1968 460...any good?

[joyridin']

A friend of mine has a Lincoln Continental and he is selling the drivetrain. It has a 460 in it. I thought those cars only had the truck 462, but this one really has a 460 and it is original.

Are these worth rebuilding? I always read that everybody wants the D0VE heads and I think those are from 1970.

I'm looking to take the SBC out of my Cobra and was thinking this might be a good idea for the right price.

[blykins]

Yep.

A 460 probably has the most wide open array of performance modifications available.

You can literally take a 460, freshen it up, and add a good set of heads and an intake and get 650hp.

If you want big horsepower and torque, that's the way to do it.

You won't be able to drop this engine straight in and have a barn-burner...older 460's were limited in power due to emissions. However, a '68 model would need gone through any way.

[FWB]

Originally Posted by joyridin'

A friend of mine has a Lincoln Continental and he is selling the drivetrain. It has a 460 in it. I thought those cars only had the truck 462, but this one really has a 460 and it is original.

Are these worth rebuilding? I always read that everybody wants the D0VE heads and I think those are from 1970.

I'm looking to take the SBC out of my Cobra and was thinking this might be a good idea for the right price.

that was the first year for the 460, they have some good points. but the power steering pump is mounted behind the harmonic balancer, i used to have one in a continental, ran strong, it was optional in 68' for the lincoln. i think they were higher compression than later years.

[Z-linkCobra]

Joyridin, I have a 460 that we used to run in the dragster a few years back before we went small block. 4 bolt main block, C8 or C9 cobra jet heads(have to check to be certain) TRW flat top .030 over pistons, offenhauser spread bore intake, canton pan, high volume oil pump, stainless valves,fluid dampner,msd pro billet dist, roller rockers,dont remember what the lift was on the cam. Seems to me like it was somewhere in the area of 670 lift...been too long. When we originaly built the motor we dynoed it and made 609 hp and 768 tq. if I am remembering correctly. Broke the motor in the burnt out..2 rods through the block...lol. Rebuilt it exactly the same but with the 4 bolt main block. Never did have this motor on the dyno. We did pick up about a 10th on the track...probably just from it being fresher. shoot me an e-mail if your interested...or give me a call


Gene Schach
956-533-1205

[mdross1]

A 460 built with TLC the right top end,good connecting rods,the right ignition with a good curve,is a true torque monster.In a Cobra with setup suspension and decent tires a blast.

[Xack]

A '68 460 is pre-emissions restrictions. Up to '72 have higher factory horse power capacity. Normally, the D0VE, known as "DOVE" heads are the most desirable. These heads, refered to as "DOVE" are usually 68-71 style and are very similar. These can be identified by marking on the head and by type of rocker arm mount. These engines had higher compression ratios up to 12:1 factory. The 68-70 Thunderbird had 385 series engines, 429's marked on the air filter cover with "ThunderJet". These older heads have a lot of metal and can easily be ported to breathe better. '72 and later models had to conform to EPA emissions restrictions and therefore had lower HP. Also after 72 the HP calculation was modified. HP Values are stated lower, but overall the power is actually closer than the numbers tell. 72 and later models had lower compression ratios and therefore somewhat lower HP.

My Cobra has '68 stock C8VE heads on a 460 from a '68 Lincoln. I replaced the flat pistons with dished type and reduced the compression ratio to run today's ethenol street grade corn fuel. It has plenty of power for this light car and it sounds fantastic. Later I may replace the heads with Edelbrocks or Kasse later to remove some 150 lbs of the weight.

[RICK LAKE]

joyridin Is it worth rebuilding, ONLY the machinist can aswer your question. If you are thinking of using this motor, tear it down and send out the block for cooking, cleaning and sonic check. This is also a heavy motor. If you are going to put it in the cobra, I good set of aluminum heads and intake would be a wise choise and save about 110 pounds on the nose. I nice middle of the road hydro roller valvetrain. Look for some buildups on the 429-460 block for oil modes. Not more than 10.0 compression and you can run it in reg gas. I am not 100% sure but thought that some years the blocks where thinner walled than other years. We ran a SCJ429 car for couple of years until blowning out the side of the block and went to a 460 short block. got many years until John was killed in the car racing. Map out a buildup and bring it here. We can give you a good idea about HP and torque. A set of Kaase head would really wake up this motor. Not sure of the price on them. You can also get a set of Edelbrocks and have them ported and flowed. The suspension will need to be increased for added weight. Good luck with the build. Limit the rpms to 6,200. this will give you many years of motor without heavy wear. We turned 6,700 on a limiter and got 3 years of racing before breakage. Find max HP and limit the rpms to only 500 rpms over this limit. You are just killing the motor running it higher. Rick L.

[joyridin']

This is an old post. I passed on the whole deal.

Thanks for the replies!