In the late ’60s, Ford faced a serious threat in NASCAR racing from Chrysler’s strong-running 426 Hemi engine. Ford’s 427 was powerful, but the older design was no longer a match for the deep-breathing Hemi configuration, so a new engine design was needed. In order to build a NASCAR contender, the engineers at Ford convinced management that a modern thin-wall casting big-block engine was necessary for the Ford passenger cars and trucks, and, while they were at it, the same engine could be used for NASCAR competition. The racing engine dubbed the Boss 429, was an aluminum hemi-head engine design with gigantic ports and valves for high rpm use.
Although the Boss 429 Hemi design worked great on the track, the large port heads were too big for street use, so the Ford engineers designed a different head for the passenger car engines. The new head design incorporated canted valves and was very similar to the big-block Chevy head design. The high-torque 429 engine was used in the big Fords and Thunderbirds starting in 1968, then in 1970 a high-performance version was used in the Ford Torinos and Mustangs. The 429 Cobra Jet engine was a great performer on the street and strip.
During this same period, the truck engineers wanted more torque, so they stroked the 429 to 460 ci and started using the engine for commercial applications. It continued to be used until the company’s recent release of the new Ford V-10 engine. Since the 460 was used in thousands of trucks over the years, it can be found in salvage yards for a reasonable price.
The 460 engine has a lot of potential for street and competition use and can be a great street rod engine, but like the Chevy Rat motor, requires a large engine compartment, making it a good choice for a fat-fender rod or a classic truck such as an F-1 or F-100. We started with a truck engine for this buildup, then improved the engine’s breathing with a Competition Cams camshaft and new aluminum Cobra Jet heads from Ford Motorsport/SVO. The 460 engines can be built to produce plenty of torque and horsepower for street use, and they can also be very attractive engines with a little street rod detailing.
