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429 install in 69 Fairlane 500 Fastback

23K views 161 replies 12 participants last post by  butterbean 
#1 ·
Been reading some good info here on BBF motors , and I have one on my shop floor right now. A little history on the motor tranny combo. A guy I know locally bought a 72 Torino with 70k miles on it last year. His intentions was to restore the body and make a street cruiser out of it. He also had some Fox body Mustangs and such . Well, he got to looking and discovered the car had been rear ended at some point and it was being held together with sheet metal and bondo. The sub frame bent, and lots of covered up rust. He wound up pulling the motor tranny combo , wrapped it in plastic, and scrapped the car. I bought the combination from him 3 weeks ago, and have it in my shop right now. I have a 69 Fairlane Fastback, and plan to put this combo in soon. The Fairalne had a 351w that also had its problems, along with a problematic SB C6. That whole driveline has since been sold.
My car already has a 9" rear end , so it should be good to go for the BB. My immediate plan is to run this motor stock until it starts giving me obvious signs that it is in need of rebuilding. It. Has the undesirable, D2VE heads , and I plan on changing that set up next year. I ordered the 0* timing chain set up , and a one wire HEI distributor , and plan to recurve it before getting this project. On the road. I will have lots of questions, but will try to listen, and give good answers to you guys so we don't waste a lot of time. My biggest thing right now is to make sure that this sucker will fit into my car. I plan to flatten the shock towers, to give me more room for spark plug changes and such. I will most likely build motor mounts , or do a combo of fabbed, and bought mounts. I have had the motor running on my shop floor and sounds very good. I plan to run the stock intake with a Holley 600 for now. Gonna try to find some 1/2 ton spring for the front to accommodate for the added weight on the front end. Any help with little mods or comment from those who have done this before would help me immensely.
 
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#2 ·
Hey there fella welcome to the forum you should check out my build thread. Same engine bay and such as your car. You are going to love having a big block! Summit has some really good heavy duty springs for your car. Thats what I used. And cj pony parts has a big block sway bar kit for you as well . The small block one won't work. Anyway good luck with the build ill be following. If you have any questions feel free to ask. I ran into all the troubles you could think of when doing my car lol.

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#3 ·
I just read all 23 pages, and yes you did run into some troubles didn't you? I'm going to look closely at those mounts, because I usually build my own as I have done on several other projects. I'm more comfortable messing with a Shovelhead or Evo, but this motor combo will stay together until the motor gets rebuilt next year.
 
#5 ·
While ur looking around for parts need to dump that 600 carb a 750dbl.pumper or 780 will wake it up big time.I`m running a 950hp holley on mine with a few more mods and big gears and motor loves it..
You know, I was thinking that 600 is right on the edge of being too small if I ever do any other mods. Best time would be now . Thanks,
 
#7 · (Edited)
Here is my car it sits now. Land vehicle Vehicle Car Motor vehicle Muscle car

Well, it sits a little higher now without a power train in it. But there it is.
My plan is to sell the wheels and tires on it now ( new), and put the P71 police crown Vic wheels on it with raised letter tires. All chrome has been stripped off, and I'm going for a lower NASCAR looking stance. Bumpers will be stripped and painted red. I have a powder coat over, that I've already done the front grill in titanium flat silver with black inlay. The windshield and window trim will be powder coated satin black. I'm an airbrush artist, so all name plates will be done in paint on fenders and such. I may go ahead and find the Cobra scoop for the hood ( which will be black also) . Anyone have a set of cop wheels? I heard the crown Vic has the sae wheel just with hubcaps over them.
 
#9 ·
Yes I ran into a lot of problems lol. Thankfully it all worked out. If your looking for a cobra hood scoop you can have the one off my wagon. I'm going to make my hood into a cowl induction hood and was going to sell the scoop so if you are interested let me know. Nice car! Sounds like its going to look awesome. I always thought about learning to airbrush. Auggie ag460torino has inspired me to get one of those cars. I found one on craigslist that I want. Its all black with a cobra scoop and in need of some floors but runs and drives.

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#10 · (Edited)
This body style is getting harder to find these days. I traded for this car . I had an all steel 27 Ford rat rod I got bored with and swapped the guy even for it. Pm me if you have a price in mind for the scooper. Yes, most of all the bikes I've painted we're out of the country. Well, besides a few I built here in the states. I've airbrushed more free hand skulls than Quakers got oats. Hahaha let me know on the scoop , and maybe I can do something cool on an air cleaner or valve covers. I also have a powder coat system and oven.
 
#12 ·
welcome to the forum, other than yours being a fastback we are doing the same build.
68 is right on the sway bar, it wont clear the oil pan, one other thing to watch for is the oil filter, you will need to either run a remote setup or find one that is shorter I think 68 told me he usedone for a dodge truck.
I cant help with mounts as i am using an engine plate but i will tell you that fan to radiator clearance is almost zero so anything you can do to sit the engine back will only help.
Keep at it you will love it when your done.
 
#15 ·
Yep, factory 351w with C6 tranny. I still don't know how you guys mount these motors to where the top two tranny bolts will come out. It looks like they will be slap up against the fire wall. Haha. I am gonna go with an aftermarket radiator using front mounted electric fan on mine. Hopefully that will buy me a little room. It would be nice to see how you guys trimmed your shock towers. I was going to grind the stamped steel part to where the flip out didn't get in the way, then take the that curved piece out or make it flat using 1/4" plate to keep it ridgid. I might even pull the carpet back on the inside ,and get my rose bud and heat the edge of the tunnel and bang it out for a little more room.
 
#16 ·
With my set-up I cant get the top two tranny bolts out, so If I pull one they both gotta come out. If/when I do pull them again I am probably going to massage my firewall to remedy the situation.
As for the shock towers the engine will fit without cutting them (I did not cut mine) but changing spark plugs is gonna be a b**ch.
I will probably cut mine when I pull the engine again so I can run some larger headers.
There are a few good threads here about cutting shock towers just have to dig a little to find them.
The way I plan to do it is meaure 1" above each of the A-arm mounting holes and cut front to back along that line, then measure to the coil spring to see how much I can cut away then plate it back with 3/16".
I will probably run some sort of export brace when I do mine, no one has said it is really needed but it would make me feel better after cutting on the towers.
 
#17 ·
I agree on cutting the shock towers. They had that section made like that for a reason (maybe) haha, so I want to know that I used something to keep it strong for peace of mind. BTW, great site here. Trying to deal with egos on other sites just makes it hard to get useful info.
 
#18 · (Edited)
Yeah I have my shock towers cut back like an inch from when I installed my 390 in my wagon. And even at an inch it is terrible to get the center two plugs out. Its like a game of twister lol. Believe me you will happy you did it. I did a little massaging on my firewall to get the bolts out. Also make sure you get some really good fans to push through the rad. I bought cheap ebay ones and they didn't work for crap. So I got the mechanical fan on that I have now and it works great. Tight squeeze but it works.

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#22 ·
Ok, here's my delima

I have this 429 ,72 model on my shop floor. It has 70k miles on it. My original plan was to install new timing chain, check compression, and lett her eat until she starts blowing smoke throu the rings. It has D2VE heads ( low compression) open chamber , bla bla bla. One part of me wants to stick to my plan and drive it for a while. But, the other says to wait , get the good heads on it, install pistons and rings,lower bearings, and put mild cam in it , then put a motor in the car that I know what I've got. I guess I need to get the timing chain back in it ,and check the compression before I make any decisions. Some mornings I wake up thinking I'll just buy an engine stand and take my time and build a motor that I want. Other mornings I just want to get it in the car and drive it. Hahaha. My shop is not big enough to have both car and motor in it at the same time and be ale to spread out and work. I hate seeing the car sitting outside with a tarp over it. I'm just wondering how long I could drive it with 70 k on it already before it needs rebuilding.
 
#23 ·
I have this 429 ,72 model on my shop floor. It has 70k miles on it. My original plan was to install new timing chain, check compression, and lett her eat until she starts blowing smoke throu the rings. It has D2VE heads ( low compression) open chamber , bla bla bla. One part of me wants to stick to my plan and drive it for a while. But, the other says to wait , get the good heads on it, install pistons and rings,lower bearings, and put mild cam in it , then put a motor in the car that I know what I've got. I guess I need to get the timing chain back in it ,and check the compression before I make any decisions. Some mornings I wake up thinking I'll just buy an engine stand and take my time and build a motor that I want. Other mornings I just want to get it in the car and drive it. Hahaha. My shop is not big enough to have both car and motor in it at the same time and be ale to spread out and work. I hate seeing the car sitting outside with a tarp over it. I'm just wondering how long I could drive it with 70 k on it already before it needs rebuilding.
Honestly I would slap a new timing chain on it, do a compression test and put it in. Save up and get another motor and work that thing and when its done you just swap them out. I recently purchased a 1970 lincoln 460 with 50, 000 or so on it and when I took it apart I found the bearings were in great shape. Even still had the crosshatching on the cylinder walls. My plan was to send to machine shop and get everything checked and new cam bearings then install everything back in with new rings and bearings. Ported heads and a cam. But then my trans died so that's on hold. But you will be able to drive your car around with building an engine. Then if you so choose you can make a monster out of the other engine and take your time.

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#24 ·
This motor did not smoke a lick. And it would absolutely boil the tires off the Torino it was in. Man, someone needs to buy my dang wheels so I an get the black D slot wheels I want. Hahaha. Gonna be out of town this weekend but my parts come in Friday. I'll be going back together and buttoning up the motor next week for a test crank on the shop floor.
 
#27 ·
Ok, tomorrow night I plan on spinning the motor over and checking compression on every cylinder before deciding what to do. I had to buy a starter and it came in today. Tonight I plan on getting everything back together including a new HEI distributor. I'm not going to waste a good gasket set on the timing cover, because mine has a small crack right where the main seal ends. I noticed it while pressure washing the motor a few weeks ago. I also noticed some oil that must have been leaking built up around that area. Now that I look at it, it appears that someone forgot to remove the pan bolts an tried to pry the cover off. I can't think of any other way it would just crack right there. I'm going to test fire it tomorrow evening sitting on my shop floor, Just to see if it will start and idle for 30 seconds. The tranny is still hooked up and full of fluid so I don't see any harm in doing that for just a few seconds to see if it runs. I have a guy who is suppose to be bringing me a new timing cover this weekend. I fired it up 2 weeks ago, but the plugs were nasty and it was still on points. Will report back Friday evening on the results of compression test. What would be decent compression for a stock 429 ? Anyone?
 
#28 ·
Others may chime in but I was always more concerned with the difference between the cylinders than the absolute value due to testing conditions (so long as all values where at 100 psi or greater).
The rule of thumb I was taught that you don't want more than 20 psi difference between your lowest and highest reading. One other thing is that adjacent cylinders should be no more than ~12 psi difference.
I would do the check after you run the engine for a minute to get the cylinders wet with oil, also watch how each cylinder builds pressure on the gage as that can sometime indicate issues.
Again this is how I have always done it so I am not sure how correct it is.
 
#30 ·
Not good news. I got home today and installed my new distributor and made everything ready for a test crank. Holy cow, a half a turn the motor fired up and idled. Scared us to death, as we weren't expecting it to just pop off. And run like that. Ran it for 20 or 30 seconds and shut it down. Started checking compression, and that's when the bad news started. I checked number 1 cylinder,150lbs. Number 2 115 lbs. number 3 50 lbs, and it went that way all the way around the motor. I poured oil in the cylinders that were low and the compression jumped to 150 lbs. gonna just yank the heads, pull it down, and start a fresh rebuild.
 
#34 ·
twins

That's the funny part. I would rather see a car like yours unmolested..... then, once they have rotted into the ground or been wrapped around a tree...... cut em up! I would never have taken that Torino from stock to where it is now. I have a 68 GTO that is all original sheet metal, floors and trunk included...... and it's a ragtop to boot! It is by no means a show car but it is original and uncut. I could never take that car and put a tube chassis under it! lol.....

That's why I like yours! And I have taught my son and daughter to appreciate the cars that have survived over a drag car or hot rod..... DON'T GET ME WRONG :) I love what has now been nicknamed "The Beast" by the forum followers and it is a blast to drive. And by next summer should be a whole different car when the tracks open! And the attention it draws is amazing. But I give credit where credit is due and you have a SWEET RIDE...... Would love to have a pic of the two side by side, lol Did someone mention "photoshop", hahaha

Keep up the good work. Can't wait to see that thing sporting some major heavyweight Ford HP!!!!!!!!

I will be keeping tabs :D
 
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