Ok, I found a '79 F250 ( I think, that's what the seller 'thinks' it is). Truck has a 460 (with a big ol' Holley 4 barrel carb on it) in it supposedly out of a T-bird, year unknown (is there an easy way to tell these apart?). NOw I THINK the guy said it had originally had a 460 in the truck,too, but I'm not sure. ANyhow, I can have the truck for a song, BUT was told the 460 leaks seriously at the freeze plugs. (?). After going online a bit, I am still ignorant about 460's and freeze plugs, but it seems to be a popular thing to put screw-in ones in, which in the interests of time I probably will not do. ANyhow, is this leaky freeze plug problem a commonmone for 460's? Do they ALL usually go bad and have to be replaced, so I have to pull the engine to fix it, or what? One mechanic told me it had freeze plugs in the back of the block near the bellhousing, or under it, I'm not sure. Which plugs usually go bad? How hard is this job to do? What OTHER problems should I watch for on this year F250 (1979)with this 460 engine? PLEASE ENLIGHTEN ME!

Those of you in California, is this engine legal for smog in California? Would I be able to register this truck with this engine in it, or is this a big no-no?

Did these trucks change a lot between 1979 and 1980? I see this message board separates the eyar categories between those two years. Should I go on the message board for 180 and later Ford trucks too? Or were the trucks just too vastly different?
Thanks very much, and please let me know anything else you think I should know about for this vehicle or engine!!!

 

The thermostat housing on the CAR engine points upwards and the one on the truck is in a 90. But there is no saying that it wasn't changed. You can run the numbers and find out what it is from though i don't know where yet. As for the leak it may just be a corroded core plug that needs changed.

 

Freeze plugs are not all that bad. I have a 78 F150 460 4x4. The motor mounts for mine were home-made and made it nearly impossible to remove them. As luck would have it, the plug that went bad was behind the mount.

Here's what I did: Drain radiator. Removed the exhaust manifold (easier said than done). I jacked up the motor on the pass. side to take the pressure off the mount. Removed the motor mount. You can remove the perch too if you need to. Clean area around freeze plug w/wire wheel or brush. VERY CAREFULLY pound the old freeze plug INTO the block (the cylinder wall is behind the plug so use extreme care). Use a pliers to turn the old plug and pull it out of the block. Clean rust & corrosion from plug hole. Install new plug with a freze plug installer or hammer (a freeze plug installer is just a bent rod w/a disk on the end for pounding at goofy angles.).

There's also some kind of sealant you can use, but I forgot what it was called. The auto parts guy should know. Do yourself a favor and replace all of them while you have it apart. And, use the brass ones as the rubber are sort of temporary in my opinion.

Hope this helps.

Have fun

K.

 

The date is hidden in the last part of the VIN #.

Post the VIN and we'll tell you what year it is.

And the 79 & 80 share a few things but, they are VERY different.

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Hey 54guy
I thought that you might like to know about the screw-in freeze plugs, just FYI.
Screw-in freeze plugs were commomly put in race engine applications only so that they would not blow out under race conditions, (which is what they're meant to do if the coolant in your block freezes, thus hopefully saving your engine.
There were street engines that used screw-in freeze plugs, such as the pre-'72 4 bbl Clevlands only because the street stock race catagories required a certain number of engines to be "in line production" to qualify for this type of racing. Hence all the amaaaaaaaaazing iron in production in the 60s and a coupla years into the 70s.
No doubt others can add to this.

Cheers mate


--Heaven will be inherited by every man who has Ford in his soul--

 

OK, still need to know a few more things:

-ARE THERE freeze plugs behind the 460 block that I am going to have to replace if the others are leaking? ON the back end of the block, inside the bellhousing?

-HOw many freeze plus are there on a 460 block? 6 12, 8? More , less? WHERE are they?

-So, this job can be done with engine IN the truck...?

-What are the differences between a 460 from a car and one from a truck?

-so, VIN # will tell me what engine truck came with originally?

-What do I need to know, to watch out for , with a 460 engine? Any special things that go wrong with them? Or not?

-what should this truck be worth? Figure a few dents the size of your fist around rocker panels or edge of one fender. Edge of box fairly well dented with golf-ball sized dents, but no really huge ones.Truck could probably use freshened up paint, especially after fixing all those golf ball sized dents on the box edge. ONe inside door panel missing. Lots of cobwebs and crawly things! Windshield badly cracked but still there.

Thanks for any advice you guys can give me. I havent decided whether to try to fix the truck and use it, or if it will even be legal for me to use with this engine in it. The body is pretty good shape considering. Or, to just yank the tranny and and engine for some future hot rod project. What do you guys think? Guy only wants a couple of hundred dollars.

 

HANG ON! you can get RUBBER freeze plugs??? Are they sort of a quick fix thing? Do they just snap into place or something?

 

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 06-Aug-02 AT 06:25 AM (EST)]>Those of you in California, is this engine legal for smog in
>California? Would I be able to register this truck with this
>engine in it, or is this a big no-no?

That might depend on what engine orginally came in the truck. If the engine is newer or older than the truck.

Before you can register any vehicle you have to get a smog check unless it already has a current one. By the discription of the truck it sounds like it has been sitting awile so it probably doesn't. Check the registration to see when the last time it was registered. You will have to pay any and all back registation fees and fines unless you get a non-operating permit. I had to pay 300 dollars for back fees when I bought mine. Ask if the owner will drop the price of the truck accordingly. Ask the owner if he has the last smog check certificate. The seller is responsible for having one and has to give it to you. If not ask why. If he couldn't get a smog check certificate and register the vehicle because of certain engine modifications, or because the engine he put in the vehicle is not legal or missing some or all of it smog componets, then you will have the same problem once you pay him the money. Maybe that's why he selling it. If all your interested in is the engine and transmission then it's not an issue. But if you want to drive it on down the road you need to be carefull when buying a vehicle that has had an engine swap or modification. Especially when it hasn't been registed in a while and the owner isn't sure what's in there or where it came from.

Check this out. It has a lot of information about buying and selling a vehicle in California. Information on engine swaps, modifications, exempt vehicles and so forth. Click on "Smog Check" on the menu to your left and it will take you to the Smog Check menu page. You can get all the information you need from there. There's even a section where you can enter the vehicle's vin number and get a history of that vehicles smog history. Check it out. Get informed before you buy. Good luck.

www.smogcheck.ca.gov/StdHome.asp?TextOnly=False

 

>HANG ON! you can get RUBBER freeze plugs??? Are they sort of
>a quick fix thing? Do they just snap into place or
>something?

Yes you can get rubber freeze plugs. It's a rubber washer about 3/8" thick sandwiched between two metal washers. There's a screw going through them that you tighten to make the rubber "squish out the sides" to hold it in the block.

I had to replace my plugs and was told that these are, more or less, a quick fix. Since it was such a pain to get mine in/out, I only wanted to do it once so I went with brass.

Kevin K.

 

>-ARE THERE freeze plugs behind the 460 block that I am going
>to have to replace if the others are leaking? ON the back
>end of the block, inside the bellhousing?

I doubt that the rear plug is bad. It's pretty well protected from the elements. I had a spare 460 that sat outside for 3 years and was rusted inside and out. The freeze plug at the rear of the block was still solid.

>-HOw many freeze plus are there on a 460 block? 6 12, 8?
>More , less? WHERE are they?

I think there are 7. One large one on the rear of the block about where the end of the cam is, and 3 on each side of the block between the cylinders. You can sorta see them here. http://www.brayarch.com/~kevin/temp/freezeplg.jpg
There's one behind the motor mount too.

>-So, this job can be done with engine IN the truck...?

Yeah, it can, but it's not easy. Like I said, the motor mount has to come off to get at the middle one.

>-What are the differences between a 460 from a car and one
>from a truck?

I think it's just the motor mounts and the exhaust manifolds. I may be wrong though.

>-so, VIN # will tell me what engine truck came with
>originally?
Yes it will, and a lot more. [link:www.medicine.wisc.edu/~mrm/bronco/ftvin.cgi|Try this decoder]


Hope this helps!

Kevin K.

 

 

Thanks, Kevin, that VIN decoder worked like a charm!

 

I Have a 460 in my truck also and im having antifreze leaking and it looks like its comming from the bellhousing!!!??? I would asume that its the freze plug thats behind the flywheel??? Is there another common problem with these engines that would make antifreze (look) like its coming out of the bellhousing. Also this is the important Q? If I was going to replace that freze plug would it be easier to remove the tranz or to trmove the engine??????? I Have done engine swaps befor and replaced trans befor also but never this big. I have access to a shop with lifts, cranes, and trans jacks. So please help me out.

 

What do you like to do better, pull the front clip and eng, or drop a xmsn then wrangle around in the transmission hump changing a freeze plug?

I would pull the clip/eng in a blink of an eye, my 2 cents. 5 more cents, change them all while you have it out, and any other seal that are leaking on you.

 

Since its been brought up, what is the procedure for removing the front clip? Seems like an awefull lot going on in there for me to forget how to hook it all back up;wires etc. In the near future I may pull my engine and this will be my easiest option, given the confines of my work space.