does it exist?

I just picked up a 1977 F250 Supercab with the 460 4bbl and a C6
it has about 135K miles on it. no engine/drivetrain work as far as I can tell
it runs really well, dosn't smoke or drip (as far as I was told / or can tell)


I'm not sure what the stock exhaust was,
but it's got a "True Dual" exhaust with nothing but a pair of 36" long Blue Glass-Packs

is it worth anything to replace the air cleaner with an open element filter?
(or CAI)

what about upgrading the carb?

how about throwing a hotter coil in it when I do the plugs/wires?


I'm not gonna be revving this truck all that much,
prettymuch just using it as a dump run and local camping truck


any suggestions would be appreciated.

Russ
Bremerton, Wa

 

about the only thing on your list that will probably have any noticeable improvement is by swapping out the carb as long as you have the factory Ford Holley carb on there already. although the carb is based on the Holley 4160 carb series, it has redesigned circuits that help reduce emissions. so the factory Holleys aren't as tuneable as the standard Holleys are and the standard Holleys are a little more responsive when set up correctly where the Ford Holleys aren't. i am not talking 50hp or more improvement, but more of a driveability improvement and mileage improvement if you set the carb up correctly.

the open element filter won't make a very noticeable improvement for the money spent other then bling factor.

a hotter coil unless you upgrade the wires to better aftermarket wires to handle the extra juice won't really make a huge difference either without other modifications to take advantage of the extra juice.

actually your best upgrade you can do to these mid 70's engines is to swap the timing chain and gears out for either aftemarket gears or the 70 and older gear set. the mid 70's gears retarded the cam timing 4degs while the aftermarket and early gears put the cam straight up for quite a noticeable improvement.

rgds
Mike

 

Thanks Mike,


do you have a link to more info on this?
or to the parts required?

is there a timing gear set (not chain) available?

 

I found this Summit Racing SUM-G6716 - Summit Racing Street & Strip® Gear Drives - Overview - SummitRacing.com

any reason to spend the money on another brand?

 

will straight up timing affect smog?

 

I'm not too worried about smog,
my truck is 1977 and is exempt, dosn't have cat's

 

The gears are a waste of money. Just get a timing set for a 1970 460.

 

but for only like $50 more you can have the whine of a gear driven cam
YouTube - 429 Big Block Ford with cog pulleys in '79 F350 4X4
http://youtu.be/rqckJAz9DCc

 

And then be really annoyed by it after, oh, about 20 minutes on the highway!

 

While I envy your smog free life style, and staying on the topic of 460 performance, Will installing a straight up timing set cause problems with the smog man? Seems that other than building a performance based motor the straight up set is the most bang for the buck in 460 HP tricks but being in Cali I gotta be careful. Any knowledge on this?

 

I had a 1971 429 in my long-departed LTD which I installed a Holley Pro-Jection TBI and Duraspark II ignition on about 20 years ago. Engine was stock otherwise including cam. I did replace the timing set with an all-metal cam gear, so 99% sure it was straight-up cam timing; I don't think they tweaked the cam timing until 1972 or later since that's when the compression ratio really dropped and the power went way down (Ford kept the high-compression motors one year later than GM did).

I checked emissions on it (with a 2-gas I think, HC and CO) and it was so low it almost wasn't readable which really surprised me (fuel mileage in the high teens on the highway as well). My gut tells me this change in itself won't negatively affect the emissions any - are you going to be running catalysts? That in itself will make a huge difference if they are going to sniff the tailpipes.

I would go for it.

 

What year is your truck?

Is m pretty sure my truck is too old for that.

 

I have an 86 F350 NON-catylist but definatly in the smog program. There is a lot of stuff on the web saying do it but no info on smog. My main questions are if I did go straight up could I then retard the timing the 4 degrees back for smog? Or am I not understanding cam timing at all? I am sure they check timing for the emissions test but will they be able to tell? Seems like straight up timing and mild port work are the best performance options for a stock/smog motor.

 

They can check ignition timing (they don't BTW) but they can not check cam timing without tearing into the engine, which the won't. Beside a 1 ton from 1986 is still except from emissions.

 

In the lovely state of cali... they do check the timing (ignition). Funny though, the tech doing mine actually recorded 10deg even though it's set at 13??