69 F250 Highboy 460 Engine Swap from FE

[dominicelliott]

Hello,

Been a long time since I was here, had a lot of "life" happen after my acquisition of my project trucks, I'm sure nobody here can relate... shame really because this is a great community!
Anyway, I'm actually getting ready to jump into getting one of my projects underway, so here's a question:
Know there's a lot of info on the site about this but I'd love to hear from anyone's experience in making a 460 swap in a Bump 4x4 F250-350? Currently has a Factory 360 that's toast, 4 speed truck. I have a 460 and manual transmission from an 85 F250 I plan to use for the swap. My main concern is engine mounts, from what I can see there appears to be a little bit of conflicting info on what to use for this application? Any advice, direction, etc would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[BigBlueIron]

You probably won't get a lot of traction here on ditching the FE since this is an FE fourm. With that said I will give my thoughts. Years ago a good friend and I did just what you asked on his 68 Highboy. Now 10yrs later he regrets it esspically after wiping a cam twice and 3 rebuilds.  He used a zf5, had to convert to hyd clutch no room for headers without spending a fortune, and a custom driveshaft between tans and transfer case.  It would have been much easier and arguably cheaper to keep the FE. Even more true today with stroker kits.

Long and short of it was we could have built an FE to do just as well as the 460 that's in there now and not have to reinvent the wheel. The main reason he did it was for the 5 speed. If you are keeping it a 4 speed whats the advantage?

If i was going to do it I would use a kit from L and L, those guys have been doing 385 series swaps a long time and have most things ironed out.

[390owner]

I think you would be a lot more happy with a 390. I have had 460s and will take the 390 any day. I have ran one in my 79 bronco for over 20 years. Just get a crank and rods for the block you have now.

[HarleyJack17]

I would really lay it out on paper unless you simply want the 460 combo. Parts and machine work are not vastly different but the 460 parts will be cheaper in the end. Machine work, no. However, what is saved will be spent with more labor and money to do a conversion. L and L is the go to for this one. Fender exit headers, mounts, and likely a crossmember, and drive shaft changes...one or all three depending on the combo. Do what makes you happy but trust me on putting all options down on paper.
To give you and idea on my 75 F250 4x4 I have about $9,000 in going to a 445 FE. That is me doing all the assembly. Now it is a nice 445, BBM heads, roller, etc. I also have about a grand in doing the C6 rebuild. I am ok with it now, but for a long time I had wished I had done an LS swap.....go ahead, burn away, but $1,000 for a motor and transmission, about another $1,500 for the rest, and get likely another 75K out of that used motor, have overdrive, and fuel injection.........staying Ford loyal was not too wise money speaking.....but it is "original".  Enjoy the project!

[Urgefor]

go ahead, burn away, but $1,000 for a motor and transmission, about another $1,500 for the rest, and get likely another 75K out of that used motor, have overdrive, and fuel injection.........

No desire to burn but you have got to tell me where you are getting an engine and transmission for $1k.  Around my parts, the motor alone is $1k+ and transmissions are apparently made of platinum thanks to salvage yard conglomerates. 

[HarleyJack17]

That was then....circa 2015. You are correct though, you will not find them that cheap anymore.....maybe I should adjust my number for inflation....double all of it LOL.

[My427stang]

Contact landlproducts.com

They make a swap kit, it's not cheap at 2100 dollars, but comes with a lot of good stuff for a bolt in.

I used one many years ago on a 73, not a bump but it worked great

[cleandan]

I am wondering what you are trying to better by installing all the 460 stuff?

I like the 385 engine series, and I have had a few nice 429's and 460's over the years, but I don't see a reason to go through all the swap issues unless you are planning to build a really built engine.

The FE, with modern options, can be made really great, way better than when they were being raced.
Because of this an FE can be built to be on par with a 460 without much trouble at all.

If you have all the stuff I suggest building a 445ci FE.
Spend the money building a good engine while saving the money that would be spent swapping everything over to fit the 460 and associated items.

With the FE there is way less trouble.
Way less fitting.
Way less possibility of little bastard issues getting in the way.
But, with all that said, a 460 can be nicely installed, either with a kit or with home engineering and it will make for a nice engine for that truck.

[RustyCrankshaft]

All you really need to mount the engine is a set of motor mounts. The L&L ones fit nice but are expensive, there are some other options. Since it's a 4x4 you will obviously need a 460 with a rear sump pan. The several I've done I used a stock 90's F250 4x4 pan and it fit fine. I would recommend the "Dezert Cooler" radiator, but the core support mounting flange for the rad is different and you may not want to go through the effort to swap. The FE rad (all 3 core sizes) will work and most of the time (depending on what year accessory drives you're using on the 460) the rad hoses for a 2wd factory 460 dentside usually work.

Generally a pretty easy swap, but you can make it as complicated as you'd like.

Almost impossible to find, but you can also use the 2wd frame stands off a factory 460 truck to do the conversion.