I'm not really pitting the two against each other, but I'm curious as to how much better is the 429-460 really? i hear people say that the FE's are good, but the 460 is in a whole different league. I have been doing some thinking. I use my truck as a daily driver, at least for now, and i do medium towing ( a trailer full of quads) and am usually pulling it over mountain passes. Now, my built 410 does a good job of this when it is running to it's potential which is hardly ever, but would the 385 be better motor for this? Personally, in my area there is no 460 that has more ***** than mine, but that doesn't really mean much. Within the next year or so, I want to either rebuild my 410 or order or build a 514 for my 71 F250 4x4. What I am looking for is good top end hp in the 450hp range with mind boggling torque. My 410 does the job on top and has good low end but I want more. The thing is, with the 514 you could probably get away with a big cam for upper range and still have tons on the low end depending on gears and compression. Now I love my 416 to pieces and would love to make it runbetter and stronger, but what's the way to go? Is the 385 capable of a lot more or can the FE do just as good? Keep in mind I'm not spending 10's of thousands of dollars, I just want a big beefy pickup motor and be reliable. Any opinions?

 

You didn't state the altitude of the mountain passes that you are pulling but there is no substitue for cubic inches at higher altitudes. The FE block is a great design but you are pushing the design limits when you go past the 428. That's the reason Ford made the 385 series of motors. If you want lots of HP at medium to high RPM's, go with the 429 with cam,PI heads, headers,etc. The 460 especially in the EFI configuration has more power than you probably need.

 

The FE block is a great design but you
>are pushing the design limits when you go past the 428.
>That's the reason Ford made the 385 series of motors.



Dangit and here ford misled us all this time by saying it was for emissions reasons 428 is good for 600 hp but if you want mind bending torque I'd look into a stroker 460 crank then offset grind it a bit more or maybe something along the lines of FLatlanders Racing's SCAT 9-460-4500-6635-2200 460 4.500" Stroke x 6.635" x 2.200" Rod $549 4.39" bore 4.5" torque, a hydraulic roller cam and you'll have more than enough torque to break stuff at a whim

 

It's mostly 1500ft and below so not very high, but the inclines can be fairly steep and the roads are windy so it's a little tough keeping my 410 in it's "powerband". If I wind up going to a 385 series it will be with the 514.

 

IMHO for what you want, I'd go with at least a 460 or bigger, there's no substitute for cubic inches with torque (where did I hear that .

The thing I'd be concerned about is all that torque on the 4X4 driveline.

Barry

 

460s can be punched and bored to a little over 800 cubes and have more aftermarket parts by far. For the money there is no better option for power. I'll stick with my FE though.

 

For curiosity's sake, what does IMHO mean? Another reason for my drooling over the 514 is that I have never had anything but an FE and if i get one for the truck then i can do what i originally wanted to do with my 410 which is find a Mustang to put it in.

 

IMHO= In My Honest Opinion

Just remember the FE bellhousing and motor mounts are different than the 460s. If you run a C6 tranny you are going to need a whole new tranny. Motor mounts shouldn't be that hard to find. Get the pedestals from the junkyard.

 

Isn't there a place called L&L that can pretty much set me up witha kit? I already have a C6 from a 429 to use, just need to rebuild it with a shift kit and probably a stall. Would a 514 even need a stall? At any rate it's not gonna happen any time soon, I'm just lookin ahead that's why I need to get this 410 running top notch again.

 

That will work then. Unless that 514 is gonna be pretty wild you will not need a stall but better ask the guys in the 460 forum about that. They know their stuff.