Honest opinion on 460 Fords

I never did it, but I had some rod big ends go out of round. I heard and agreed that a good fix would be grinding the crank to BBC size and using BBC rods. Of course then I would have needed new pistons instead of off the shelf Arias replacement pistons. Which would have killed my $1500 budget.

 

Rich, I've never heard of this being used (or needed) as a fix for weak rods on the 385 series. Again, all that I've ever heard and read is that these are great rods, strengthwise. The switch to a different rod/rod size was commonly done to reduce rotating mass, however. The more common way, though, was to use aluminum rods with the 426 HEMI journal size. That's the way my Childs and Alberts rods were done.

 

you can get all sorts of aftermarket rods that will work. The BBC rods are most commonly used for stroker applications and the "stock " 460 rods are a little scarry looking the way it's cut where the rod bolt goes through I have never broken them , but I do change out to the "football" style rolts/ rods as the truck or CJ rods. After reading all this I see where all the CJ comments come from . Needless to say though a CJ isn't the standard and it depends on the heads/ intake and not on the rods .

 

Childs and Alberts would also have killed my budget. The thing was cheap, I was given the '69 Lincoln to start with, the PAW rebuilders kit was $1100 at that time. I didn't have to pay for machine work. A used Offy Port-O-Sonic manifold. Home made zoomies. Mallory duel point. Thing went 197.917 through the 4 in my Vega. It was a good, cheap, motor. 466 cubic inches in a little car can't be bad.

 

I'm kind of partial to them. Not exactly HAMB material, but after another 5 hours, it'll be sold.

 

Weak caps is a new one to me, but weak rods bolts is not. Ford rods in the 460's were pretty tough. Their achilies heal was the rod bolt. A quality ARP and your good for quite a bit of hp.

 

Thanks for the corrections - appreciate the info!

 

Cross reference:

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=198467

 

ALL SBC's are 'Vette motors...........

BB Mopars are EASY to find.......Mopar really doesn't have a "bad" head, some just better than others.......late "452" smog heads flow as well as the earlier '68-'71 "906" heads, all had forged cranks/rods till @ '72 (or '74?)...even the motorhome/truck motors are a good base to build a hot, cheap motor from......

 

Hahaha, me and Henry here always seem to get into it on these posts, but it's all good...I got nothin but love for ya man!

My rational for the B/RB Mopar is simple: good, well thought out design, great power in stock form, huge power in modified form, durability. The oil pump is external and with a cheap aftermarket modification (and a moderate amount of fab work, I can make a front/rear or center sump out of it, to fit into virtually any chassis. The earlier motors, usually pre '68 but as mentioned as late as '73, ALL had factory forged cranks and rods. The factory 4 bbl motors have flat tops in them and are 10.2:1, and from '61-'70 are rated anywhere from 315-335 hp...stock. Not like the Chevys where you need to find the good 010 4 bolt main blocks. ALL B/RB mopars are the same, Dodge, Chrysler, Imperial, Plymouth...so the worthless 67 300 4 door we bought and parted for $500 bucks that gave up it's 383, Torqueflight, and 8.75" posi as well as it's swanky interior was as worthy a platform to build as a 383 magnum in a Super Bee. Parts aren't cheap like Chevy, but about on par with FE Ford and Poncho, not as much as Cadillac.

I've seen plenty of 460s in '57 Fords, and they don't fit well either. In fact most of the one's I've seen overheat badly. My 383 doesn't. If I cared about resale value, I wouldn't be on the rod and custom message board. In fact a lot of the people that see the car think it's a kick ass swap because it's so different. BTW, Tom Culbertson's chopped 56 Lincoln is running a 440 Mopar too.

It's not that I'm anti-Ford. I totally love my 4.6 in my Mustang, and I think Windsor motors are badder then hell (just not for a rod with no hood) and offer great power to value ratio. Not to mention the extra Rev with the Windsor motors would probably be a lot more fun to drive in a rod where you don't need all the torque, compared to my car where I need big torque to tug my sled around

Hell, I may even build a Y Block one day! My VS57 Paxton would be right at home on it

 

It's not the 460's fualt it overheats, it's most likely needs a bigger readiator, or different fans. We put a 460 in a '80 somethin' Mercury Capri for a guy, it fit with a little tweakage, And we had to put the radiator in the back and use electric fans. It ran great until it flipped over the guard rail at the 1/4 mile. kinda sad it was a kick ass car.

 

You are right, it's not the 460's fault that it overheats. I said it to make a point that the 460 is no more at home in a 57-58 Ford than a Mopar. They definitely do need a bigger radiator, but there's really not any extra room for a huge radiator. In my experience, the only thing that keeps a motor cool in one of these cars is a good mechanical fan with a shroud

 

460's will roast them meats all day long.

 

I'd have to disagree on the mechanical fan, I'm more for electric, but i like my steak rare, you may like yours well done. I seem to think with electrics you can pull more air, and take up less space so you can get a little wider radiator. Then you can build a shroud out of some thin sheet aluminum or stainless. I had to put electrics in a cutlass i was building for a friend. Had a 455 stroked out to 468 with some super crazy mods, there isn't much room in the engine bay after you shove a 455 into an '83 cutlass so i fabbed a shroud and got some electric fans and got a really nice radiator. It works amazing. anyways just my opinion on that.

 

I will stand up for the BBF, ran a worked 460 in a strip car for a while and loved it. Big arsed XC Falcon would carry both fronts off the line. Then I found the holy grail at a price I could afford, SOHC 427!
In fact I found 3 that had never been in a car! Bought all 3 sold two and that payed for the re-build (Blown 8-71 Mooneyham) and a lot of the car, fastest 1/4 of 8.01. Nuff said.

 

Uhhhh pure and utter bullshit....