Building the 460 Big Block
It took us a long time to find a suitable engine block for this project. 1987 was the last year that Ford produced the big block motors (351/460) with carburetors. Ford switched to fuel injection for the 1998 model year and beyond. This created a big problem. First of all, finding a used Ford 460 truck motor in good condition is difficult enough without having the added issue of carburetion versus fuel injection. The 460 was readily available from older ’70s cars and station wagons, but they do not seem to be as well built as truck motors and the oil pan has the sump in the wrong location along with the oil pump. Finding an ’82 to ’87 460 Ford motor from a truck or van proved quite a challenge. I finally found a motor in the northeast. It was out of a 1986 Ford van and was complete with all of the brackets and accessories. However, when the engine finally arrived, I was dismayed to find it had been left sitting outside for quite some time. Water had found its way down the intake and into two of the cylinders. I was concerned that the engine would suffer significant damage during the removal of the rusted and frozen pistons. It was even more disappointing since the shipping was more than twice the cost of the motor.
I was tremendously relieved when the pistons were extracted with minimal scaring of the cylinder walls. From this point, the engine was completely disassembled by a local shop near Pacific, MO for the rebuilding process. Brad, the mechanic who actually did the work, ‘hot tanked’ the block and had the crank turned. When Brad Magna fluxed the heads, I was again disappointed to find that one of them was cracked. Fortunately, Brad is well connected in the area and was able to find two more 460 heads in very good condition at a very reasonable price. Everything else with the disassembly went very smoothly and we were on to the next step of rebuilding the motor.