I was thinking of purchasing a 1975 Ford F-250 2 wheel drive pickup that has a 429 v8 in it. Im not real knowledgable on this big block engine. I restore old farm tractors and would like to have something with fairly good torque and pulling power. Do you think this Ford would fit the bill? It has a 4v carb. and c-6 auto tranny.
The tractors that I would mainly be pulling would average around 3000 to 8000 pounds, not huge by any means, but still takes some pulling power.
How was this engine? was it known to be a good one? I know it will drink a lot of gas, but thats ok.
I have been pulling these tractors with a 1977 Ford F-150 c-4 auto tranny with a 300 sraight 6 and it does pretty darn good, except for steep hills then it stuggles some, but what a tough old beast it is, it just never gives up!
Thanks in advance for any info you Ford experts might give me on this 429 engine.
Also in the garage 1984 Bronco, 302 v-8 It's a stud with attitude!

 

Fever,
I not sure but I believe that the 429 was not offered in a ford light duty truck.
The 460 is the same block, maybe.
There are two families of block the "FE" and the "FT".
FT being the truck motor. I think there was a 429 FT. It should have only been in Medium duty trucks, like a dump truck or something.
The FE is not what you want. It will not hold up to towing. It will haul butt in a mustang though.
Take this advice with a grain of salt there are some holes in my knowledge in this area.
KingFisher

 

The guys in the FE forum would beg to differ with the above. The truck specific FEs were built stronger than the car FE's. They have loads of torque, too.

The 429 and 460 are a defferent engine family than the FE's, though. FE's came stock in trucks in 360 & 390 sizes.

I would look through the various engine family forums, there will be a lot of info there to help your decision.

Tery

 

All,
Yes! Thanks for the reminder!
The 460 is from the 385 family.
The 429 is from the "FE" family.
Now the question is:
Is there a "FT" family? This a a medium duty Ford truck engine.
I think there is a 429 FT. This is the towing motor.
The FE is a racing motor.
Can anyone confirm?
KingFisher

 

Barry

 

All,
Sorry for sticking my nose in this one. I'm going to reread some of my literature. Hopefully I will figure this out.
KingFisher

 

I usually don't post on this forum, but since I like this body style also i check it out frequently...
But a FE isn't a towing motor? lol
My 390 FE came with about 401 ft lb of torgue stock...
So if that's not enough to get somethign rolling Im sorry. lol
Anyways, just my 2 cents on the FE's.

 

To realize the different ford engine series,one just has to look at what engine forums FTE Has.

 

Andysutt,

Thanks for being frank about what I was beating around the bush about in my post.-

 

Your welcome..
Also another note on my motor... its still a 2 barrel and had that much power :P

 

I have a 1972 429 the pre 72 -429's were the best becasue you got the thunderjet,cobrajet,boss,yes even a 2v but more power 72 was down rated to 8:5:1 cr and 73 -up 8:0:1 cr from all ive studied and read on these motors.whats the numbers on your heads and block ?

 

Okay to set this straight 429-460 are in the same family 385, 352-360-390-410-427-428 are Fe family and a 429 is a very good motor your's could what they call a lima engine 429 that's what they put into other ford vehicles.

 

Yeah I know its the 385 series my 429 is a 1972 has 8:5:1 cr i removed the detonation prone d2ve heads and used the d3ve heads same cc size,its a factory 4barrel mine but now im running a holley 3310-750cfm, and 160 tstat,dual 2.5 exhaust from the motor back, no smog or egr ,elimintaed the a/c to, not sure what kind of power its making.

 

That would be the lima that would the base 429 they were popular in trucks and ltd's and torino's

 

really i never was able really to find out what it came out of , it came with the truck. I did trace however the block numbers and numbers on the motor and it verified it was a 72 model. Was the lima any good?