Ok, I love my trucks original engine, but it is time to go with a new one.
I have a late 70's (not sure just yet) 460 that supposibly hase 10,000 or less miles on it. I am going to tear it down and take it to the machine shop next week (I hope). If all is well and the block just needs boiled and new freeze plugs, here is what I have instore so far for the rebuild. First I should say, this is in my plow truck/daily driver. I do not need a crazy horse power engine, the mustang takes care of that for me. What I do need, is all the torque she can give....the more the better.

I would like to keep this a budget build, but do not want to cheap out at this critical stage and beat myself over it later..so here it is.

Obvious a full dual exhaust (headers), but will my current 2 1/4's do it? Gonna port the heads out pretty good, but see no real need for roller rockers, but will probably get matching springs for a cam that favors the exhaust side (from what I have seen on here). Would flat tops be worth it to get the lower compression up, I kinda think so, but do not want to have problems with detonation (I think it can be avoided though). An earlier roller timing chain set up from 1970 or so to get rid of the cam retarding of the later motors and a decent intake with a 750 holley. I should probably tell you that this is pushing 4.10 gears with a four speed and I do not plow often, so it is really more of a daily driver....but I love torque!!

Be brutally honest, so I build it right the first time, this is my first big block rebuild. Did I miss anything?? Should I use any special type of Piston rings maybe?
thanks all,
Ryan

 

9-10:1 Compression (I am partial to KB pistons), Aluminum intake, 750 Vacuum carb, Comp cams 4X4 extreme cam http://store.summitracing.com/partde...%2D4&view=1024 or http://store.summitracing.com/partde...%2D4&view=1024
headers and 3" exhaust

That build will be a real nice driver with enough torque to bounce your head off the back glass, and enough manners to drive around all day

 

"enough torque to bounce your head off the back glass"

could not have put it better than that if I had tried....exactly what I want!!!
Ryan

 

If you go with a smaller diameter exhaust, 2.5 or 2.25 with an h-pipe, will produce more torque than a 3 inch system, guaranteed. Crazy low end, and decent upper rpm power. Definately go with higher compression, around 10:1, headers, a Weiand Stealth Intake, Street Avenger 770 Vacuum Sec. Holley.

 

One point of interest you may want to pay attention to also while you have the block at the machine shop, "Square decking the block". I have found that Ford had a back habit of pushing their blocks through the assembly line without making sure the block was square. Sure you can run with different compressions through each cylinder but in the long run it just makes more sense. I'll give you what I had on my last engine as an example. On the front passanger side I had a piston to deck height of .037, on the back pass I had .043, driver front was .045 and the driver rear was .036. Makes for different compressions between cylinders. Also check for the main bores to be out of alignment. Mine had a variance of .002 from one to the other. This puts a little more wear and friction on the crank as it is swinging around. I also opted for ARP main cap bolts to hold it all together. With all the work I did to my block I spent a little more but it also allows me to run it a little hard without any worries. These are things to think about not stuff you need to do. I did a mild/medium build on my 460 with the thought of doing it once and allowing the engine to run strong for 100,000 miles. I also spent $5000 in machine work and brand new parts for my engine. The only three items that are original are the block, head castings, and crank. With everything that I put into my engine I have 487 hp and 537 TQ. You can browse my gallery for the complete listing of parts I have in my engine.

 

That's a lot of hp/tq.

 

Ran the setup for my 429 on the desktop the other day. Using a dual plane intake, w/800 Holley, the smaller of the two cams, 10:1 CR, pocket porting (called for the heads to be flowing 235/164Cfm at .500 lift, fairly close to what I have seen mildy ported 429 heads flow) it came in at 440 Hp 5000Rpm and 487Tq 4000Rpm, with over 400Tq all the way down to 2000Rpm

 

Well, I do not need crazy horsepower.....just lots and lots of torque. The lower down the powerband the better in my opinion.
Ryan

 

i agree with a little restriction on the exaust foe som reason it makes the big blocks quicker out of the hole. i putt ring caps on my 428cj in my drag boat and out of the water it came lol..looses top end though so you could go with adjustables linked of your throtle cable. good luck