engine swap '61 bird

[nomad]

Hey guy's,

I;m a newbie here and i have a question:

Does a '72 429 ford engine and a c6 tranny fit in a '61 t bird?
Iff so will it be an easy swap or does it involve major work?
Are there engine swap kits?
Can buy a rebuild 429 and a c6 also rebuild.
Thanks!
See Ya
Twan

[4-5-6-birdman]

Originally Posted by nomad

Hey guy's,

I;m a newbie here and i have a question:

Does a '72 429 ford engine and a c6 tranny fit in a '61 t bird?
Iff so will it be an easy swap or does it involve major work?
Are there engine swap kits?
Can buy a rebuild 429 and a c6 also rebuild.
Thanks!
See Ya
Twan

Welcome to the forum. Thats a great powerplant combo. I am planning a similar swap in at least one or two of my birds. Typically anywhere an FE will fit you can get the 385 series Ford bigblocks to fit. If you do end up retro fitting the 429, you'll want to upgrade the cylinder heads to the 68-71 version. The 72 heads were a one year only design and lack the necessary amount of quench to provide much performance. Do some browsing at Scott's website http://www.reincarnation-automotive.com/index.html you'll see a picture of nice black 64 bird that was fitted with a 429. There is no swap kit available but the mounts are very similar and the dimensions of the block is nearly identical. Ford had an overlap of the 390 and the 429/460 in the pickups from 73-76 and you know they wouldn't have done that if it wasn't similar. You can email me at wildman7798@yahoo.com and I'll see if I can answer more questions. We are actually considering standardizing this swap for the 64-5-6-tbirds in the NW and making this conversion available. You can certainly buy both a rebuilt 429/460 and a C6, they are common and available. Your best bet may be to find a donor vehicle and then have the package rebuilt. A late 60's or early 70's Tbird or Lincoln is your best bet. Good Luck

[warpspeed]

I just posted a similar question for my 63 T-Bird.
Thanks for the link on that 64 with a 429. Great stuff!
Im still wondering if that C6 tranny hax the same linkage.
Im doing my homework before I actually start gutting the poor Bird.
Thanks for the info!