Yes, I definetly plan to take it. Can't ever pass up free FE.

My next question. Do I "have to" (or is it mearly a good sugestion) to switch over to the adjustable rockers, when running the 941?

 

No you dont have too, but you should. I am running the 901 cam which is a little smaller then the 941 with the stock style pushrods and stock non-adjustable shaft rocker. No problems yet she runs like a top. The most imporant thing you should should do is get the reccomend valve springs, I am running stock springs with no issues but you should upgrade if you have the money.

 

Well technically you dont "have to" upgrade to adjustables, but you probably should. I dont know if the base circle of the 941 cam is any smaller than stock, but I'd suspect that it is. If that is the case, you'd need 16 longer pushrods. Also keep in mind, that the non-adjustable system uses pushrod length to adjust for variations in the valvetrain (valve stem height comes to mind). Be ready with the adjustable length checking pushrod. I think it's a simpler solution to get the adjustable rocker setup and be done with it. MUCH simpler.

 

Thanks for the info guys. I appreciate it much.

Mike