390 Heads
 

One of these days I plan on either 1) porting and polishing my stock heads or 2) buying a new set of heads. These are for a 68 390 FE. which of these is will be the better option. ive heard that 390 heads can be ported to 300cc of intake which sounds ridiculous..is that true?

Do you have the full casting number off the heads?

What is your 390 going to do?

Are you going to have hardened seats put in these heads?

i do not have the numbers right now (im 160 miles away from my truck right now at school) and i intend on making it just a hot rod, something to drive around the block and shakle the woods up a little. and i haven't layed out a full plan of what i intend to do yet.

I wouldn't go nuts on any head work. Headers solve most flow problems for FEs, as the exhaust is the weak point.

What other work are you considering? Full rebuild?

Is this a car engine to begin with?

No sir, its a truck motor. Came on the f100. i just had it rebuilt about 4 months ago, bored .030 over and i had a 270 cam stuck in there. ive put 1600 miles on it so far. i plan on puttin the 445 stroker kit in it when i have the money so i figured some heads would be nice too..i would really like to keep the stock ones on there to maintain the original value. i just figured i would open them up some, but i didnt know if buying new heads (maybe the edelbrock 185cc heads) would be a cheaper and easier investment

Well, head work can be a lot of money. I recall my dad spending $650 on the heads from the '66 and that was 20+ years ago.

Shop around for the head work vs. the aftermarket heads with all the new goodies. That's the only way to decide methinks.

sounds good, thanks for the advice!

new heads are going to be far and above 50+ year old technology, even ported. A good porter can get you some additional power out of your existing heads, but by the time you've paid him his worth, you're probably going to be about 2/3 the way to the cost of a new set of much better heads.

BTW a 445 stroker is going to want a lot more head than a 390. Just one more thing to consider.

Devin

So would you say it would be worth putting about 1500 in a set of Edelbrock heads then? that's what i'm looking at...unless there are some better and for a lower price

Modern heads, cam grind, carb and headers are the way to go if you want a hot rod. These engines suffer from low compression and poor(at best) exhaust flow from the heads and exhaust manifolds.

Your planned stroker kit will need some airflow to support the increased displacement. The edelbrock heads are your answer. FE's "wake up" really well and gain 70 hp easily with better flow even on a stock short block.

With the displacement you are thinking about with the edelbrock stuff you will have 400 hp and close to 500 ft. lbs. conservatively.

wow...i had no idea they could add that much...good too know.

Yeah, that's how bad they are restricted. An old Ford Truck service specs manual I have rates the 390 at only 240 hp and 385 ft lb.

my LMC catalog has the 2bbl at 240 and the 4bbl at 320..with my exhaust, intake and cam I'm hopin to be at around 350-360 right now

And those were before they changed to SAE net hp ratings in the 70's. So that would be about 200-210 in today's numbers.

I don't recall there ever being a 4 bbl option on these trucks, that sounds more like a rating for a car which would have a higher compression ratio.

hmm..ill check into that, I read it in one of my catalog's though..either LMC or Dennis Carpenter