This is my first post so let me just say I'm glad to finally be a member! Long time viewer and even longer proud Ford truck owner. So I'm going to do a 460 swap in my 96 Bronco (currently a 302/E40D). This is not my main transportation so gas mileage is not a factor. I just want to make the meanest truck I can that my budget will allow. This truck will however see some occasional 50 mile highway trips.

I have a complete EFI 460 drivetrain out of a 96' F-250 with a matching E40D with the correct bolt pattern for the big block. Before I swap it in my Bronco, I want to upgrade and freshen it up and this site has been a wealth of knowledge and has answered 90% of my questions. I already have a newer torque converter, newer heavy duty radiator that I'll be keeping and might put in a shift kit. So far, my plans are, Summit mid length headers/3" exhaust, BBK 61MM throttle body, Comp Cam 34-255-5, BBK adjustable fuel pressure regulator, rework/port the heads.

I have just a few questions:
1. Is there an exact method to reworking the heads? I have heard of a pocket port and also saw what boport did with his heads. Any one of these most cost effective? Ultimately I'll need to know what to tell the head rework shop...when I find a good one.
2. Can I mill down the heads .030" or so to bump up the compression without having valve/piston contact?

 

I recommend you swap the running 460 you have as-is and get that all ironed out, then pull it out later for the upgrades. The reason is to cut down on the possible problem areas that you will have to work with should you have any problems getting it running.

Besides, if you do all that before you put the motor in, you won't know how much your upgrades helped vs. the upgrade from 302 CI to 460 CI.

 

Hey jass88,

Ill have all winter long to put it together and the motor has 100k miles so it could use a regasking anyway. It would be much easier to put it together outside of the truck. From what I can gather from other folks that have the 460, the mods I'll be doing will be worth it. No such thing as too much power!! Plus if it gets 6 mpg, I don't care much...lol There us just a few minor details I need to figure out before I rip in to it.

 

I'm with jas88 above - I'd reseal it (oil pan, rear main, ALL block core plugs, timing cover, front crank seal, valve covers, etc) and put it in as-is.

You're going to have so much more lower-end grunt than you do now that you won't know what to do with the power. Plus you're going to save a couple of grand and have the project done a month sooner as well. Not to mention that you won't have to mess with trying to get it to run properly after doing all of the modifications.

You can always tear into it later and do all of that stuff, if you still think that you need more power.

My 460 has just over 100K miles on it and it still runs like new. Just had to do the timing cover gaskets because they disintegrated and I had a massive coolant leak on one side from the coolant passage to the water pump Then three of the bolts snapped off when trying to remove the timing cover.

 

I see where you're coming from. Before you do your cam swap make sure your truck will accept it. I'm not sure when they switched from speed density EFI to MAF but if your truck is speed density there isn't a whole lot you can do to it. If it is MAF there is a lot more than can be done. I just rebuilt mine which is speed density EFI and I just freshened up my heads it had long tube headers when I bought it and put in a lunati 06169 cam in it. This was at the reccomendations of a guy who has done a lot of research into the speed density EFI. He said if you don't go with a custom ground cam this one is the best off the shelf for the speed density EFI.

With the motor having 100K on it I would also freshen up the heads. My bet is it won't be long until the valve stem seals start leaking. Make sure the machine shop you take them to does a good 3 angle valve job and sets the valve stem height for you. Buy new rocker arms and rocker fulcrums and be sure to follow the cam breaking procedure to a T and use a ZDDP additive in your oil and at every oil change.

Before getting set on any upgrades findustry out which EFI setup you have cause that will determine which mods you can do.

Here is a good thread on what to do with the efi 460s
http://www.460ford.com/forum/showthr.../158247?page=1