So I've got the chance to pick up a Ford 460 pretty cheap. What are the pros and cons of this motor? Thinking about dropping it in my 62 F-100.
460 pushed my 21ft v-drive at well over 120MPH. Got there real quick, too. Wish I still had that boat.
I'm putting one in a 49 Kaiser, like all big blocks they have torque to spare, and like all big blocks, it will chug your gas.
It's pretty much a matter of if your wallet can handle the MPG. If one only gets 17 in a Model A, it's going to use more in a heavier truck that makes a bigger dent in the air. But it should be enough torque to scare people with, so it may be worth the trade-off. I think the only way to get into the 20s in a pickup like that would be to go diesel, or maybe around a 5.0 EFI motor with all the computer crap, and tall gears.
I had my rpu build with a 429. Then I loaned the engine back to the previous owner, found a 460 and never got it dropped back in before this gas price craziness hit. Now I have a 260 with 3 speed overdrive waiting to get dropped in. I guess it really depends on how much you want to drive it and how much gas you can afford, expect mid teens at best but more likely low, very low double digits.
Tyhe only way to get "good" mpg from a 460 is to use one of the injected versions from 89 and up trucks. I bought new a 1989 F250 HD w/3.55 gear and I put oversized Michelins on it. For a truck that big 14.5 was fairly respectable but gas was within reason. Your truck's much lighter. That thing was fast too. Towing was another story though. All the power in world draggin 11000 pounds of Packard and trailer. Best mpg on a trip to Pebble Beach was 8.6 and the round trip avg was 8.2. Power? I had an 1800# open trailer on the back and a friend with his new Vortec had always tried to get me to race him. I always told him I didn't want to embarrass him all the time. He pulled up next to me at a light revvin his shit up. I had a lot of miles on it by then. No matter I said "...well you would need an advantage so..." we left right together and he could not shake me, worse than that I began to pass him at the top of 2nd gear. He had a newer Chev Z71 with a Vortec 350. We hit maybe mid 70s mph before we gave up. I never heard a word of it from him but all our other racing bretheren were pretty impressed. Frankly, so was I!
They're like my dad... they're great, but they drink alot. I am using one in my drag truck Effie... Easy power, pretty reliably...
Seems to me that it would all depend on what you use the vehicle for. Is it a daily driver or basically as short trip weekender? If a daily driver it would be expensive. If a show weekender then who cares how much gas it uses. Some have thousands (with a capital T) tied up in these cars & trucks so what's a little gas? I've got a Lincoln Navigator with a 32v Intech motor that gets about 14 mpg but to trade it for a Prius I could buy a hell of a lot of gas for the difference. I had a 429 in a '67 Ford F250 and it was one hell of a motor. Just my 2 cents worth ...
As mentioned, it can be real thirsty. But they make great power, have lots of torque and are fairly cheap to build.
I am putting one in my 66 f250 and I am hoping that since it has much more torque then the 352 and if I keep my foot out of it that it might get a little better gas mileage then the 352,the 460 did not do too bad in the donor truck with 3.73 gears and the 66 now has 3.54s so who knows but I plan on towing with the truck and neeed the torque. Jeff
con; cam timing is retarded pro; change it out for an early 429 timing chaina nd gears. better power and milage
If you want cubes,there are few engines better for finding stroker parts for too. Stock blocks can take 850 hp, but they do weigh a lot too. A lot of 514, 545, 598 kits available. You will need to ditch the stock heads to feed a hoss that big though. Blue Thunder makes a fine replacement head with either a Ford or BBC exhaust flange for header fit. I am an FE guy myself, but the 429/460 is a good engine too. The stock heads are really hurting on the exhaust side and need some attention, but the intakes flow very well.
A friend of mine had one in a '68 f-100 short bed.Was it alot? Yes.Was it too much? I don't think thats possible. His truck needed some help at the rear end.Wheel hop was a problem.
had 1 in a 79 stepside andLOVED it!! lottsa torque and if yer willin to let her spin, the upstairs is ungawdly fun!! used to go pickin on late model stangs and fartpipe hondas with it.... but jesus it got thirsty in the last year or so. never knocked down better than 12 mpg... course i wasn't shootin for ultimate mileage either...
a 302 is 66% smaller than a 460 so a 460 with 2:73 gears would be a fair comparison to a 302 with 4:11 gears in volume of air ingested per mile. the 460 will have less piston speed but the overall swept volume will be equal in both engines under these conditions so the expansion rate and pressure drop will also be equal. I was thinking the 460 will have the same amount of combustion pushing on the piston for the same amount of time but will be pushing on more square inches of piston causing more pressure on the crank from the same amount of combustion but the 302 matched properly to the 460 will present an equal number of square inches to the equal combustion as a 460 over a set period of time because it is spinning faster. anyway I can examine it a 302 and 460 equally matched by volume over time comes out equal except that as speeds increase the 460 with 2:73 gears will hang with the 302 then outrun it because it's big enough to pull the longer legs (the 2:73 gears) picture a short dude running a race against a tall dude gotta have an honest baseline for calculating efficiency right? comparing a 302 with 2:73's to a 460 with 4:11's is way out of the ballpark. It's all in the gears.
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