i have always heard and read that a 428 will bolt right in a 390 block... and will bring up the cubes up to 410ci...... but please check into it before... cause i might be wrong....

 

A 428 or 410 Merc. crank. Ford put the 428 crank in 390's to make a 410 cu. in for the Mercury line. With a .030, this should put you close to 420 cu.in. his should be good for almost 30 ft lbs on torque, which will be noticable.

BTW, I understand some early 352's and 390's can be overbored ( with sonic testing of course ) to a std. bore 428. Use the 428 crank and now you have a 428!

 

A 428 or 410 Merc. crank. Ford put the 428 crank in 390's to make a 410 cu. in for the Mercury line. With a .030, this should put you close to 420 cu.in. his should be good for almost 30 ft lbs on torque, which will be noticable.

BTW, I understand some early 352's and 390's can be overbored ( with sonic testing of course ) to a std. bore 428. Use the 428 crank and now you have a 428!

 

Be careful about swapping cranks between different engine sizes. Some are internally balanced, others externally, all within the "FE" family.

 

You are correct. 390 internal balance/ 428 external balance

 

As stated above the 428 cranks are externally balanced where as the 390's are internally balanced. you'll need a 428 flywheel and dampener to install a 428 crank in a 390. You'll also need 410 pistons to do the swap as well which can be tough to find and most likely not in a forged version. Scott

 

Wow! Some great information. I really appreciate it. I am always open for suggestions, so please keep them coming. Thanks Again!
Kalin

 

When I rebuilt my 390, I used a 428 crank and flywheel with the 390 balancer. There are a number of different pistons I could have used, but went with a low compression 390 piston because of the pin location in the piston. That's what you will have to be carefull with. I believe it's called pin height. Some piston-rod combinations would have exceeded the deck height, there-by pushing part of the piston out of the block. The 428 crank is the same as the 410 Merc and 428 CJ. It will provide a greater increase in torque over it's increase in h.p.. I ran an older Edelbrock F428(? or F427?) intake, a dual plane, and it gave me umph off the line I never experienced in a 390.