[blueovalforever]

Why is the perfomer 390 so hated?

[oldbogie]

Originally Posted by blueovalforever

Why is the perfomer 390 so hated?

No top end. The RPM version surrenders very little bottom end torque and delivers buckets of top end horsepower that the Performer just doesn't get to. Simply a lot more bang for your buck.

Bogie

[techinspector1]

Originally Posted by blueovalforever

Why is the perfomer 390 so hated?

I'm not sure that anyone hates them, but I'll give you my take on it.
Most any motor out there, street or street/strip, will make more power with a dual-plane, high-rise intake manifold from idle to 6000 than with any other manifold, as I have said before. The standard Performer manifold is a low-rise intake and in my opinion is only good for relieving some weight off the front axle over a production cast iron intake.

The Streetmaster is a good manifold, for what it was designed for. I have used them, so I speak from experience. Fantastic throttle response and good bottom end, petering out above 4000. It works really well for what it was designed to do, make power down low and conserve fuel.

[blueovalforever]

I thought fe's were not supposed to turn high rmps? If you don't turn it past 5k much then what would be the benefit from moving to rpm band higher? I'm buying one of the two new so I gotta make a choice

[willowbilly3]

Ford had a couple good stock intakes if you can find them. I'm trying to remember but I think the good one has an "S" on it, came in some police cars.
I have ran a few of the old stock cast iron Ford units and was basically happy but they weigh 77 pounds, about 60 of which you can eliminate with an aluminum one.

[blueovalforever]

I am considering the performer 390 due to not building a rpm monster or aggressive camshaft.

[techinspector1]

Originally Posted by blueovalforever

I am considering the performer 390 due to not building a rpm monster or aggressive camshaft.

Let me put this another way for you.....
A Performer RPM will make more hp and torque from idle to 4000 than any other manifold. It's all about letting the motor breathe. A good manifold and a good set of headers will go a long way toward making a sow's ear into a silk purse.

[blueovalforever]

Ok so how about the port match to the heads? I hear mixed answers from they match up to you have to match the heads to the intake to if there is a difference it doesn't matter

[techinspector1]

If you study fluid dynamics, you'll find out that there is little flow of any gas or liquid around the perimeter of the vessel. Most of it is right down the middle, same as a river. Look at the banks, is the water flowing as quickly next to the bank as it is out in the middle of the river?

I have never worried about port matching for another reason, too. Reminds me of looking at an Anaconda that swallowed a pig. When you have a material flowing through a vessel and the diameter opens up, like when you port match, the material slows down at that point. In this case, we're dealing with an air/fuel mixture and when it slows down, the fuel drops out of suspension. Who knows what happens to the puddle of fuel on the floor of the vessel at that point. Maybe it's picked back up when the r's go up and enters the cylinder as a big hunk of rich mixture. Whatever, it can't be good. Leave the passages alone and enjoy your time doing something constructive.

[blueovalforever]

So if there is a little difference it won't hurt?

[techinspector1]

You'll never feel it in the seat of your pants. Probably wouldn't see it on a dragstrip time slip either. I built a 455 Olds one time to do an engine swap into my son's '72 LUV pickup. Bone stock motor, the truck went 102 mph. I took the heads off and spent over 20 hours blending bowls and port matching. Bolted 'em back on and the truck went 103 mph.

[oldbogie]

Originally Posted by blueovalforever

So if there is a little difference it won't hurt?

We're just not used to people who aren't trying to wring the last foot pound of torque and horsepower out of an engine. If all you're looking for is basically a stock rebuild then the Performer is just fine.

From a hot rodders stand point the FE, with few exceptions, is an under-ported, under-valved engine with not the best of intakes and box that Ford is pleased to call an exhaust manifold. So we usually greet this engine with a die grinder, over-sized valves and Serdi seat mill, a big intake, headers or if you can afford them we just get a pair of Edlebrock or Blue Thunder heads. So that's where most of us are coming from with this engine, we're just not used to more or less stock rebuilds.

This engine desperately needs headers and duals, probably more than any other engine. So include these in your budget. The reduction in back pressure with the addition of some organization to the exhaust flows beyond dumping everything into a cereal box manifold greatly enhances both power and fuel mileage with the FE engine.

The Performer will at the least get about 50 pounds off the engine and reduces the possibility of your falling headlong into the engine compartment as often happens while trying to get the cast iron version installed.


Bogie

[1ownerT]

Originally Posted by willowbilly3

Ford had a couple good stock intakes if you can find them. I'm trying to remember but I think the good one has an "S" on it, came in some police cars.
I have ran a few of the old stock cast iron Ford units and was basically happy but they weigh 77 pounds, about 60 of which you can eliminate with an aluminum one.

Last time I looked for OE Ford FE intakes, people thought they were gold.

[blueovalforever]

I am going for a hot rod not original or a race car. The engine is bored and has new pistons, double roller timing chain, new cam, lifters, pushrods and from what I have been told 390 gt heads. Cam is unknown and from judging the way the pushrods and lifters are it is not broke in yet. No wear on cylinder walls either. Right now I'm fixing issues with it so I can drive it but this winter I am switching to a 3.25 gear and a set of Sanderson shorty headers, electric fan. Maybe next year I will put a little cam in for a little sound. I just switched to the duraspark hybrid ignition and put a new eddy 600 on it. Based on that info would you recommend the rpm a little more?

[oldbogie]

Originally Posted by blueovalforever

I am going for a hot rod not original or a race car. The engine is bored and has new pistons, double roller timing chain, new cam, lifters, pushrods and from what I have been told 390 gt heads. Cam is unknown and from judging the way the pushrods and lifters are it is not broke in yet. No wear on cylinder walls either. Right now I'm fixing issues with it so I can drive it but this winter I am switching to a 3.25 gear and a set of Sanderson shorty headers, electric fan. Maybe next year I will put a little cam in for a little sound. I just switched to the duraspark hybrid ignition and put a new eddy 600 on it. Based on that info would you recommend the rpm a little more?

Based on that I recommend the RPM. I'd also recommend you put a degree wheel on the thing before you get it too put together and find out what the cam timing is. These days you can't use 100 plus octane to compensate for excessive compression and to miss with too low compression wastes fuel, under develops power and causes excessive pollution. So compression is intimately tied to cam timing so knowing how much timing and lift there is and when important events occur such as overlap and it's close friend Lobe Separation Angle (LSA) along with where the intake valve closes in terms of crank degrees have great affect upon needed compression. So I highly recommend you figure this cam out before you commit to putting the motor together because it will either cause you to adjust the parts that result in compression or change the cam to fit the compression you have. More duration, and/or lift, and/or rate of lift, and/or intake closing point goes late, and or the LSA gets smaller the more compression is needed to maintain power from idle thru the torque peak. The reverse of these works with lower compression. This waas always a ping prone motor and strangly, or not, it takes out he rod bearings often before the piston.

The FE except for the 1960 352 HP head is weak on squish/quench. You need to keep this clearance as tight as you can which will never be enough but it does a lot to make this engine more tolerant of needed compression ratios against today's unleaded fuels. The clearance that looks really good on this engine around .040 inch. Tighter would be nice but that takes hyper eutectic pistons whether cast of forged and really carefully controlled and tight skirt clearance, so .040 is the minimum and is really good for the FE. A multi-strike spark box is helpful with this motor as well. The spark plug is damn near in Siberia so getting consistent burns under the torque peak RPMs can be a problem. Giving the ignition multiple chances to start a fire helps the FE a lot. The FE is a nice engine but it was designed in a day when you could pull into the Hancock station and dial up fuel with so much lead the car sank into the pavement as the tank filled. You can't do that today, so you've got to improve upon the engineering to get out what it's got. Done right the FE's got a lot to give.

Bogie