What can you tell me about the Ford 460?

My dad has a 460 in his 1954 Flxible bus. It pushes all 33' of bus along at 75-80plus mph with no problem, and has LOTS of torque!

(He's got a custom cam, edelbrock manifold, Holley carb and a set of cherries on it, linked to an Allison auto trans)

Ashley

 

The 460 Ford is a member of the "Lima" or "385" engine family, along with the 429 engine, and the relatively obscure 370 truck engine. They are big, heavy and cost more to build than the more common engines...but they do produce gobs of torque and aftermarket speed parts are easy to find.

The biggest handicap on these, as well as other Ford engines of the era, is the cylinder heads. Using 429 CJ heads, or any of the earlier performance oriented 429 castings is a smart way to build a potent street motor on a reasonable budget, but aftermarket aluminum heads are the way to go if you're looking to make REALLY serious power.

(The aluminum heads, along with an aluminum intake will also knock several pounds off the beastly mill, making it more on par with smaller motors, weight-wise.)

The 429/460 engines are also very easy to work on, and ***embly is done in a straightforward manner, there's no real surprises to them, they are based upon a very sound and sensible design. They are extremely rugged, and hold up well to lots of abuse. All that weight isn't there for no reason...these engines are STRONG!

Now, when weighing the pros and cons of running a 460 Ford vs a 360 AMC, you've created an interesting battle! Both engines will be more costly to build than any small block Chevy, Ford or Mopar, but both have excellent performance potential, too. The AMC motor gives up 100 cubes to the Ford, but it's a proven runner that will come alive with common sense aftermarket speed parts. The Ford will respond well also, but I think the gains in power percentage-wise will be slightly greater with the AMC mill, due mainly to the stock exhaust ports on 460 smogger heads.

The Ford motor will give you a wide range of possible transmission choices to back it up with, though. Anything from C6 and FMX automatics, to the somewhat lighter but more efficient C4 (with the correct bellhousing) auto can be slipped behind your 460, and manual shifting buffs will gravitate towards the legendary Toploader four speed, or maybe the five speed manual found in trucks of the early 90s vintage. For the AMC, your most logical ****** choices will be the Torqueflite cousins most commonly used behind AMC motors, although some did come with GM Turbos. The T-10 four speed is noramlly the stick shift of choice to back up an American Motors engine, though you can certainly adapt others if you so desire.

It's a tough call...both engines can give you respectable power, but neither is dirt cheap to build. If you have a running 360, I'd go with that and give it a carefull inspection to evaluate it's condition. One word of advice, though...buy a hardened oil pump drive rod for the AMC if you go that route...the stockers will break after repeated high rpm runs!

Flip a coin...you'll stand out in a crowd either way!

 

i used the bbc fenderwell headers from speedway motors,cut off the flanges and welded on 460 flanges.

 

here's what helped me make up my mind.
running AMC 360/TH400 (that would need to be converted from 4x4 to 2wd)=$250.00
running ford 460/C-6 = $100.00

right now i just want to get the car together and driveable. maybe this winter i'll worry about some dove heads and some other goodies! thanks for the info!

 

neat trick! i see you cut off the front of your frame and welded on box rails. what car is this that you're doing this in?

 

I just thought I'd chime in with my 2 cents regarding the attributes of the 460 Ford. Could'nt tell you much about an AMC 360 but I hear they're pretty respectable. Anyways I would argue that the 460 Ford is far cheaper to build than any small block Chevy.... that is if 500 or more hp is your goal. Furthermore I feel that the cylinder heads on the 385 series Ford heads are quite good from a power producing standpoint. They fall down a bit in the exhaust port, but that can be remedied at home with some sensible porting and polishing. The Ford heads (especially the earlier ones) have nicely designed symetrical intake ports, no good port bad port issues like some bbc's. Also the canted valves are positioned at shallower angles than a bbc or a hemi for that matter. Why is this an advantage?... because the more you tilt the valves the greater the volume in the combustion chamber, this requires a larger and thus heavier domed piston to make sufficient compression.

The greatest thing about the 429 and 460 Fords is you can use lots of stock parts to achieve great results. The basic block and cranks are good to 600hp easy. At 500+ I'd upgrade to the HD truck/marine" rods or maybe some Eagle "SIR"s, KB hypereutectic slugs for naturally aspirated engines work very well for small money. The best heads are the C8VE, C9VE, or DOVE castings for the street. They have the small chambers, and the exhaust ports require the least amount of work. I'd suggest you go for some performance aftermarket valves and of course the springs and retainers should be compatible with whatever cam you choose. The best reason to use the early heads is because they come with 7/16" screw in studs. This can be converted to a fully adjustable valvetrain very easily and economically. Hell even the stock cast iron 4 barrel intake works pretty good. You can surely use it and not be hurting performance too much till the budget permits an aftermarket aluminum job. Spend the money on a good 750- 850 carb and a factory Duraspark ignition should do ya fine to 500hp.

Betcha you could build this for about $3500 or maybe less. Wish I had access to a dyno because I'm gonna do a `70 460 in the near future and I'd be willing to prove what I say is true.

 

it will be very interesting to see exactly what i can do with this thing since i'm on a budget of minimal porportions (aren't we all). i'm definitely going to do the timing chain trick, probably a mild cam (for now), intake swap, and headers. you know, the usual stuff. it'll be fun to run it down the strip so i can see just how fast i can make it go on the cheap. the car originally weighed in at 2930 lbs. in stock trim. we'll see what i can get it down to after the interior is gutted, the front bumper is removed and there's lexan in the window openings instead of gl***. i'll be happy if i can keep it about the same weight with the 460/C-6 in it....if that's possible.

 

the car is a '57 FORD ranchwagon,i cut the frame rails off at firewall and made new rails from 2x4 tube.

 

i heard from another person that this is indeed the way to go.

 

.O ****, the secrets out! I love the LIMA motors. One trick I did'nt see mentioned is to grind out the NUB in the exhaust ports. This works really good on the 72 and later heads. That alone will give you an extra 15HP. And as said above, the early timming chain set is the best HP gain going. If ya can find a 71 or earlier motor your looking in the neiborhood of 365HP with 485+ ftlbs of torque STOCK and from there it dosn't take much to get more HP out of one. I have had a LIMA motor in all of my FAST rides.

 

ah yes...i'm taking in all of this knowledge! thanks a lot fellas for all the tips and tricks. i'll be trying all of this stuff for sure!