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Old 02-05-2009, 04:22 PM   #14 (permalink)
95badbird
EcoModding Lurker
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Spring TX
Posts: 62

F150 - '97 Ford F150 Lariat

Taurus - '02 Ford Taurus SE

the 73 - '73 Ford Thunderbird

the race car - '95 Ford Thunderbird LX

The Brick - '98 Buick LeSabre Limited
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Andyman View Post
I have something kind of similar that I bought more than 20 years ago. It's a Mercury Marquis with a 429 engine. The 429 is almost the same as a 460. The crankshaft and pistons are different. On long trips I could get about 17 MPG. My engine had about 10.25 compression ratio and I'm sure that helped. After 1971 they lowered the compression. After I stopped driving it I discovered that my distributor advance springs were pretty tight and it didn't get much spark advance until it was up to about 70 MPH. I loosened them to allow more spark advance at low speed but I can't report on what effect it had on fuel economy since I don't have that car registered.

An overdrive transmission with lockup torque converter would be a big help on the highway when you have a large displacement engine. Something from a Ford truck might fit.
yeah, the 71 and earlier bigblocks, are a bit more sought after than mine.

I would like to change the heads to some D0OE heads, or some C9's(69 heads)....also the timming chain and timming is 12 degrees retarded in the 72+ 429/460's for emissions reasons.
Ford thought that back then, to make the engines run cleaner, that had to kill all the compression(mine is 8-1), and other things, which really made the power go down a ton.
Neighber down the street has a 71 lincoln mark 3, and his stock HP rating for the car is 360HP....where mine(same engines), is rated at 208HP.....

anway, thanks for the compliments..
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