I recently bought a '77 Lincoln Mark V with a stock 460 in it. It has the factory motorcraft 4350 and I'm wanting to emissions delete it for more power and quicker throttle response. I'm looking at a Holley 4160 600 carb but I know I will need either a new intake or an adaptor. I've also heard that might be too low cfm for the motor. I was looking at an Edelbrock 2166 intake and would the carb just bolt right on the Edelbrock intake or would I still need an adaptor of sorts? I'm just going for better street performance no race mods or anything just a little more get up and go. Give me your thoughts thank you in advance.

 

Another option is to try to find a square-bore 429/460 factory cast iron intake from a pre-73. The Edelbrock Performer also works, but not really gives any performance gains.

For carburetor, I like the Holley Street Avenger series - more tunable than the generic 4-barrel 1850 or 3310 since the Street Avengers use a rear metering block with changeable jets (not a metering plate). A 670cfm Street Avenger would be the perfect size for an otherwise stock 460. They also have the auto trans kick-down provision. Then there's the quick-change secondary spring cover to dial in how quickly the secondaries open. The Avenger series also has many more available vacuum ports (power brake, PCV, distributor, Thermal vacuum switch, etc, than the generic carbs.

One of the biggest bang-for the buck changes for a smog-era 460 is to put in a new straight-up timing set. The stock crank gear on a smog motor retards the cam timing by 6° - great for emissions, but bad for performance. Use either a 71-earlier set, or a 88-newer set. If double roller timing set, you'll have to lose the thin sheet metal oil slinger between behind the timing cover seal.

While you're doing that, you'll also be replacing the timing cover seal, and another while-you're-at-it is also to replace the water pump...

IF you do the intake manifold and timing set, you're just less than an hour's work from also replacing the factory camshaft. I used the generic cheapie cam from Summit when I did all of the above to my wife's former '77 Merc Marquis.. I also added dual exhaust (her car was single) using a non-catalyst 1974 H-pipe and complete system... Another change was replacing the 2.42 rear gears with a 9" pumpkin from a similar year police car with 3L25s... The Wife LOVED the changes to her Queen Mary Marquis.... Yeah, she is a lead-foot!!! When all was said and done, it got the same gas mileage, but was waaaaaaay more fun to drive!

 

I like the sound of the 670 cfm carb I'll look into the cast iron manifold not sure if I can find one or not but the carb will be able to just bolt on to the Edelbrock manifold no adaptor just a gasket correct?

 

With carburetion fuel curve is much more important than airflow when it comes to making torque and horsepower and having respectable drivability. A better carburetor that's smaller will out perform one that flows more air yet has poor fuel characteristics.

 

i have to back dave up,on smaller is better, to many people think bigger is better than complain the motor fails to run as they wanted, this goes way way back several decades, using a 239 flat head v8 as a example, a motor with 2 ,97's would out run the same motor with 3-97's,
that 460 will run fine with a 600 cfm 1850 holly

 

It is weird how it works and it is one of those places where a dyno can trick you. Many times a larger carburetor will look better when it comes to horsepower and sometimes peak torque but the engine doesn't accelerate as well under load.

Last summer one of my customers who runs a pavement late model switched to a different engine combination due to the rules, 11:1 compression, 355, and a 750 4 barrel carburetor. I didn't have a 750 to loan him so we used my 650. This is a custom built carburetor made using a regular non HP 650 body with a down leg stepped booster installed. We didn't even get time to dyno the engine but at the track it ran great and turned 8200rpm.(target rpm was about 7600) Right near the end of the season the tech inspector decided that he didn't like that carburetor and made us switch to a 4779 750 probably because they didn't have gauges for the 650 so I rebuilt a stock one. It ran ok and pulled similar rpm but just wasn't as good on restarts or coming off of the corner. The car really could have used a little bit more gear. But I bet on the dyno it would have shown similar or even better horsepower

 

i've been through the same many times, build a motor customer wants bigger, one case was a 66 289 hipo, customer wanted to over fuel like no tomorrow, , tie the motor to the engine dyno, old school lowly single inlet 550 made more power . another case was a vette 327/350 to a sniper , 550 with very light tuning worked great . made the full 350 hp

long run it's easier and cheaper to upjet than buy another carb with a holley being the easiest to tune

 

Yes, smaller is generally better than too big. I have two '73 Cougars with the Q-code 351C-4V . The more 'stock' of the two still had stock manifolds w/dual exhaust, stock 70-71 4V cast iron square-bore intake, a Crane 260 Econopower cam. It runs better (and quicker 1/4-mile) with a 600 vac sec OEM '66 GT390 Holley than it did with a 750 vac sec Holley. With those huge lazy 4V ports, it needed the higher velocity through the 600's smaller carb throat to get a good vacuum signal. Note that OEM GT390 carb was only a 600 vacuum secondary. The 428CJ got a 735cfm vac secondary carb. Even 429SCJ and Boss 429 only got a 780.

I used to 'work' at a local speed shop 40 years ago. I remember this one kid came in to by a 850DP for the 327 in his street Nova. We tried to talk him out of it, but he insisted that he needed that because he was 'revving it to 11-grand' Of course he didn't have a tach either, but he knew it was... He came back a week later and said the carb was defective because it ran like crap... Some people never learn... or should I say "You can't fix Stupid"

 

i'll add just one more item
dyno's don't lie. they prove hard cold fact,

 

One time my friend Wes did some testing at the drag strip using his 27 T bucket with a 557 Ford. All in one afternoon he tried it with a 750 vacuum Holley, my 950HP and a 1050 Dominator. The car was a street car that ran 5.90's to 6.0's in the 1/8th mile and in his testing it worked just as you'd imagine. The 1050 made the most speed but the worst ET, the 750 made the best ET but the slowest speed and the 950HP was right in the middle. Even with an engine that big in a light car the smaller carburetor still turned the best ET by almost a 1/10th.l This was with no real tuning work or anything but the carburetors had been tested ahead of time and were known to work well.

 

That's true, they don't "lie" but they can mislead. Much like a flow bench. The data is good and useful but it often requires careful interpretation. The most developed engine that I've ever built is a 2 barrel circle track Chevy. 357 cubic inches, unported iron heads, flat tappet cam, gauge legal 4412 2 barrel and it will make 502 horsepower and 465lbs/ft torque. I've had it that good for a long time and I have not improved it in several years. But, I can change the carburetor metering package around and make about 6 less horsepower on the dyno yet at the track it needs a whole step less gear to keep the RPM off of the 7400rpm limiter 2x a lap.

 

so true dave. i have access to both a engine and chassis each gives different results, chassis is a tad more accurate for true track yet still leaves that old test and tune needed to each days weather at each track