I have a 79 E250 trailer special with a 460 and a C6, its been in the family since new, my dad abandoned it about 5 years ago and i rescued her last season for use pulling my wakeboard boat. all i had to do after it having sat for 4 years is replace the inline fuel filter battery starter and main vacuum line and it ran perfect, i also replaced the spark plugs wires distributor cap and rotor and belts and 1 valve spring. it ran all summer pulling 5ooo pounds all over washington state till september when it started to act like it had a miss one day i checked most everything and it was ok, i was pulling my 10ft fishing boat in search of snoqualmie river king salmon and on the way home it started to run funny and then die, i would describe it as a loss in power then some scraping noises then dieing. i had it towed home and i tried to start it and it eventually started but barely ran and sounded messed up. so im not sure what is wrong with it i haven't had the time or need to fix it just yet until now, the sun should be poking its head out in a couple months and my new boat arrived 2 weeks ago.

i have a buddy with a "good" 429 has a big holley, headers, and seems to be pretty nice, he wants like 300 on the bro deal. its been siting outside for a while so im sure it will need some getting ready b4 it could go in anyway.

my 460 has all the emissions crap which i don't need anymore. the bottom half was rebuilt about 20k before i resurected her so that should be all fine, the heads weren't done so im sure my problem lies there.

my question is should i trust my buddys 429 and drop it in with minor work or should i invest in my heads and ad an edelbrock carb manifold cam lifter pack and get rid of all the emissions

 

The way you describe the noise and how your 460 acted doesn't sound like "just head problems" to me. I'd start by pulling the V/C and see if all the valves are still in the head and all the springs done up. There's not any problem dropping a 429 in place of a 460. I guess it depends on how much confidence you have in the engine.

 

ya i pulled it all apart and it dropped a valve! so im gonna find another motor and drop it in.... i found a 70 dove motor for 600 and a 429 for 400 not sure what i should do....