Hey guys, I'm new on this board, but this looks like the right place for this question. I just bought a '71 model 429 from a Mercury Station Wagon. It has DOVE C heads on it and 94,000 miles on the engine. My question is, since it has a 2barrel carb on it, does that make any difference in the heads and cam? Also, what within a "cheap" price range is some good things to do to it for added performance? I'm thinkin about for at least now leaving the 2bbl on it and putting all new gaskets in it. I pulled the valve covers and you could eat out of them. I'm plannin on using it in a '56 panel truck. I'd like to see around 10 mpgs or so out of it? I couldnt get to the tag on the rear axle to see what gear ratio it had to get it close to a decent RPM at HWY speeds. It has C6 behind it and it ran great. Any ideas on what this beast put out stock? HP/Torque specs also how much does this thing weigh?

 

Honestly, a Performer, 600 Holley, and headers would free things up with out tearing the motor apart and porting the heads and adding a cam. I don't know if the 71' had the retarded timing chain, but I would replace it anyway with a good true roller as the stocker is likely stretched.

 

the heads between the 4bbl and 2bbl engines are the same. not sure on cam, but i would suspect they are the same also.

the 460 is a heavy beast. all loaded you are looking at around 750 - 800 lbs of cast iron. going to an aluminum 4bbl manifold will probably save around 75lbs give or take as those cast iron manifolds are heavy.

rgds
Mike

 

Welcome to FTE

Most full sized Ford/Merc station wagons from this time frame, have either a 2.75-1 or 3.00-1 rear axle ratio.

 

Hey thanks guys. I'm probably goin to leave it "stock" with a fresh tune up on the carb and dist. I'll probably run 3:08's in the rear and hope for the best on MPG's??