Folks,

I've recently acquired a 72+ 460 truck motor and have some questions for the forum. I did some researched and discovered that these motors came from the factory with 8 degrees of retard built into the timing chains.

My first questions is why would they do this? Did it improve the power/torque curve?

Finally would there be any benefit to swapping the timing chain to an aftermarket non retarded one? or would I be hurting more than helping?

I'm planning on driving this thing on the street and my first order of business will be to identify the cam (idle quality says it may be aftermarket) but I know for sure a stock timing chain was used (with the 8 degrees of retard). If it is a stock cam I'm going to swap it for a street performance one but am not sure if the retard will help or hurt.

Thanks,

Michael

 

Hi,

The timing retard is a bad thing. It was an emissions issue. I have a 77 460 and replaced the stock set with an adjustable Ford Performance set to zero. It was a lot of work for me, but it improved low end torque.

Ed

 

agreed it was for emissions replace with tset that has adjustable crank gear and advance it 4degrees for great low end