Machine Shop novice need advice
 

Hello all. I got my 460 short block yesterday and It needs to be cleaned and honed. Thinking of boring it out while I'm at it. What does a having it cleaned, honed, and bored .030 over usually run someone? I would like an idea of pricing so I don't get worked over by a shop.

Around $400 in mid MO if IIRC. Keep in mind when they bore and home cylinders they need the pistons you are going to use, so there's another couple hundred bucks at that time. What about heads? You going to get them done later? My mildly rebuilt 460 ran about $3500 with aftermarket parts like intake and valve train, etc. It gets expensive quick, but can be done on a budget by re-using stock components.

I don't have a problem spending the cash, this is a slow working process. I called a shop and he told me $225 for cleaning, honing, and boring the block. I haven't gotten my pistons figured out yet. I want to have the highest compression I can for 87 pump gas. Higher compression later on when I'm settled. I just want .030 over. Will either use stock heads and have them ported, or grab a set of those procomp aluminum heads I saw on eBay.

Ok, I run 9.5:1 compression on my 460 on 87 octane with no problem. BUT, you say you want to run the highest compression for now and then change it later. Thats fine, but keep in mind, you want to put in the pistons you are going to run now and later, otherwise you will have to pull the motor and disassemble it in order to change pistons if they don't work with your new heads. What iron heads do you have now?

Highest compression for 87 octane. And your right, may as well keep it the way I want it the first time. I'll stick with 87 pump gas. Isn't 9.5:1 cutting it close? What is your combo for that compression? Currently, I don't have any heads. My dad sold off the old bad engine last year. I got a short block 460 a few days ago and am planing for that. Since I already have to buy heads, would it be better to get new aluminum procomp heads or rework/port some iron heads? I've read that the dove heads are good. This is my first ford ever so bare with me lol don't know much about the heads and such.

9.5:1 is about tops for pump gas, depending on a couple of things. I am by no means an expert on this subject and these are just a few things I have picked up along the way when researching for my motor. Hopefully someone with more insight can add to this, but running aluminum heads helps reduce the risk of detonation when running higher compression with low octane fuel. Run a high quality ignition system. I have the stock Duraspark distributor with a MSD 6A box. Works great and easy to install. One of the biggest factors in my opinion is quench. This is how close the piston gets to the top of the cylinder/distance to the heads. My motor has a very small quench distance, but the design of the piston is such that it has an oval recess in the center of it to drop the compression ratio. Think of it as where will the fuel charge be when the spark plug lights up? You want it as close to the spark plug as possible. I couldn't run a true flat top piston because my compression would be too high; around 11:1. I have the early style of heads ('69 or C9VE castings) that had 75cc chambers. The '73 (D3VE) castings have 86?cc chambers and some time after that they went to like 94cc chambers. The head cc value matters because it is used to calculate the comp ratio and also the later heads weren't the best in terms of flow and what not. There are several different variations such as police interceptor heads and Cobra Jet heads that came stock with larger valve diameters, but I really wouldn't be too concerned finding a set of these. For the money someone would want for them you would be well on your way to aftermarket aluminum heads. The earlier style of heads like mine until around '71 or '72 had screw in rocker studs which make them ideal to run roller rockers on. The '73 and newer heads have "pedestal" style valvetrain which makes them harder to set up run adjustable valvetrain. There is tons of info and books on these motors. I could ramble on for quite some time about it, but the best advice I can give you is search this forum for things you don't know and the best book that I have come across is called How to rebuild Ford v8 engines by Tom Monroe. This book has the most accurate info that I have found and I've learned a lot from it. It is older and doesn't cover everything, but if I were you that is where I would start. Hope this helps.

Gotcha! I'll try to get a set of pre-73' heads to make things easier. I've always know that the pre-smog era was the good stuff. Its just always harder to get the good stuff at a good price. If not, depending on the price, I'll have some post-73' heads reworked pretty good. I read that with porting, it's easy to gain 30-50hp out of the iron heads. I was thinking about going with flat tops, and a thick head gasket. Would that compensate enough? It's between that or shallow dished pistons and a mid to thin head gasket. I do want roller rockers as well. Ran a set on my last Chevy 350 build and liked them a lot. I'll do an amazon search on that book. I'm sure it can help me out with this. Thanks for all the info brother!

You might check any automotive machine shops in your area for heads. I actually broke through into the water jacket on one of mine when porting them and called up the shop that did all my machining and bought a single head for $60. Also, keep in mind that the older heads still used the old style of valve seats, not the hardened seats they need. So, if you are going to have the hardened seats put in, opt to have your machinist put in larger valves on the exhaust side if you want. Especially with porting, the heads will flow better on the exhaust side. The intake side of the heads don't need much porting, but the exhaust side greatly benefits from it. I think if you looked for some small chambered (75 cc) heads with screw in rocker studs and some small dished pistons that would be good. But, other combos will work fine too, depending on what you can find head wise. Just make sure to match your pistons to the heads you will be using and calculate your compression ratio before starting ordering and buying parts. You should be able to Google compression ratio calculators if need be.