Hello, I've been approached by a guy I know to buy what he says is a 429 PI that he has. I also heard from another buddy of mine that there is two versions of the 429 Pi. One of them only has the PI heads and the other one has the PI heads and different connecting rods. This motor is said to be indistructible lol. Is this true that there is two versions of these motors, and how can I tell them appart?

 

I don't remember them being significantly different. Large than standard diameter dual exhausts and on later versions dual catalysts + an oil cooler were pretty much the only things that made the engine different. True, there were differences in the chassis, but almost everything else was "off the shelf" Ford. Most had 4300 carburetors and maybe, if you're lucky, a dual snorkel air cleaner. The latter I might be confusing with the BBC.
Remember that 429/460s were tough to begin with and would take about any punishment dished out by the driver. The valve train and automatic tranny were the limiting factors, so most rarely saw the far side of 5000RPM.

 

ford only used two different styles of connecting rods for the 429/460 engines.

the standard "passanger car" rods used square headed bolts and squared off mounting pads for the rod bolts.

the "cobra jet" rods used football shaped rod bolts heads and corresponding round mounting spot on rod.

the cobra jet rods were as the name implies used first in the cobra jet engines and the same basic version were used in the later truck engines (i think after 79 but might of been a little earlier) and Fords crate engines (460 and 514 version).

i would suspect that the cobra jet rods were also used on the police engines for durability, but not 100% certain.

the only way to tell is take the pan off and check. you might also get lucky and find out it is a 4 bolt main block, but don't hold your breath on that one.

make sure that the head casting number is D2OE, if not then it is not a PI engine.

Rgds
Mike

 

Thumbing thru George Reid's "Ford Engine Parts Interchange" book, he lists the 1970-71 429 4V P.I. engine as D0OF-B and as having a Rochester Q-Jet carburetor and Cruise-O-Matic transmission. I have never seen such an animal. The last LTD I tore apart had none of this. A 1975 model, it was equipped as described in my above post. IIRC, they also had high output alternators.

 

i have that same book and there are a lot of errors in it (not just on the 385 series but thru out the book).

the numbers he has listed are actually for a cobra jet engine. DOOE (not F) heads and quadrajet carb were used on the cobra jet engine, while the same head and Holley carb were used on the super cobra jet engine. as far as i know, these heads were never used on true police cars, but you could order the cobra jet engine in most 2 door Torino cars in 71 or 72, so some police depts with a savvy purchaser might of known which boxes to check off to get a hot police car that wasn't a police interceptor.

the D2OE pi heads were not used on all police interceptor motors. a lot of the later 429 and 460 police cars used the standard passenger car heads (usually D3VE) but had the upgraded components on it. like bigger alternator, oil cooler, heavy duty rad, bigger brakes, dual exhaust, etc. some of the early 460 cars (i've heard 73 and 74 only) still used the D2OE heads for a time on pursuit cars before going back to the regular heads.

so not all police cars had the good heads on them but just about all of them had the upgraded components on them.

don't take everything in that book as true as there are a few errors in that book. like it states that the D9TE truck blocks were 4 bolt mains, not true. nobody has ever found one yet.

rgds
Mike

 

Well thanks a lot guys for all the info. I'm going to check it out this weekend to see if it is a real pi motor

 

it could be with 3 different heads.2.25,2.19,or the little later model valve.mine has d20e-ab is 2.19 intake size p.i. d3 heads are standard size and nothing special

 

My little Ford Performance book shows Casting D2OE-AB for 429 PI Heads.

2.08" E
1.66" I

With a D0VE-A Block

 

D2OE-AB = D2OZ-6049-A ~ 1972 P/C only.

D0OZ-6049-H is the Ford part number for the 1970/71 P/C heads. They were also used on same yrs CJ & S/CJ
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
D0OZ-6200-A .. Rod - used on 1970/72 P/C; CJ & S/CJ

C8SZ-6200-A .. Rod - EXCEPT P/C; CJ & S/CJ
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
P/C Specific Carburetor ~ 1971

D0OZ-9510-B .. ROCHESTER 4V ~ 715 CFM ~ Carb ID Tag Number: D0OF-9510-B
------------------------------------------------------------------------
P/C Specific Carburetor ~ 1972

D2AZ-9510-N .. Ford 4V Carb ~ Carb ID Tag Number: D2PF-9510-TA (Motorcraft CA-885-B)

No P/C specific carb is listed for 1970.

P/C = Police Cruiser

Part Number source: 1965/72 Ford Passenger Car Parts Catalog

 

thanks alot for these numbers

 

Those are right except backwards it's 2.08" Intake and 1.66" exhaust.

 

Do some PI motors have 4 bolt mains or do they just use the two bolt mains