460 build up
 

buidling a newish 460 for my truck need some input..
1986 stock block with 24cc dished pistons.. .065 piston to deck clearance
1969 c9ve-a heads or 1970 dove-c heads
standard felpro head gaskets
custom ground cam 214/224 degree at 500 lift w/trick flow beehive dual springs and lunati lifters and custom pushrods (still to be muesured)
l&l shorty headers
2 1/2" dual exhaust with 40 series flowmasters
1970 429 boss timing chain
750 edelbrock w/1" spacer on a weiand stealth intake
davis unified hei style distrubuter


what im looking for are estimated horse power/tourque and compression ratio numbers.. this is going into a 79 f250 4X4 with 4.10 gears auto trans and 40" tires.. its drive 2-3 times a week and used to tow up to 8000lbs on weekends.. mud is its prefered terrain. thanks for helping out fellas..

Maybe 8.6 compression.

Maybe 350 HP

Maybe 500 lb/ft at 2500 rpm.

460 Horsepower Chart (revised 1/24/09) - 460 Ford Forum

Hard to tell.....

You'll get more replies and estimates.

My 460 is very similar to your build. I don't have any solid numbers for you as I have not had it dyno tested or anything, but I would guess somewhere around 375- maybe 400. How much lift on the cam? Any porting on heads? Stock size valves?

.065 deck clearance ? with 24cc dished ? With a set of small chamber heads. Wow something needs to be done about that before building this engine. Your building a pinger. By the time you back enough timing out and dump enough gas in to get it to move without pinging you are going to have a real pig on your hands. Invest in a good set of pistons with a lot less dish that will get you within reach of a zero deck height without too much decking. Once you do that if you don't like where the comp ratio is going to be then go with D3's or better yet a nice set of aluminum heads with big chambers.

I agree with Mark 100%
No Quench + tight heads is a disaster especially since there's no 100 octane at the pump anymore.
That Felpro head gasket is already over 0.040".
Zero deck for sure.

Spend some money on porting d3's.
Bowl blend, exhaust thermactor humps and short side R.
Or look at TFS or Edelbrock aluminum head$.

Forget the antique chain and get a true roller.
EFI ('88 & up) timing chains are straight up and roller, or a Cloyes 9-1122 can be had for under $50.

Do you really trust Performance Distributor to get your curve perfect from some collection of numbers?
They say right on their site that they will not sell tuning parts like springs and weights.
The time to curve the dizzy is on the dyno or in the truck while actually driving.

... plus, you don't mention the cam material, be sure your dizzy gear is compatible.

There are many dyno proven builds over on 460Ford.com...

Whatever you end up with, towing 8k is going to be easy if the cam is not ludicrous.

appriciate the help.. piston size is an estimate they are stock 86 460 peices..ayone know the actual size..deck clearence was muesured without head gasket ttoatal compressed hight should be around.110.

Do you mean the dish, compression height, bore size, or what???

the .065 muesurement is the piston to deck clearance at top dead center along the ouside of the piston... the dish was estimated off research i found online for factory pistons as i dont have a cc calculaotar setup.. bore size is standard...

So, what are you asking "...ayone know the actual size..."
-of what?-

A piece of plexiglass with a hole drilled in it, some grease to seal it, and an irrigation syringe full of ATF will tell you exactly how big the dish is.

Your D9TE block should have a deck height of 10.322"
Even on an old 10.30" block you would be .043 in the hole.

Do whatever you can to get the squish under .050" inclusive of the gasket.
(deck the block, high compression height pistons with adequate dish, ...)
Keep compression on pump gas with iron heads to 9.5 or less.
The extra 20cc of the D3 heads would help you a lot here.


Be very careful with that DUI ignition timing in a daily driver type truck.

dont have d3 heads but ill recheck the the piston clearences.

Your first post didn't seem like you had made up your mind on heads.
You said C9's or D0VE's.
72-75cc chambers are a mistake in this build imo.
If you're dead set on early iron heads throw those pistons in the nearest scrap bin and find some that will bring you to zero deck and a BIG dish.

Your current 65 thou deck plus around 40 for the Felpro's is going to leave you more than double an acceptable quench.

no i handt decided on the heads but didnt think there was much differance between themm. and i thought a 80s low compression motor with older small cc heads equaled a high compression monstor..

Not really.
It equals a detonation prone thorn in your side...
But they won't run on 92 octane.

And, remember those are crankshaft #'s with open intakes and headers.
After '72 SAE changed the way engines were dynoed
They had to have an air filter and a full exhaust.
The readings were taken at the rear end.

Those guy's over there on 460Ford are using stock heads because it's in the rules!
And, they are doing it at 6k rpm's.

They can use a big cam to decrease dynamic compression at low rpm's
... in a stripped out 'stang that weighs 3,000lbs.
But you SURE won't want to try that in a truck towing 8K.

You could use early heads if you zero deck the block and then lower the compression.
(what's the point of that?)

Decide what you want/need first.
Build an engine that will fill your requirements.
You can't just throw a bunch of parts at each other.
You need to make them work together-

Machine work and porting is expensive.
Mistakes are even MORE expensive.

You want to tow 8k in a 6k truck on the highway?
With your tire and gear plus a C6 you're going to be turning 2250 at 65mph.
Not counting what the tranny is turning into heat.
Get a good cooler!

IMO, D3 heads can function just fine in this application.
350HP with a flat torque curve is not that hard to get.
Realize that is a 50% increase without loss of driveability.

You will need pistons, bowl blend and some SS radius work + removing the thermactor humps.
Grinding iron is tedious and dirty!

I would definitely spring for TFS aluminum heads before I tried to get past 400HP from ANY iron head in a road driven truck.

That is just my opinion.
It is also a good reflection of what 'mark a' already said in post 4.

ok looks like the old heads should go to the swap meet unless im building a race car... so what heads will work from the wrecking yard.. we have a plentiful stock of places to look up here in oregon.. including fuelly 460s.. i also have a set of 77 heads on a blown up mecury marquie motor.. not sure if there damaged will need to check... motor was a toss off from engine swap for friend...cant afford alimunums as of yet.

Your only factory option is D3's.
These were used through the end of carburetors in '87, like mine.

EFI (E7 or F3) heads have different intake and exhaust locations.
They flow better but will not bolt to carb intake manifolds or headers.
Price Motorsport sells an adapter plate to put a 4 Barrel on an EFI lower manifold.
#CS-460EFI
It comes with plugs for the injector holes.

No answer on what you could do for EFI 4x4 headers.
Sorry. :o