That yellow offers a cool accent on that really clean FE. Fun color scheme, though I hope that silver stays silver for ya. I've never had any luck with that color.

It's nice to know it runs as great as it looks.

Shoe.

Crankshafts can be turned down safely as far as there are bearings available. At the NHRA INDY US Nationals this year, we had both the winner and runner up in the SS/AA Hemi Shootout pull a piston and rod out of the engine during teardown. We measured the crankshaft journal size to make sure that they had not turned the crank down to fit in smaller rods. It is not unusual for highly modified cranks to be turned down nearly .250 for lighter, smaller sized rods. And engines done like that turn 9,000 RPMs or more safely.

Since the FE was designed for nodular cast cranks (hence the large journal sizes), and you're running a crossdrilled steel crank, you can get away with turning those journals waaay down and still have excess strength and stiffness.

40-40 is no sweat at all on a cast crank in an FE. 40-40 is NOTHING on a forged crank. Assuming it mags and mics OK, it's gonna be ready for the hardest racing you can throw at it.

Shoe.

As with any car that is going to potentially get tuned for power, you need to have a good rear gear for acceleration. Unless the car will see a lot of interstate miles, a gear such as 3.25 or 3.50 will bring your 390 to life. Without this being done, your search for power will be wasted. I have seen many people spend untold dollars on engine mods and be disappointed because their nice ride is still stuck with a factory rear gear like a 2.80 that will not let the engine breathe.

michel; here is another FEsite

http://network54.com/Forum/74812

I've always thought the Marauder was a cool Merc, sort of a factory custom look especially the X-100. The 390 is a good engine. It's not a 428CJ but it can be made to act like one.

Edelbrock makes a Performer Package for it.
http://www.edelbrock.com/

Tim B

also try: http://www.carlsfordparts.com/

have the bores sonic checked. that will tel you exactly how much you can overbore the block safely.

Let's face it 406s are all most as rare as 427s. I would measure each cylinder after honing and only bore enough to match the largest one. Say you have .009 wear on the biggest bore, then only bore it .010 over. That way in 40 years down the road you or somebody else can rebuild it again with alittle luck and still maintain minimum clearnesses.

The throttle bore on the bottom of the small 4100 carb is 1.437 (1 7/16). Are you sure you did not get the 1/2 in. by measuring the booster instead of the actual venturi which is opening where the booster protrudes into? It should measure 1.080 in. which is why there is a 1.08 cast on the left side of the carb main body.

If there isn't, you might not have a real CJ.
That, or the engine has been rebalanced to zero-balance like a 390, or your CJ engine is running badly out of balance!

sounds like a Ford replacement part. I got one a couple of years ago. It didn't have the slots, but it did have the fomoco stamp. Some people say that the slots weaken the flex plate, although I've never seen (or even heard of) one break. Probably just easier and cheaper to ad the weight to "standard FE" flex plate.

there are differences between the fe and ft engines. one was the steel crank and larger snout. another was a heavier duty block but i dont recall it having cross bolted mains(the only 4 bolt main type for fe/ft engines as i recall).

That would be a service block from 1968 or later. The plate you mention has been used for years by remanufacturers, this may be a Fred Jones reman. who was Ford's contracted rebuilder.

NO, Maybe a 391, But I don't think even it would have enough wall thickness to keep it cool (probably would be paper thin). 428 bore is more user freindly using a 428 crank and flywheel. Let's face it their is no poor boys 427

It's good that you're getting a posi from 1968-1/2 or later car, because these are Traction-Lok units, earlier ones are Equalock. Traction-lok is a better design for gripping hard under load and releasing soft for easy cornering.

Any 390 Galaxie which came with 3.00:1 rear end gears is going to have 28 splines. The only real chance that 390 would have 31 spline axles is if it was a Police Interceptor. For plain 390s to get 31 spline axles from the factory generally requires a special-order drag racing ratio of 4.57:1 or so.

You should be able to remove the axles, pop out the old differerential carrier, plop the new one in, reinstall the axles (you may damage the petrified axles seals in the process - these are cheap, common, and easy to replace), add some oil, and go.

You definitely want to use a differential housing seal (the big one that connects the carrier assy to the sheetmetal housing). I've heard advise that suggests silicone seal is all you need, but this has always failed badly in short order with me. If someone suggests that you should use silicone seal and not use a gasket, please slap them for me. I can give details, but that's a whole different story. I also use permatex hard gasket sealer with the felpro gasket (a very common gasket).

You might have difficulty getting the original 9" carrier to detach from the sheetmetal housing. If this is so, be sure to remove all the copper washers which were under the nuts. If the cast iron carrier is still too tough to budge loose (even using a floor jack), then tap all the housing studs into the housing - a floorjack will definitely pop the old carrier loose now. Note that I keep the axles in place while popping the carrier loose, as this prevents the carrier from jumping very far.

The yoke on the Mustang's differential may be designed for a smaller U-joint. You have a choice of swapping yokes (not a trivial task), or buying a fairly common "adapter type" (I forget what they're called) rear u-joint which has the Ford tall sized u-joint caps in two places, and short caps in the two other places.

Note that there is a chance you have either a 9" or a 9-3/8" carrier in your Galaxie. I won't go into details, because the Mustang carrier will fit no matter which of these diff carriers your Galaxie came with.

Shoe.