Well I've finally gotten a chance to start my build thread. Little back round on my girl. 1977 F-150 Custom Explorer. 16,109 miles. Yeah you read that right. Sat in a barn most of it's life and only really came out to haul a motorcycle trailer once in a while.

351M with a small RV cam, Edelbrock Performer 400 intake, Holley 750 Double Pumper (over carbed but had to steal it off the race car due to my 600 is junk) C6 tranny, 9 inch rear 2.75 gears, dual 2.25 inch exhaust into cherry bombs. Rims on it are off of a 90's ford.

It's in pretty darn good shape for the year and living in the rust belt. (Ohio)
Well I'm about to start making her my own. Engine is coming out very soon. Being replaced with a HOT 429 I'm building. The reason for this is I can build the engine how I want without having to worry about hurting and or blowing the original drivetrain. So out comes the 351 and it's C6 to be stored in my garage.

Wednesday I'm picking up my freshly rebuilt 429 and C6 tranny then tearing it down to build it up. There will be tech tricks done to show how you can go fast on the cheap with at home mods. Build will be pretty quick due to the fact I've got alot of the parts already. I will be using the original D3VE-A2A heads. Now some may because curious as to why I would be building a 450 horse motor with stock heads, that it would be cheaper to go aftermarket. This may be true but I work at a Aftermarket clyinder head company and will be doing all the work on the stock heads there.

So here's what will be happening to the heads. 5 Angle vavle job with a nice throat, good bowl blend, grinding the hump out of the exhaust port, hogging out the ports some, back cutting the valves, deck milling, all confirmed off the flow bench.

Cam wise I will be going with Comp Cams 270H grind 110 LSA .519 lift and 224 duration @ .050 lift. Nice cam that will give me a broad power band, Weiand Stealth intake gasket match to the heads, Holley 750 double pumper, headers, cam will be installed with straight up timing set on 106 ICL. Should have a nice power band in the 1500-6000 range.

C6 already has shift kit in it, I will be dropping it in as is, haven't decided on converter yet. After careful calculations I'll be sitting at the 450-470 hp range at 5,500 peak and between 530-550 ft. lbs. range at 3,500 peak.

Depending on gear, chassis setup, and track conditions should be in the mid 12's range. I've already got 30/9.5/15 slicks that will be mounted on my extra rims soon. (thank god for having two race cars LOL).

Body wise I'm going to be repainting it in a similar red with a nice gloss and I'm having a local decal shop make my explorer stripes. My next door neighbor is a body man, as long as I buy the paint supplies he and I will be doing the body work and painting and it will be FREEEEEEEEE! I'm decent at body work and a good welder but it's always nice to have extra helping hand and guidence. Also you can never stop learning.

Truck is going to have a mild sleeper look to it. Exhaust wise I will be doing a similar exhaust lay out that I've got now straight out to the back with the tips exiting at a 45 degree angle behind the rear tires. Probably 2.5 pipe, still deciding on mufflers possibly some 40 series from Flowmaster or Dynomax Bullets. Cut outs about 18 inches from the collecters to maximize off the line torque.

At this point I don't have many pictures do to I've only done the rim swap and intake carb swap so far. Hopefully you guys can get some enjoyment and ideas from my build. Also to young guys on here this is also to prove to you that you can do this kind of stuff too! I'm only 20. Also to the old timers to show then that us whipper snappers enjoy classics too!

 

Congrats on gettin' the build started. Sounds like it'll be a fun toy when finished. I can't wait to finish my current build and find a short bed to play with.

 

Thank you! Nice lookin' dent!

 

Well tonight after I get off work I will be going down and getting the 429. I'm excited!!!!

 

__Okay , young "whipper snapper", I plan to follow this build, time to put us old timers in our place, L.O.L._______JIM

 

Lol I don't want to put old timer in there place I want the old timers to give some of there experiance!

 

____You are at the right forum then.__

 

Looks good Mike. I'll be following your build to see how it goes.

 

Subscribed.
Fresh build meat.
Like your choice of going with the iron heads.
I realized bolting on a set of whatevrbrocks will give you instant hp, but it's kinda cool to try to milk it out of the original stuff if you have the time/talent/money.
Call me a romantic.

 

Okay, you're a romantic .

 

Lol thank you thank you. Yeah I'm not a fan of edelbrock heads. I do like the SBC intakes though. I could use one of our heads at work we have for the BBF heads. But something that runs a 2.45 intake valve and flows well over 520cfm on the intake may be a tit bit to much LOL.

But there's always power to be found in stock iron heads. You just gotta be patiant. Plus I like the fact of being able to open the hood and somebody would think it's pretty mild.

Actually my engine went a different route. I think I'm passing on the 429. I found a 460 thats a brand new rebuild with the short block set up exactly how I want it and it's got the 270 cam already in it. The funny thing is that they built the short block for racing/Heavy Duty hauling but just 3 angled valve jobbed the heads with stock valves. Never been fired.

It also comes with an extra block, rotating assembly, stainless roller rockers, and other extra. All the 460 needs is a carb. Which I've got my race style prepped 750. I will still be pulling the heads and working them over. Deffinatly gonna be tough getting this engine together and dropped in while also prepping the Outlaw 10.5 car and doing some work to the bracket to car and building an engine for my hotrod. But other then the Outlaw car the truck takes priority.

The guy is in houston right now for work but he'll be back in Ohio in 2 weeks. So the engine will have to wait till then. Question for you guys though. Since my truck is 2 wheel drive and already has a 351m for motor mounts could I just get parts store replacements for a factory 78-79 2wd F-Series truck and call it good or will it not line up?

 

I'm not sure if i understood your question about the motor mounts. But if you are going from a 351m to a 460 you need the factory mounts and mount stands for a 460 ,78/ 79 2/wd will work .Or get some conversion mounts, a little more money maybe, for the 460 change over. I was lucky when i did one to a f-100 ,which i sold, change over from a 6/cy to a 460 as i had everything i needed in a 79 super cab i was parting out. Sounds like a good deal on the 460 you got.

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P.S. you can make the 351 mount stands work by making an adapter between it and the block, I have done that a couple of times but they never look as good as original ones or well made conversion mounts.
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Sweet build, definitely subscribed.
And to second Jim, yes all you need are the factory engine stands from a 73-79 F Series truck with a 460 non 4x4, should be pretty easy to find at a junkyard that has some dents

 

Okay deffinatly the info I was looking for on the mounts. Well I went and looked at the 460 today. The guy had his buddy show it to me. I don't something didn't seem right about the 460. I don't know I just got a bad vibe from the guy and the engine.

So I'm going back to the original plan of the 429. Beside with the shorter stroke of the 429 I'll have a little bit more room for setting it up for the top end. This is kinda gonna be a street strip sleeperish type build to generalize it for you guys. Now the 429 has conversion motor mounts from when the guy had it in his 68 F100 4x4. I'm assuming that mount won't work correct?

 

I believe this is the mounts he has on it.

Trans Dapt 4226 Trans Dapt Performance Products Universal Swap Mounts