Hi,
I got a 73 ford f-250. And I'm going to put a 460 in it. I was woundering if there is a site where I can go to give them the block serial number and find out what my block came out of. The serial number is DIVE-8315-A2B if that helps, thanks.

 

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thats not a serial number but rather a block casting revision number, the D1VE castings were used from 71-78, and could have been in anything that had a 460 or upto 73 a 429.

 

thanks for the info, when i fo to buy new parts for the block, such as bearings, rings and things of that sort does it matter what year i tell them the block is as long as it's between 71 and 78?

also i have a nother 460 block and the casting number is D97E-AB. i bileve that it is a 76 does this sound correct?

one last question is where would you find the casting numbers on the heads because i looked on both of them and i didn't see any but they could be covered with sludge thanks again.

 

D9TE is 79 and later, and uses an externally balanced crank shaft with a hatchet weight on the spacer. You can use the crank from the later blocks in the early blocks but you couldnot use the cranks from the early blocks in the D9 blocks as the cyl walls were extended slightly, and the earlier internally balanced cranks had larger counter weights that don't clear (although you could probably clearence them, and the block but not just drop them in)

 

i have seen casting numbers on 460 heads in two locations. visible with head on block between two exhaust ports or on the underside of the heads cast into non machined surfaces towards exhaust side of heads. thanks for the info monster, i have 2-460 cranks and blocks laying around, a c9 and a d9...i'll have to make sure i label the cranks before i forget which is which or check for a numbering differences. cheers, garsten

 

i still could not find a casting number on my 460 heads although one set takes a small spark plug and the other set takes a larger plug. Do you have any idea which set is better ? Or which set will provide more horses?

 

Early heads used the larger diameter sparkplugs. Generally, heads with casting numbers beginning C8VE,C9VE, D0VE are considered the more desirable passenger castings as they will increase compression about 1 1/2 points as compared to heads beginning D3VE, which is the common low compression smogger head. Using the early head on a later smogger engine brings an 8 to 1 C/R engine up to aprox 9.5 to 1 and premium fuel will be required, as may also be a slight retarding of the spark.

If you do use the early large plug heads, you will have to regap the plugs to the correct gap for Electronic Ignition plugs (assuming they are going on a later Electronic Ignition engine), this is apparently okay and others have done it.

The other two heads seen on the early 460s are D2VE which are generally considered to be poorest of all for building a performance engine, though surprisingly enough the (similar sounding) castings beginning D2OE are the POLICE units and are considered to be quite good. There are also D0OE (Cobra jet) castings which are a bit rare and very desirable, and of course the famous BOSS units which ...if you had them... you would already know all about them.

The casting numbers will be on the lower edge of the same side of the head with the spark plug holes, prominently displayed and easily read even with exhaust manifolds on.

There are other heads used in later years on trucks- I won't go into them- and also some oddball heads for very large heavy duty truck applications that were 429 CID but not really desirable for performance uses & not the same as passenger car castings anyway.