So I'm looking for some advice on getting some more HP out of my setup and any advice would be greatly appreciated. I ran my car on a dyno and as expected with mostly stock and smog heads the engine made about 200hp at the flywheel and 170hp at the wheels. Torque was surprisingly well at 320ft/lb. Would like to make another 100hp and I would be happy, without doing too much to the shortblock if possible. My car is a 28 Ford Model A Hotrod and weighs less than 2000lbs, so its fairly quick considering the low HP rating to weight ratio. Here's my current setup...

73 Ford 429 ( was a 460 but had a 429 crank laying around when I had engine rebuilt.

Initial timing at 12*

Edelbrock 600cfm carb

Weiand Stealth Manifold (dual plane idle-6800rpm)

Summit Camshaft (282 int./292 exh. 1200-5000rpm)

Summit STD Timing Set (part# sum-g6537)

Remanufactured Distributor with Pertronix Ignition Module

D3ve-a2a Stock Heads

18" 2 1/4" straight pipes with 12" baffles

Budget for mods is around $2500 +/- some cash but if i dont have to spend that much even better! Thanks!

 

You have almost everything you need to reach your goal. If you opened up the heads and planed them down a little, and added som domed Pistons, it would help. You would be better off finding a set of d0ve heads and working them over, or because you have a big budget(big to me), you could buy yourself a dandy set of aftermarket heads. I would recommend the latter. Also, switching it back to a 460 crank will help you out. You've got the rest pretty well covered.

 

I'd not mess with this too much because it already runs good and is together. Forget the dyno numbers. If you want to wake it up easy and best immediate bang for the buck install a nitrous plate system but don't get greedy. Start with like 100 shot and don't go more until you have help / knowledge for experienced person.

 

If you want to take a bit more of a technical approach you can get the cc specs of your heads, head gaskets and pistons and then run it thru a compression calculator like on Summit's website to determine your compression ratio. Those heads came on relatively low compression engines, in the lower 8:1 range if I remember correctly. Depending on the pistons and head gaskets you have your compression may be pretty low. You can always manipulate the head gasket thickness to make small adjustments (making sure you have enough valve clearance of course). I'd try to shoot for something around 9.5 - 10.0:1.

I would also be skeptical of your carb, the 600 cfm isn't really big enough for a big block if you're running any serious RPM. If you never want to wind it out and just cruise at relatively lower engine speeds then 600 CFM is probably fine and should help with fuel economy. But if you have some lower rear end gears and drive it aggressive then you need a bigger carb.

One last relatively cheap tuning check is the advance curve in the distributor, have you recurved it to take advantage of the rest of the speed parts you have? It's one of those inexpensive but time consuming tasks that will make a big difference if you spend the time to get it right.

 

Thanks for the info everyone! I'll start looking for some higher compression heads I had a set of c8ve heads but got rid of them and wish I would of kept them now! Will look around for a larger carb and do the distributor recurve in the meantime also. Thanks again!

 

Deck the block and leave the cc alone.
You will never get proper quench with the pistons .030" in the hole.
Larger valves with a bowl blend on the intake and short side radius + humps ground on the exhaust will help.

If you reduce chamber volume to gain compression it will knock like crazy on any pump gas and 110LL is getting harder and harder to find.

 

yeah,you can't leave it like that.if you wanted 200hp, a run of the mill chevy 350 like everyone else dose would fit the bill.
you've got to think past 300hp too.that 429 can be made to scream with 400-500 hp if you wanted without a whole lot of effort.you put the big block in there because you didn't want to settle......so don't.

skip ahead to 8.00 min;

oh yeah.that's what you want........nasty.

 

1970 1971 Ford 429 460 Dove A Thunderjet Heads | eBay

429/460 Cylinder head casting #'s and application information / brief descriptions