I have a 95 Ford with a 460. I was thinking about putting timing gears in it and wondering if it was worth it. Also is the 460 an interference engine. If it is i will probably put the gears in it. Thanks.

 

Yes. It is an interference engine.
I don't know anything about the value or impact of V-8 timing gears, though.
I would think that a timing chain is stronger, and is an important consideration, especially given the torque the 460 makes.
But that is a SWAG, not an infomed opinion.

 

My truck has 110,000 miles on it. Would you recommend replacing the timing chain before i have problems with it?
Thanks again,
Jesse

 

Well, it can be a lot of work to replace the chain, but it is a lot less than replacing an engine.
I would take the time to measure the slop in the chain. Here is the method I use; I have posted this before, but I hope it helps anyway:

It is not necessary to remove any components as long as you can see the timing marks clearly. It can be done with one person, but a second person can be helpful if the distributor cannot be easily seen while turning the crankshaft from the front of the engine. This test cannot tell if a chain has jumped; it can, however, tell you if there is enough slop in the chain to have let it jumped.

Tools: Breaker Bar with socket to fit the front crankshaft bolt

1. Mark the TDC or 0 mark on the damper clearly. Ensure the rest of the timing marks can be clearly seen; clean them if necessary. You may find it useful to scrape a little chalk over them to highlight them.
2. Remove the distributor cap and place it out of the way. You must be able to see the rotor while turning the engine with the breaker bar. It usually is not necessary to remove the spark plugs, but some high compression engines may require it to get an accurate reading.
3. Turn the engine in its normal rotational direction until the TDC or 0 mark is lined up with the pointer.
4. IMPORTANT: Do NOT turn the crank backwards just to line it up. Doing so will give erroneous results. You MUST rotate the crank in ONE direction only. If you overshoot, just go around again. This is where it may be helpful to remove the plugs.
5. Once the TDC and 0 marks are lined up and while watching the rotor, rotate the crank in the opposite direction. When the rotor begins to turn, STOP. It may help to have a helper push against the rotor's direction of rotation. (Remember, it will be going backwards at this point.) They can feel it begin to move more accurately than you can see it begin to move.
6. Note the value of the timing mark the pointer is indicating. It will be BTC, because you went in reverse of normal rotation.
7. This value is the amount of slop your timing chain has in degrees of rotation. Anything less than 10 is safe, but performance begins to fall off after 5.
8. If you have anything over 25, STOP driving that motor and get the chain and gears replaced! I have seen a motor run with up to 45 degrees - but I wouldn't risk it myself. (Also, that motor jumped while or just after starting it, but it ran very badly. It couldn't be re-started. I only found out how much it had jumped afterwards. I think the valves got kissed, enough to bend them, but not enough to punch through the pistons. It never ran again, as my friend didn't want to fix the truck.)

 

Yes 385 series engines are interfernce engines, but they rarely if ever hit from broken timing chains in stock form. Reasons for this are several, first the cam is pretty mild and it actually takes a fairly radical high lift cam to make it close on teh piston to valve clearence when they are running and secondly usually with a timing chain what happens is the chain stretches and or skips enough to make the engine either run really bad or not at all before it slips to the point of contact. Timing chains are actually pretty tough I have only ever seen one that was actually broken. So if you have a lot of slop in your tiiming chiain yes by all means replace it but unlke timing belts used on the 4 cylinder engines they aren't a maintance item that should be replaced at a given mileage.
110,000 miles is about the absolute minimum I have seen timing chains run and need replaced, it'a actually nothing for a stock timing chain to run 200,000 without needing replacement, so if your having problems with engine running properly and you determine it's froma stretched chain then replace it, but if it isn't stretched or skipped then it doesn't need it. but if it makes your feel better replace it anyway it's kinda up to you on that.

 

I ran my 86 F250 4x4 460 to 177,500 on the factory chain. I was nowhere close to breaking but was wore and stretched.

 

Just becuase it peaked my interesterest and for the sake of knowing, what do you mean by interference engine?

 

thanks again. I will probably just check the chain for wear and then go from there. Thanks again for all the suggestions.

 

An interference engine is one that if you turn it without the cam in time you can hit the valves with the pistons. Some engines such as the old 2300 4cyl were none interfernce engine in that you could open the valve all the way up and spin the crank over and never hit but a 460 will hit if you open the valve and spin the crank.

 

Franken-T, I think that they mean by "interference" engine is, if the timing chain breaks, would the cam leave a valve open and interfering with a piston stroke. Monster said that yes, I would "interfere" technically, but the mild cams with our engines dont have enough lift to crash the piston into the valve. This is my guess though brother. I have fixed a few rice burners that for sure had some interference when the timing belts break.
However, with the size of the cam the Monster runs with I'd be suprised if the valve didnt get a good smack by the piston every now or then... barca

 

barca a stock cam is capabable if leaving a valve open far enough to smack the piston on a 460. One way to tell this is if you have a torn down engine or atleast the heads off move a piston to TDC, then with the valve spring removed from teh valves on that piston set the head onto the block and measure how far the valve will drop before hitting the piston from on the seat. The last time I did that measurement it dropped about .350" and a stock cam has around .465 so there is .115 worth of interfernce there but a stock cam has such a slow ramp that timing has to be way off for this to happen or that valve has to be almost all the way open (I have never actually measure to see how far off but I am guessing somewhere around 60-80degs of crankshaft timing and it won't even run at that) mine on the other hand would only have to be off about 8 degs to cause a valve to piston contact.