I finally fired up my 429 roller in my 78 F-250 4x4. Here are the specs: 429 crank and block bored .030, D0VE-C heads ported by me, machine shop crack checked, installed hardened seats, 2.25/1.75 valves, Crane roller cam, Scorpion rockers, Edelbrock performer intake, recurved Duraspark dizzy and L&L headers. Right now Im running an Edelbrock 600cfm carb. Im using this for now until I get a 750 (Ive gone over budget and I knew the 600 was in good shape). It didnt take much to get her fired up. I dont have mufflers yet so its pretty loud. I dont hear any unusual noises and nothing is leaking. Ive got about 15" of steady vacuum at 1000 rpm so that seems good. Overall it was a smooth start up. I also added a Super Duty hydroboost brake setup and boy does that work great.

 

Congratulations on the fire up. It is great to hear them sing that first time.

 

What are the specs on your cam? Compression ratio....etc?

The first time I fired up my 390 I was pretty happy......it wasn't really running that good at all. Timing way off, carb was somewhat close. On my first drive the timing was advanced too far and it started pinging/getting hot. I re-built it in my high school engines class and my teacher didn't think I knew what I was doing so he set the timing by ear. I got home and set it to 12 deg BTDC and it was much better.

Tuning is half the fun!!!! Adjust this, advance that, richen the other....

-Jake

 

OOoooooooo i can't wait to dig into my 300! nothing better in the world than overhauling an engine, and firing it up for the first time!

 

Ya my timing was a little retarded at first. I had to shut it down after 15 mins cause the headers started glowing red. I should have had the timing light set up before I fired it. I wanted to run it for the 30 min breakin but since its a roller cam thats not so critical.

 

Great news Mark! Is this the supercab truck you had the 400 in, or one of the others?

 

Ya its the tutone brown one. That 400 had no *****. Its taken me about 8 months and $6k to finally get some power in that truck.

 

I think you've solved the problem! lol

 

I forgot to mention. Ive got pics in my gallery under 78 F-250

 

Hey Mark, great to hear you got that 429 back to life! Man, there is nothing better than the sound of a Ford big block at full song!!!!

 

Looks good!!!

-Jake

 

Hey Mark, did you every do anything with that 6x6 of yours??

 

No the 6x6 is till sitting. I dont know what I will ever do with it. Its been sitting in the same spot for the last 9 years. Geez...has it been that long....

 

Nice to hear you got the 429 fired up. I bet that was a great feeling.

 

Ya once I got it all hooked up I was pretty surprised how easy it started and idled. I guess when you got that kind of money into something thats how it goes.