ArdWrknTrk Posted October 20, 2017 Share Posted October 20, 2017 As promised I'm starting a thread as I put together a new engine for my F-250. Some of you may remember my '460 repower' thread from March of '08 over on FTE when i spun a bearing on a cold February morning. Following the lead of Scott Johnston (one of the best known porters of iron 385 series heads) and a damn good builder of big block Ford's. He's placed right behind Jon Kaase in the Engine Masters showdown and is known on forums as 'The Mad Porter'. Per his advice I'm going to be using a Holley 750 vacuum secondary carb atop an Edelbrock Performer intake with a recurved stock distributor and DuraSpark II ignition. I will probably using a custom ground cam of his design and a valve train package of his or his advice. I'm going to be porting the heads myself, while learning as much as I can from the various tutorials available to paid members on his site Parkland Performance Machine (formerly known as Reincarnation High Performance) I snatched up a carb on Ebay a few weeks ago and bought some porting tools as well as a low temp thermostat. Then, last week, a pair of D3VE A2A heads turned up on Ebay in Texas. They were about $145 each (delivered!) and described as old stock from a shuttered machine shop. The price was great as shipping is $80-90 per head and these would not need any crack checking or machine work done. I found them on my doorstep when i got home last night and took them over to my storage this morning. Yep, whoever packed these didn't have a clue. (foam peanuts... really?!?!) It literally took me over 40 minutes with long tweezers and alligator forceps to pick the foam out of all the water passages. But then!!!! As the sun came up I noticed something odd. There were no drilling for thermactor ports. Not in the ends of the head, nor any holes into the exhaust ports. Dumbfounded. This must be for a stationary industrial engine. There are plenty of pumps in Texas. For farms, ranches and oilfields..... THIS IS THE HOLY GRAIL OF D3 460 HEADS!!!! WOO HOO I HAVE A UNICORN, or two I REALLY SCORED THIS TIME (for once) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted October 20, 2017 Share Posted October 20, 2017 Wow! Pay dirt! I would think the porting job will be much easier without the bumps. You’ll remember the D8 small-block heads I ported, and those bumps were a huge pain. HUGE. Lots and lots of grinding, and I never really got them out completely for fear of hitting water. And then there was the question of what to do with the cross-drilled passages. But you won’t have to deal with any of that. 👍 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ford F834 Posted October 20, 2017 Share Posted October 20, 2017 Wow! Great score! I'm glad you came out ahead on this one... even though you had your work cut out for you extracting packing popcorn the sellers ignorance worked in your favor 😁 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArdWrknTrk Posted October 20, 2017 Author Share Posted October 20, 2017 Wow! Great score! I'm glad you came out ahead on this one... even though you had your work cut out for you extracting packing popcorn the sellers ignorance worked in your favor 😁 Some pics added to my first post. Occasionally you find an item on eBay that's mislisted or the seller doesn't really know what they have. Just getting a refurbished head for $145 is fantastic. I couldn't begin to get the work done for that. Add in delivery and no core charge, well.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArdWrknTrk Posted October 20, 2017 Author Share Posted October 20, 2017 Wow! Pay dirt! I would think the porting job will be much easier without the bumps. You’ll remember the D8 small-block heads I ported, and those bumps were a huge pain. HUGE. Lots and lots of grinding, and I never really got them out completely for fear of hitting water. And then there was the question of what to do with the cross-drilled passages. But you won’t have to deal with any of that. 👍 Gary, the bumps are there, just no holes to plug. This works out, because Scott shows how to shape that hump into a vane directing the flow. And shows numbers that it helps rather than hinders flow at the rpms and lifts I will be using. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted October 20, 2017 Share Posted October 20, 2017 Gary, the bumps are there, just no holes to plug. This works out, because Scott shows how to shape that hump into a vane directing the flow. And shows numbers that it helps rather than hinders flow at the rpms and lifts I will be using. Cool! Even better. 😉 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArdWrknTrk Posted October 20, 2017 Author Share Posted October 20, 2017 Cool! Even better. 😉 Next up is the bottom end. After my last disappointment I've found a 1995 F-450 utility body truck with no paper. The engine runs like a top and it's amazingly clean (rust free) for a northeast truck. But it's got to go to scrap. So I'm going to pull the engine and the Zf-5 (with parking brake) Anybody want any interior or other bits from a truck of this generation? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
85lebaront2 Posted October 21, 2017 Share Posted October 21, 2017 Next up is the bottom end. After my last disappointment I've found a 1995 F-450 utility body truck with no paper. The engine runs like a top and it's amazingly clean (rust free) for a northeast truck. But it's got to go to scrap. So I'm going to pull the engine and the Zf-5 (with parking brake) Anybody want any interior or other bits from a truck of this generation? Jim, has it got full gauges? If so I can use the instrument cluster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArdWrknTrk Posted October 21, 2017 Author Share Posted October 21, 2017 Jim, has it got full gauges? If so I can use the instrument cluster. Bill, I'll try to get you a picture tomorrow. You can have the whole dash if you like. Hate to see a truck in good condition scrapped but the P. O. Is gone and there is no title or reg. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArdWrknTrk Posted October 21, 2017 Author Share Posted October 21, 2017 Jim, has it got full gauges? If so I can use the instrument cluster. Do you need the plugs too? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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