Ford 390 V8 Engine

The 390 V8 engine was first introduced in 1961 and was Ford’s chance to jump ahead of the all-new Chevrolet 409 that was introduced later the same year. The Ford 390 produced a lot more horsepower than the 409 with its top end performance engine putting out a respectable 401 horsepower in its first year of production (41 more horsepower than the high-end Chevy 409).

The 390 was used by Ford and Mercury in a large number of their production cars as well as several trucks. Unfortunately, most car enthusiasts were more excited about Chevrolet’s 409 simply because of its larger size which diminished a lot of publicity for the Ford 390. Even today the Chevy Impalas with a 409 sell for twice and even three times the amount than a Ford Galaxie with a 390. Plus the Beach Boys never wrote any songs about the 390 V8:-)

Today the 390 is still a very popular motor due to the fact that it is very easy to get parts for these engines that can easily push the horsepower into the 500+ horsepower range if the motor is built for racing.

Engine Specifications