I am in the process of building yet another 460. This will be put in a 71' f100 4x4. It sports a np435 tranny and 35" swampers 4.56 r/p. I have a donor 429 out of a 72' LTD again....dime a dozen. I got my paws on a 460 crank n rods.But I would like to know what heads/cam/pistons I should use.This truck will be used for trail climbing/hauling heavy loads. It will be using 87 octane. Also my friend wants roller rockers. What are good roller rockers/hardened pushrods/guideplates etc.???? All help greatly appreciated.

search (http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/search.php?s=) with retsin, two mints in one

If your motor is a pre 73 motor, it might already have a compression ratio too high for pump gas Check the casting number on teh exhaust side of the head.

if you have a low compression motor... Unless you go with sum expensive machine work, use the high compression heads, or find the conversion kit for roller rockers, why not stick with stock? I think that comp cams makes a conversion kit that runs about $80 that will let you run roller rockers without having to do the machining. With the conversion kit, you wont need hardened pushrods, or guild plates. you can choose to get them, any hardened 5/16" pushrod will do fine. Guide plates will be included with your comversion kit. For inexpensive, id go with the comp cams magnum roller tip rockers. If you want to triple what you spend, you can buy sum really nice ones....

Im tired, so I will check this later amd give more advise when my brain is working so i can be of more help

Ford 429/460 engines respond well to the usual basic upgrades. The 1972 engine will *should have* 72-77cc chamber heads...these will have a screw in rocker arm stud. Providing you have that style head, you will want to run a set of "dished" pistons (-22CC dish) to retain a resonable compression ratio. Most of the standard cast "rebuilder" type pistons for a stock application 460 say 1974 vintage as example, will have these. If you use the combination of the dished OEM style later model pistons, and the 1972 heads with a 0.051 thick head gasket (12cc compressed) and a 0.022" deck height, you should arrive at a 8.8:1 compresson ratio. This should be about perfect for a heavy truck on 87 octane.

Things to watch out for:

The 72 heads wil have screw in studs...to convert to adjustable valve gear and run any "resonable" cam size you must convert...you will need to replace the studs.rocker arms,and install some positive stop nuts along with guide plates and 5/16 pushrods. Most of this stuff is available seperatly and through Ford SVO. The SVO catalogue actualy has a nice little tech sheet about this conversion with part #'s and such listed to make it easy.

Valve springs with the beef to run a resonable cam profile will also be needed per the cam manufactures specs....the heads have a "step" under the valve spring I would highly recommend having machined off so no coil binding will occur...again a step that any competent shop can perform easily while rebuilding the heads. Also most spriings wil require the seat to be machined deeper as well...follow the spring manufactures recomendations here to the letter.

Keep in mind depending on the year 460 crank you are using that they did change balance in these engines in 1978...this will affect things if your 460 crank is a 78 or newer...so make sure you have that all sorted out before assembly begins.

Camshaft selection is tricky in these engines.... one I am familiar with and I use in ANY truck 460 that I want to run strong is a Erson TQ40H it basically is a VERY strong performer in the 2000-5000rpm range. This cam is not a wimpy towing cam and will idle a bit rougher than stock and does like deeper gears....MOST trucks have these and it works well if maxium "snort" is wanted while being streetable. Part # is E260222 for the cam, E823010 for the install kit (springs and such) pushrods are part #M-6565-L460, guide plates #M-6566-D429, the pushrods and guide plates are Ford part #'s. Rocker arms are M-6564-A460 and I would get those from Summit...Don't forget ya will need taller valve covers too. The cam specs are as follows.

valve lift: 0.545 (1.173:1 Rocker ratio)
Duration at 0.050: 220 intake/228 Exahust
Advertised duration is: 284/296 respectivly
lobe center:110 degrees

This combination with a edelbrock Performer Rpm intake (accepts spradbores) and a 850 QJ with 32 degrees initial spark lead, and some 2"primary headers is good for over 500ftlb and 440Hp on pump gas.

It makes a sweet class C motor home engine....ask my Dad ;-)

NoRM

Originally posted by masterbeavis
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If your motor is a pre 73 motor, it might already have a compression ratio too high for pump gas Check the casting number on teh exhaust side of the head.



You don't need to worry about that. The early heads(dive on down, including the infamous dove) give about 9:5.1 compression with factory pistons. These 385 iron heads are far more pre-detonation tolerant than their chevy counterparts and you can easily run crap 87 unless your timing is crazy advanced. Also, you HAVE to run hardened pushrods if you use guideplates, otherwise they will get chewed up. Think Pinball covered everything else...

OK I had a small misfortune and the 460 crank and rods I had are now gone. So I have a 429 out of a 72' LTD. The 72 heads are going. And I am going to get some D3's. What PISTONS should I use to get 8.0 to 1 or 8.5 to 1 compression for 87 octane with the 429 crank and rods??Can I use the D3's off a 460 on the 429 block with a 429 crank and rods???Do you know of a good CAM for this application??? We are building this as cheap as possible now.No roller rockers might even go with the stock 4v intake.The guy that I am helping with this bought an edelbrock cam it has .460"lift Int./.480" lift Exh. and has a 194 deg Int./204 deg. Exh. Duration @.050" Does this cam sound like it will be good for this application?? He says he wants power from off idle to about 2000 , he wants his grunt when he is at a dead stop and has to pull a hill. I have always used the comp cams 268h high energy cam with no probs.What do you think about his cam choice with the edel.???

I think that cam will make him VERY unhappy ya want to know the truth. The 385 series engines when flow tested on a bench show significant data to introduce the concept they LIKE to spin at least 2500RPM to operate efficiently. The heads do not "like" low speed and the flow bench proves it.....so a cam like what he has selected will make it LESS effciant than a stock ole Lincoln engine prolly. I have seen this even with the Comp cams 268 you mentioned.....rear wheel dyno HP often times decreases over a factory early 70"s grind pass car cam.....and detonation becomes an issue. Too much cylinder filling and not enough scavenging per the head design. Just my opinion and one that has been proven over and over by MANY. I have a 514 CI Big Block Ford that gets 13+ mpg at a 3000 RPM cruise and WILL pull torque #'s down low that are still FAR superior to a stock 460 when the SAME cam is used in a 460....or in other words WHY would you cam so "mellow" when all the engine wants is some revs to work happily.

As for your piston/head question.... I would use the same pistons I sggested before as flat tops will be "too much" and there just isn't much available otherwise in economical pistons...although I understand keith Black and Weisco now offer a piston that will set you around 8.9:1 with the 73 90+cc sized heads.

I would NOT build it a 429...find a crank...ALL the rods are the same size wise and if your changing pistons anyways it is as cheap a stroker as you will ever build...cubic inches = torque.....build the 460.

NoRM