Howdy ya'll,

For all you performance engine gurus out there, I'm new to building/running performance engines and I recently bought a two-wheel drive 74 Ford F150 with a 460. The questions I had were what kind of fuel should I use. What ignition timing should this motor be set at? What kind of upgrades or other performance mods would be a good thing to do to this motor?

The techinal data that I know:
The motor uses stock crank and rods.
429 Cobra Heads, ported and polished, with 2.300 In/1.88"Ex Valves.
Keith Black forged pistons, yeilding 10:1 Comp. Ratio
Uses stock manifolds, with 2.25" dual exhaust
Edelbrock Performer 460 manifold with 750 cfm Holley 4150, jet settiings I'm unsure of, I just got the truck today.
The cam duration, I'm not sure of, it's got a healthy lope to it at idle, and power comes on at about 2900-3100 rpm. it uses roller rockers.
MSD 6A Ignition, with Duraspark II Distributor.
The motor is mated to a C-6 with a 2500 rpm stall converter.

The original builder is unknown and the guy I bought the truck from wasn't very sure about this stuff, he used 91 octane, but it pinged when you got on it. And I don't know squat about fuel or ignition timing or how to tune a performance engine, but I'm very willing to learn!

Thanks guys/gals for your knowledge!

 

first where you live has an effect on what the timing should be for example if you live in a state 4000 feet above sea level then the timing should be around 12-16 degrees before TDC if you live below 4000 feet then any where from 4-10 degrees before TDC should be sufficent but if you hear it "ping" then it is too far in advance also I would recommend using 91 octane gasoline 10:1 compression engines run better on 91 than they do on 87 also reduces your risk of spark knock and last the 429-460 blocks enjoy aftermarket headders you can gain anywhere in the neighborhood of 25-75 HP (pretty good neighborhood the original ford manifolds suck so that is where I would start if I were you.