It can be done and there are some on this site with FE engines in Mavericks. I know of a SOHC and Tunnel Port in Mavericks. Lots of work to make it fit. FE can be a really hard running engine. Got one in my '62 unibody with '63 dual quad intake, '61 HiPo heads and a 428 crank in a 390 block.
I made my name racing FEs WON stock points with a 428 SCJ 69 Cougar and won allot of class wins and eliminators with my 68 Fair lane and like other posters told you they are a pain to put in for a limited performance gain. Ray Paquet holds SS/A record 427 stick 64 thunderbolt 8-50 ET @ 155 MPH .That shows they can run ,but when you hit a bump and you see the fenders flex you will be sorry.My friends brother did it and i junked his car . So nothing impossible just sum things not worth the effort .
You can get a rotating kit to turn a 390 into a 428 which would be quite potent.But,by the time you notch the towers & put a cage in the car to handle the weight,not including a heavy *** c6,tooooo much weight on the nose.Not practical for the street car when you can build small blks. now that will do the same thing.
You can build a 347 11 to 1 compression from a stock roller block,and a hyd roller cam that makes 460 HP very easy,with procomp 210 heads.
Ive spent $13100 so far on my 363 and have probably $1500 to go for everything from dart black to turn key but itll be producing somewhere in the 1000 hp to the wheels and thats a conservative build for whats possible with the dart small block the power to weight ratio of a small block compared to the big blocks and the lack of fabbing anything to make it fit is what made me go with the small block instead of a big ol 460 or even a 390 like I had thoughts of doing before I wen the 363 route at first I wanted to do the 390 just to be different but I didnt want to cut and fab stuff to make it fit when I could drop basicaly the same motor the car came with back in I still say go for it.
390 definitely not gutless definitely not a boat anchor but also definitely not meant for a maverick. But I pity the people that call them boat anchors. A 390 with a stock large cfm 2 bbl carb headers and a mild cam will out rip a 460 any day and most certainly stomp any 302. But too heavy and big to fit in a maverick.
Didnt they put tbe 390 in mustangs and cougars at one point? Weight of a 390 is like 650lbs..with al intake prob closer to 600
They definitely did I believe the mustangs and cougars of the 60's were about 4-6" wider across the shock towers. Also a full dressed 390 or any FE would be 770lbs cam drop 60 lbs or so by using aluminium intake etc. My 3 cents
Alu intake is worth approx 55Lb savings, probably another 50Lb saved using alu heads... With alu heads, intake, and tube headers they won't weigh but very little more than a all iron 351... The 390 were used in Stangs from '67 thru '69, and 428 from '68-'70(both FE, same externally)... The FE won't begin to fit because Maverick/Comet uses the fat Fairlane/Torino shock towers vs narrower Mustang type... Even with Stang towers would be close, as frame rails are approx ¾" narrower than a '68 Stang(yes I've measured)... Frame rails on '68 Torino are close to three inches wider than Stang...
I completely agree FE motor has no place in a maverick or comet. As long as people stop calling them heavy boat anchors and useless etc. Have built many FE's and never had one come apart even at 700 rpm.
