Sure thing. I can't wait to get the engine in there, haha.

When I get my current engine yanked out, I'll take a picture specifically of that and post it up for you to see. But yeah, it's not difficult.

Starting pulling stuff apart this afternoon. Got the fan shroud, radiator, transmission cooler, fan, starter, and one header off. Will be working on it more over the weekend. Hope to have some pictures up soon!

Worked a little bit more on my truck today. Got the other header out, got the engine mounts loose, got the vacuum lines off, and got the few electrical bits disconnected.

Will take the hood off of the truck and unbolt the engine from the trans tomorrow. Will either yank the engine out tomorrow afternoon or Monday.

Now everything is ready for the engine to be pulled. Unbolted everything, took the hood off, took the carb off, and tied up wiring and such so that it's out of the way. Was hoping to pull the engine this afternoon, but a thunderstorm moved in... Plan on pulling it out tomorrow as long as the weather holds up.

Got the engine out today! Finally...

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/p...ctureid=133038




A picture specifically of the cut cross-member for those interested in how much it needs to be cut to make room for the oil filter when swapping from a 302/351 to a 460:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/p...ctureid=133039

Getting a little further along on the swap. Got a bit hung up because my flex plate was WAY more worn than I thought it was, so I ordered one from Summit that should be here tomorrow. I also have to swap oil pans/pickup between the engines because the front sump pan on the engine I got would interfere with the crossmember in the truck.

I've been getting my accessory brackets cleaned up and painted in the mean time.

You'll need to pull the main bearing stud to support the extended rear sump pickup.

Yep. Do you know the torque spec to set it back to? If not, I've got to look it up. I believe it's something like 95-105.

I've always torqued mains to 100ft#

Okay, thanks! Hope to get to that tomorrow.

Swapped the intake, distributor, and motor mounts over between the engines today.

The Hays flex plate I got from Summit didn't line up right with the bolt holes. I don't think it's the wrong flex plate, but it looks like the machining wasn't perfect. This set me back a bit on timing... Got another one ordered that should come Tuesday. Paid for one day air freight... Will be sending the first one back to Summit.

I'll get some pictures up soon.

You are aware that the bolt holes are offset deliberately, in order to make sure the balance weight is oriented correctly to the crank.
Right?

There's no balance weight. Until 1979, 429/460s were internally balanced. Mine's internally balanced. If I put a bolt through one hole, the 2 of the others would be off by about 1/6 of an inch. It looked as if a couple of the holes were not correct on the flex plate...

I forgot you had an early motor.
Maybe they are using the wrong blank?

internal -> external was a running change during the '79 model year.
But if you order a flexplate for a 429 there should be no issue.

I talked to them on the phone and they said they showed it to be compatible with my engine. Either a mistake in manufacturing, or a mistake in what Summit has as far as what the part fits. Either way, it's been a frustration since it set me back on my timing... Was hoping to get the engine in sooner.

Got stuff pretty much wrapped up with my engine today. Just have to set the timing, and throw it in tomorrow afternoon after I get the flex plate bolted on.

Also will be dropping the transmission pan tomorrow since I already drained the torque converter, and that will get rid of all of the old trans fluid so I can get some new stuff in.



I used a Ford Racing 1-piece steel core oil pan gasket, and I probably won't be doing that again...
1. I had to drill out the 4 corner bolt holes for the larger corner bolt size in pre '79 429/460 engines. This wasn't really an issue, just another thing to do.
2. The way it came packaged (folded and plastic wrapped onto a piece of cardboard) made the gasket want to sort of bend back into one shape. The steel core tended to want to bend upward slightly (probably from handling/shipping).

I had to use a liberal amount of Indian Head to stick the gasket to the oil pan, and I had to leave it upside down for about 5 hours with weight on top of it to make the gasket stop popping up from the pan. Even then, I could tell that it would have popped back off of the pan if I hadn't bolted it up so quickly. Got it lined up well though. Shouldn't leak. Started to with I'd just used a cork gasket though. Had a cork gasket on my old engine with that pan, and it was just fine.

You are the 1st person I have ever heard of complain about a rubber embossed steel gasket. They have got to be one of the BEST inventions in sealing since the internal combustion engine

I don't think it's a bad gasket, but the handling before I got it made the steel core have a slight bend to it which made it almost impossible to get to seat correctly all the way around. If I could pick one up in a store and see that it's perfect, I'd buy one again.

Got rained out today... Didn't get a thing done on the truck... Hope to get the engine in tomorrow.

Got the engine dropped into the truck yesterday afternoon. Had a difficult time getting it to meet with the trans... Finally got it bolted to the transmission, then put everything else back in place this morning. Went to start it, and the engine wouldn't turn over. Couldn't even turn it with a socket bar on the crank. Seems that it didn't mesh with the transmission properly... Guessing the torque converter didnt go all the way up on there. Since I've got everything in place on the engine, I may try to take the driveshafts out, loosen the transmission, and make the transmission meet the engine better instead of taking the headers off the engine (can be a pain especially with the starter being tangled in one of them...) and loosening the engine mounts. Any advice on how to go about getting it to mesh together?

Oooh.
I hope you didn't crush the pump. :o

I'm assuming you got the torque converter bolts back on? I can't imagine how if the torque converter is lined up and the bolts are back on that the mating from trans to engine could possibly be your issue...

Unless are you thinking the converter is not all the way on the input shaft? If so that'll take some doing but you can maybe get it to seat by wiggling it around through the access cover. If your trans mount has any give to it when you loosen the bolts up that might be worth a try.

Yeah, I've got the converter bolted to the flex plate, but I don't think it's all the way up the input shaft correctly or something.

Won't get a chance to work on it really soon, but I think I will loosen up the transmission some to try to get it to work.

Hope not either. I think it's probably okay. I only tightened down with a 9 inch ratchet, so I don't think I could have tightened down enough to do much of any damage.

If the torque converter wasn't seated in the pump and the bellhousing is tight to the block I would at least pull the tranny back far enough to get the torque converter out and take a look.
Why destroy the transmission when you can check it now?

Yeah, I'm going to check it all out. Don't want to tear anything up.

It's been a very long while because I've been out of town, but I'll be getting back to work on the truck tomorrow.

Thinking about it in the mean time has been getting to me... I put the truck back together in my head in my sleep (or lack of) almost every night I was gone, haha...

Got back to working on the truck today. Took the headers, wiring, etc... off and loose and yanked the engine out so I could check out the transmission, torque converter, and flex plate. Flex plate is fine, but the torque converter is slightly bent where it enters the transmission pump. It seems almost as if the TC didn't even make it all of the way into the transmission. Less sure what I'm looking at in the front pump, but I took the front seal out and I don't really see any obvious damage.
Here are some pictures, what do you think? There's a little bit of debris there from me mangling the front seal getting it out. Is that other little thin light colored ring/bushing meant to slide out too?


https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/p...ctureid=134534

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/p...ctureid=134533

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/p...ctureid=134532

Update:

Pulled the transmission front pump out on Friday Morning and took it up to the transmission shop for them to install new bushings/seals/gears. Also dropped the old torque converter so that they could order me a new one. Will hopefully have the converter and front pump back tomorrow afternoon (Monday).

Here's a peek into my C6:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/p...ctureid=134759



In the mean time, I found that the rear u-joint on my driveshaft was bad.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/p...ctureid=134767



Went ahead and installed new front and rear u-joints yesterday (Saturday):

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/p...ctureid=134758

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/p...ctureid=134757


Also installed some new gauges today. Oil pressure, Water Temp, Voltmeter, and Vacuum. Will try to get a picture up soon of the gauges.

Picked up my rebuilt front pump and reman torque converter this morning. Got them in and got the engine lined up. Everything went together pretty smooth and easily. It all turns nicely now. Will hopefully get the rest together and get it running tomorrow.

Sweet truck! *Subscribed*

im on the edge of my damn seat waiting to see see this thing!

Haha! Getting it together now! Got almost everything hooked up and together today. Will get some pictures/video up soon!

Got almost everything together today on my engine. Turned out as I suspected, the stock starter (only 6 months old) won't turn the engine fast enough with it being fairly high compression. Got a high torque mini starter ordered from Summit this morning and it should be here improve around noon.

Got the carb, vacuum lines, fuel, electrical, and my new high torque starter put together on the engine this afternoon. The new starter turns the engine over nicely. Went to fire it up and all it wanted to do was pop and bang. Checked my timing out, and it turns out that I ended up a tooth off on my distributor. Pulled the distributor, and the oil pump drive shaft dropped... Unbolted the oil pan, but it'll only drop about 1/2" with the trucks front crossmember being in the way. Can't get the pan out. I was able to see enough inside that I was able to use an extendable magnet tool and a flathead screwdriver poking into the pan and a smaller extendable magnet tool from the distributor hole to get the shaft back out. I feel pretty confident that I'll be able to install the shaft from the top tomorrow. I've got a few ideas on how to install it, but if anyone has any ideas or first hand experience doing it then don't be shy to chime in. The more ideas I've got in my head the better off I'll be when I start trying to get it together. I'd like to get it installed the proper way with the retainer, but I'm not going to take everything back apart and lift the engine up just to get the oil pan out of the way... Doing it from the top will be good enough for now since I really need this thing to be up and running.

I feel like every time I get up and going making progress I trip and fall on some small issue... It's been a good experience though! I've gained a lot from this swap. I'll be much better prepared for my next engine swap.

Got the oil pump drive back in today, and re-set my timing. Got it running, and it'll run nice over 1500 RPMs but it won't come down to an idle without dying. Got it down to about a 1200 RPM steady idle, but I'd really like to get into the 800-900 range. Will play with it and try to tune it better tomorrow. Hopefully between the timing, carb adjustments, and vacuum advance I can get it to idle.

Sounds like a vacuum leak

That's what I was thinking. All the vacuum lines/ports are correct. Could possibly be under my carb... I tried to start it this morning, but I think I must have flooded it because there's a little fuel seepage under my carb.

Well... Looks like my intake gasket isn't any good. Got it to run some, but my oil got milky white. Probably also a vacuum leak in it which is keeping it from idling,

Okay, so I've got to put new intake manifold gaskets between my iron heads and aluminum Stealth intake. The recommended gaskets by Weiand are black Felpro gaskets with the blue around the ports, I think the gasket number was the Felpro 1230. The only issue I see there is that those gaskets don't appear to have te center water ports in them. Is that an issue? I can get Felpro blue gaskets with the water ports, I believe te number is Felpro 01106. What should I get?