460 rebuild, cast or forged?

[SB]

A few questions. I have a 20' Biesmeyer with Aggressor A, and a tired, stock 460. I have a new set of Dove C heads, ported, to put on after rebuild of short block. I'm thinking I want about 400 hp at 4800 rpm (10-1), and I want it very dependable. So, how much should a shop charge for this? I could keep costs down by going with cast pistons. I think I read somewhere that with forged pistons, there is more clearance, they might use more oil, and I would have to be more careful to warm up engine. Is this a valid concern? Is worth it to order a short block delivered? I can get one for about $1800 stock, $2,500 forged, from ford muscle.com, but if I'm paying that much, I could get one from fordracing $3,000 stroked (514) with forged. Finally should I stick with the stock cam? I need a smooth idle for teaching kids to ski, and don't want to get killed on gas with a cam with a lot of overlap. Any thoughts are appreciated.

[Blown 472]

If you are going to a use a stock cam use the cast pistons 68 to 70 10.5 to 1 460's came with cast pistons, just make sure your timming is one and you dont detonate and you will be fine. Hell I have run cast pistons in big cammed tunnel ram motors and and had no problems. wink

[Hallett19]

What kind of hull and performance #'s are you looking for ? I have a 20 ft jet boat that I ski/wakeboard off of and I have the cam that isky offers, its a jet boat cam for certain impeller cuts, makes good power and my boat gets pretty good gas milage (if there is such thing, but it does go a whole weekend of alot of boating on 50 gallons of gas, 87octane). I decked the block, added a weiand stealth intake, holley 780 4bbl vac secondary carb (for the milage), rebuilt heads with double valve springs, motorsport oil pump, rex windage tray, dooley oil pan(MOST IMPORTANT PART TO HAVE IF YOU ALREADY DON'T!!!!)with rear pickup, and I reused the crank, rods and pistons with custom ground childs and albert rings and run it through logs and the boat idles fine, makes decent power and is a pretty dependable combination this time around, I did a rebuild last time and had the stock oil pan and pickup, motor was toast in a years time. But talk to 058 or 77 charger or mister 460, although I havent seen him around for a while, those guys are pretty wealthy in knowledge on these 460s.
Oh, and cast pistons are fine as long as you are not detonating, like blown said.
[ February 26, 2003, 10:46 AM: Message edited by: Hallett19 ]

[jim@pj]

I know forged pistons are more pricy but they are ten times stronger. All of my jet boat engine designs use forged pistons, in the long run its worth it. If you take fuel from a boat dock be careful, a little water in the gasoline and you'll run lean. If I was going to use a cast piston I would only use a Hyperutechtic piston, they are stronger than stock cast. Good Luck Jim
www.performancejet.com (http://www.performancejet.com)

[77charger]

i think you will be fine with cast over forged.There are better choices availble in forged(at least for the 429 if you want 10-1 or up)Unless you are going to superchage,turbo,or big nos unit you will be ok.I ran a bbf 429 with cast pistons and on a NOS unit(100hp)with 11-1 and up to 38 deg timing.And not one problem (I WOULD SPIN IT TO 56-5700 RPM)but i did run at least 100 oct and if i didnt i would back the timing to 34 and add oct booster and not use the NOS.If i were to build another motor i would probably do cast again unless i wanted to use more nitrous(150 and up).As for cam selections i tried a 248@.50 w/a 590 it did fine idled around 1000 but i needed a smaller impeller a b would have been best but i stuck to an a-b.I would look for something around 225-230 @.50 dur and around a 535-545 lift (hydrauilic cam) that would idle good and give you strong power to around 5200.And works good with 10-1 comp.