Thread: 429 tuning

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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???

I have been building a 460 and have found some nice bolt on horses available. You can throw in a new cam, some valve springs and rocker kit with a new intake and carb and set of headers and get out of it for less than $1000.00 USD. www.summitracing.com and www.jegs.com would be good places to start. Check www.ebay.com for good deals on lost of stuff. just search for "ford 429 460" and you will get more pages than you know what to do with. You might pay a little for shipping considering you overseas, but I have been buying alot of parts from a guy in Florida at MAD DOG RACING. He sells alot of stuff on Ebay. If you would like some sujestions, PM me, and I can make some recommendations for specific items.

once again we must first see which heads you are useing, what exactly you want this thing to do and when (cruising rpm, is it gonna see the local track, hp expectations) now be realistic with this part we definatly can't make 1000hp on pump gas for $1000, what exactly you are willing to change, how much $$$$ you are willing to dump into your toy, and last but not least how comfortable are you with your own mechanical abilities. if you can answer these questions it will illiminate a lot of needless information for you.
there is a guy here in the us that has proven 700+ hp with stock iron heads that he ports. it's out here it all resorts back to the above questions if you could answer them we could probably help you out.

If the heads are stock for the 69 motor, they're probably C8VE or D0VE. Both are great heads. Look between the valve cover and the exhaust manifold about halfway back on the motor and give us the casting number.

well ive had a look and im 90% sure it says D3VE - its casted upside down from what i can see, i didnt have a light so i will have to have another look tomorrow. im going to spend a lot on her hopefully but bit by bit and i want to be able to drive her whilst modifying her. this july she will be on the road, when i first got her i had to get new manifolds which took 3 months in the finding and cost a lot so im not going to get headers just yet. where should i start off with her???

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.

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

amen on the timing chain if you are willing to change heads you will want to go for a set of dove or the c8ve heads 18 cc dish pistons, if not use flattop pistons and with either one zero deck the block run a .040" compressed gasket, exhaut porting will reveal tremendous gains on any ford head if you are a can do type of person you will still need a guide cause hogging out is not the proper way subscribe to this site $25 and well worth it http://www.reincarnation-automotive.com/ . i believe a xr292r cam will do you great this is a solid roller cam with a pretty choppy idle, 750-950 cfm carb. punch out the holes .030 to make a 466cid and get ahold of paul kane he frequents this site he can give you the lowdown on the oiling mods to make, seeing as this is a street car i would use a weiend stealth intake. this is a recipe for about 600 hp if the heads are done right.

the d3ve heads will prolly set the total back about 60-70 hp so if willing the dove heads are a little more potent

just confiming that they are actually C8VE heads on her, cheers for all the replies everyone. - does anyone know anyone with a tuned 69 bird??? i haven't seen one tuned or customised yet but im sure its been done before?

well with the C8VE heads you will use the formula for the D0VE heads. make sure you get the block decked and use the .040 head gasket or she'll sound like a cofee can of rocks with detonation. she oughta set ya back in your seat when your done if ya get it hooked up.

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.

I'm thinkin' that hard seats didn't show up until 1972, when unleaded gas showed up.

cheers , i will do a little investigating about the 'bumps' on another note though 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????

holley based carbs will alway produce more power than other brands. the downfall to this is that they require constant tuning to keep up the level of performance. so if you are one of those like me that want to set it and forget it i would be more apt to suggest a carb such as a edelbrock. less money and less headaches