Thinking about rebuilding my 429

As my camaro is coming close to being finished, I have my torino in the back of my mind. The 429 I bought for it does run, but it smokes. I planned on taking it to the machine shop, but now I am thinking about rebuilding it myself. Just wanted to run some of my ideas by you guys.
I am not looking for racecar performance from my 429, just good, strong, reliability. With that said, here are some of the components I have.

1973 429 from a 73 torino wagon(2 bolt main)
1970 dove c heads that I know need to be completely redone
The c6 tranny that was in the wagon

I am thinking about having the block vatted and cam bearings put in and having the heads rebuilt with new stock style springs, valves, retainers,etc (no porting). I am also considering having the block decked to increase compression. I guess the main thing I need to know, is Is it worth doing this without putting in oversized pistons? I would like to get a good amount of power from this engine CHEAP! Maybe 350-400hp. I am thinking that the torque will make it feel pretty strong.

Any advise would be appreciated.

Oh, and the engine is unchanged since 73. I hasnt even had the carb off of it.

Sounds like a great plan, Josh.... The engine has good parts, with a quality valve job and the right cam, it'll be plenty strong to pull the Torino on....and being mostly stock will be reliable for a long, long time!!!!

Dave, do you see anything wrong with reringing it without boaring the cylinders?
And I could also use some suggestions on a cam choice, ratio of rockers, and maybe some idea of how much to mill the heads down to work with such a cam. The guy I bought the engine from gave me some kind of dual plain holley intake for it, not sure wich one though.

You'll have to get it apart and check piston to wall clearance. It the cylinders are excessively worn, it will have to be bored oversize. When you have the block done, your machinist can check that for you....

Think I'd stick with the stock rockers, and just a mild cam. Comp Cams has a program called "Cam Quest" that you can download for free on their site, or Techinspector is a much better cam man than I.... I usually call the company (I use Comp Cams) and talk with one of the techs rather then just go with what so and so said worked good in his second cousins car that was kinda the same engine!!!!!:LOL::LOL:

If the intake is a dual plane, it should be well suited for street use...

use a 460 crank in it you will get more cid out of it. i like the 460's but you can get caried away with stroker kits for the 385 engines . just a though

Josh, if the motor is high mileage, you would be well advised to bore the block .030 over, hone, install new hypereutectic,stock type pistons, correct ring package. This will guarantee straight bores, excellent ring seal. Competent stock valve job, use the cam manufaturers recommended spring package. Don"t forget to turn the crank .010 under. This will guarantee round journals, proper bearing clearnance, correct oil pressure. If you deck the block, just do enough to guarantee perfect gasket seal. More and you will run into intake manifold alignment issues. The 460 crank could be selected at this point with the new pistons, which must match the crank selection. If you run a stock convertor in the trans, stay conservative on the cam timing. If you run something like an 11 inch/2800 stall, you can run one of the new "Thumper" style cams from Comp cams. It will sound cool, and go like H... Stay conservative on the carb, 650-750 max on the CFM.
Hope that helps your thoughts on this, Gil

Josh,

When it comes to rebuilding on a shoestring, you simply won't know where you can get away with very little until you measure, measure, measure.

In regards to the cylinder block decking: The OEM pistons in the 1973 429 are a whopping 0.040" down in the hole at TDC! You would be very wise to deck the block so as to effectively bring the pistons closer to TDC. With the OEM pistons, it may be necessary to deck as much as 0.040" off the deck BUT I recommend that you bring the deck height down to just to 10.300", 10.295" minimum. The OEM D1VE blck of the 1973 429 is usually found to be about 10.322"-10.325", and the reason I suggest decking down to just 10.295"-10.300" is because many aftermarket pistons are manufactured with 10.300" in mind, so leave your future options open. Further, decking down to 10.286" (<---OEM piston deck height) may cause a need for machining in other areas that I won't get into here and now.

The main reason for decking the block in this particular case is to gain better control of detonation. The cost is typically about $75-$100 to deck the block and worth every penny.

Paul