returning to FORD

Hi all, name is James, i'm only 41 but grew up with Ford/ Mercury cars. got away from them for a while and played with Pontiac Fieros, converting them to 3800 supercharged cars... Boy now those were fast and fun. Speeding Tickets returned me to reality and so I sold off all that stuff and bought last fall a 1965 Galaxie 500 FastBack. it's a nice Texas car with no rust, 38,000 miles. It needed some TLC when i bought it though, it had a Original 289 ( non Hi-Po ) that the previous owner said was rebuilt... makes ya wonder why a car needs rebuilt with such low miles but i figured whatever. replaced the carb, water pump, fuel pump, alt bracket, and distributor before finally getting it to fire. It made one heck of a racket on top end so i dove into it. FOund out they replaced the heads with 1979 Smogger 302 heads, and never replaced the pushrods.. ut oh.. 289 pushrods are like .075 short.. yeah you could literally pull the push rods out from under the rockers. so now i'm scared, i find the rear seal is leaking and its a 2 piece one.. it was installed 90 deg out of rotation and 2 ends were butted against a dowl pin. so I fixed it, replaced the pushrods, got it running and been taking it to car shows and such.. I'm a veteren mechanic so my knowledge is better than fair, but i'm not a expert on anything by far. I work in a grage doing state inspections, and such.

I joined the forum because I want to replace my old 289 with a 460 engine. sounds like a lot of work but I can fabricate mounts and such. I have a fully functional garage and welding tools. right now i'm in the process of hunting down a 460 in my area and may have something in the next week or so to start tearing down for rebuild. I'll post some pictures of the car and such as soon as i figure out this site a little better. I am not a inexperienced mechanic but I am sure i'll have a lot of questions for you all with transmission and engine stuff though. I appreciate all the help I can get as far as good honest information. thanks in advance for having me in the forum and hope to chat with you all soon. thanks for reading and safe travels.

Welcome to the board,and congrats for using your head in deciding on BBF power. You will not be sorry. When you get ready just start asking.

Welcome !! Plenty of 460's in PA...... Quite a few member here from the area. Get in touch with Gdog and his crew, if nothing else you'll have a great time !!

dfree383 wrote:Welcome !! Plenty of 460's in PA...... Quite a few member here from the area. Get in touch with Gdog and his crew, if nothing else you'll have a great time !!

True Dat!

Welcome to the BBF Forum

Hey James,
Recently completed a 460 swap into a '64 Galaxie 500 XL. It was surprisingly easy. Be glad to offer any suggestions/help. We used stock motor mounts, bolt in, I'll have to confirm what mounts we did use. C4 automatic bolted right to stock crossmember. Good luck w/ yours! Wayne

sounds great. I know 64 is a different body style than mine, but i'd be interested in any info or pictures ya have on the conversion. the tranny in mine is a FMX, the previous owner scrapped out the 2 speed cruisomatic. my thoughts are trying to get a Automatic overdrive for it and change the rear end gears for more low end take off and keep a mild mileage for gas.

That's a clean Sharp looking Galaxie.

Later Mark.

Mark Miller wrote:That's a clean Sharp looking Galaxie.

Later Mark.

yeah..what Mark said!

So today I found a 1976 Thunderbird that short of a chewed up roof from mice, is perfect. 460 CID, 4 barrel motorcraft carb, and a rebuilt c6 with 200 miles on the trans. it sat for a few years, but i put a battery in it, it fired up and idled like it was brand new. the car itself and engine have 73000 miles on it. I don't know much about 460's and i'm sure it's probably not the most desireable year for a 460, but I'm not drag racing, truck pulling with it.. it's just for looks and sound, and the ability to pass a car without needing 2 miles of passing lanes. i'm going to start tearing it out of the car this week,. i'm excited i know, if i didnt have to work tomorrow i'd be knee deep in bolts by now. i'll keep ya posted.

James1965 wrote:So today I found a 1976 Thunderbird that short of a chewed up roof from mice, is perfect. 460 CID, 4 barrel motorcraft carb, and a rebuilt c6 with 200 miles on the trans. it sat for a few years, but i put a battery in it, it fired up and idled like it was brand new. the car itself and engine have 73000 miles on it. I don't know much about 460's and i'm sure it's probably not the most desireable year for a 460, but I'm not drag racing, truck pulling with it.. it's just for looks and sound, and the ability to pass a car without needing 2 miles of passing lanes. i'm going to start tearing it out of the car this week,. i'm excited i know, if i didnt have to work tomorrow i'd be knee deep in bolts by now. i'll keep ya posted.

Sounds like a Nice find,460's were real smooth running engines with stock camshafts.IMO,Get some DOVE-C heads bolt them to the shortblock you have,add a decent cam,Performer RPM Intake,850 Holley,some headers,a little gear and Converter and you'll be suprised how good it runs in the Galaxie.

Later Mark.

Later Mark.

don't know that much about 460's. not sure what the differences are in heads. I will however be replacing the intake and Carb. wanted to replace the cam with a step up for a little more low end power...

James1965 wrote:don't know that much about 460's. not sure what the differences are in heads. I will however be replacing the intake and Carb. wanted to replace the cam with a step up for a little more low end power...

The easiest increase in power would be to replace the OEM timing set with a NON-retarded set. A good camshaft is the next progression and then changing the heads to a smaller combustion chamber version. Your compression ratio now is in the high 7's no matter what literature might say.

you mean like putting in a gear drive cam chain replacement? sorry for the stupid questions, I just do not know much if anything about the big block fords.. it is why i'm here. to learn from the good guys with knowledge. I have most of the engine and transmission about to come out of the Thunderbird now.. prolly will be out tomorrow night or thursday at the latest, then i'll get some pictures of what i have, stamping numbers and see what the heads are, ect.

Good news is today i was looking over the 460 since i got it pulled out of the ThunderBird and it hsa D3VE heads on it. I know I know, not as good as D0VE head but i'm not making a racer.

welcome aboard!! real nice car.