I have 78 ford 250 with a 85 460 .it has a 180 tooth flywheel and it's a 4 speed.can anybody tell me what starter do i need ?it will have a short nose cone on starter from what i can tell

 

I have a '85 F-250 with a 460. Engine is a mild power upgrade with 9.0 CR to which the stock starter complained a lot. So I changed to a gear-reduction permanent magnet starter like this one: Big Block Mini Starter . I have been happy with it. First thing I noticed was the number of teeth on the drive gear was different and research said this was ok due to different orientation of starter. Whatever it works great and really spins the motor with no effort. The engines may be different as mine is external balance and yours might be internal balanced. So you might consider a pmgr starter which will require rewiring but is easy to do.