are 460 truck motors 4 bolt mains?????????????????

 

Thread moved to 460 forum.

-Matt

 

Try and search for this topic as it was just dicussed not to long ago.

 

short answer---NO

 

Monsterbaby's right...short answer no. 4 bolts do exist but i have only seen 1. Sitting beside it on the shop floor was also a very old Ford factory dual four barel 460 intake. only seen one of those too.

 

I should have said 429

 

HOWEVER, if you've got the money you can order a 4 bolt 429/460 block
from your Ford dealer through the motorsport catalog. Severe overkill for the street, though.

 

short answer is still--NO. the only ones that had 4 bolt mains from the factory were HI-PRO engines I.E. Boss 9, SCJ, and some but not all CJ 429s no 460s had 4 bolts in them factory, and to the best of my knowledge (although with ford I won't say 100%) they were all DOVE-A castings.
However Kruse is correct you can buy the A460 block and it will have 4 bolt mains, and priority main oiling (same as Boss 9 block) they run around $2200 if I remember correctly, you can also buy aftermarket blocks from eliminator ranging from $1900 for the sportsman block to around $2800 for the Premier block.
Rumor has it Ford is supposed to come out with a sportsman block in the near future that will be in the $1600 range, and should be borable to 4.6" bore, but to date that is still rumor, and not fact yet.

 

You can do crossbolting if you want. Any competent machine shop can do it. It's a matter of boring 5 holes per side perfectly alinged with the main caps, then drilling and tapping smaller holes into the main caps themselves. use steel main caps for extra strength. It's not as strong as a racing 4-bolt main block, however it is stronger than stock.

 

I have never heard of anybody ever crossbolting a 385 engine. I know it used to be common on FE blocks.
I'm not sure if it's possible on a 385. I'll have to look at the bare block out in the shop and see.

 

it's not possible on a 385 series engine. On an FE the caps go down into the block on a 385 the bottom of the caps is almost perfectly level with the oil pan rails.
you can buy 4 bolt splayed caps from blue thunder I believe that work on most blocks, or use a DOVE-A block with thicker main webbing and convert those but start looking into the cost of converting them, and all the other stuff involved, and it's getting to the point that you are better off buying an aftermarket block with the thicker cyl walls allowing a much larger overbore.

 

Are you sure? I thought I read that early truck blocks mimiced the 429 Boss/SCJ with 4 bolt mains. They later reduced them to 2 bolts. These truck blocks can be wonderful for super street/race setup. What is the casting code on the block?

 

I had asked the question about the 4 bolt blocks a week or so ago. I wanted to find a 460 4 bolt block. I have a 429 CJ with the thick web 4 bolt mains that is pretty much complete and I am going to be putting it up for sale after I get it cleaned and checked. I was wanting to do a 460 build with a 4 bolt main if they were available.

69ragtop

 

Ragtop, I'm confused about what you're after. Put a 460 crank in your 4-bolt CJ block and you've got a 4-bolt 460 (after changing pistons of course).

I've also read that there was a 4-bolt 460 truck motor (D8 casting I think) but, after 3 years of watching on Ebay, I've never seen one go by. A bunch of DOVE-A CJ blocks and a ton of 2-bolt 460 blocks, but no D8s. If they exist, where are they?

 

I didn't want to separate a good 429 CJ since it has the heads, intake and everything I wanted to part with it as a complete motor. Back to the 460, I was wanting a 4 bolt because the long term plan is to run this as a blown injected alcohol motor and it needs the bottom end strength. An aluminum block would be great but I can't budget for that now.

69ragtop