462 cranks and pistons for a 430

[hawkdouble]

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Originally postet by "JC "

Some of you maybe remember my postings a while back. I am having a 430 on my 1960 T-bird rebuilt. I have received great support from this forum. That was a few month ago. A little bit history of my rebuild. The first issue we had was that the block was 0.060 bored over already. Not wanting to spend money on custom pistons, we found a set of 462 cranks. The plan at the time was to bore 0.080 over, and use the 462 cranks and standard 462 pistons. Then later on we found a second hurdle: the block was not truned when it was bored out last time. The mission then turned into a MEL block hunt. I finally found two complete 430 engines loacally (in New Jersey, I am in Brooklyn NY). One of the block has never been rebuilt. Now, the question is, since I can still have the 462 cranks, should it still make it a 462? How about the compression ratio? The stock CR for my 1960 T-bird is 10 (350HP). The stock CR for a 462 is 10.25 (340 HP, This is the only number I can find, thanks to KULTULZ). From this forum, it seems that the combustion chamber in the head of 462 is smaller. Therefore the deck height of a 462 is larger? If that's the case, I will get reduced CR. I am going to regrind the cam to the specs of a 58 or 59 Lincoln. Will I gain any HP from the 462?

[KULTULZ]

The 462 actually had a very small chamber in the cylinder head, so you are going to have to allow for that retrofitting 462 components into an earlier 430. With iron heads you don't want much over 9 to CR for pump gas.

You are actually going to be experimenting with CR as this swap was most likely common many years ago, but where would you find those guys now? You are probabaly going to have to assemble the engine a few times to arrive at the CR (cc the cylinders) and check for valve clearance with a reground camshaft. Be advised that the 59/60 TBIRD 430 was actually the 1959 LINC 430 directly off the assembly line. An actual performance camshaft would be derived from the early MERC.

I was going to do a study of reground cams and how far a grinder can go with the cam still being reliable. I have sat on my fat butt too long. I need to contact a few grinders to see how they would go about it. I know CRANE has some type of new grinding machine that is supposed to be the cat's meow as to exactness. I would imagine that they can transfer one of their later patterns to the grind as technology has changed so much over the years.

It is very important that you keep the board abreast of the progress of your rebuild so others can benefit from what you learn. Is there a machine shop there that you can tust or are you going to send it out?

[kultdouble]

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Originally postet by "Brian "

If you use the 462 heads it should be standard comp if you are swapping in crank and everything. Just be careful if you try to put the 430 heads on, you may boost the CR up too high for pump gas. I don't think you should have much problem with the heads taking the compression as they used to sell 13:1 pistons for these motors, it'd be the stock cast pistons that would be the problem I would think.

[KULTULZ]

The combustion chamber with the 462 piston(s) in place (actually, it would be nice to CC the combustion chamber on the 430 for future reference). The later 462 heads will not flow as well as the earlier heads. It may be that he will have to use dished pistons or modify the stock pistons.
Most of this is new tech for most of us. You just know that there is an old fart sitting out there reading this and possessing the knowledge just grinning...
A pumped-up 462 in a SquareBird should get the job done don't you think?

[hawkdouble]

Originally postet by "Jc "

The rebuild will be done by a shop. After talking to the machinist, he thinks there shouldn't be too much trouble with the 462 cranks and pistons. The CR will be high and he is likely to make some adjustments. The head gaskets will be a litte thicker than stock to begin with. He might also need to machine the top off of the 462 pistons. He will be cc'ing the heads, and I will post the number when it's available. I also have already installed a Crane Hi 6 ignition module with a timing-retard control. I put an optical trigger in the stock distributor. That was pretty straight forward. The cam will be reground by Isky. Isky is just going to add a little duration to a good cam out of one of the blocks. There isn't much they can do without a blank. BTW, I bought a Edelbrock L300 3x2 intake from eBay a few weeks ago. That would be the project next year, I guess. One quick question about the Edelbrock intake, will I have clearance issue to the hood panel?

[KULTULZ]

"One of the block has never been rebuilt." Are you going to cut the other block and leave this one for future rebuild?
How did your BIRD run with 10.0 to 1 and pump gas? Any problems?

[hawkdouble]

Originally postet by "Jc "

I am going to use the good block for the rebuild. There is also a sleeve in the other block. Besides, I will not have storage space for all the left over parts. (I live in an apartment in Brooklyn, NY). After the rebuild, all the remaining parts will most likely to be sold or given away as fast as possible. I will have two set of heads, one block that could be good enough to be rebuilt, one block that should be disposed, 3 set of cranks for a 430, a couple of intakes, .... The guy I bought the two motors from collected a lot of MEL stuff. He finally decided he needs to get rid of them. I bought the whole lot from him.

[KULTULZ]

...before disposing of anything. My E-Mail is good.

[hawkdouble]

Originally postet by "Jc "

Will do.