Engine Differences

The biggest power difference was from early (68-71) to late (72-and newer) engines. 72's should be avoided if you want to use factory heads. Otherwise, all the engines have the same potential. The later EFI engines have heads that won't work with aftermarket intakes, so that's something to consider too.

"Price Motorsports" now makes adapters where a carbureted intake manifold will work on a F.I. cylinder head.

so i should aim for a motor pre '71? whats the deal with the heads post 71 ( i do plan on a mild port job)

The early motors were considered more "muscle" compared to 72-later.
In 72, the factory dropped the compression ratio substantially, and retarded the cam timing.

I'll fish for once pre 72 then and worst case scenario, get a feel for a price on heads. I am also going for the c6 but still have the stock 7.5 rear end, ill be getting a 9" from some other vehicle.

any recommendations for a 9" donor vehicle(exploder)? recommended gearing for a street strip ride?

Thanks for all the help and any help to come!

Good news found a 460 1971-1972 from a car that ran good when it was removed at a good price! and according to whats been said here and my research this should be what im looking for!

from fordclassics.com
460
# Produced from 1968 to 1996.
# Available in Ford, Mercury and Lincoln.
# Same as 429, but with longer stroke. (3.85 inch)
# During its earlier years, pre 1973, horsepower was rated at 365. After 1972 horsepower ranged from 208 to 275.
# Intake/exhaust valves are 2.08/1.66
# Intake/exhaust valves for the Police Interceptor 460 heads (from 1973-'74) measure 2.19/1.66

overownt said:

Good news found a 460 1971-1972 from a car that ran good when it was removed at a good price! and according to whats been said here and my research this should be what im looking for!

from fordclassics.com
460
# Produced from 1968 to 1996.
# Available in Ford, Mercury and Lincoln.
# Same as 429, but with longer stroke. (3.85 inch)
# During its earlier years, pre 1973, horsepower was rated at 365. After 1972 horsepower ranged from 208 to 275.
# Intake/exhaust valves are 2.08/1.66
# Intake/exhaust valves for the Police Interceptor 460 heads (from 1973-'74) measure 2.19/1.66

Click to expand...

Make sure it's a 71 if you want the 365HP version. 72 was the year power headed south.

well its a 1972 and the search continues but what is required to reach the 365 mark? valve job and springs to compensate for the loss in compression?

youll need a timing set and pistons and to trim the deck on the block to bring it close to 0 deck... but if you have the d2ve heads youll need race gas... theyll ping on 87 octane pump gas. the d3ve heads dont have the detonation issues the d2ve heads have but still have the large chamber.

If the price is low then a head swap could be done. I have had several 73-84 460's that ran very nice! There is a thread about de-smogging the 460 that will net you some pretty respectable power. Basically a Carb and timing chain swap re-curve the distributor and dual exhaust is all it takes to make a very enjoyable ride. The reason people are saying avoid the 1972 model is because of the heads which are one year only deals with big open chambers and no quench pads to help with detonation. If you can score a very good 72 long-block for a great price it would be worth swapping the heads to 73-up D3VE casting which are usually available rebuildable for ~$75-150. I don't know if anyone has dynoed a "De-smogged 460" but from experience I would say a good estimate would be ~350hp/~500lb/ft.

Alright then I will look into de-smogging, and still keep a side search for a pre 72. but there are tons of 73 and on 460s available locally. Any notes on de-smogging?

For de-smogging
Take off all the EGR
replace carb spacer
plug all the vacumn ports except for two, one for the modlator valve on the transand one for your vacumn advance on the distributor.

It should have D3VE heads on it, they are not bad but keep your eye out for D0VE heads and stay away from D2VE. Another tip with the 460's, put 429 timing gears in it, huge power gains!- from jalopyjournal

anything else needed?

pre 72

overownt said:

Alright then I will look into de-smogging, and still keep a side search for a pre 72. but there are tons of 73 and on 460s available locally. Any notes on de-smogging?

Click to expand...

where are you located, there may be people in your local area reading this. I live in Frederick Md. and have a very good running 70 460 you can here run. Randy.

Grand Rapids, Michigan

Well i cant find a pre 72, but I did find a freshly dipped 73 f250 block. It would save me on a rebuild it has new cam bearings and main, heads need to be redone(planned on doing it anyway) crank needs to be redone (considering stroking). $300 possible talk down to 250. good deal? should I go with it?

I'd buy it for 250 if he'll take it. Can buy'em all day around here for that price.

pickin her up for the ripe ole price of $250 woot woot!

Explorers had the 8.8.

ANY of the 460's have the potential of putting out good #'s if you are willing to put some of the right parts and some machine work into them......beware of the early (71 and earlier) blocks 'cause they're .020" shorter...."Thank the Lord for the Big Block Ford!"
Rob