So, here is a picture of a baby Hedgehog for NO APPARENT REASON. Enjoy.



Update:
Found a pair of D0VE-c's locally!!! Going to pick up tonight. I will drop off early in the week to get the machining and rebuild done. I am a little excited to get these things on my 460 and increase that compression a bit! I will be doing mainly a clean up and have hardened seats put in the heads. Now, off to order the double roller 0* timing set! I have learned TONS from you guys here so, thanks for all the past and future advice!

 

Now someone on the FB Ford Truck lovers is telling me not to get hardened seats. Just go with SS Valves. Is that OK?

 

get the hardened seats!!!! unleaded has no lubrication to it and as a matter of fact they came hardened when they were new just flash hardened

 

People have had success with unleaded with those heads and not changing the seats, but if I were you I would get a professional opinion. My issue is when it goes to a machine shop, they want to sell me hardened seats and I think it is from being a machine shop where money talks. If they sell you a head job, it means money in their pocket. If they rebuild your castings, it might fail meaning a come back. They don't want that.

I have seen these run fine for many thousand miles on no lead and never miss a beat, but most everyone sells new seats with the job on these. Moral of the story, the castings don't need hard seats for unleaded gas but on 45 year old castings, it might be a good idea to take into consideration the condition of the seats, no matter the fuel.

There are plenty of sob stories of these castings failing due to "soft" seats. I would have to ask myself if the unleaded really did cause this. My issue with this is did it ever run lean? Did it have a good air filter? was the valve train geometry even close to right? I had a 460 done "professionally" and it sucked, I tore it down after 5 years of blaming everything I could think of and found 1.7 ratio BBC rockers and push rods that were standard length with a split pattern camshaft. This caused guide and seat wear, at accelerated rates, severe power loss, and overall poor performance. The lift at the valve was roughly 75% what it potentially could have been with proper length push rods and a better choice of rocker arms.

Now, negligence is often easily blamed on inferior fuels, it is just easier that way. My engine builder blamed my duraspark ignition system and my not knowing how to tune a carburetor. Same carb and ignition run out front at the sled pulls now with my engine!

 

Your reply made a lot of sense. I am gonna trust my gut, have them built right, and seat the darn things. I run good fuel only, don't drive it a lot, but still want those valves seating properly or why the heck am I even trying to bump up compression, right?


I am not a dice roller when it comes to the internals. I will be getting matched and correct pushrods with good springs and rockers. That's one of the reasons to go D0VE anyways.


Thanks again for your input guys, as always, it's much appreciated.

 

Well, watch the pushrod length. It can cause a lot of loss in lift at the valve if not properly sized as well as other problems. There is a lot to valve train geometry, especially when swapping cam shafts, rockers, heads, and lifters. Spend the time to make it right, and if you hire someone to make it right, ask if they will put a dial indicator on the valve stem upon assembly and record the lift at the valve and compare it to the specs of the cam shaft. Good luck.

 

Sounds like a good call on the hardened seats. In general they will go for a while without the hard seats if driven lightly... but will sink the valves fast if used hard for towing or any other reason.

 

This is probably true, I am not real surprised to hear this. There have been some towing done in my history of old 4x2 duallys with Lincoln 460s, 5 speed truck transmissions, and splitters behind that, like a 10 speed manual, they would tow like nobodies business, even up to the late 1990s were out performing the majority of the turbo charged diesels on the road, with a carbed 460 but these were experimental, and always in some stage of further development, not by choice but by necessity. It started with manifolds and twice pipes, then went to headers. Not for power gains but for heat dissipation. Then a bigger fan was used. Then oil coolers were installed, then fitted with aluminum intakes.




They all ran great, and out pulled fords, chevys, and dodges with the turbo diesels up and down our mountains, with backhoes, campers, horses, cows, and all. Moral of the story is 10:1 + is too much compression to tow with. It makes a lot of heat. I only know of one of these engines that had hard seats installed, all the rest came from the Lincoln or ambulance and went right into the truck, and they were impressive, but the excessive heat was just too much. Starters would be short lived, park on a hill. too much engine, exhaust, and transmission heat, Never knew of a seat issue though.

 

Dropped my D0VE-C's off at C&M Machine shop in Tonganoxie, KS this morning.


Chuck (The Owner) was extremely knowledgeable about Ford motors and was actually a wealth of free information for me to shoot the ***** with.


So the D0Ve's will be getting:
shot pinned
resurfaced
Hardened exhaust seats
3 angle valve job
guides
springs
studs
roller rockers
pushrod guides
Set of ARP bolts


After I get the heads back (I told him no rush) I will get the Lunati Voodoo cam, Hydraulic lifters, and the 0* double roller timing set-up.


Cost on the head work is estimated at $825 with most of that being the hardened seats and the guides.

 

Got a buddy down in Texas that found me D0VE-C's, a fresh 429 D1 block, and misc parts for $550. Looks like I need to get a spare! Put the 429 on the stand and build a C/J or SCJ!!!