Next up are the Ford 400’s that were available for 1973.
There were 3 options when it can to Ford’s biggest power plants in 1973, the 400 Cleveland the Thunderbird 429 and the Thunderbird 460. If you are thinking…YES!!! More Horse Power!!!! …you are going to be a bit disappointed, compared to today’s standard and the 1960’s standards.
The Cleveland had a cast iron block, over head valves and displaced 400 cubic inches. Its bore and stroke (4.00 x 4.00) and compression ratio (8.0: 1) were choked to death by the two barrel Motocraft carb. It produced only 163 hps
Wimpy - 400 2 barrel intake...needs a 4 barrel intake
Ford ' 73 400 in a wagon
The two Thunderbird engines (both cast iron with overhead valve) got the privilege of being topped with 4 barrel Motocraft carbs. The 429 displaced 429 cubic inches and the 460 knocked out..yup you guessed it 460 cubic inches.
They had a bore and store of 4.36 x 3.59 and 4.36 x 3.85 respectively and both had the same compression ratio of 8.0:1. The top hp for the 429 was just barely over 200 at 201 and the 460 out did that by 18 giving it a 219 hp.
Fords 460
429
Here is the twist with these and the rest of the Ford engines. The horse power stated was changed depending what model the engine was used in. Most of those in this series were the lowest stated. For example the 302 was rated at 135 hp in the Maverick, but 138 in the Torino. (Yes, a whopping 3 more hp!!!)
The average difference was between 1 and 5 hps, so we aren’t talking about a bunch of hidden power as they were configured. But we all know that you pop off the that 2 barrel carb off any of these engines and plop on wide mouth Holley, and you were going to get much better numbers!!
Thanks for reading. ’73 Mustang engines coming up.
Tim
