Thread: 429 tuning

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chris, it all depends on what you intend to do with the car. If it's street driven, a 950 carb is gonna be way too big. An 850 will work well on a highly modified motor, a 750 will work well on a warmed over motor and a 650 would be the choice for a cruiser that will see no dragstrip duty. That's just my opinion.

sounds about right techinspector, you must know the holley's better than i do though cause i can never keep them tuned from one week to the next. i found an old timer that swears by holleys that i get to tune my holley on my pulling truck but my daily drivers would never see one just from my experience. no debate that you will see more ponies from the holley if you have a proper tune.

Originally posted by 69t-birdchris
hi all irecently joined, i have a 69 t-bird with the 429 thunderjet block in her , the whole car is totally origonal and mint and im looking to tune up the engine and customise her a bit, i cant find much info or places to take her here in the uk so was wondering what would you do to get some grunt out of her, she has an auto box in her if it changes any thing. i know she has around 360 bhp but i want to get her to really grunt with power. HOW???

How much more power do you want? That engie has very ggod compression ratio and great heads already. In fact, you could make a very nice motor if you took it apart and made a few mods.

If you are working with what you already have running, then put a nice new 2"-21/2" dual exhaust with free flowing mufflers, twist the distributor over as much as the fuel will tolerate, and put a bigger carbuetor with an aluminum intake...say an Edelbrock Performer with a Holley 750. That will wake up the stock combo...

Paul

Originally posted by techinspector1
D3VE's are 1973 to 1974 heads, 91.4 cc's with 2.08"/1.66" valves. Apparently, someone has changed the heads along the way, probably to lower the compression ratio so that the motor would run on pump gas and also to get induction hardened valve seats. Of course, the whole motor may be later than '69. The '69 heads had 75.8 cc chambers.

The most effective change you can make to the motor is to replace the timing set with sprockets and chain for a '68 to '71 429. The '72 and up motors had the cam retarded with a different keyway location on the crank gear for emissions purposes and they wouldn't make any power.

D3VE heads are ususally around 97cc's.

If only the heads were swapped, thenit already has the early 1969 timing chain. If the whole motor was swapped, then he would need the timing chain set.

Paul

Originally posted by timothale
The stock timing chains used to stretch real quick at low milage. remove the distributor cap and watch the rotor while you rotate the crankshaft back and forth with a 15/16 wrench (I think) the wrench shouldn"t move more than about 5 degrees with out moving the rotor. A new roller timing chain set at 0 like tech inspector is good for 30 horses

Advancing the cam with the early set helps bottom end, not necessarily HP...and certainly not 30HP by itself.

If the dizzy doesn't move for just 3* of crank rotation, it's time to change the chain.

Paul

Originally posted by timothale
Later model 460 heads had a bump cast into the exhaust port to direct the air from the thermactor air pump. some trucks were smog exempt and didn't have the air pump but they still used the same castings with the restrictions,they just didn't have the holes drilled. I don't think the C8 heads have the smog bumps. if you have bumps you can grind them out for a few more horsepower. the old ford factory performance catalog showed what and how to do it I don't remember which year they changed the rocker arm design or when they went to hardened valve seats for unleaded gas.

Not hardened seats; induction hardened seats. part of the actual casting.

Rocker are desing changed in 1971-1972...sorta mid year (I think).

All C8VE, C9VE, D0VE, D1VE, D2Ve and D3VE heads have Thermator bumps in the exhaust, some a little more pronounced than others.

Paul

Originally posted by 69t-birdchris
...i have seen a few carbs online for sale. the one that really stood out was a Bigs 950 hp stage 7 double pumper holly carb on ebay. are the 950's better than the 750's then as thats what im guessing. this bigs one is asking around $900 - a lot i know so will mean a fair bit of saving up for me if i get it. is this the best one to get????

Way, way, WAY too big for your little 3.59 stroke 429 engine. Also just plain overcarbed for your stock motor. A 950 cfm carb would work on your 429 if you built it to run 7000 rpm and higher. See my first reply to your very first post that wakens your engine with a few bolt-ons.

Paul