OK... 429 it is....

it is a little grungy but not terrible... looks worse in the pics than in life....

Yep, that's a start to a fun ride. I want to follow this one to the finish so keep us posted.

Good luck with this.

I can tell you that the 351w-based motor in my '69 Falcon is a TIGHT fit. Only found one source of headers that would fit my AFR heads (Ford Powertrain Applications), but I think the bends are still too tight and cost me hp. ( I had about 550hp on an engine dyno, made the car go faster with a carb change, and now on a chassis dyno has a tad less than 430hp at the wheels)

I have electric waterpump and fan, and it took some CAREFUL measuring and cutting to get it all to fit (part of the waterpump is actually further forward than part of the fan, they are both offset to make it work). The engine bay is just SHORT on these cars. I have a remote trans cooler, and it was a rather tight fit itself.

I'd love to turbocharge this motor later on, but there is no room in front of the radiator for a decent intercooler.

Lee

the Crites kit is supposed to be pretty straight forward..they have headers that look like they will flow ok... i will test that and post all my findings...

i am workign out weight reductions for the motor now... lots of aluminum stuff.. I am going to run an electric fan also.. the Fan from a late 90's ford Taurus is a 2 speed fan that flows more air than any of the aftermarked ones do and they fit the radiator like a glove.... the down side of the fan is that they draw a lot of amperage so i am going to swap over to a 3g alternator from a late 90'sTaurus or a mustang ... they are 130 amps and they bolt in the stock location.

does any one know what the compression should be on these motors? i have found conflicting information... i am going to run a compression check before i start pulling stuff apart and start checking clearances and stuff..

another question, will the d3ve heads flow decent if i geve them a mild port job?

D3VE heads can be mildly ported and make good power. What heads are on it now? To give you a estimate on the comp/ratio we need to know what year the heads and block are.

it is a 73 block with the d_ve a2a heads... everything i can find suggests these are d3ve's..

i just really need to know what the foot pounds of pressure i should be looking for for each cylinder. trying to judge how much work i need to put into this motor before i put it in.. the motor has about 72,000 miles of station wagon driving on it.. so who knows what it looks like on the inside..

Completely stock with about 100,000 miles on it, I had one that recorded 135psi in most cylinders. That help?

is there a range for compression?