Thread: 429 rebuild help

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Hi All,
I picked up a 429 out of a '71 Lincoln. I want to tear it down and rebuild. Not a race car just a nice stout street car. Up to 500 hp at fly. I was wondering the best and prolly cheapest way to achieve this goal. Just prep the block and have the rods and crank checked and freshened up? New intake, cam, carb, Freshen up heads, etc. I really love the smaller cars from the sixties. Will the 429 fit into a falcon without tubing or any major mods? If not how about a mid sized Galaxie? I have a C-6 trans for it too. What's the best car for the 429/C-6 combo? I'm looking to go with the smallest car without having to do serious chassis work. A wagon would be kool. I know I threw a lot out there. Any suggestions about proven setups for a stout street car?
I built a SBC 350 right out of HS with some success and now at 25 built a 650hp EFI 331. I now wanna try my luck with the BBF. Plus I got the engine and trans for 50 BUX!
Todd

Originally posted by Todd 429
I picked up a 429 out of a '71 Lincoln. I want to tear it down and rebuild. Not a race car just a nice stout street car. Up to 500 hp at fly. I was wondering the best and probably cheapest way to achieve this goal. Just prep the block and have the rods and crank checked and freshened up? New intake, cam, carb, Freshen up heads, etc. Plus I got the engine and trans for 50 BUX!
Todd

500HP is easy with the production engine. I suspect you have D0VE-C heads. By the way, those heads alone can sell for as much as five times what you paid for the whole package.

It would be great if you could locate a 460 crankshaft for your build, as this is a cheap and easy horsepower increase with a stock & readily available part. You will be increasing stroke from 3.59" to 3.85". The same 429 rods from your engine are used in both 429's & 460's.

• 460 short block with stock rods (ARP bolts) and .030" over 22cc "D"-cup dish-top pistons. Zero-deck recommended; .005+ acceptable. This puts compression ratio at about 9.8:1 with your heads.
• D0VE heads with 2.19" 1.76" valves, bowl blends and smog bump removal. (Good portwork is necessary.)
• Double-roller timing chain
• Comp Cams Kit with XM288H 244/254 .580/.585 112 LC.
• Roller rockers and hardenend pushrod & guidelplates.
• Edelbrock Performer RPM intake with a Holley 850 #4781 mechanical secondary carburetor.
• Aftermarket dizzy or recurved factory Dura Spark electronic distributor.
• Headers.

This ought to satisfy your "up to 500Hp" requirement.

Paul

Great info Paul, thank you.

Paul, Is the vavle job on the DOVE - C heads a must to achieve the 500 HP goal or an I just have them rebuilt how they are. I think 2.08 / 1.70?

Originally posted by Todd 429
Paul, Is the valve job on the DOVE - C heads a must to achieve the 500 HP goal, or can I just have them rebuilt how they are. I think 2.08 / 1.70?

Stock valve sizes are 2.08 and 1.65. Not going to the large valve sizes in the above specific build will cost some HP, as will lack of porting.

All 429/460 factory heads suffer from poor exhaust flow and need to opened up in the right places for improved breathability. The intake ports are not that bad; a good bowl blend helps them substantially.

If you rebuild with stock valve sizes and no porting, you will not acheive your horsepower goals nor will you reap the max benefits of the cam suggested.

If one needed to choose between big valves vs. portwork, I would opt for the port work.

Paul

Will the cam work well with sotck valves and a good porting?

The cam will still work with stock valve sizes. A decent stainless exhaust valve would be a good idea but not mandatory.

Paul

Paul, when I have the heads ported what do I tell the guy? Is there a certain CFM I ask for or do I just tell him to open em up real good?

Originally posted by Todd 429
Paul, Is the valve job on the DOVE - C heads a must to achieve the 500 HP goal or an I just have them rebuilt how they are.

By the way, Todd, I want to make clear that the above build will likely fall shy of 500HP. This is primarily due to the somewhat small carburetor and street compresison ratio (92 octane pump gas should be no problem with such a build).

This is why (in my above post) I said, "this ought to satisfy your 'up to 500HP' requirement...."

Paul

Originally posted by Todd 429
Paul, when I have the heads ported what do I tell the guy? Is there a certain CFM I ask for or do I just tell him to open em up real good?

I strongly recommend your D0VE head port work be performed by somebody that knows what they are doing with this particular casting. Bigger is not always better when it comes to port work, and this is particulary true in the case of the exhaust port of those 429/460 D0VE heads. Grinding and removing material in the wrong places can hurt the potential flow numbers of these heads. So giving your heads to somebody that speciallizes in chebby's may not get you as good a result as is possible...

I haven't the faintest who to direct you to in the area of Cleveland, Ohio, but I can make some inquiries if you wish.

One of the places I know of that specializes in porting 429/460 D0VE heads is Reincarnation High Performance in Tacoma, Washington. I like what Scott at Reincarnation is doing. He is very knowledgable in regards to different porting techinques that are specifically applicable with these heads. Further, his ported heads are supporting some big horsepower numbers.

Also, there might be somebody close to you; I need to inquire...

I also have some ported heads for sale and emailed you...

Paul

I gave a call to Fox Lake Power Products here in Ohio. They ported my TFS heads fro my EFI Mustang. I asked if they were familier with DOVE heads and he said a little. I'm on a budget and am just taking my time with the build. If I fall short of 500hp that's fine. I just don't wanna build a dog and make like 300hp. I'm not planning on running the car at the track, well I'm sure just to see what it'll do but you know I want something with a little bang and noisy as hell. HAHAHA
Any info on machine shops around here would be cool.

Are you in East ohio, or are you willing to drive to North Western PA to the Oil City PA area? If so I know a engine builder that can take care of you.

Sure. I can take a ride to Oil City.

Email me, I'll give you a name and number. This guy is a BBF guru as well as years of building roundy-round race car engines. He is retired but still does a couple jobs a year, be it heads or entire engines.

webmasterREMOVETHIS@truckpulls.com

Remove the words "removethis" to get the real email address, this stops web crawlers from snatching and spamming my address.

I just ran across a D1ve? 429 but the castings on the heads say d3ve XXXXXXX how much better are the dove heades than the d3ve heads... I'snt the dove head a 72cc and the d3ve a 91cc or something along that line? My valves how ever are the big ones the exhaust is a 1.74 or something like that. Would I be better off finding a set of dove heads or should I mill this set down and port these...I'm also in the market for a stroker crank and a dual plane intake if anyone has something avail. Also I need a tranny for this...I have a c-6 for a small block with shit kit and 3,000 stall for possible trade...I had a 351w in my ltd i got her to 14.2's but without changing gears I'm stuck there and the local ford garage cant seem to figure out what rear end i have! It's not a 9 inch nor an 8 inch and its not an 8.8 so wtf PLEASE HELP!