[Jack21]

I tend to go along with Bud Man on this.

I'm a 351W fan myself, and a 351 can be easily stroked to 393 and put out as much power as the 390FE with substantially less weight.

That being said, as Bud Man said, bolt a set of decent breathing and lightweight Edelbrock aluminum heads and intake on the FE and it will roll. A real plus would be a good retrofit hydraulic roller cam. The right chrome valve covers would make it look really authentic.

The main reason, however, in your situation is that T-Bird motor is a '64, and you've got the rest of the car, with papers, to prove it. That makes for a minimum amount of registration and emissions hassles in a place like California.