Quote Originally Posted by josh bichard View Post
I do plan on rebuilding the entire engine. I'm not to worried about gas milage, or even maintainance like valve train adjustments"as long as I am confident on how to do it". I have thought about maybe getting a 460 crank. What do you think? I do want to port the heads but I am not familiar with that and would worry that even if I had someone do it that I would not be able to tell if they did a good job or not. I am prepared to have a tranny and a rear end built to handle the power."c6 and ford 9"
And as for the distributer curve, I am clueless. I thought about getting one of those ford HEIs. Do you have any experience with those?
I am a fan of getting the most bang-for-buck out of the OEM parts. It's too easy to get steered to aluminum heads and roller cams, etc, when your particular hp goals do not dictate their use. 400-500hp is easy with the factory iron, and so $2000 aluminum heads + $1000 roller cam/valve trains are a misuse of funds in a case such as yours. Besides, wouldn't you just love to pop your hood and show the guy that you just beat that your engine is stock appearing while he used all those fancy aftermarket parts?

I do realize, however, that making use of the facotry iron often means knowing the tricks of the trade. But at your hp level it's not too difficult and can be very, very reliable.

I would suggest the 460 crankshaft because it's a "free" 31 cubes and more importantly your piston options multipy twenty-five-fold. 429's and 460's, for any given year of production, are the exact same engine except for the cranksaft and pistons....all other parts are identical. So get the 460 crankshaft...we sell them for $85, for example, and isn't that the cheapest cost of a "stroker crank" that you've ever heard? You should have no trouble finding one in your neck of the woods.

I would suggest a forged piston with a 22cc dish top (this is a common dish size). With your D0VE heads and 460 crankshaft, you would be at about 9.6:1 comrpession ratio with a zero-decked block.

Get the D0VE heads ported. This is going to cost you some money but it is worth every penny. Good cylinder heads play a monumental part in engine performance. Typically they are ported intake and exhaust and fit with oversize valves. Cost varies from one person to another, and you usually get what you pay for. Most importantly, be sure to use a cylinder head porter that knows these D0VE heads well. We can do this for you, can give you a quote, and/or you may also shop around. Call me or PM me if interested.

For between 400-500hp in this build, a CompCams XE284H can work. This is an hydraulic lifter cam and maintenance will be as low as is reasonable, given the performance level of the engine. Requisite valve train compenents that go with it, of course (proper springs, retainers, pushrods, etc).

For your wide rpm street use in the larger 72 Torino, an Edelbrock Performer RPM intake and Holley 850 would work very well.

Yes, the OEM Ford Dura-Spark distributor and electronic box are the way to go. The distributor must be recurved for performance use.

C6 and 9-inch r/e are a good idea. This engine would benefit from a stall converter that has a stall speed higher than stock. Where you want to go is up to you, but if it were me I'd be happy with a 2500 stall. Higher would help but (to me) would be a bit of a nuisance on the street over time.

Most imortantly, do your homework and learn about these engines as much as you can before you being building. What you don't know can bite you int he you-know-what and cost you your entire project.

Paul