Headers and cold air intake for '88 460

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04-24-2014, 08:37 AM

Ford Fan Dave

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Join Date: Jul 2013

Posts: 16

Headers and cold air intake for '88 460

I recently bought a 1988 Club Wagon 250 with a 460 engine which has travelled 120,000 miles and appears to be in great shape. If the engine needed a rebuild I might do all kinds of things like change the cam, heads, etc., but it doesn’t so I’m leaving it as is. However, I would like to liberate whatever horsepower that may be getting lost by the engine being obviously choked. For starters, I want to fit headers and a complete new exhaust, and a cold air intake. I’ve checked Summit Racing and they list only 2 or 3 headers for an Econoline and they are all for smaller V-8s. They do list a dozen or so headers for a 460 in a F-250. Given that an E and an F are on the same chassis, but with very different engine bays, would any header said to fit an F also fit an E? No one I know has an F with a 460 so I can’t compare them by eye. The particular header I like most can be found here http://www.summitracing.com/int/parts/hok-6842-1hkr/applications/year/1988/make/ford/model/f-250
I can’t seem to find a cold air intake for my van. Does anyone know of one or will I have to buy a K & N filter, some piping, and make it myself? By the way, which idiot at Ford (blasphemy, I know) put the stock air intake over the trans’ dipstick?
To liberate more power, I was thinking a using electric fans and an electric water pump. As it is, the temp gauge doesn’t go much past C. It never gets anywhere near halfway. I suppose it could be a faulty thermostat and I will check it or do these things normally run a little cold?
Also, you can get electric smog air pumps. I’ve not come across anything with a smog pump before as Australian cars don’t have them. Do they rob power (not by being driven by the engine but by doing whatever it is they do)? Can they be removed altogether? Never mind the legalities as I don’t live in the US, I mean from a mechanical viewpoint.
Any info would be greatly appreciated.
Dave.