I bought a 2 door version yesterday that had been setting in a barn for 17 years. Its got the 429 4V motor with a C6 transmission and I bought it so I could bracket race it in the Ford world finals that is held ever year here in Bowling Green, Ky in October. Don't know what the car could run as it weighs about 4470 lbs or even if it will run as it has been setting for so long. I'm only the second owner and the orginal owner gave me the orginal window sticker and all the paper work he had on the car. The car has 136,000 miles on it and the engine was rebuilt at 95,000 miles and the orginal owner quit driving it in 1993 because it used to much gas he said. Now if I can only get it into my one car garage?
My friend had a Marquis Brouagham with a 429, green. It was a 4 door. I think the limiting factor will be the exhaust. That friggin car would fly once into it's power band but geeze the single exhaust killed it.
I had a '77 Grand Marquis with a 460, and I sold it to a Ford enthusiast who owned an exhaust shop. He tossed the single exhaust, added 2.5" duals, played with the ignition and carb, and it all made a night and day difference. I drove it myself afterwards, and unlike when I owned it, the thing actually got up and moved a little! Wish I still had that land yacht!
Yup, ditch the single pipe asap. If you get lucky, it might even have a 4 bolt block, or the Police Interceptor engine. I once owned a 73 T-Bird with a 460 (429 with longer stroke), and it would roast tires once I put a low restriction dual exhaust on it. I drove California's Pacific Coast Highway from San Jose to LA with that car, and had a blast.:grin: I wish a had a photo of it parked in front of Pebble Beach Golf Course.
Thanks for the exhaust performance info. This car still has the single exhaust and a 600 CFM holley replacement carburator (the holley book says this is the correct carburator) and I can't believe a motor this size has such a small carburator. Either way, if the motor is sound I'm going with an aluminum intake, 750 vac sec holley, headers or duals, an electronic distributor, higher stall convertor, and a gear change (3:42 or 3:73). I only gave $500.00 for the car so I can spend some more to improve its performance.
You might try the timing gears for a 1970 429 engine. Ford retarded the cam timing in some of the later 429 and 460 engines.
You might want to check the cam specs before bolting all that high-rpm stuff on. The 429 may have high-rpm potential, but something tells me that Mercury cam'ed the Marquis Brougham edition for low-end torque. If that's the case, I'd keep the carb and converter and go no higher (numerically) on the gears than 3.08.
I'm not going to do anything that you wouldn't do to a low compression BBB motor except that this is a Mercury (Ford).
PM me with your VIN and door tag info and I'll dig in my archive of F-L-M stuff and give you a "Better Idea" of what you've got for a drivetrain. FYI, FoMoCo went to different timing chain gears on 429/460's in 1972-1973ish for emissions reasons. The later gears retarded the timing a lot. By changing to the earlier style it really makes a big difference without changing anything else internally. The biggest problem you are most likely to have is the low-compression (8.0:1-8.25:1) of most to the engines from those years unless you were lucky enough to get a relatively high-compression(9.1:1-9.5:1) engine. You could be lucky and have a Police Spec engine and that would make a lot of difference.
I put a set of points/condenser in the distributor, poured some fuel in the carburator, and the engine sprung to life with no lifter nose or any other strange noises. The engine will not go above idle and after looking behind the car (tailpipe) there is a pile of half eaten acorn shells, nest material, and other mice house stuff. I think the whole tail pipe is clogged up with this stuff and thats why it won't go above idle. Guess I will just saw the tail pipe off as I'm going to duals anyway. I think I got a keeper for only $500.00.
As long as they didn't decide to set up camp in any of the cylinders. :spank: I've heard of that happening.
John Brown is correct....they did retard the timing on the later 429/460 motors. I bought exactly that for the 460 in my truck...a 1970 - straight up timing chain and gear set. Brought the motor to life. Rusty now owns it.
What are the casting numbers on the heads? Some of the early production '72 429's had the D1VE heads which are the same as the early heads and are the best c.astings to have on a budget. The D0OE-R are the Cobra Jet heads and the D2OE-AB are the '72 interceptor heads. Just fyi, if you bolt CJ heads onto your thunder jet engine the valves will hit the pistons. I've had a number of these through the years and sold a 1970 Drag Pack Fairlane with the 4-speed and bench seat summer before last to a guy here in Atlanta. It would not pull the tires off the ground but it would sure light up the rear ones in the first three gears and burp'm good in 4th. Car probably would not have run better than a low 13 but it was fun. But I've moved up now, driving SBB powered Jeeps. Jim
I have owned these 429/460 variants and if I were doing this for a fun big drag car I would find a 2 door Buick like a Lesabre or 225.
You stole that car,some people around here will say that you JCook'd it.Where are the pictures?You are killing me.:beer If you can get the car to be consistent,even if you are "slow",it will be a crowd pleaser and a possible winner.Good luck,let me know how you do.
