ok i have a 1975 f250 camper special, with a 460 c6 transmission witha b&m automatic shift kit on the floor with a 4bbl holley carb, k&n airfilter, mallory ignition coil. ok im not a mechanic and i know very much about cars and trucks, but i am a do it your selfer and i wont to learn, ok i have had friends and fte members tell me that my truck probably has about 225hp i thought it would have around 400hp and i quess i can get it up to about 600hp and thats what i wont, but i keep hearing its going to cost around $2000bucks to get that kind of horse power. but i never found out what costs $2000, i could try to do it my self with ebay or junkyard parts and cut the price probably in half, but i what can i buy that will boost my horsepower that much?

 

Well,
If you made a 600 horse 460 from junkyard parts I might worry a little. Whenever you are dealing with serious horse power you should be ready for it otherwise your motor could end up in front of your truck when you put your foot in it. If you want horse power its best to go to an engine builder and talk to them. They can tell you if yours is even worth putting money into. Remeber, if its a 31 year old engine its had a lot of wear and tear so you may be better off starting fresh.
On the other hand if you just want to wake up your truck a bit and do the work yourself you could go with a better cam, intake manifold and heads that should put a few ponies under there. Also try a new distributor all together, maybye one that is and all in one that way you dont have to worry about coils going bad so often.
-Chris

 

nitrous... seriously though. if i was going to build a 460 for a daily driver i'd get the 514 stroker crank and bore it enought to clean it up which will probably make it a 521.. either pony up and buy some aluminum heads or port the snot outta some iron ones. run a performer rpm intake witha big holley on it and then a roller cam with roller rocker arms to match... thats a pretty easy recipe and i'm not sure if it'll get you 600 to the wheels but it'll pull anything you want it to and run hard... i've looked in to the 385 series motors and PAW offers a cheap moutnain motor, like 568 cubes or something for 3800 bucks, all it needs is ignition and induction, thats also a cheap way for what you'd be getting...

 

wheres the best place to get all that stuff?

 

oh excuse me, the CHEAPEST place to get that stuff?

 

If you think you can build a 600hp 460 that runs on pump gas for $2000 then you must be living in a different country than this one. Best just to stick with what you can get for $2000 and go from there. Start with a desktop dyno software program and see what different cam/head/intake/exhaust options will get you.

 

Best bet,
A local speed shop that deals with older stuff, or a catalog from a well known parts supplier like Edelbrock, Jegs or LMC. Just make sure you have accurate specs about your motor and so on when you order otherwise you may get it and it may not fit properly.
-Chris

 

Moved to proper forum.

 

600hp for $2000, well I guess it's nice to dream Ford gets 612hp out of thier 514 crate engine (it's actually a 521 but long story as to why) and with a cam change you can get 700 out of it, but that engine cost is $8000 not $2000. about the cheapest stroker kit I have seen will cost you around $1000, then you have machine work on the block, balancing the rotating assembly, new cam, intake, carb, dist, redoing the heads or buying aftermarket heads that will support that much hp etc. fact is factory iron heads unported will not support much over about 375 hp, but with etremely good port job will get you to 600 but that alone will eat up most of your budget. About the only way your gonna see 600hp on that type of budget is build the best bottem end you can and put a lot of nitrous to it and pray it holds together.
I have a saying I use when someone wants me to build an engine, and wants to know how much hp etc. "how fast can you afford to go". HP costs money there is no way around it, a $2000 budget will probably get you into a 300-350hp engine, maybe a little more if you are real good at it, and get lucky on buying parts. $2000 upgrading a solid well put together engine you might actully see the 450-500hp range.

 

600hp for $2000? I tried doing that once. And I squeezed about 550hp out of it . . . for a while. Then it blew the $%^& up and now I'm almost $13,000 into the new motor which is still not complete. HP costs money. Big horsepower costs big money. 460's are great motors that can be built for relatively cheap but don't expect miracles for pennies. You get what you pay for.

 

Another thought to consider is the vehicle it's going into. Now, take a look at Ivan's truck in his signature. Dunno how much $$ is in it- but probably close to that $13K, or more. All those driveline components he lists are fairly well bulletproof, at least for any reasonably sane power level for the street. If your truck isn't reasonably similar in terms of the rear axle & trans build quality, you are going to need $$ for those too. And, don't forget GOOD brakes, too.

600 hp- & the corresponding torque output required to make it- is almost, not quite, unliveable on the street in many vehicles. Build your engine for about 350-360 hp & 500 peak ft. lbs. of torque (flywheel) & I guarantee you'll scare the crap out of yourself for a much more reasonable amount of cash. If you are very traction-limited, then you might want to cam it slightly differently to kill a little of the low, low end off. However, it's going to need some port work, or aftermarket heads, to spin it much past 5500 rpm- which is fine. RPM costs money.

When that engine gets boring, then look at making 600 hp. & spending the big money to make it work. Not trying to be mean, just realistic. I've seen too many people spend big bucks on the engine, none on anything else, & wind up with an unreliable piece of junk that's always breaking parts. You're willing to ask questions, & that's a good start. Even at that, before I built the "big" engine, I'd add a mild 100-125 hp nitrous kit to the 350 hp engine & proceed to scare the crap out of myself all over again.

Rob's right about the alternative- built a decent bottom end & crank a lot of nitrous to it- although that much nitrous requires a GOOD exhaust port, and again, that's going to require a lot of port work on stock heads. Not really in your $2K budget.