I just built a 445 inch stro ker out of a 390 Ford for my 60 fairlane it is a Survival kit with steel crank and all the forged parts and a solid roller cam we put a steel main girdle in it to. My question is what is the bottom end on the 390 good for considering all the things are done right, balancing clearances ect. With the forged parts and the girdle plus all the oiling recommended stuff the cam and spings are 7500 stuff but for a drag car what would you guys think. All thoughts woul be helpful.
That would be a good question for Barry at Survival. Personally, I think you will be just fine with the girdle and correct balancing where you are at now. You might start running into a problem if you end up throwing alot of boost or happy gas at it though. The other option, if you are really worried about it, is to machine the block to accept cross bolted caps. On another note, 7500 rpms is alot for a 4.25" crank. Are you sure your piston speed is still acceptable? Good Luck.
Thanks and yes piston speed is marginal would really be bad if it spent much time at that rpm I am just looking for a "do not. Exceed number" Survival says 7000 is ok but they worry more about the bottom end the last one like this I built was a Genius 4 bolt block but this one with the 1/2 inch girdle looks more impressive than the 4 bolt guess I will cross my fingers and see it may be like the last one and run out of go at 6000 but it had 600 ft lbs at 2700 I still don't know what we did it was fun though in a59 2 door. This 1 is going in a 60 2 dr with a 4 speed cheap model ex 6 cylinder sleeper.
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