460 in a fox

pacecar79

New Member
Jun 25, 2004
18
0
0
what are your opinions on a 460 in a fox? too much weight in the front end. i know you can make some amazing power out of a 302 with a charger stroker and nitrous or any combinations of the 3 but i kinda want to do somethin different. I have hear of a 460 running 12.0 with little traction, ported heads, medium cam, and a good intake and carb. what do yall think?
 
  • Sponsors (?)


pacecar79 said:
what are your opinions on a 460 in a fox? too much weight in the front end. i know you can make some amazing power out of a 302 with a charger stroker and nitrous or any combinations of the 3 but i kinda want to do somethin different. I have hear of a 460 running 12.0 with little traction, ported heads, medium cam, and a good intake and carb. what do yall think?


ive heard it being done before. from what i hear its a ton of work.... and isnt cheap...

what are your goals? if there to run 12's then i would say a resounding NO. as you can do this w/ a simple H/C/I and gears, tires and be in the either low 12's or high 11's....

all for alot less then what a 460 would cost...
 
There are many stock head/cam cars out there running mid to high 12's with simple bolt ons (exhaust), big gears (4.10) and slicks/suspension work. Of course it takes a good driver too. It certainly doesn't take a 460, and you're right about the handling. The handling of the stock car is pretty marginal as it is. Add another 200-225 lbs. of weight, and it gets downright comical.

If you must have bigger cubes, consider building a stroker 351 based engine. It'll only weigh about 75-100 lbs. more than the 302, and you can take it out to 408, even 427 cubes.
 
460 is a nasty motor..................for the power to weight ratio i wouldnt worry about the extra weight............i taled to a guy who had one in his gt at the track...........waiting to be checked out....when he made it to the line his front wheels came up and i heard a loud POP that was the end of his tranny..............so ya id say it is a NASTY MOTOR................
 
If you can get most of the brackets with the motor and the right tranny, then only headers and exhaust come into play. The 460 is a very strong motor and can make great gobs of power. Plenty of speed parts available.

Police interceptor heads, a mild cam, good 4bbl and headers and you are looking at 500 flywheel horspower cheaply. It all depends on what you have or can get for a good price. Keep the RPM's low and you should be good. Stock cast cranks are not made to be spun to the moon. Years ago one of the 4wd mags did a buildup. They were looking for torque, tested 3 cams. They picked the one with the highest low rpm torque and still made 500 hp. Probably idled like a towncar.

With better parts, you can rev higher, but that is the best part about big cubes is big power down low.

Back when I was 11, my dad had a 1975 LTD police package. 460, 4bbl, dual exhaust C6 and like 273 gears. Car would pass up anything but a gas station. Bought and sold it for $200. Good chance it had the police interceptor heads.

A local guy told me 12's were possible with 273's and a C6 with just an intake and carb swap. I tend to believe him.
 
My only problem with a 460 swap would be the transmission. I have a friend who put a 429/C-6 combo and a 9" with 3.73's in his '81 Mustang coupe and is severely limited with his highway cruising. Is there an overdrive transmission available that you can bolt up to the big blocks? Either an AOD or a 5/6 speed?

We live in Massachusetts, so it's a 2.5 hour drive to the closest dragstrip (Epping, New Hampshire) and a 3 hour drive to the Mustangs Unlimited car shows in Connecticut. Because of his lack of overdrive, he is never willing to go with us.

For raw power though, his car is simply tops!
 
Hissing Cobra said:
My only problem with a 460 swap would be the transmission. I have a friend who put a 429/C-6 combo and a 9" with 3.73's in his '81 Mustang coupe and is severely limited with his highway cruising. Is there an overdrive transmission available that you can bolt up to the big blocks? Either an AOD or a 5/6 speed?

We live in Massachusetts, so it's a 2.5 hour drive to the closest dragstrip (Epping, New Hampshire) and a 3 hour drive to the Mustangs Unlimited car shows in Connecticut. Because of his lack of overdrive, he is never willing to go with us.

For raw power though, his car is simply tops!

There is an E40D from a late model truck will work. I am sure that baumann engineering has a stand alone computer to go with it.

There is also the gear vendors over/underdrive aux tranny that will bolt to the back of a C6, c4 or E4od.

IMO the benefit of these big motors is the use of a 2.73 or a 3.08 gear and just exploit the torque of the engine to move the car.
 
so if i did say put a 460 in my car with for say the trickflow aluminum heads, a good intake and carb, a medium grind cam, i would be lookin at some very decent power while still being some what streetable due the not being an extremem race motor. Is there a standard transmissiont that would bolt up to this motor. i would probably have to make a custom cross member.. and what about ring and pinion gears? 373? or maybe a 355 if i only have a auto 3 spd tranny?
 
With a mild 460 you're correct - lots of power and torque and very decent street manners. Course, lots of 'losses' too - so no matter what you do, especially carbed, it's gonna drink fuel. And with the kind of torque a mild 460's gonna make down low, you won't need much gear. Especially with a 3-speed - in a 3000 lb. car for the street - I'd go with 3.08's, maybe 3.27's.
 
A 460 is much cheaper than a blown stroker or HCI 302!! You can run 12's with only an intake, carb and exhaust. Get a used 460 and tranny for less than $500. All that really needs to be done is to home port the exhaust to clean out the edges and the smog humps, bolt on an intake, get a used 750 and used headers, and throw in a shift kit. You dont even need gears to get it rolling becuase it makes crap loads of torque. And if anyone here has a 400+ horsepower NA 302 running on 87 just let me know because my 460 does that. You can also bolt on a T-5 or Tremec to a 460 using a Lakewood bellhousing. Hell if you use a Torker II intake you can even get it to fit under the stock hood. Dont let some dude who hasnt even done the swap tell you its too hard or too expensive. Its true, you can get a 302 to run just as fast as a 460, but it takes much more time and money. If your just looking for a motor to drop in for cheap, require little tweaking and haul ass, then the 460 is the way to go. I agree a 408 is an all around better motor but dont expect to build one for less than $4000.
 
sorry about my reply. apparently i was misinformed when i questioned this at the local hangout....

now this really has me intersted.... can one fit in an 83? and where does one get the 460 from?....


so w/ a intake and heads im making 500? jesus.....

thanks

Chad
 
NightLife said:
now this really has me intersted.... can one fit in an 83? and where does one get the 460 from?....
Chad

Yes, they fit in an 83. Check out www.bigblockfox.com. There was a user here kidott, but I cant find any of his posts using the search engine. He had a 429 (same block) in an 84 with C6. Kidott was also on bigblockfox under same name.

You can get them out of 70's lincolns, LTD's, mercs, and 3/4 vans and trucks all the way up until 98. You can also find the 429 which is the same family engine with a smaller stroke.

They should be able to easily take a 200 shot as well.

Heads for the 460 tend to be more $$$, but heads like the police interceptors can be cleaned up by any back yard port to make 500 with a 750, intake, headers and small cam.

Cons are weight, weight and weight. It gets a little tight in the engine bay, but it still fits.
 
Check out page 28 of Jan 05 5.0 Mustangs- new WindsorR block can be had with 9.5 deck, 4.2 bore and 4.250 crank = 460 ci! All for the low, low price of $2495, but at least you can still turn the front wheels above 30 MPH! :nice: