Here's our FE on the dyno at Westech Performance. So far, the question we've heard most often from readers is "where'd you get those valve covers?" We picked them up at a swap meet; they are Cal Custom units, and are no longer in production. We see them on eBay every once in a while.

In the magazine article, we mentioned that the Accel Billetproof distributor module did not seem to work the first time. Subsequently, our module was shown to be in working order. Here's the deal: according to Accel, the three-wire versions of the Billetproof distributor (which has an internal module and requires no external trigger box) needs to have the brown wire grounded in order to function properly. The Ford intake and distributor-shaft design is such that sometimes the distributor will self-ground, and sometimes it won't. We did not have the distributor grounded on the dyno.

Some readers have claimed a header-to-cylinder-head port mismatch with FE applications and Edelbrock heads. With the Hedman PN 89100 truck headers, we found that the header ports were smaller than the exhaust ports (which is not optimal), but there was not an up-and-down misalignment problem.

This is the 390's cam plug in the back of the block. For first-time FE builders, note that the plug goes in with the convex side out, as shown. This is different that other engine, such as those C-word small-blocks.

Our FE does not have dowel pins to line up the front cover. As a result, it's possible to misalign the cover such that the crank snout is not perfectly centered in the front seal, leading to a leak. Jeff at Dougan's carefully lined it all up, with oil on the seal, prior to snuging the bolts.

The popular opinion among Ford FE builders is that the oil-return holes in the aluminum heads need to be enlarged for proper drain-back. We didn't do that step, and sure enough, the valve covers loaded with oil on each dyno run.

While overkill for this particular engine, we chose the bulletproof ARP cylinder-head studs rather than bolts. Note that the bolt in the foreground is surrounded by the FE's deck dowel, which locates the cylinder head. These are not the conventional pin-type dowel and are very easy to damage during rebuilding. New ones may be ordered from Pioneer under PN PF485.

The Crane lifters for the hydraulic-roller-cam conversion are the link-type, meaning that no extra machine work or lifter-valley spider is needed for the installation. Just drop 'em in the holes and you're done. We used the smaller of Crane's two hydraulic roller grinds for FE Fords; the larger cam is PN 349541, with 236/244 degrees of duration at 0.050, lift of 0.632/0.655, and a 112-degree lobe separation angle.

When Dougan's first installed our Edelbrock Performer RPM intake manifold, we noticed that the seal around the distributor was not fully contacting the machined ring in the intake. The bolts were loosened, then the manifold placement was adjusted with a rubber mallet to line everything up. We were unable to sight down any of the runners to check port alignment.

When installing the main bearings, not the placement of the oil-feed hole with the groove in the front most journal. The hole in our block needed to be slightly chamfered to improve the oiling of this bearing.

In the magazine article, we mentioned that the pushrods needed to be custom-ordered both for length and to get the correct style of ends. While many aftermarket pushrods use 3/8 balls at the lifter ends, we noted that the Crane hydraulic roller lifters had a cup designed for smaller 5/16 ball ends. With the taller-than-stock roller lifters and our mildly decked block, the pushrod overall length needed to be 8.710 inches long.

To prevent rear-main-seal leaks, Jeff first mocks up with rear cap, seal, and vertical side seals, then trims the side seals for a perfect fit. He uses just a very slight amount of RTV behind the neoprene seals and offsets the ends during installation. The block and the grooves in the main cap both get a thin coat of RTV where the end seals seat, then the end seals are pressed in after the cap installed and before the RTV gets tacky.

It's a bit unusual to run stock rocker shafts and non-roller lifters with a roller cam, but Crane does not make rollers for the FE. Furthermore, it's commonly advised to run aftermarket, beefier shaft supports (end stands) when the cam approaches 0.600 lift, as ours does. However, we experienced no failures in our 10-15 dyno pulls, perhaps because the duration is relatively mild and the rpm was kept under 6,000.

As with most Ford V-8s, don't neglect to install the mechanical-fuel-pump cam after installing the timing set. It lines up with the cam bolt and with a dowel pressed into the end of the cam. Make sure the dowel is long enough to engage the fuel-pump eccentric.

Finally, note that the rockers are oiled through some of the bolt-holes that retain the rocker shafts. While race applications sometimes use restricted feed to the top end, Dougan's felt that our scrub-style rockers could use the oil. They machined the bolts down (left) to provide full oil flow to the shafts.