Fe 390+ ?

[RICK LAKE]

KevinW Kevin find a good core 390 and stroke the thing to 4.25 for a 445 size. Car craft had a buildup about 1 year ago with Barry R. buy a block and buy his kit that is balanced for a small added cost. Have it shipped to you. It's a basic drop in kit. Mic the mains and rods and cut the rings to size. Camshaft would be something in the .530" with 112 LSA. Forget about HP. Build a nice torque motor with 450-500 pounds. Have some pocket port cleaning of the heads and gasket matching of the ports. A small carb in the 650-700 cfm's. If you have a little money left over, get aluminum heads and intake. Barry and KCR both sell a nice set of heads for a great price. Stage II. Trans gearing and rearend gearing is also very important. You need to give this some thought. 4 spd,5spd, or 6spd trans, get a first gear no higher than a 2.80 for the car. Anything higher you will never use it, unless you are in parades. 3.31 or low in rearend gears for a street car. Higher if you are going to drag race it or road race it.
IMO the most important thing, have the oiling system worked over, HVHP oil pump with a 80# spring. .080 holley jets for the heads to control oil. 6 quart oil pan min. A canton 7 quart for cobra would be alot better. RPM limit of 6,000 or 500 rpms past the limit of the camshaft range in the catalog. 6,200 max. Heavy bottom end swinging around in that block. Write a plan for the car building and stay with it. Check out the FE forum also for good info. Good luck with the build. Rick L.