While there may be no substitute for cubic inches as one person put it, I feel there are just certain bore-stroke combinations that work better than others. I have always thought the 429's had more ***** than the 460's even of the same years, late 60's, early 70's. The Chevy 427 was a much better all around engine than the 454 ever was.....and I have a 454 Corvette, an LS-7, but the 427 vettes I've drove would kill it! I could say the same for a lot of different engines, the 425/455 Oldsmobiles, the 428/455 Pontiacs, the 427 Ford versus.......damn near anything! I would put a stock, medium riser 427 up against a similar 460 any day. My point is cubic inches are great, but it DOES matter how they are derived. Most all of the great old classic engines from the late 60's and early 70's that were stroked and made bigger (i.e. the 460) were done not to make the engine bigger but for emissions reasons. I'll take the original short stroke versions anyday, just my opinion.

BTW, Monsterbaby, do you consider a 429 to be a "small engine"?

 

In short; yes I do.

and on to the rest of what you are saying I will possibly agree with you on the 427 vs 454, 429 vs 460, and even a 289 vs 351 for a car! but he is building a truck and the 460 WILL outpull the 429 everytime even in stock form let alone built up a little. and a little personal experience on the 427 vs 454 my dad built a 454 for his pickup, just a short box 2wd it dynoed at 472hp gets 12mpg is very streetable and powers his vacumn brakes, and was used to pull a 28ft fifth wheel camper (I think the truck was to small due to weight, and brakes but that isn't the point here) but every 450+hp 427 I have ever driven or seen was almost unstreetable, and from a stand still was lucky to pull a utility trailer, but if you wanted to pull that trailer down the road at 100mph it would work great.

 

Well, I suppose we all form our opinions from personal experience! My Vette was blueprinted and all that and was dyno'ed at 650hp (rear wheels). My friend had a '69 tri-power rated at 435 hp, not even an L-88 or ZL-1, and it just flat out out pulled me in every range. I've also driven other Chevy 427's, one was in a Impala SS, and they all just kicked butt! I know this is a Ford forum, so I'll get back on track. Yes, I realize he's building a truck, not a lightweight car. No doubt the 429 would be a better choice in the car, but I don't see how he can really go wrong with one in his truck either. Even a mild Thunderjet 429 stocker should have plenty of torque to do what ever he would want and a lot more than a late model 460 smogger would have.

 

This is exactly the point I was trying to make.

 

Please discribe plenty of power, you can never have enough. When the 77 is put back together it will have around 575hp and 650lbs of torque at the crank. This is a stroked 460, 502ci with early heads running around 9.8-1 compression. Some may say its enough but not for me. Why do you think a 557 is going in the 56. Now 800hp may be enough but super charged 1100 sounds even better. Time will tell what the exact nuber will be.


I don't care which engine you build but stock BBF's heads are done around 4500 RPM's. At that point the exhaust port becomes too tubulent and you can't get the charge out of the cylinder. If you want to rev more than that you will need to port the heads or go aftermarket. Even if you don't rev higher than that you will see large gains by porting the heads.

Its cheaper to build the 460. If running small chamber heads you will need some type of dished piston, running large chamger heads flat tops. Any year block will work but avoid D2 heads.

I'm assuming you have a C6 and as long as you are stay close to stock you tranny will be fine. If you are going to push over 500hp though it will need to be built up. 4.56 is probably ok but what front axle do you have. If you have a D44 you are going to need a D60.