OK guys, looking for some direction on how to build the '79 460 for my '77 F-150 2WD (long-box) with the C-6 and 3.25 traction-lock rear. I plan to use headers.

The truck will be street-driven including some highway, but is not a commuter and won't see snow. I would like to take it down the strip on occasion on Friday nights (street night).

I think 14 second ET's would be plenty entertaining, anything more a bonus.

So, I guess I am looking for guidance on cam/intake/head and compression ratio.

I am doing lots of reading and talking to machine shops already but there's a lot of opinions out there.

Thanks

 

whats your budget? youve got lots of options.

 

$2341.79 -- kidding!

Not sure exactly .. guess I'm reluctant to put an exact number on this. I expected it would be a "few grand" by the time I was done.

Maybe you could give me your ideas on "no expenses spared" and then let me know what things you would exclude to reduce cost.

BTW, I have the '79 block so it is externally balanced with the slightly longer (deeper) cylinder walls as I understand it. Not sure if that is a reason to NOT stroke it, or perhaps a good reason to do just that.

 

id stroke it throw a 545 kit into it-4.5" stroke scat forged crank, 6.7" hbeam rods, je 4.39" bore 39cc dish forged pistons, trick flow street heads, victor intake, 1050 dominator carb, and being street driven id go a big hydraulic cam like the lunati 61605LK and a 2500 rpm stall converter. that should put you into the 12s in the quarter maybe high 11s and cost around 6500 dollars in parts. a solid roller cam would give a bit more power and cost a bit more money, but makes for more maintinence and work. if you put that combo together you should be have no problems driving around and have lots of fun at the track.

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Whoa .. that sounds great, but isn't a big cam and victor manifold with a 2500rpm converter a mis-match for a 3.25 rear and auto?

I also wanted to ask .. how much trouble am I going to get into with my stock C-6 with a fresh 460+ under the hood? Should I be re-inforcing there first?

 

actually, the 3.25 gears are perfect for that setup if you plan on street driving at all... just be light on the pedal or youll be going through tires pretty quick. deep gears like 4.10s are only for vehicles that need to tow and dont have enough torque coming out of the motor... you wont have that problem. if your c-6 is in good shape it should last awhile behind the 545, but you may want to rebuild it just for the peace of mind... the c-6 trannies are really tough even in stock form... now if youd said you had a c-4, then id say dump it and go with a c-6 because youd tear that thing up in a hurry, but c-6s are good trannies.
oh, by the way most semis have 3.08ish rears because they have the low end torque and dont need to fake it

 

Thanks again for the reply Darrin. Would be nice to hear from a few others too -- is Darrin right on?

Guess some of the old-school thoughts go out the window when dealing with large displacements motors, especially stroked 460s?

All the talk in these books I have says open plenums and big cams are for 4.10+ rears and for engines with lots of RPM (says forget RPMs' for 460) in light-weight vehicles (not my F-150 for sure!)

I hear it may weight over 4000lbs. I thought it was more like 3700 - 3800.

 

I have basically the same truck as you and it weighs 4400 lbs with a little 302/C4. You're going to be closer to 5000 lbs with a 460/C6.

 

my 1978 f250 4x4 with a c-6/400 was 4452 lbs shipping weight according to my title... i doubt your 77 2wd could weigh 4400 lbs. also, an all aluminum top end 460 weighs about the same as an all cast iron 302
also, with the increase in displacement it brings the rpm range of everything down... youre adding almost a hundred cubes, so the rpm range will drop almost 20% on any rpm ranged part except the stall converter... the stall will increase because the engine is putting out more torque.

 

Well according to the scales at the landfill, with a full gas tank and a spare tire in the bed it weighs 4390. That's on my receipt.

Maybe the weight of the receiver hitch makes the difference? Come to think of it, theres quite a bit of bondo on her too.... and tools and junk behind the seat... oh yeah and I'm sure there's plenty of mud caked up underneath her...

But I digress, I don't want to hijack this thread. sorry.

 

If I run out of money and can't afford a stroker kit or aluminum heads, what kind of combo would you recommend for my 460 assuming I can do a modest port job on the D3VE heads and am willing to install new valve springs and bronze guides?

I am wanting to bump the compression to between 9.0 and 9.5.

I was thinking of going with a package like Edelbrock's Performer RPM intake and cam with a 750cfm carb (either to use Edelbrock's or the Holley 4160?).

Would you still recommend a higher-stall torque converter on a milder setup like this .. perhaps a 1700 - 2000 rpm? Or keep it stock?

I assume my stock Holley 4180 at 600cfm and with all the smog mods is not worth using / modifying? 600 doesn't seem enough to me for a performance 460.

For pistons I was thinking cast hyper flat-top with reliefs, or maybe 15cc D-cup dishes if the C/R is too high with the flats.

I don't yet know the state of the block and what over-bore is required .. I am thinking to go for the minimum over-bore required (perhaps 0.020) so as to allow for future over-bore if ever needed.

 

throw some flat top 460 pistons in there. that will bring the compression up. it all depends on how you want the truck to handle what cam, carb, intake, and stall converter you should use. for a tight budget you could get some headers (l&l makes good ones with a lifetime warranty for your application) do some mild port work on the exhaust (www.reincarnationautomotive.com has good instructions if you want to do it yourself) throw an edelbrock 750 if youre putting a cam bigger than 220@.050 duration, 600 is fine for anything less. if youre going over 220 for the cam youll want the edelbrock rpm or air gap or weiand stealth intake, if its less than 220 then you could keep the stock intake or get a regular edelbrock performer. make sure you change the timing set and set it straight up 0. converter and springs to match the cam. stock lift is .487 so dont go under that. if you want lope get a bigger cam, if you want low end power get a cam that doesnt lope. lope border is around 215 @ .050 on a 460 at 9.5-1 compression.

 

I have what sounds like an almost identical pickup, yours isn't blue is it? LOL Anyway I put the motor together with a 275DEH comp cams (got the whole kit,recomend you do the same) ported a set of dove heads, exhaust side only and just gasket matched the intake side, running flat top pistons with a single valve relief in them .060 oversize, had it balanced and that helped a lot, runs real smooth once the slight lope is overcome, stock converter, actually a heavy duty towing converter as that what I had, stalls a bit lower than I like (about 1600) but it does keep the tires from lighting up on dry pavement most of the time, be very careful on wet though..
I bought a set of hedman headers but would get hookers were I to do it over, and probably will, the ball type collecter joint on the hedmans simply will not stay tight, a month maybe two and I have to get under there and tighten or put new ones in as they disappear sometimes, running a stock Dove manifold with a 600 holley on it, I tried 650 and 750 holleys but they just did not work as well as the 600 does, had to go to 2.5 inch exhaust all the way out the back, anything smaller restricted it too much. I hope this helps.. and by the way It runs very very well!! Its just plain fun to drive if you want it to be! Gotta love posi rearends!

One other thing, had a bit of a problem finding the right pushrods to use and still not sure I have the correct ones so if you go that way with the heads get a pushrod checker or maybe one of the guys here knows which pushrod to use with a 79 block and the dove heads