So, a couple months ago the original 351 gave out at only 70k. Before I bought it from the original owner it sat for a lot of years and I think every seal on the truck was dried out. It skipped time in some way, either the nylon teeth on the timing gears crumbled and created slack or the distributor gear pin sheered. Anyway, I had been planning on a big block swap anyway so this just moved it up in the schedule a bit.

I live in an HOA neighborhood (I'm sure my neighbors hate me) and the truck just squeaks under the garage door with the 4" lift so I was originally thinking I would have to rent a shop or take it to a buddies house and rent a gantry crane to do the swap. I read a couple of threads on here about how easy it is to pull the whole front clip off and decided to spin it sideways in the garage and go that route instead. So, I cleared out the garage and shoved it in there. Fits like a glove.

Current plans are:

Put the shine on a low mile (24k on rebuild) 460 bottom end with some port work (thanks to Mad Porter for instructions) on a set of C8VE heads. Healthy cam, Performer 460 and a 750cfm on top. Set of L & L chassis exit headers (I've been watching the recent and historical conversations on chassis vs. fenderwell and although this is a tighter fit, I think it's the way I want to go). Lincoln Mk VIII fan and a 3g alt.

While I'm at it I want to do a rear disc conversion but I want to put a limited slip in there first. If anyone in eastern WA or northern ID has a rear D60 with limited slip and 4:10s you want to get rid of, let me know.

Anyway...the nose is now off and I'm in the midst of cleaning things up. Hoping to have it all shined up and painted this weekend. Ordering mounts, headers, etc. this next week.

 

Is there a question here ?

 

I, too am installing a 460 in my 1975 highboy, I ordered L&L motor mounts, the complete kit, They fit excellent and made the swap easy, they are a bolt-in installation.[/IMG]

 

There will be alt & power steering bracket trouble with the 77.5-79 f-250 4x4 unless you buy the L&L brackets

 

i have a question, have you never seen a buildup thread before?

to the op: nice work, have fun with your project, keep the pics coming.

 

could you please elaborate on this?

I just bought a 77 F250. It has a 460 installed. Motor is chained down on drivers side, PO said that motor mount is worn out. He included a new motor mount with the sale. I am not sure what part (s) I need. I have always thought you should replace mounts in pairs. What should I get for my truck?

 

you west coasters make me sick with your clean vehicles and lack of rust. nice pics though, detailing the swap.

 

i modified my stock power steering bracket and so far so good and i didnt hack it all up to make it work it looks good just need to figure how to post a pic but i did buy l&l alt bracket. good to see you are gettin to start on the swap it's wort ih in my opinion..

 

He's just talking about brackets needed for the initial swap. I was planning on just ordering brackets for PS and alt from L & L. If your swap was already done, you just need a new motor mount. Honestly I would just throw that new mount in on the drivers side and call it good, that's the side that will rise under load, the other side doesn't see near as much pull stress.

What did you end up doing for exhaust? Headers(fender or chassis) or some truck manifolds?

Post back when you get pictures uploaded. I'd like to see what you had to do to your steering bracket.

 

I used the power steering and alternator brackets from a 1978 Ford van E-250 with the 460

 

The van brackets work perfect. They are just hard to find.

 

Ordered all of my stuff this past week so should be making some good progress next week. Got headers, mounts and brackets from JBG and just finished ordering a custom ground cam, lifters, roller rockers, distributor recurve and timing set from Scott at RHP (Thanks Scott!). Things are due to show up this next week and I'll post some pics once I start putting things together.

 

More progress in the last week.

Frame was cleaned and painted.





Cleaned up the bottom end, installed the cam and timing set, new water pump, new rear main, 1 piece pan gasket, fuel pump and put everything together with a stainless fastener kit from JBG after a little paint.







Had to cut about a half inch out of the original motor plate to fit over the 460 crank and then dropped it back in on the new mounts. Shaved about an 1/8th inch towards the front edge of the motor mount slots.







Mostly finished with port work on the exhaust side of the heads, still need a little bit of cleanup and a portmatch on the intake side.







Should have my recurved distributor, pushrod guide plates, springs and a used set of Miller roller rockers this week from Scott at RHP and then the heads go in for a grind and some bronze liners and I can bolt them on.

One issue has come up though. Because I'm now using roller rockers, I ordered a set of the tall aluminum Ford Racing valve covers. After reading a bit here and on the 460 forum, it sounds like (and now looks like) the drivers side cover won't fit under my brake booster. I've gone through some of the other posts and although it is a 4x4 with dual piston calipers, it does have the 11" booster. So, I think I need to go to the 8" booster but I'm not quite clear which one of these from the F350s bolts right up. If anyone has *the* answer, please let me know otherwise I'll continue digging through historical posts to see if I can answer this.

 

the best thing ive come up with is to use one from a like year f350. your going to have to replumb lines from the master to the prop valve.

 

Is this because of the new position of the master? If you look at the pic above of the engine in from the front driver's side you can see I have plenty of length on the lines coming off of the master cyl now. I'll do some more digging.