If fuel cost wasnt a question how capable would a 429 be as a truck engine? Just bought a 66 f100 on a 75 f250 4x4 frame, 429, c6, 205 t case, 33 inch tires. Truck is not a mud truck just a general purpose work, farm, recovery, old faithful truck

 

Should be ok, but do you know what CR? Some 429s were pretty high compression.

Looks like you are driving it now. How does it run? How does it start? Power? Gas mileage? If it starts easy, runs smooth, no overheat, has pretty impressive power and gets more than 12 mpg, we have a winner....

 

I havent got the truck yet its being shipped to me right now so i guess when i get it i can make my initial decision on whether or not to keep it in the truck. Its actually a 429 cobra jet. Dont know how much difference that makes but if i dont like it ill trade it for a different engine (brother has a 390, uncle has a 360, i have a 300 six layin around, possibly put it on the market?)

 

If it's a 429 CJ, which would be a big question, you can probably horse trade that pretty easy. A garden variety 460 will bolt right in. The 360/390 FE motors won't bolt to the trans, amongst other things, so staying with the 385 series would be the way to go if the 429 isn't to your liking.

 

It also depends upon the cam - I've seen people put high-rpm racing cams in their trucks so they wouldn't even idle below 1K rpm, and for daily driving use that is about the worst thing you can do.

But if it's got a low-rpm torquey cam in it, I suspect that you're really going to enjoy driving it!

I had a high-compression 429 in my '71 LTD (about 4100 lbs) with 2.75 rear end and I could still break the tires loose from a stop (and would easily hit 120mph on the rare, stupid occasion that I did that). The 1972+ engines got the lower compression ratio which did dial back on the power, but then you can run pump gas.

I drove mine as a daily driver for over ten years during the 1990s. Finally got rid of it because I got tired of feeding it premium and lead-substitute additive at every fillup.