I am currently in the process of building a 390 for a 65 T-Bird. I know you said your application was for a pick-up. I am looking for about 400 hp. I started with a lot of questions too! Here's where I'm at. The block has been bored .030 over, line bored, decked, balanced, heads done (no porting yet), 9.5 to 1 pistons. With parts and machine work I'm in about 1800.00. Competition Cams recomends cam 33-238-4 for this application. I wanted more compression but after reading and talking to CC they and the info I had been checking into seemed to agree that 9.5 to 1 was the best for running on the street and for power. I will initially be using the stock intake mainifold with a holley DP 650. The 460 will fit. It is same hieght and width and two inches longer but the existing tranny won't bolt up without an adapter plate. Chevy's can bolt any tanny/engine together but not with Fords. There are a number of aluminum parts that can be found at swap meets but you definately won't come in at under 2 grand, if you start adding that stuff! The Fe I am building was an original 4v engine and the numbers verified it to be a police intercepter engine. If your numbers ck out, you may already have some good pieces to work with. There are three different heads Ford built for these engines, I believe, and looking around you may be able to find some theat lend themselves to more high performance. There was the low riser, medium rise and high riser heads. I believe the high riser head is the most desirable. They tell me the stock bottom end when put together properly is good for 6000 rpm.