Last month, we showed you how to take a sedate 390 FE big-block
and give it stroke, which ultimately translates into torque and
more than its share of horsepower when it's time to pin the
butterflies. This time, we want to get into the more finite
details on how to build common sense street power into a 390
High Performance V-8. Too many of us get caught up in that
dreamy eyed horsepower thing without considering first how our
engine will be used.  "Horsepower" is an oft-misused term coined
by Madison Avenue advertising agencies because it sells
automobiles. It also helps the aftermarket sell engines and
performance parts. However, horsepower is a meaningless dynamic
unless you are going racing. Even then, it's rather meaningless
because horsepower is used only at high rpm and for a short time
at wide-open throttle. What matters most is torque--the grunt
factor that gets us going before it hands all the fame and glory
off to horsepower. We infuse stroke into an engine to make more
torque, not horsepower. Torq