Thanks for noticing! It took three people to get that hood up and away. As we moved it to the side we all heard the nuts and acorns inside the hood framework rolling around. Lots of homeless chipmunks got evicted from the Lincoln when I moved this thing out of my Dad's garage in 2013.

At least now, Gramma and Grampa will both have freshly rebuilt, matching engines. The funny thing is that they both have the exact same mileage at the moment: 85,000 miles.

Spoke with the machinist yesterday. The block is all cleaned up already. As usual he is my mechanical conscience. He said the cylinders, once honed, would be around .005 larger than a std bore and: "Yeah you could slap it together with the original pistons and it would run OK but since its apart you might as well do it right..."

So we are ordering a set of hypereutectic cast pistons for the block (which are actually rather cheap) in .020 or .030 over. As you may recall, this version of the 460 has 10-1/2 to 1 compression instead of the '72 and newer, which are much lower for regular gas use. He found a set of the correct high compression pistons and we will go with that.

I was going over some of my grandfather's original paperwork from the car and got a good laugh when I read the engine specs and it said: "use gasoline of 99 octane rating minimum."

Great work. Thanks for the update! Cool cruiser to be sure!!!!:biggthumpup:

Not your average soccer mom Suburban 1500. Good color too.

Yeah, our 1995 K2500 diesel 'Burb was last Summer's project: pulled the original engine and replaced it with a new AMG updated 18 to 1 compression HUMVEE refit engine bought right off the assembly line in Ohio. Turns out the original engine had flaking bearings from the old head gasket loss back in 2013. Found out from an oil analysis. Lucky I pulled it because we found all the main webs had cracked in the block. (A common malady with these). Here's that thread in case you need some heavy (pun intended) entertainment.

https://www.dieselplace.com/forum/63...camper-18.html

We bought this truck brand new back in 1995 so she's a keeper!

Borrowed my buddy's pressure washer yesterday and spent the afternoon blasting the engine compartment, and as much of the underside that I could reach while the car was on jackstands.

Here's the rear differential shots. The weird harness going to the pinion hub is actually a prehistoric version of ABS that would monitor the differential speed and pulse the breaks at an amazing (for the time) 4 pulses per second to prevent rear brake lockup. Unfortunately the valve component that sits in the engine compartment failed years ago with an internal leak and was removed and thrown out by my Dad's favorite Lincoln dealer...

Gotta love that old blue Permatex attempt at sealing the leaking pinion gasket by the same Lincoln dealer.

That is the 9 3/8 rear end, not a 9 inch. If you ever have to get parts for it then this is what you need to ask for. The pinion housing is sealed with an O ring, not a gasket. Sometimes you can pull the pinion housing out without having to remove the whole chunk, but many times you have to remove the chunk and loosen up the backlash before the pinion housing will come out. When you remove the pinion housing there will be shims between it and the chunk. This is how the pinion depth is adjusted. Don't damage these shims. It's been several years since I built one of these, but I think the shims are larger than what a 9 inch uses, and I'd hate to have to find replacements.

I think I'll just live with the oil drips for the time being given the complexity of the repair. Looks like the dealer loosened the bolts and tried to inject blue Permatex in the gap, and then tightened it back up.

Here's the engine bay after pressure washing. You can see some of the original factory markings on the sway bar and in the passenger side front fender behind the battery tray. Does that say "427 COPO" ??? (Just kidding)

I already started buying up suspension parts - upper and lower ball joints, lower control arm bushings., etc. Perusing my Dad's repair orders from the Lincoln dealer I could see that they already replaced the inner and outer tie rods, idler arm, the center link assembly, and the sway bar and strut rod bushings around 500 miles ago (in 1998).

Engine progress! Block is already tanked, bored, honed and cam bearings installed. Heads are next. The Speed Pro H535CP .030 pistons are installed on the rods. These are an updated version of the factory piston with valve reliefs instead of a compression lowering pocket in the center.

With the factory DOVE-C heads it is well over 10 to 1. Once I CC the chambers I will know exactly what it will be. The Speed Pro spec says 10.8 to 1 with 72 CC chambers and 10.3 to 1 with the 77 CC chambers.

Got the oil analysis today. Looks interesting in that it shows iron wear. That could be the cast iron rocker arms where they were grinding away at the valve stem tips. The high lead is from the leaded fuel most likely. My SD455 had similar high lead readings from using the same leaded 100 octane AV-Gas. Though the bearings on the 460 were down to copper on the mains. The machinist said the bearings looked like every other big block Ford he has taken apart over the years.

Picked up the major stuff today today. I dropped off the exhaust manifolds to get surfaced. Years of blown out exhaust manifold gaskets pitted the mating surface on the manifolds. As you may have guessed it, the dealership would just charge my father for replacing the donuts in the exhaust pipe to manifold flange and call it a day, completely ignoring the actual cause of the exhaust leaks...and the noise.

I highly recommend Rogers Speed Shop in Garwood, NJ in case anyone needs any machine work done. They are an old time machine shop with experience that goes back at least five decades. They have done the machine work on all my Pontiacs over the years. They know Fords too (and Chevys of course). https://www.facebook.com/Rogers-Spee...6305069751697/

Don't you just love the look of freshly machined parts?

They smell good, too! I had to oil them all down quickly as it was raining when I got home with the parts today.

Steve
Interesting Oil analysis. My 03 GMC Yukon XL 2500 had high Lead content because Chevron 94. I dropped to 91 Octane and Lead ratio dropped significantly. I use Mobil 1 and change at 4500 mile increments.

EWWW, dems purdy!!!!

Got these back from Rogers Speed Shop today. They were able to clean up the flange area nicely. They should seal well now. The Clevite 77 main and rod bearings arrived as well as all the new cast iron rocker arms (@ $16 each - that hurt! This engine uses a unique style of rocker arms instead of the $5 stamped steel rockers). The ARP hardened oil pump drive arrived via Amazon this afternoon. I think I actually have all the parts to assemble this now.

The funny thing is that I pulled the engine to get the transmission rebuilt and the tranny is still sitting on the dolly in the garage. I was going to wait until the engine was assembled so I had less time for the rebuilt trans to sit and use up warranty time in case there is an issue with it later.

Chased all the threads in the block this morning. Then I installed the rear main seal, bearings and crank today. Oil clearance is .002, checked with the old Plastigage green. Nice, leisurely day in the garage.

I checked all the ring gaps in the cylinders today. All top rings were .024 gap. All second rings were .028. Got everything ready for piston/rod installation this weekend.

Great progress.

Got all the pistons and rods in today. Plastigage check on each rod bearing clearance was .015. Rotational torque when all eight were installed was 300 inch pounds (25 ft lbs).

Installed the original camshaft back in the engine and degreed it. Since I didn't have a solid lifter to use for degreeing purposes, I wound up disassembling one of the original hydraulic lifters and replacing the inner spring with a 5/16 nut and and reassembling it. It worked great.

I reused the existing timing chain and gears since they had all of 400 miles on them (and 20 years since the dealer installed them).

The factory intake centerline spec is 110 degrees and it turned out to be between 108.75 and 109 degrees. (after three readings). So I guess it is a little over one degree advanced which is perfectly fine with me.

Here's the factory specs on the 460/365 horsepower camshaft:

engine...............lobe lift.....valve lift.........open (btdc)... IN dur...EX dur....overlap.......hp.....................torque .........comp ratio
1971-460(4v).....253/.278...442/.486.......16 deg..........256.......270........36 deg .....(365hp@4600)[email protected]

256°/270° @ SAE
193°/206° @ .050"

.253"/.278" lobe lift (.443/.487 valve lift)

110°/116° lobe centerlines –

113 Lobe Separation Angle

Still at it today. Measured the deck clearance with the dial indicator. Came out to .037. CC'd one of the chambers and got 74 cc's. Installed the cylinder heads, lifters, push rods and a new set of rocker arms. Then installed the intake. It weighs a ton! I think it was almost as heavy as one of the cylinder heads.

Worked out the calculations for compression ratio and it comes to 10.78 to 1. It should be "peppy" as Gramma used to say.

Nice! Now that is healthy!!:biggthumpup:

Thanks!

BTW, in case anyone wonders, the VIN stamp on these blocks is on the rear of the block, just below where the driver's side cylinder heads bolts up.

Pretty stout grind for a stock Lincoln cam!

While GM dumped the compression ratios in 1971 down to 8.5 to 1, Ford (and Mopar) held out to the end. From what I am learning, in 1972, Ford used an 8 degree retarded crank gear sprocket and much larger combustion chambers on the heads to this drop the compression (and horsepower) on the 460, drastically. This was the truly the end of the Cretaceous Period for engines. The power went from 365 to 245 (212 in '73) and torque from 500 to 342 ft lbs. Even with the SAE to net ratings that was still a helluva drop.

That was the main reason I wanted to degree this cam was to make sure the dealer didn't put on the later retarded timing gear set when they did the water pump repair back in 1998. I guess this was the first thing they actually got right at my Dad's local Lincoln dealer.

In the late 70's I had a customer with a 76 460 Ford truck with a big camper on the back. No power, poor mileage. Sold him a timing chain and gears for a 70. Big difference. He had no idea that Ford had retarded cam timing on those things. To say the least, he was a happy camper after the change.

Since the engine is mostly back together I was able to drop off the C6 at the transmission shop. It's an old Lee Myles that has been in business for 50+ years, in Union, New Jersey. The owner knew my uncle back in the 1970's when my uncle owned the Lee Myles franchise on Kennedy Blvd in Jersey City, New Jersey. It's a good shop. They have rebuilt transmissions for me for several previous projects. I even had them call me once after I dropped off an M22 and they called me back the next day and said it doesn't need rebuilding, just a couple of new gaskets: no charge. Nice!

I got the heads, intake, lifters, oil pump and pan on. I tried installing the Felpro rubber valve cover gaskets that came in the overhaul set and got extremely displeased when I went to put oil in the engine and it immediately started pouring out between the valve covers and the heads. The frikken things slid out of alignment when I tightened the valve cover bolts even though I had glued them to the covers beforehand. I HATE RUBBER VALVE COVER GASKETS. I have a set of old time cork gaskets in transit now.

I was able to paint the engine outside yesterday before the rains came.

Wanna know what the hardest part was? Getting the distributor to drop in and align with the oil pump drive. I spent an hour trying to get it into any position that would drop in and connect to the new ARP hardened oil pump driveshaft. No dice. Even though I test fit everything beforehand to make sure it would connect properly and not have any issues. So I gave up and then decided to prime the engine with a 1/2"drill and priming tool. Got 55 psi and ran the drill until oil came out every rocker arm bleed hole while I hand cranked the engine over to get all the lifters filled. I then tried for another hour to drop in the distributor and finally got it to plop in, coincidentally aligning the rotor in the exact same spot I had photographed it in when I took my disassembly photos (at TDC of #1 cylinder).

Great progress! Really enjoying the updates on this thread.

Regards,
Dave

Thanks. It's fun to challenge yourself once in a while with something completely out of one's automotive comfort zone. I never worked on a Ford before. It seems that a 460 Ford is just a blue-painted, big block Chevy with the distributor at the wrong end. Look at the valve cover bolt pattern and the way the staggered valves are laid out.

And the cylinders are numbered wrong.

Naw, the engine is just backwards.

Look at where the sump is in the oil pan, combine that with the distributor location and it's a backwards 454.

Picked up the transmission today. Total rebuild cost was $950. They also sent out the torque converter to be rebuilt since there was a lot of sludge in the transmission due to the fact that the seals were so petrified that the servos were not fully engaging and all the front clutches completely burned out. All the friction material wound up in the fluid and pan. Probably that last couple miles of driving did the most damage. Should be good to go for install this weekend. I have been cleaning, painting and trial fitting the brackets and accessories over the past week or so.

Plopped the old 460 into place this afternoon. Rather uneventful when you don't have the transmission attached. It took, at the most, twenty minutes. I did have the take the wheels off and lower the nose down so the engine would fit over the front header panel without the hoist hitting the garage door.

After it was in place I used a floor jack to support the back of the block til I get the transmission installed tomorrow or Monday. I borrowed my buddy's truck jackstands so I can get the transmission and trans jack under the car.

Got the transmission installed today. Boy that was not fun. The transmission jack's deck height is 10 inches off the floor and there is no way you can slide the trans under and into the tunnel area and then try to manhandle it onto the jack. Too darn heavy. So I put the car up onto the truck jack stands which are still not high enough. I ended up putting the trans on the jack and finagling it under the car by angling the base and dropping the bellhousing area and then moving it around between the right side brake rotor and the wheel well.

It then took four tries to get the transmission to bolt up to the engine. I thought I had the torque converter seated with two "clunks" but it turns out this one is supposed to clunk a third time to be fully seated into the front pump. (Things you learn when this is your first Ford project). Otherwise you get within 3/8" of bolting up and then no go. Very frustrating. But in the end I got it done by the time it was getting dark. I have a large railroad tie section holding up the rear of the trans till tomorrow when I can put in the crossmember and get it all into position, once and for all.

Nicely done Macgiver! Adapt and overcome!!! That thing is a BEAST! Thanks for the update!!! :biggthumpup:

Well today wasn't much fun. I have been attaching accessories and hoses, etc. I went to tighten the transmission cooler lines to the transmission and the adapter that is attached to the case snaps right off...flush with the case. Gee, how about pulling the trans for a fifth time?

No way.

So I jacked up the transmission from the back end and pulled the transmission cross member. I then angled it down as far as possible to get a clear shot at the fitting area. After an hour with a tiny chisel tapping in a counterclockwise direction I was able to see the remaining threaded section move. Luckily I had a 40-year-old Easy Out that I bought back in high school in the bottom of my tool box. I gently tapped it in with a small hammer and it stuck enough to be able to wrench the piece out. I'd get maybe an 1/8th of a turn and the Easy Out would fall out. (hence the name, I guess???). I reinserted, tapped and wrenched for another half hour til I got the sucker out of there. Thankfully no damage to the threads in the case.

I then went to the local NAPA which of course had every other fitting but the one I needed (Of course their inventory said they had it in stock). They called the other store in town who's inventory said they had two...I had him ask them to put their hands on one and tell me if it was actually there. IT WAS! So off across town I went.

They had the correct fitting for $1.80 and I was happy again. Installation went fine and the transmission is back up in place. Of course the hydraulic cylinder in the transmission jack failed so I had to use a floor jack for support of the tail shaft but all is well again.

Here is the offending fitting:

And here is crazy 1970's gas crisis modification #1.

I bet this was some trick that my Grandfather probably got out of the J.C. Whitney catalog back in 1972 or so. He was the ultimate tinkerer and backyard mechanic wanna-be. I know he is smiling right now and slapping his knee, while winking to my Grandmother and saying: "Well, the kid found THAT one...lets see what he finds next..."

:-)

I couldn't figure out why the heck I could not get the transmission kick down lever to adjust and operate the transmission lever. I would pull the throttle all the way back and it would never contact the lever. Then it occurred to me to check full throttle to see if it was fully opening all four barrels of the carb. When I disconnected the cable I could get about an inch more travel in the throttle arm than when the cable was attached. I then I looked closer. The cable has a built in return spring in the form of a tightly wound coil spring on the cable itself. When you pulled all the way back it would stop.....up against what looked like two octagonal spacers.

Only they weren't spacers, they were 1/2" threaded nuts that someone had cut a notch out of and then slipped them over the cable behind the spring and clamped them closed with a vice grip. Thereby preventing the throttle from opening the last inch and/or engaging the four barrels, and/or activating the kickdown/internal pressure adjustment in the transmission. So that probably didn't help the lifespan of the transmission either.

Anyway, I used a cutoff disc on my Dremel tool and removed the offending spacers and lo and behold I now have full throttle capability and a working kickdown lever. Whodathought?

So, in conclusion, I imagine that not only will the rebuilt engine be a bit peppier than it was originally, it should be a helluva lot peppier than I ever experienced in this car either driving it in my adult years, or as a passenger, in my early childhood, now that it has a functioning four barrel.

More stuff going on. Got the original date coded alternator and smog pump back on. Jeez - these Fords have everything bolted to everything else with individual belts for everything, as well. That monster 460 engine looks tiny in that enormous engine compartment, doesn't it? Looks like a 289 in a Mustang engine bay. At least there's room to work!