Thread:

Ford 351W build

Thought I'd put up some pics and descriptions of a real nice little 351W build I did for a pre-runner truck.

Stock block and crank, Eagle I beam rods, Probe dished pistons, Dart Pro1 170cc heads with a little clean up, Comp solid flat w/1.72 Scorpion rockers, Edelbrock RPM Airgap and a Holley 750 set up by John @ C&J Carbs.

First thing to do was some oil mods to the block: This was installing a restrictor for the lifter galleys at the rear of the block...a little tricky.
It had to be drilled and tapped down inside:





You can see the restrictor had to go between the two oil galleys...the main galley below, and the lifter galley(s) above. Oil flows in the direction of arrow.



Little blending in the crossover for the lifter galleys:



Front main oil passage is a lot larger than the rest, so it gets reduced to balance out the pressure to the mains:





Rest of the block gets restrictors to the four rear cam bearings. (front cam bearing doesn't get resstricted because the passage also supplies oil to the dist. gear):

Balancing the rotating assembly turned out to be a chore. The bobweight for the new rods and pistons was so much lighter than stock, that I had to remove a ton of weight from the balancer and actually reduce and relocate the weight on the flex plate. I wanted to remove everything from the outside weights and keep it as internally balanced as possible.



Here's the balancer. The red line shows how much material was removed:




Probe piston waiting for a little love:



Block cleaned, restrictors installed, clearances all set (.0027-8 mains, .0022-3 rods) with Speed Pro 3/4 groove race series mains, crank installed:



Pistons and rods all squared away, ready to install with EnginePro/Hastings file-fit moly (top) rings and Clevite P series rod bearings:



Racked and ready to go:

very partial to old school SBFs,jus my $.02,but with a deck hieght of 9.5" its just begging for more stroke
Never heard the SBFs need that many oiling mods,but one i highly stand by is drilling and taping all three lifter galleys in front of block instead of ussing press in core plugs,then drill a .020" orifice on the one that is pointing at distributer gear
Those early two bolt main 351s are stout and can take some serious poweradders if done right
I did a budget Probe stroker kit to my 8.2" deck to net 347cu in,with there ultra light molecular pistons and internal balance
My machinist wasnt real familiar with that kit/combo,and kept hinting around that it will require mallory metal and get real expensive,after he got into it the bob wieght was only 1508 grams and he ended up removing metal
My 8.2 will smoke a 351 in a drag race with everything being equal just because it revs so much faster (bob wieght) and the smaller main journals help too..
Some very good reading on Ol school SBFs here SBFTECH.com Experienced Small Block Ford Tech - Index

I like to use Total Seal's dry cylinder lube and you can see how it turns a shade of green when allpied:







And there you have it. Short block all torqued and ready to go to the next step.[/img]



After a little clean up and some paint, it was time for the cam install and degree. Cam is a Comp 282S solid flat I've had on the shelf since about '98...set aside for a build I never did. Perfect for this app, even as an off the shelf cam. It's a single pattern 236 @ .05, .565" with the 1.72 rockers. Intake/exhaust ratio on the Dart heads were just right for a single pattern. Timing set is a basic .250 double roller from EnginePro with a 3 way gear. Cam was installed straight up, 105* ICL.



Heads were bought bare, no valve job. With a nice five angle, radiused ex, REV 1.9 intake, /1.6 exhaust and a little chamber and bowl clean up these little heads responded nicely and should make some good power. Flow numbers:
Flow numbers:
in/ex
.2 149/120
.3 195/156
.4 229/188
.5 243/198
.6 252/198
.7 255/--

Once I get the cam in and degreed, I like to get the front cover on and button up the bottom end. The pan we went with on this build is by Aviad, and is actually a 351W conversion pan for a Pantera, but it will suit the needs perfectly for a mild off road truck. It's a full length, diamond shape center sump, four trap doors, nicely baffled with integral windage tray and scraper.





Pump is a melling M83HV with an ARP oil pump drive shaft.






Pan to pickup clearance is measured, then double checked with clay:



Then after a thorough cleaning, installed.

Before the pan went on, I had the heads mocked up with checking springs and verified P/V clearance, rocker fit and geometry and measured for pushrods.



Plenty of room here:



Pushrods are Smith Brothers 5/16 x .083 wall one piece chromoly. Lifter faces and cam both get a coating of moly before final installation. A film thickness is plenty. To help with cam break in, the inner springs of the dual valve springs are removed untill break in is complete.



One thing I like to do with flat tappet lifters is put them in the lather and polish the faces of the lifters.



Once that's all taken care of and the pan is on, next is bolt on the heads. I used a standard Felpro blue Permatorque gasket on this build and factory head bolts. Final compression is about 9.4:1.







Lifters and pushrods, rockers and intake installed and it'll have a stud girdle befiore it's done. Should be an honest 415-420hp engine with a peak of about 6200-6300 rpm and make plenty of torque.

Originally Posted by stoker2001

very partial to old school SBFs,jus my $.02,but with a deck hieght of 9.5" its just begging for more stroke
Never heard the SBFs need that many oiling mods,but one i highly stand by is drilling and taping all three lifter galleys in front of block instead of ussing press in core plugs,then drill a .020" orifice on the one that is pointing at distributer gear
Those early two bolt main 351s are stout and can take some serious poweradders if done right
I did a budget Probe stroker kit to my 8.2" deck to net 347cu in,with there ultra light molecular pistons and internal balance
My machinist wasnt real familiar with that kit/combo,and kept hinting around that it will require mallory metal and get real expensive,after he got into it the bob wieght was only 1508 grams and he ended up removing metal
My 8.2 will smoke a 351 in a drag race with everything being equal just because it revs so much faster (bob wieght) and the smaller main journals help too..
Some very good reading on Ol school SBFs here SBFTECH.com Experienced Small Block Ford Tech - Index

The engine was a budget build but in the end, it would have been just as inexpensive to get a complete rotating kit. I agree on the stroker.
I did the oil mods because it is a stock crank and this engine will see some abuse. Off road trucks can spend considerable time at WOT in sand washes or going across flats and they just love to wind the crap out of them goin sideways. On the 2 front lifter galleys, I've never worried about them because the cam plate is also a retention plate. It would be impossible for the plugs to come out. I think I drilled the one behind the distributor as well, and it's a screw in plug, stock.
The next build, once the truck is done, will be a Dart block 427 Windsor with all the bells and whistles. This is just to get something going in the truck.

Nice build Scott,

I like those Dart 170 heads.....what's your thoughts on them?

I have two Windsor's around just need some money to play with them....

Your hp goal is a good one for that combo.. It needs a '69 Mustang

S CP

Originally Posted by stoker2001

Some very good reading on Ol school SBFs here SBFTECH.com Experienced Small Block Ford Tech - Index

I wouldn't want to bank alot of cash on that. The 331 will run with the 447 on a strip, and almost stay with it on a road course, and will out last it by years. I built a 350 inch from a 302 back in 1970 and it was the worse small block I ever build. It was a little more difficult to built 40+ years ago, and no job for a beginner, but in my mind its still a nonsense engine. Back then, if I had spent the money I invested in that POS into a 302, it would have buried the 350. Granted, its much cheaper today, but the engine dynamics have'n't changed. The rods too short, the pistons sto short and unstable, ring sucks. I'll trade ring seal and piston stability over bearing size anyday. With todays oils, its really a no brainer. Rotating weight is more than managable in the windsor. Like Steel said, he had to remove weight. Imagine if he had gone after the weight in the build.


The is no reasonable reason to built a 5.0 block past 327inches. The 351 will still be running when the 447 is pumping oil like a Saudi well.

NBice build Steel. But I agree somewhat with stroker2001. I have seen a reason to restrict the oil on the Windsor. The restrictors in the cam feed holes is straight from the 352 Cleveland play book, and that POS won't last ten minutes without it. But the Windsor didn't gain much from it. It didn't hurt anything, but I'm not certain it was of any benefit either. A Windsor will collapse every lifter in the engine and wake the dead with clatter long before the crank is starved.

Originally Posted by Sleeper CP

Nice build Scott,

I like those Dart 170 heads.....what's your thoughts on them?

I have two Windsor's around just need some money to play with them....

Your hp goal is a good one for that combo.. It needs a '69 Mustang

S CP

Thanks Sleeper. I really like the Dart head, although I haven't seen too many SBF heads to compare it to. My guess is with a decent valve and some real portwork you could see >300cfm and keep the cross section nice and small. I like the chambers.
This thing would be a killer street engine in a Mustang.

Originally Posted by steelcomp

Thanks Sleeper. I really like the Dart head, although I haven't seen too many SBF heads to compare it to. My guess is with a decent valve and some real portwork you could see >300cfm and keep the cross section nice and small. I like the chambers.
This thing would be a killer street engine in a Mustang.

A stone stock 4.8LS with a cam change would bury that POS

Originally Posted by gn7

A stone stock 4.8LS with a cam change would bury that POS

And a twin turbo'd 632 would bury them both...what's your point?

Originally Posted by gn7

NBice build Steel. But I agree somewhat with stroker2001. I have seen a reason to restrict the oil on the Windsor. The restrictors in the cam feed holes is straight from the 352 Cleveland play book, and that POS won't last ten minutes without it. But the Windsor didn't gain much from it. It didn't hurt anything, but I'm not certain it was of any benefit either. A Windsor will collapse every lifter in the engine and wake the dead with clatter long before the crank is starved.

Thanks GN...one thing to remember...this isn't an early block, it's a late model '86 block with much thinner main webs. I just wanted to do everything I could to make sure there was enough oil getting to the mains, especially knowing the conditions this thing would be seeing. If it was a street engine I don't think I'd have been as cautious, nor would I have if it were a '69 block. Besides, when you build another Windsor, you can build it how ever you want.

Are you done playing with this "little" FORD yet?? I think the BBC stuff you've been working on lately is more interesting...