460 from a 73 Lincoln

At the end of the month here I will be getting a complete 460 from a 73 continental and was wondering what some of you guys would recommend as far as some mild hop up parts or procedures and things I can do to get decent/good fuel mileage. I'm not looking for really high end 1/4 mile times just enough to get my Ranchero moving at a respectable rate. I'm on the fence if I should strip it down and do a 100% rebuild or where in general to go with this thing. It's a 79 Ranchero with a 76 Elite front swap, drive train will be 460/C6/3.00 gear (all out race duty will be saved for the Torino).

Do you know any history on the engine? How many miles and what kind ie, city vs. highway? A good upgrade is always the timing chain swap, from there, headers and decent free flowing exhaust. After that a set of ported GenII Thors. Oops I think I may have got a little ahead of myself.

We did a low buck top end rebuild in a '77 Lincoln with 110,000 miles on the clock.
We did a compression check first and everything looked good.
We used a pre72 timing chain (non retarded), the smaller Summit Racing cam K3500 (204/214), Edlebrock valve springs, used performer intake and recurved the distributor.
With little 2" duals and a 625cfm carter carb, it was a very noticeable improvement over stock.
Its not going to "rock your world" but it is WAY better than stock, idles like stock and runs happily on junk gas while getting stock MPG. Worth the effort, especially if the motor is out and on a stand.
Oh, and this combo worked very well with 3.00 gears and 29" tall 255-70-15 tires

If your going to rebuild....do it right or don't bother. I did a simple rebuild with speed-pro flat tops, ground down the thermactor bump in the d3ve's and a comp cams 262H cam.
It is better than the modded stock motor, but not by much.

I you're going to tear the whole motor down for a rebuild..... IMO you have to deck the block to zero for good quench, port the heads with the short turn radius reworked for good flow and a true, not guessed, 9.5:1 compression ratio to make a larger cam not feel lazy.
Otherwise you've spent your money to basically have the same thing as a original long block with slightly higher compression and larger cam.

But that's Just my opinion. I hope to correct thoses issues with our motor and post dyno results next spring.

I'm gonna bust this sucker open shortly after I get it home, I've got a couple more short blocks to work with depending on what I find inside this motor. For the money I'm just happy to have all the brackets, car mounts, and a set of d3 heads and it just so happens that there is a motor bolted to the rest of the stuff that I DO want . A good set of hyper pistons to bring the CR up to a true 9.5:1 is a great idea along with decking one of the blocks which I hadn't even thought about with this build. I'll also clean the casting lines off the rods and do a home porting job on the d3 heads (gonna practice on a junk set of d2 heads first).

I would like to hit 350~400 hp on this build with loads of torque to spare, so if I can get some input on this projected build that would be great!

750 holley/quik fuel carb
Weiand stealth intake w/ light cleanup work to match the heads
d3 heads with light cleanup work, new valves and springs, ??? rockers (probably stick with stock unless I get a killer deal on some good roller rockers)
Lunati voodoo grind 61600LK
***Keith black 0.040 over pistons (part number KB137-020)***
Factory block-decked, 0.030 over bore, cleaned up stock rods
Mallory unilite dizzy and accel coil (part number 140012)

If you guys see anything in this build that can be improved upon without breaking the bank go ahead and let me know, and keep in mind that I will be using the Ranchero as a truck/cruiser/dd with the occasional ricer stomping taking place as needed.

Edit: Got a great deal on some hyper 0.040 pistons

torkair wrote:I would like to hit 350~400 hp on this build with loads of torque to spare, so if I can get some input on this projected build that would be great!

750 holley/quik fuel carb
Weiand stealth intake w/ light cleanup work to match the heads
d3 heads with light cleanup work, new valves and springs, ??? rockers (probably stick with stock unless I get a killer deal on some good roller rockers)
Lunati voodoo grind 61600LK
Keith black 0.030 over pistons (part number KB137-020)
Factory block-decked, 0.030 over bore, cleaned up stock rods
Mallory unilite dizzy and accel coil (part number 140012)

If you guys see anything in this build that can be improved upon without breaking the bank go ahead and let me know, and keep in mind that I will be using the Ranchero as a truck/cruiser/dd with the occasional ricer stomping taking place as needed.

We build a good truck / towing combo that seems to fit the bill here.
Stock c/r is in the 7.6 to 1 range at best so the key is to get static c/r in the mid 8's to 9 to 1.

The stock short block has large dished pistons that sit 30 to 40 thousandths below deck. if the short block is in overall good condition just 0 deck. re ring and bearing after a light hone.

If not then a rebuild with KB 206 pistons set at about .005" below deck will fit the bill and keep c/r in the 9.2 to 1 range when the heads are decked about .025"

voodoo 213/219 cam LSA would depend on final static c/r.
performer intake with cross over head restricted with a plate drilled with an 11/32" hole
750 holley
recurved dizzy
small valve budget ported D3's
shorty headers from FPA with 2.5" duals and an X pipe and magnaflow mufflers.
low restriction air cleaner and dual snorkel factory type air cleaner housing home made ducted to cold air at the grill.

The build will be an easy 400 hp and 500 pound feet and pull like a freight train. subtract 40 to 50 HP for unported heads.

That being said...
A factory duraspark dizzy properly curved is more than adequate for the application.
A stealth is too much intake.
Those flat top pistons are going to have to high a static c/r for the cam you propose.
Stock rockers are more than adequate for the application.

torkair, the suggested build to you is approx what i have. that cam, a rpm intake instead, 5 in the hole deck, but with 75 cc heads. freight train is a understatement. fwiw, zbob.

I got a great deal on some .040 hyper pistons for my build and will end up using those in the short block. I also found an online compression calculator to try and figure out my static compression with these pistons after decking the block to a true 10.300" and the static CR came out to about 10.6, this is A LOT of static CR and will probably need a cam with a longer duration so I'll keep looking at various "off the shelf" cams to get a better idea of what I need here. Now as far as intake selection goes, I saw that the stealth is good from idle to 6800rpm which means it's more of a race intake than a general purpose intake so I see why the Mad Porter made the suggestion he did. As for intake selection I would like to get a bit more info and opinions on intakes such as the Edlebrock Performer, Performer RPM, and RPM Airgap if at all possible please. Lastly I was wondering if a 750 carb is about right or if I should go bigger, say 850 or even 950? The more info I can get before I start taking things apart and putting them back together the better!

Thanks in advance!

I am not an engine builder but have seen simple builds not perform well because of a simple mis calculation.keep in mind all pistons and cams are not created eqaul you also need to use a dynamic compression calculator to fig your actual working compression 2 cams can look very close in spec but the intake valve closing can be very different and change the dcr which will have a big effect on the engines personality as to what octane you can run and timing.there is also dished pistons that have full circular dish that will prevent the build from having a tight quench. stock type dish are fine or d shape reversed domes. just take a look at the edelbrock rpm cam specs vs. say a comp cam with similar specs.or take a look at a reg dish probe piston vs. a reverse dome.big differences and can make or break the combo.
I have seen a 9.1 build smoke a 10.1 same engine size and heads just by the 2 things mentioned above.
Good luck! and happy building.