Questions to ask when buying an engine

dermaestro January 13th 2010, 4:30 pm

Greetings,

I have a 1966 Ford F250 Camper Special with a non-running 460 in it. I will be pulling the motor out very soon to start breaking it down. I came across a deal for a spare 460 that I figured would be a good parts motor if I need it.

This is my first tear down and build up ever. I've been doing lots of research and reading various forums for info but some has left me confused.

My question is, what should I ask the seller about the engine? And what is a reasonable price to pay? The seller is local to me so I can probably arrange to go check everything out. What all should I looking for?

Here is what I know so far directly quoted from seller:
Not sure the year of the block but the heads indicate a 73 from the numbers.
The crank is a 429 with a mild cam, pistons and rods are new and it was bored to a 472.
It was balanced and honed.
It has been sitting in my garage untouched for about 4 years and I just need to get rid of it.
It also includes a brand new / never used Edelbrock manifold.

whatbumper January 13th 2010, 5:21 pm

dermaestro wrote:Greetings,

I have a 1966 Ford F250 Camper Special with a non-running 460 in it. Are you sure it's not a 352 FE motor which was probably stock? I will be pulling the motor out very soon to start breaking it down. I came across a deal for a spare 460 that I figured would be a good parts motor if I need it.

This is my first tear down and build up ever. I've been doing lots of research and reading various forums for info but some has left me confused.

My question is, what should I ask the seller about the engine? And what is a reasonable price to pay? The seller is local to me so I can probably arrange to go check everything out. What all should I looking for?

Here is what I know so far directly quoted from seller:
Not sure the year of the block but the heads indicate a 73 from the numbers.
The crank is a 429 with a mild cam, pistons and rods are new and it was bored to a 472. Probably just a .060" over 460 if I was guessing. 429's had a stroke of 3.59" instead of the 460's 3.85".
It was balanced and honed.
It has been sitting in my garage untouched for about 4 years and I just need to get rid of it.
It also includes a brand new / never used Edelbrock manifold.

D. Sea January 13th 2010, 5:41 pm

The crank is a 429 with a mild cam, pistons and rods are new and it was bored to a 472.

This kind of raises a red flag to me. Either he said 429 crank instead of 460 crank or maybe he really doesn't know.

Ask if you can drop the oil pan and pull the heads for inspection.

What is he asking for the engine?

Get the numbers off the heads, intake mainfold and the block then let us know. If you can drop the oil pan then get the numbers off the crank as well.

Good Luck and let us know ASAP

dermaestro January 13th 2010, 7:25 pm

Price is negotiable thus far and we haven't fully discussed. I'll just say it's really affordable, enough so to make me ask a lot of questions.

I'm trying to ask as many questions before I even go over. I just sent him another e-mail to see what else he knows or can confirm.

The "specs" in my original post were direct quotes from him.

dermaestro January 14th 2010, 5:30 pm

The Heads are the same # D3VE-AZA X2

The Edelbrock Manifold # 15402

The Block # 9Z 591166 - this doesn't look right.

D. Sea January 14th 2010, 5:34 pm

dermaestro wrote:The Heads are the same # D3VE-AZA X2

The Edelbrock Manifold # 15402

The Block # 9Z 591166 - this doesn't look right.

The block number will be at the starter location i.e. D0VE or D1VE or D9TE something like that

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