Dove manufacturing down the road from me still builds and sells FE big blocks. You can get a 427 side oiler or 427 sohc, 428 CJ and so on, they are even licienced by ford to use original part numbers on the castings for exact resto projects. I use to spend alot of time down there as a teenager licking my chops. The only thing that kept me from having a 427 powered 67 fastback stang was lack of money. I had a millioares taste on a wellfare budget. I couldn't get past my 289 untill I traded the 67 for a 68 mustang GT with a 428 CJ and 4-speed and 2,200 dollars. I saw a 68 mustang GT with a 428 and 4-speed go for 100 grand on barret jackson, most 68 GT's were 390. I totaled mine drag racing, stupid, stupid, stupid me!!!!!!!!

 

My first car was a 67 with a 289. I loved it. I wish I could get my hands on another with a 390. I never should have got rid of it.

 

Icefan I hear ya, my first car wasn't even a ford but I do wish I still had it (65 olds F85 442) I had a 67 galaxy similar to this one back in the 80s and I regret getting rid of it completely especially since it had the PI engine and brakes even though it was a 2 door (didn't know that until tried to replace the brakes and found out that the book was wrong, until looked it up and found ot had the PI stuff then double checked the numbers and the car was listed as PI)

 

I would go with the 545 route, like you mentioned in the chat. It is something that will be rare, yet achievable for most people to run.
Not some exotic $40,000 set up like you see in some rides.

 

I say ditch the 390 since you can NEVER have enough power

What do you think about taking pictures along the way to document the resto for all your FTE friends?

 

Oh trust me, I will be taking pictures of it as I go no matter what way I decide to go with it.

 

Nice project... I had a '67 LTD at one point way back when. It was only a 289, but it was a factory rep car and had every option known to man at that time - power everything, even a (gasp!) factory AM/FM stereo radio! Finally had to junk it as the frame disintegrated.. but we had a lot of good times in that car...

 

Well a little update today. Did some horse trading, and long story short I picked up 2 390s and a 360, one of the 390s runs but has had the heads milled a LOT so it's really high compression with the flat tops in it as it was his race engine. still runs good, holds good oil preasure etc but requires race gas. But I have the 390 in the car and the other one he gave me so will probably take one of those sets of heads and have them gone through should put the compression back to 9:1 with the pistons in it. Now the rotating assembly was balanced, holds 45psi hot oil pressure and has a comp xtreme energy cam in it (don't have the cam card yet so don't know which one) also has a Edelbrock performer rpm intake and comp cams shaft roller rockers and a new double roller timing chain so should make a good engine to get the car up and running easily. I also got 2 C6s from him, one needs rebuilt the other is a trans I built for him a couple years ago and is still good shape, so I have a trans to put in with the engine. I also got a electronic dist for it and a holley 800dp (yeah might be a little much but I can jet it to work for now)
He also bought a trans off me for enough to buy the 4 wheel pwr disk brake conversion kit from DF brakes so will probably do that first.

So it won't be done this year by any means whatsoever but, will get it running and drivable for the summer which will give me incentive to get more work done next winter anyway.

 

What kind of shape is the frame in? I had a 67 Galaxy 500 2dr hardtop and my father inlaw had a 4dr sedan. Both of them had structural frame damage from rust before they were ten years old.

 

You can interchange 428 cj parts into a 390, like the crank and heads for a real screamer, however it sounds like your 390 will be a screamer anyway. Those FE big blocks are torque monsters no matter thier bore, I had a 352 in a 67 ford 4x4, it had the 4 speed, 4:56 gears, headers and a holley. That truck would boil the 35" tires in first or second gear, you had to up shift to higher gear or back out of it to get it to stop spinning. The 428 cj I had in a mustang was just plain dangerous, you could run it up to 110 mph in 3rd gear, strike 4th and still break the tires loose. I only had it 2 weeks before I totaled it. You could be driving at 55 mph in 4th gears, step on the gas to pass someone and it would break loose and go sideways. The stock tires were not enough to hold that car, I had a set of 50's for it, but never got them on. I could only imagine a mustang with a 427 side oiler or driving a 427 shelby cobra roadster would be like. A good 390 should be lots of fun.

 

it was brought to my attention that I hadn't updated this at all for a long time so I have a few pics to put in. I didn't manage to get it finished this year and things are definitely not done or perfect but thought that some would like to see the progress.