1984 F-250 HD Rebuild Project

[Jermd21]

Inching closer towards the goal line.  My 460 is now a 472 roller motor.  Very pleased with the upholstery job on the captains seats.  Waiting on paint & body then it's time to start putting it all back together.

[Gary Lewis]

Engine looks great, and the seats look fantastic!  Gonna be a really nice truck.  

[StraightSix]

That's going to be really slick! And with the engine internals and EFI you may not recognize your formerly stout truck for all of the improvment in driveability and performance.

[ArdWrknTrk]

Those are some big boy valve covers!
What kind of lift & ratio?
What are you using for rockers? Scorpion??

I like to see cast manifolds. 😊
Did you do any porting or have them extrude-hone'd ???

[Ifitaintbroke]

Rocking them Mr Gasket valve covers. Our trucks are almost twins. Mine is currently a 472 as well. And why the manifolds? I hope you don't have a large cam.

[Jermd21]

Hey Jim! The machine shop that rebuilt my engine had those valve covers available.  He only charged me like $50 for them so I bought them as an opportunity to dress it up a little.  They are a little large, not because of anything he did to the heads but that's just what he had.  

As far as rockers, I honestly don't know.  I had him take a few pictures during the rebuild so maybe you can tell me.  I can call and ask him about compression but I didn't think to ask.  The idea was to keep it mostly stock although we did put an Edelbrock Performer 460 intake manifold and intend to put a Holley Sniper system on it.  They did bore it 0.060" over due to some rust in the cylinders.  

I left the exhaust manifolds stock because I don't intend to put it in the RPM range that headers add a lot of value (at least to my understanding).  It's just gonna be a daily driver for the most part.  If you think any of this was a big mistake please let me know. I am open to suggestions since I haven't ever done this before.

[ArdWrknTrk]

Alright, so those are stamped rockers, nothing bulky like aluminum roller rockers, but the valve covers look nice and you got a good deal!  👍

I have some low profile cast aluminum ribbed OMC rocker covers I got for about the same cost from eBay.
I painted them VHT crinkle black and belt sanded the ribs.

I like that they seal great and the filler tower doesn't flex the the tin.

Honestly, I think you've made a good choice!

[Ifitaintbroke]

Did you have the heads ported? The 460's biggest problem is terrible exhaust ports. Leaving them as-cast is also leaving a lot of potential of the table. The problem is the bigger cam. Your cam isn't huge (and I'm glad to see a roller btw), but it's significantly bigger than stock. Worst thing you can ever do to a 385 is a big cam with stock heads. My cam is 508 on the intake, and 541 on the exhaust, and that's with extensive port work. Even with fully ported heads, a custom cam (mine is from Scotty J), if it is ground by someone who knows what they are doing (Scotty is 2nd only to Jon Kaase and even that is a matter of opinion), will favor the exhaust side greatly. 385's have fantastic intake ports, and are great at inhaling. But you need to be able to breathe back out. Idk. Go with what your engine builder says if he is VERY experienced with THESE SPECIFIC ENGINES. The last thing in the world you want is a chevy guy to build a Ford engine. But you'll have a torque monster either way.

[Ifitaintbroke]

If you want the best advice, go to the 460ford forum. Scotty is very active on there and he'll give you the best solution for your specific build, without trying to sell you something. He's a great guy.

[ArdWrknTrk]

Scott has uploaded a couple of Dyno pulls to his YouTube channel the past week


Man, I wish I had one of those engines.

[Ifitaintbroke]

Yeah Jim, you need one of his 557ci Towpaks.

[ArdWrknTrk]

. Like I "need" another hole in my head!

[Jermd21]

Bradley,

Thank you for the information.  I did not have the heads ported.  My main goal at the moment is getting everything back together and operational.  I know it doesn't make as much sense to do it later, but after everything is working again I may go back and make some improvements.  I thought about getting different heads and headers but in the end I'm trying to keep to a budget (which is slowly growing) and focusing on the basics for now.  It certainly sounds like Scotty is the go to guy for 460's so I will definitely look him up if/when it comes to that.  Thank you again.

[Ifitaintbroke]

Best option would be either having your factory heads done, or some cheap ebay
aluminum Pro Comps. Sounds strange, but Scotty told me that he goes through a whole pallet of those every year. They are surprisingly good.