Getting a little further along on the swap. Got a bit hung up because my flex plate was WAY more worn than I thought it was, so I ordered one from Summit that should be here tomorrow. I also have to swap oil pans/pickup between the engines because the front sump pan on the engine I got would interfere with the crossmember in the truck.

I've been getting my accessory brackets cleaned up and painted in the mean time.

 

You'll need to pull the main bearing stud to support the extended rear sump pickup.

 

Yep. Do you know the torque spec to set it back to? If not, I've got to look it up. I believe it's something like 95-105.

 

I've always torqued mains to 100ft#

 

Okay, thanks! Hope to get to that tomorrow.

 

Swapped the intake, distributor, and motor mounts over between the engines today.

The Hays flex plate I got from Summit didn't line up right with the bolt holes. I don't think it's the wrong flex plate, but it looks like the machining wasn't perfect. This set me back a bit on timing... Got another one ordered that should come Tuesday. Paid for one day air freight... Will be sending the first one back to Summit.

I'll get some pictures up soon.

 

You are aware that the bolt holes are offset deliberately, in order to make sure the balance weight is oriented correctly to the crank.
Right?

 

There's no balance weight. Until 1979, 429/460s were internally balanced. Mine's internally balanced. If I put a bolt through one hole, the 2 of the others would be off by about 1/6 of an inch. It looked as if a couple of the holes were not correct on the flex plate...

 

I forgot you had an early motor.
Maybe they are using the wrong blank?

internal -> external was a running change during the '79 model year.
But if you order a flexplate for a 429 there should be no issue.

 

I talked to them on the phone and they said they showed it to be compatible with my engine. Either a mistake in manufacturing, or a mistake in what Summit has as far as what the part fits. Either way, it's been a frustration since it set me back on my timing... Was hoping to get the engine in sooner.

 

Got stuff pretty much wrapped up with my engine today. Just have to set the timing, and throw it in tomorrow afternoon after I get the flex plate bolted on.

Also will be dropping the transmission pan tomorrow since I already drained the torque converter, and that will get rid of all of the old trans fluid so I can get some new stuff in.



I used a Ford Racing 1-piece steel core oil pan gasket, and I probably won't be doing that again...
1. I had to drill out the 4 corner bolt holes for the larger corner bolt size in pre '79 429/460 engines. This wasn't really an issue, just another thing to do.
2. The way it came packaged (folded and plastic wrapped onto a piece of cardboard) made the gasket want to sort of bend back into one shape. The steel core tended to want to bend upward slightly (probably from handling/shipping).

I had to use a liberal amount of Indian Head to stick the gasket to the oil pan, and I had to leave it upside down for about 5 hours with weight on top of it to make the gasket stop popping up from the pan. Even then, I could tell that it would have popped back off of the pan if I hadn't bolted it up so quickly. Got it lined up well though. Shouldn't leak. Started to with I'd just used a cork gasket though. Had a cork gasket on my old engine with that pan, and it was just fine.

 

You are the 1st person I have ever heard of complain about a rubber embossed steel gasket. They have got to be one of the BEST inventions in sealing since the internal combustion engine

 

I don't think it's a bad gasket, but the handling before I got it made the steel core have a slight bend to it which made it almost impossible to get to seat correctly all the way around. If I could pick one up in a store and see that it's perfect, I'd buy one again.

 

Got rained out today... Didn't get a thing done on the truck... Hope to get the engine in tomorrow.

 

Got the engine dropped into the truck yesterday afternoon. Had a difficult time getting it to meet with the trans... Finally got it bolted to the transmission, then put everything else back in place this morning. Went to start it, and the engine wouldn't turn over. Couldn't even turn it with a socket bar on the crank. Seems that it didn't mesh with the transmission properly... Guessing the torque converter didnt go all the way up on there. Since I've got everything in place on the engine, I may try to take the driveshafts out, loosen the transmission, and make the transmission meet the engine better instead of taking the headers off the engine (can be a pain especially with the starter being tangled in one of them...) and loosening the engine mounts. Any advice on how to go about getting it to mesh together?