My wifes grandfather is liquidating his estate. He has a 1975 Lincoln w/ 460, C6 trans and 9" rear. The car totally sucks (rusty & butt ugly), but only has 67,000 miles. I got it started yesterday for a few minutes, it hadnt run for 12 years. Shut it off, and the battery was dead. I dont really want the car, but thought that the drivetrain might be of some use in a hot rod or custom project. He only want a couple of hundred dollars for it. Are there any inherent issues with these motors? Should I buy it and pull the drivetrain? Your opinion would be apprieciated.
I put a 460, C6 in the wifes 49 Merc and we love it!! All torque-All the time. They seem to run forever. The early ones made more HP. I see no problems...OLDBEET
Imagine what a hotrodder would have done to get an engine with that many cubes in 1948? That is basically a small block Ford stretched and pulled to house all those inches. Not only that, the heads have been given ample dimensions to make those cubes breathe. You need nothing more special than what's already there. No tall deck truck blocks, no closed chamber rectangle port heads, etc. Uncork the exhaust, get an early cam gear that runs the cam "straight up" a performance ignition and carb and you're done. That engine and trans combo will lob a rod (even a fat fender or pickup) down the road effortlessly. Check this websight out for more. http://www.highflowdynamics.com/
No! There is nothing about a 429 that is anything about a smallblock. A 429 is a 460 big block with less stroke.
You misunderstand me friend. The big block Ford engine series is very much related to the small block in basic design. From the headgaskets down they share the same characteristics which makes them great. I know they do not interchange but I'm talking about how they're designed. I don't have time for the whole laundry list, but here's a few. Both are precision cast, high cammed, large bore/short stroked engines. They oil the same way, front dist(which is where God inteded for it to go), center main thrust, good rod length to stroke ratio, bolt on front cover, fuel pump drive similar, symmetrical ports for even cooling and airflow etc. The 460 block looks like "pappa bear" the 351W is like "mamma bear" and the 289/302 is like "baby bear", umm so to speek.
Just for fun follow the link to High Flow Dynamics and click on the Ford to bbc comparo. There are good views there as to why the big Fords are superior. Notice the cam placement difference. On the Ford it's way up high whereas the chev is tight to the rotating assembly. The solution when seeking big cubes is either buy a costly aftermarket chevy race block with a relocated camshaft and build a hybrid or simply buy a Lincoln like the one in this example and stroke to 550+ inches with off the shelf rotating assemblys. The BBF is the pinnacle of horsepower per dollars spent in my book.
The only part on that lincoln that can give some trouble when swapping is the trans,it has a longer tailshaft and different mount then a ford or mercury. Jeff