My Nephew and I are getting ready to rebuild a 460 for his 1965 F-350. We are transplanting the drivetrain of a newer Ford truck into his 65. The engine, five speed manual transmission and Ford 10.25 rear axle. The axle has 4.10 gears and a limited slip unit in it. The lower end will be a stock rebuild, but we want to use a Comp Cams High Energy 268H cam kit. We will buy the “K” kit that has everything in it including valve springs. My question for all of you Ford Guys, can we use stock rocker arms and push rods? Is this cam hot enough to require an adjustable valve train? I’ve build lots of High Performance Chevrolet’s, and done many stock rebuilds on Fords, but never modified one like this. Our plans include an Edelbrock Performer intake and 750 Edelbrock carb along with headers. Thanks for all of your help. Andy Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
You can go either adjustable or not with that cam and springs. A set of Rhoads Lifters will wake up the non-adjustable route. Using stock heads with manageable compression for street use would be the biggest concern. Keep it below 9 -1 for street use and lower octane rating gas would be a benefit economically.
We are planning on using stock heads. Torque is what we are after since it’s going into a truck that will pull a trailer from time to time. Thanks for the response. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I’ve only done two kinds of Ford OHV engines (one more in the future sigh...). One a 460 and one a 5.0. Both heads need exhaust porting, Ford loved to put a “hump” in the exhaust ports in the day. But to your 460, the one I had was from a mid 70’s. Anemic compression. I found a set of D0ve heads from a 429 of some year. iIRC I got close to 9:1 CR. Mine was a “refresh” as the bores looked brand new. I ran the smaller of the Summit brand hydraulic flay tapper cam/lifter/spring kit for the 460, but did have to change PRs, been a few years. The 429 heads had cast adjustable rocker arms. The guy I put it together for put it in a 4wd and loved it over the way it was before, said it was so much better. I’m pretty sure he put a Edelbrock performer on it, and think he used a older 4bbl Ford carburetor. I spent about 10 hours on the D0VE heads, a lot on the exhaust ports, little bowl blending was about it. I cut the valves and seats by hand. The guides were good (did my drop of oil and try to wiggle each one and see the bubbles “ thing. I shimmed the springs for proper install height. A buddy came by with his “precision straight edge” and said no reason to sent the heads for surfacing. So we got lucky there, he ( my buddy) went over the surface with a DA sander to get “ a bite in the gasket that these will need”. I know, no help, just thought I’d yack a bit
As mentioned above the DOVE heads from a 429 would be the ticket to really bump the CR and get some pep out of it. An old Ofenhauser 360 Degree 4 BBL manifold will wake them up too without hurting the bottom end but still giving a decent top end.
The 460 and 429 series are good for sucking valves at high RPM . Use extra care looking and the stems and keepers . Other than that it should be good to go . That should be a real stump pulling torque monster
When i used to work at a Ford dealer the owner would go to the auction in Phoenix with his almost new F 250 and 460 with a 2 car trailer. coming back up the mountain to Springerville the truck would barely make the pull. we took his truck and put a set of 429 CJ heads and a timing gear set from an early 429 as the cam timing was retarded in the 460's. An Edelbrock intake and a 750 carb along with a set of headers and a good dual exhaust system allowed that truck to pull the trailer with 2 cars with little effort in comparison to what it was before. No cam change, just the timing gear set.
What are the casting numbers on your head? It will be cast right above the exhaust port if it's 60s or 70s stuff. If you have the typical pedestal mount valvetrain, it's generally good for .550" lift at the valve. Any more than that and you will need screw-in studs.
I’m not sure of the casting numbers yet, the engine is still in the donor vehicle. The donor is a 1995 F-350 with EFI. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
^^^ It will be a low compression motor but still have the bottom end torque that you need. The cam change will help wake it up.
More importantly get the straight up timing set. There are two different sets, pre 72 and the later smog engines. The later ones came with 4 degrees of retard built in. Your block casting should be a D9******
Thank you so much for all of the help Guys! Once again the H.A.M.B. Rocks! Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
First, don't junk any of the EFI or related parts. There has been an ongoing trend for guys to fuelie their 460's. Pull off the harness/intake/heads/ignition as a whole, box it up and sell it off. You will more than likely be able to make a few bucks. 4x4 guys have been going more towards fuelie for better crawling ability(angles). If you can, take a few vids of the engine running in the donor before tearing it apart. This way a seller knows they are getting a good working system. If you plan on using a carb intake the F3 heads will not work. I *think* Weiand has an intake that will work on the Fuelie heads, but even then it's not the best. Any set of the carb'd heads and you will be able to run the more common intakes. Port sizes are different between Fuelie and carb'd heads. Don't bother with looking for coveted D0VE or any 'high performance' factory head. They will cost more than a set of aftermarket heads, thank the muscle car crowd for that. Common set of D3VE heads will be more than adequate. I'd suggest cleaning up the exhaust port. Thermactor(air injection) bump on the exhaust port needs to be ground down and general port clean up is all you need for a fun/tow truck. For intakes, don't bother with Edelbrock's Performer, it has been shown to flow not much better than the common cast iron smog era intakes, in some instances worse. Performer RPM is a better intake even for low end power. It also allows use of a spread bore carb. Q-Jet works really well on these engines. RPM intake is also cheaper. Unless hood clearance is an issue(it won't) don't even look at the Performer or performer-esque intakes, they are compromised to fit the long flat hoods of the 70's cars. 600CFM carb will be adequate, I'd favor the Q-Jet as the small primaries will aid in fueling and drivability. If the bottom end is going to be left stock, don't bother revving it much past 4500rpm. There is a lot of mass, and even a stock 460 puts out a stupid amounts of torque. No need to rev when the power is aplenty. Definitely get the early '429' straight up timing set to fix the cam timing. That wakes up an otherwise stock 460. Headers, I've used the Sanderson headers, nice pieces, heavy gauge, pricey though. Exhaust, dual 2.5" for a stock to mild build. Anything more will kill power, 460 doesn't need to rev and doesn't need dual 3". There is more restriction in the heads than exhaust. Ignition, if you are ditching the EFI, use the Duraspark electronic distributor, for simplicity wire it with a GM HEI module mounted to a heat sink. This will give you simple and durable ignition. You can use the small points cap for looks, but the 460 is already not a traditional(per the board) engine, the larger cap will be better for performance. As for a traditional points distributor, I had a hell of a time finding one for an OT project, was just easier to get the regular Duraspark carb unit and wire it with the HEI module.
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