Engine Transplant

with a good tranny and the correct gear and slicks, you should get a 10 with no problems. 11's on street tires if you can feather the throttle right.

Fast enough to get you killed if your not careful anyways.

There are 390's with decent iron heads, aluminum intakes running 400hp/400tq pretty easy naturally aspirated. This is with port work on the heads, aftermarket pistons and a good cam.

If you're wanting fuel economy, stick with the 6 cause a powerful FE is gonna get single digits (since you'll be 'in' it most of the time.)

Unless you're doing a EFI 302 with or without a power adder and a OD tranny, anything that runs 12's and has "git up and go" is going to do poorly in the fuel mileage department. If you have a econo daily driver, then I wouldn't worry, but if this is your only car........

I see from your profile, you're 16, if your dad is anything like mine was, he probably will nix the 390.

I had a chance at the age of 20 (1987) to pick up a '69 Shelby GT-350 for $16,500 that was just restored and my dad was worried I'd kill myself in it. I dunno about that, but I'd still have it if I'd bought it. I respect my father enough that I didn't buy it, I bought a '77 BMW 320I with a Calloway turbo instead. I never asked dad if he'd rather I bought the '69 after performing an engine swap on the BMW using a German manual with a english-german translating book and having to buy metric tools for the first time due to a warped head and cracked block.....

It sounds like this will be your first engine swap, so I'd recommend going with the later model 5.0 block. The 351w isn't bad but can get a little tight as far as hood clearance goes (I have a 351w in mine). The 5.0 will get you a roller cam and an incredible amount of aftermarket support, and the little bit of extra room (compared to the 351) will make life a lot easier on you.

unless ur good at fabericating stay away from anything 4.6/5.4 based and stick to 302-351 stuff u will be much happier

I'd stay away from the mod motor stuff, too much fabricating. You can put any SBF or almost any FE into that car (I don't think a SOHC will fit) so 390, 428 or even a 427 side oiler would work. 390's are much easier to find than 428s & 427s. I believe you can even fit a 429 or 460 without notching the shock towers but the headers are kinda restrictive.