Thread: 460 or 406?

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Thank yall for your help. I guess a Cammer is a little to ambitious for a first engine. A 460 is a good engine, My uncle had one in a 88 Thunderbird and it ran like greased lightning. I am now thinking about a 406. I know they are rare, but I think I have a better chance of finding a 406 than a Cammer, and 406s arent lacking in performance.

A 406 won't look any different than a 390. There is no substitute for cubic inches. Get a 460. There are more parts available for them, and they are far more plentiful.

A 406 won't look any different than a 390. There is no substitute for cubic inches. Get a 460. There are more parts available for them, and they are far more plentiful.

Swifster nailed it, Zack. The only thing better than cubic inches is more cubic inches. There are lots of 460's around for cheap, parts are plentiful, and even a good chance of scarfing up on someone's leftovers at the swap meets. I've been accumulating FE parts for a few years. The good stuff is hard to find, and not cheap!!!!! JMO

Look for both and see what u find first.

i'd go with the 460, Ford is making it again as a crate motor which means much better chance of parts being available right there..... plus the crate motor is pretty nice... they call it "The 460 Super Cobra Jet" puts out quite a few horsies.... its expensive though

They're right, Zack. Forget the 406, and go with a 460. Engines are plentiful and cheap, and with a good cam, intake, ignition, and headers they are brutal. And, you can't hardly hurt one, especially if you slide in some Cobra Jet parts, like crank, rods, etc.

I've got a roller cam, roller rocker, Cobra Jet fortified 460 waiting to go into my T bucket, and it should put out some serious, dependable horsepower, without breaking the bank.

Yep, 460. As with most motors, the secret to a good-running 460 is heads. Using a set of the early 429 heads and dished pistons would be the way I'd go. Hard seats, a good 3-angle valve job and a little exhaust port work. Here's a post from Paul Kane.....

"The "D0VE-C" casting are cylinder head castings that had an engineering revision for the 1970 model year and are perhaps the most popular production head utilized in a performance application. On a stock 429 with flat top pistons, they will get you approximately 10.5:1 compression ratio.

How the D0VE-C heads (specifically) came to be such a popular head is a bit bewildering for me, in that the C8VE heads, the C9VE heads and the D0VE heads are all pretty much the same....meaning most 429's have nice heads on them. But I suppose the term "Dove" just stuck and is easy to remember, so these are the particalr castings people look for. (<----speculation.) All these heads mentioned above are referred to as "early castings," and all have the same valve sizes from the factory, the same port configuations and volumes, same combustion chamber sizes, etc. In fact, the are so damn-near identical that you may run a C8VE head on one cylinder bank and a D0VE head on the other and the motor won't know the difference.

All 429/460 production heads suffer from a turbulent exhaust port that requires grinding and reshaping to improve performance. Unported heads can offer up pretty good power in the right combo, but even that combo will benefit greatly by improving the flow characteristics of the iron heads. Larger valves may be fit into the heads as well.

In max effort applications, D0VE heads have supported over 700HP in naturally aspirated motrs. There are not too may iron passenger car heads of the era that can make this claim.

These heads make your 429 particular nice as an engine because any 429 that came with different heads (1972 & 1973 429's) have very low compression and dismal preformance as a result.

Cleaned and bare (unassembled) early style castings seem to sell on eBay from $200-$300 for a pair. I have about a dozen pair myself, if any of those prospective buyers are interested."

Paul