351c engine build in my 73 Mach 1.

[Zap's 85 GT]

I have been gone for quite a few months from this site. Mostly ghosting as I was involved in a different project. I have been rebuilding/replacing the Cleveland in my 73 Mach 1. I took lots of pictures and thought you guys might want to see something a little different. Let me know what you think. I'll be throwing up pictures, and updates every few days as there is a lot of it.

I figured I'd start off at the beginning:

A while back I picked up what I hoped was a good block for my new 351c build. It is an Aussie 351c and has some interesting differences. "D2 E-CA" block casting. Casting date has it as a 1977 and we know in the USA they stopped making Clevelands in 1974. The main caps are different as well. No less beefy but they have a different looking set of numbers and directional arrows.

This one already had some quality machine work and upgrades. Deburred, o-ringed, .030 over, Aussie crank was standard/standard and the bearings look perfect. Connecting rods have been rebuilt, beams ground and shot peened. I believe they are Moroso rod bolts as they are not stockers, but do not have ARP on them. They do have the stretch gauge alignment dimples. Balanced rotating assy. Has the Moroso oil restrictor mods. Bores look awesome and the rings are perfect. I doubt this engine has seen 500 miles. Tight Rollmaster timing chain that I will be reusing. I put the carbon'd up pistons in my ultrasonic cleaner and they came out like new. Didn't even need to take the rings off. I love that thing. The only downer is the pistons are cast Silv-O-Lites.

The new/old 4V quench heads that I ported are at the machine shop. I' was doing a lot of talking with the machine shop and my Camshaft guy, trying to nail down a valve train combination.





Piston as they came out of the shortblock


One cycle through the ultrasonic cleaner


Two cycles


After the 4th cycle




Rods with polished and shot peened beams

[grabbergreen84]

Heck yeah we want to see this! There is at least one Capri I can think of here, with a Cleveland or M-style engine.

Those Aussie parts contain genuine Mad Max DNA! Nice to see "351" cast into that crank, because they also had "Cleveland" cranks which yielded 302 or whatever cubic inches, and while it would be cool, it would still suck to get stuck with one of those...

A 400M crank with some machine work would make for a nice mod, and would likely require you to replace those pistons which you don't seem to like...

[Zap's 85 GT]

I am keeping the engine build costs down as much as practical and am using the stock stroke. This was not an all out assault on horsepower. Just a streetable, broad powerband nostalgia type build. I told my cam guy I wanted a modern version of a BOSS 351 camshaft that will be matched well with the 4V quench heads that I ported, a Blue Thunder intake, and the rest of the combo to optimize it all and make a good street car with decent manners.

I also talked with the machine shop doing the guide work on my heads. He is a long time racer who has lots of experience with Clevelands. Back in the day when these engines were new they ran the stock cast pistons to 7k RPMs all thetime without issue so he assured me that these pistons would be fine for the build I was planning.

I purchased a full set of Ferrea Competition Plus valves to go into the heads (40% military discount) and I ordered a PAC beehive spring kit as recommended by my camshaft builder. I needed to research which rocker studs/guideplates to buy as I plan on running 3/8" pushrods in it.



This build pretty much started back in 2014 when I purchased a set of 4V quench head castings at a swap meet for $250. The current engine had a set of Australian Cleveland heads on it. It ran pretty good but didn't deliver the power that I wanted out of the car. I knew I wanted these 4V heads to produce the power I wanted. I started doing a bunch of port work to them before taking them to the machine shop for the guide work. The jar is the amount of metal I collected after the porting was complete.

[Zap's 85 GT]

And after playing around by doing some polishing on the exhaust ports.





A view of the o-ringed deck surfaces, the Moroso oil restrictor kit that was installed and the block casting numbers. Cast in 1977, when all US Cleveland blocks were finished by 1974.

[Walking-Tall]

I am keeping the engine build costs down as much as practical and am using the stock stroke. This was not an all out assault on horsepower. Just a streetable, broad powerband nostalgia type build. I told my cam guy I wanted a modern version of a BOSS 351 camshaft that will be matched well with the 4V quench heads that I ported, a Blue Thunder intake, and the rest of the combo to optimize it all and make a good street car with decent manners.

I also talked with the machine shop doing the guide work on my heads. He is a long time racer who has lots of experience with Clevelands. Back in the day when these engines were new they ran the stock cast pistons to 7k RPMs all thetime without issue so he assured me that these pistons would be fine for the build I was planning.

Was just gonna say, I wouldn't worry about using and/or abusing cast pistons. Cool stuff.

[Zap's 85 GT]

Now for something a few of you may have never seen before. I used my new Whydendorf lifter bushing kit, to machine the block and installed 16 bronze lifter bushings. There are many cheaper "fixes" to aid the 351c oiling system for higher RPM operation, but none showing long term and overwhelming success as installing lifter bushings. Many people run high pressure/volume oil pumps, external oil lines, restrictor kits, etc; but lifter bushings are neither quick, inexpensive or easy, which is why so few perform this operation.

http://www.wydendorfmachine.com/kitb.html?kitid=2

It took me about 2:15 to ream out all 16 lifter bushing holes. A real workout for my drill and arms. I went through a whole big can of WD-40 during the process. It's not complicated. Just slow going. Many stops to lubricate and clean the reamer during the process of doing each lifter bore. I have much much cleaning to do before driving in and reaming the bronze lifter bushings to size.







Depending on the lifter oiling requirements, you need to drill the oiling holes in the bushings to suit. I chose a .080" hole. Solid flat tappet lifters do not require much oil flowing into them. I made this quick jig on my drill press so I could knock out all 16 bushings in sequence.







The kit comes with a driver to hammer the bushings into the bores. Once in place, another reamer is used to trim the bushings true and to size. Then I used a small flex hone to incrementally bring the bores into the size/spec required.











Looking all pretty and ready to go.

[xctasy]

"I am now about to delve into the ‘murky’ world of Australian Ford engines"

See http://www.aus-ford-uk.co.uk/html/engines.html



The blue printed Phase IV GTHO made 153 mph at 6300 rpm with 380 hp net at 6300 rpm on the 6250 rpm rev limiter. Development cars without the rev limiter did 170 mph at 7000 rpm from three sources.

1/4 mile times would have been high 13's


Factory 2 bolt block, 4V heads, lower compression (wasn't 10.7:1 like other 4V's), 3.00 axle, close ratio Top Loader and 205/70 VR 15 tires, Boss 302 4bbl 780 cfm carb.

The stock ford cast pistons are strong enough to 6000 rpm, and on todays camshafts, that's enough to make 425 hp farly easily. 4V heads are compromised due to exhasut flow figures, but they definatley are the right choice.


Ford USA spent much more on retooling the M code 351 C engine as it did on the 100 million retool of the Canadian 1969 M code 351 Windsor engine. These engines were FE 390 replacements, and a lot was riging on them.

The 351C was a 4.38" bore spacing Windsor redesign by the same engineer who did the 1968 429 and 460 "385" series Lima engine redesign. After doing the heads, he was then let loose on the Boss 302, then the "335" engine that begat the Boss 351, and all the 351m/400 and Aussie engines.


Truth is, the thinwall construction ruined the reliabilty of these engines, but even then they can still take 7500 rpm and 450 hp, and do 170 mph in 3000 pound race cars. And take out Group C Camaro 350's and 430 hp 308 cubic inch Commodore HD/T, and RX/7's. They used Moldex cranks, Carrilo rods and Speed Pro foged pistons at that level, but the bloks were stock.

8000 rpm with a stock block, at 170 mph....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atpTf5UMEQo

Chris Economaki's interview with DJ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYehVaHvXuM

Making the engine and car Edsel Ford II didn't want raced in 1979.

Remember, Ford had pulled out of World Rally racing, and Henry Ford II had promised that 1980 would be the age of fuel economy and getting on with making better emissions compliance.

But later, EFII matched dollar for dollar 37 grand for the next race car. These 1981 engines rated in at 387 hp at 7500 rpm from what DJ said in an interview.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mqzWkzzYRw

It was the Modle T style penny pinching that made them the strangest thing around, able to make over 500 hp from a stock block, but also, because of fairly ordinary production quality control and the detonation problems of the cnated valve heads, they were able to split bores and suffer detonation or oiling problems that can reduce one to scrap in short order. Yet plenty of them lumber past the 140 thousand and over mile mark in F100's and Fairlanes and Fairmont Ghias without any problems. And three times touring car championship winner used 100% factory parts. Although in tjat Youtube link Dick Johnson did get black flagged after the 1982 race for using Holden piston rings and non standard cylinder head castings because of an 11 th hour engine rebuild where there was no official engine tag.

The Big Block 385 and later year 1978 to 1983 US made 351M's and some rare late 400's weren't afflicted by penny pinching. The Clevelands were, if they were made in US, or if cast in the Australian Geelong plant. The terms, XE, NASCAR, pilow block and Aussie block are banded about loosly, but one things for sure, even from the Geelong plant, even factory engines wer reselved, and the changes, alough well documented, aren't well understood.


The Aussie block had a standard US pattern, with very ordinary prodction control that included core shift which was sometimes enough to warrant sleeving the cylinder block. This was done at a factory level on some RPO83 engines, which were basically factory sold US made engines they had to get rid of after the "160 MPH Supercars Soon" scaremonger of Evan Green in the Sun Herald July 25 1972.

The Cleveland engine basically brough the house down when the do gooders got there knickers in a knott over out and out sports cars. Any production engine that can make rev to 7000 rpm, and make 350 hp to 380 hp net at 6300 rpm is an engine that eclipsed even the 4 .3 liter Ferrari Daytona engine. The PRO 83 and Phase III engines showed what the Americans cold do when allowed to use the Boss 302 Holley 780 cfm vac sec carb and tri Y headers with a 300 degree duration, 500 thou lift camshaft.


Everything after July 1972 in Australia and the USA was selectively defrocked and down tuned like Tony Iommi having to progess from E to E♭ after loosing his finger tips.

The first Aussie blocks were cast D2-A-CA untill the tooling masters wore out. In 1979, they lost the blue war paint, and were painted funeral parlor black, and got the D2AE-CA casting. At various times, the US import engines had XE castings as race engines supplied to factory teams. Those engines got four bolt mains, but they weren't all four bolt blocks. Then the Aussie engines became the preferred NASCAR racing engine, and had an XE suffix and either an XE192540 possibly XE182540 casting number, and were avalaible through SVO, like closed chamber 2v 302C 57 cc and open chamber 2v 351C 75 cc heads.

The XE pre fix was just a non factory out clause block casting, so it wasn't supposed to be a factory block, but in 1979, Henry Ford II decreed in Austrlia at the XD Blackwood Falcon release that the Australian Cleveland V8 would die, and although they did rescast another few hundred Bronco/F100/ deTomaso and SVO engine blocks after the Geelong V8 casting shutdown in 1981, Max Gransden signed off on no more V8's, and Bill Dix had the tooling scrapped in 1985.

[xctasy]

The race 1981 Falcon used 2V closed chamber heads and stock ignition, and made 7 hp more than the 4V headed 1972 GTHO Phase IV Falcon.

9 years, 7 hp extra. For 1982, 4V heads became legal, then by 1984, they ended up true 450 hp engines. The 4V heads and better intake with better induction was worth more than 60 hp.

Little wonder the whole engine program galvanised Ford racing for then next 2 years untill the Group A era and 390 hp Windsor 5.0's.


The dominance of Ford created a sensational problem when the much slicker XA Falcon came out with the 30 extra hp more.





The use of road cars for racng development effectively stopped then, but the Improved Racing rules still required homologation, and so Ford Australia did lots of Cleveland tweeks from 1973 to 1983.

First was the new black D2AE-CA block, Blackwood Falcon XD engine. Since the XC Falcon in 1976, the 351C had run a Carter Thermoquad 9800 4BBL, and Bosch Duraspark small cap and integrated control unit ignition.





Second was the block changes for NASCAR XE blocks



The D2 AE CA was a many varaint beast block, with various pillow block variants under the same part number.





and the last of the line oddballs, the XE engine, which was the defacto NASCAR engine

[xctasy]

But what I always have liked about Clevelands, in a 621 mile, 6 hour race, they didn't break like 350 Chevs do.


Cleveland Rocks!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJ3plaSowWc



The stock block Cleveland conclusively routed General Motors Aussie and US best effort L48 engines, and they did so with basically stock 1972 engineering.







Slick and small aint always the way to haul....


For 1982, the more areodynamic, disk rear braked 1981 Z28 with 350 hp 4-bbl was about 5 mph faster down Conrod Straight, they were rated at about 0.36 for CD, and had a frontal area of about 23 sq feet.


In comparison, the Falcon had a 0.45 drag factor as a race car, and a frontal area of 24.85 sq feet. The areodyanmics were cofirmed at Lookheed Wind tunnel in Georga 1979 during the development work of the XD range. The Channel 9 and BBQ Galore Camaro's was carrying 35% less overall drag than that old blunt faced Falcon XE, and should have taken out everything.

Its hard to see that if it had the clean through the air body of a 1973 Mach 1or Falcon XA, it wouldn't have killed eveything.





The best end was that one of the most impressiver drivers and race engineers was Kevin Bartlett. His epic wins were first with Ford during his Formula 5000 Chevy engined accident and recupperation stages, and then he raced a Z28 Chevy for four years with the Kerry Packer supported Channel 9 Camaro.



He has has a 302 powered 65 Mustang, and has always said the the Windsor is smooth, almost Chevy 350 like, while the Cleveland is just a blatant savage. He's never knocked it as a combination, but has been pretty stern in his advice to anyone rebuilding a Cleveland.


When I helped Blair in my hometown make his 375 hp engine, we debated the 4V/2V thing, the carb, TBi thing, the gearing, the cam specs, everything.


My favorite treatise is from a 1989 article Kevin Bartlett wrote for a duel purpose race and road car. There was only one TBI system around then, and he said use it...

Don't use a carb, use TBI.



If you are using a carb, use a 750 Holley Double Pumper with a Weber Jet plate.

Use a dual plane Edelbrock Performer intake manifold. If you are using a Torker, be preared for the torque loss
RPM rev limit must be 6200 rpm.
Don't use 4V heads, use 2V 351 Open Chambers with smaller than 4V valves to get compression down to 9.5:1.
He'd rather compromise on heads than compromise on pistons, flame travel and anit detonation is everything to these engines.
Use US Speed Pro, Hypereutectic (semi forged) Pistons
Use a Bllet US camshaft with 300 duration at lash, and 550 thou lift intake and 600 thou exhaust.
Use bolt on 7/16 stud roller rockers with titanium retainers and Super Lock keepers. Overhead valve gear is the Clevelands weakest link, along with the very heavy vlave gear that needs crome moly.
Use a big 3" single exhaust if you can, but a dual exhaust if you can't package it.


He is a true Ford nut though, and we can forgive his foray into Chevy's in that it makes his advice even better.

[Zap's 85 GT]

This is the custom camshaft that I commissioned for the engine. The builders sheet and the grinders sheet. It took about two weeks longer to receive it as I had it nitrited for break-in and SFT longevity.





I reinstalled the cam bearings and had the camshaft spinning effortlessly.





For a while a good rear main seal could not be sourced as FelPro stopped making the good ones. I managed to find this one by Cometic. Even has the Ford logo and part number on it.







Forgive the yellow tape. I had aspirations of painting the block but after a bit I just pulled the tape back off as I had other things that were causing delays to the project. Namely money.





Sliding in the pistons and tightening the rod bolts per bolt stretch.

[xctasy]

Nice.


The 4V heads really will like the lift. The 351C with 4V heads engine is an animal. Your choice of cast pistons, if they pass the die penetrate NDT and Zyglo test, will ensure the bores are looked after. I've seen a lot of engines lost to forged pistons. Blairs 1971 XY Falcon got an XE 192540 and we sadly, by accident, destroyed it due to piston clearances. It was a vigin bore, ex XE Fairmont engine. Nascar blocks came out in some pretty ordinary F100, Broncos, LTD's, Fairlanes, and Fairmont Ghia 4.9 squad cars

The engine had to get sold off, it was worth 5000 dollars NZ, and it got overbored 60 thou, and used in one of Roy McDonalds race cars. We replaced the scored NASCAR block with a D2 AE CA engine, and Blair used it for another 10 years untill it was stolen from the mine a Waihi.

[Zap's 85 GT]

Degreeing the camshaft. Tip... When degreeing a camshaft only install the #1 piston and not all eight. With all the back and forth rotating of the assembly it's much easier working against the friction of one set of piston rings vs all eight. I have a Rollmaster timing chain set with the 9-keyed lower sprocket. The first try had the numbers being 2.5 degrees retarded. After pulling the gears and resetting the lower sprocket to 2deg advanced I tried again but I messed up and was off a tooth on the upper sprocket making the numbers way off. After the third attempt I had all the numbers coming in at +/- 0.5 deg so it was dead on as far as I am concerned.



I also needed to replace the o-rings that the block was last machined for when it was built by a race shop in Australia. The story was it was for a drag boat. Whatever the case, it showed good machine work throughout. I purchased a o-ring kit from Summit racing. apparently .041" wire is the standard as it is the only wire diameter offered. I bought the kit about two months ago. Now hat it came time to use it it would not fit into the grooves. After some quick measuring I discovered the block was machined with a .030" groove and not the US standard of a .040" groove. As luck would have it, I had a roll of .032" stainless steel "safety wire" that fit the bill perfectly. I used the plastic installation tool that came with the kit and it all went in quite easily. This is not something that I would have ever had machined into a block, but since this is what I had to work with, it needed to be redone. Once I got rolling it took less than 20 minutes to install all eight rings.







The heads were skimmed solid bronze guides installed, machined for studs and guide plates, multi angle valve job. Heads would have been done but the machinist ran into a snag with the exhaust valve height. Intake valves were perfect at 1.800". Exhausts were all coming in at 1.700 on the installed height for the valve springs. We ran around options of different keepers, retainers, spring seats, but more machine work would compromise the head and seat integrity. I called up Ferrea and they agreed to exchange the valves for ones that are .100" longer which would be perfect. I just needed to pay for the shipping. Definitely the best solution.

[Zap's 85 GT]

Eleven months had passed before I finally got my heads back from the machine shop. I will definitely never be going back to that shop again. Pretty much a one man show with his priorities elsewhere. Enough about that.

The work on the heads was pretty decent but there was one area of concern that I had and it was the casting flash left over around the new pressed in bronze valve guides. I "assumed" the shop would have spot faced the guides before pressing in new ones but oh well. I really felt I needed to double check everything anyways so I pulled the heads completely apart. Dressed down the guide stem areas, carefully did some more bowl blending after the valve job.

I mocked up the heads to the engine and went through the process of trying to achieve the proper valvetrain geometry and the correct pushrod lengths. Using the old roller rockers off of my Mach 1 I could not get the proper valve tip pattern that I was happy with. Using my adjustable length pushrod I could not get a satisfactory contact pattern on the valve stem tip that was acceptable. I fiddled with it for a few hours before researching some symptoms. I borrowed a rocker from a friend and immediately noticed that his 1.73 rockers had a different geometry. I tried his rocker on my engine and was quickly able to get a desirable wear pattern.

I researched high and low to find out what rockers that I in fact had but could find nothing. I purchased then in 1997 and I could have sworn they were Harland Sharps, but the best I could deduce they were in fact some no-name brand Rockers that are for a BBC application. The only identifying marks on them are 1.73 and USA. No part number. I purchased them from a P.A.W. back then and I cant find my receipt to verify, but that is what all my internet digging has come up with. I used my header money to purchase some new rocker arms. In the back of my mind I'm kind of glad, as the old rockers were pretty chincy. Small bearings and questionable build quality. Now that I've been around a bit more I don't get distracted by cheap parts that are shiny, I bought some Comp Cams Ultra Pro Magnum XD rockers. I have an older set of them on my 85's 408w and really liked them, so that's why I chose them again for this build.

I ordered them on Sunday evening from Summit Racing and they arrived on Tuesday. I mocked them up and was immediately able to get a good wear pattern. Now that I verified the proper pushrod length I need to get the pushrods ordered. Probably after next payday since I just blew $400 on these rockers that was not planned. Baby steps.















I received the pushrods in today. 3/8" and 8.600" long. I had to clean the rest of the head bolts, install and torque them to spec. It's always tough getting to the 105 ft/lbs spec by yourself without the engine moving around on you on the stand. I set the pushrods in place and then needed to adjust three of the eight sets of guide plates so the roller tip was centered on the valve stem. After everything was mocked up correctly I torqued the rocker studs and finally set the valve lash.

I set the Blue thunder intake and BOSS valve covers in place for a sense of completion even though I have a bit to go still. Still need a new oil and water pump as well as headers before I even think about starting the engine swap. Also need to get the flywheel ground, a new clutch, new plugs, wires, distributor cap, etc, etc, etc.

I next started cleaning the external parts now and even paint the block as soon as I get the oil pan installed. It will make it feel much more finished. Even though it looks a bit grody it's got it where it counts.

I noticed I'm missing the intake valley pan alignment dowels. I'll need to make some out of an old drill bit or something.

[Zap's 85 GT]

I was still making slow progress. I got in a new std volume oil pump and a new pickup, as well as a new FlowKooler water pump. I have had one of the FlowKooler pumps on my current/old engine and it has been in place for the past 16 years without any issues. I figured it's done its duty and just didn't feel comfortable swapping it to this new engine, so I bought a brand new one for it for the piece of mind. I checked the pickup to pan depth with some modeling clay. It showed about .210" clearance without a gasket on the pan. I took my time with the oil pan gaskets hoping to avoid any future leaks.



I did a lot of cleaning on the intake manifold and valve covers. Used some Eastwood Cast Blast on the intake, and used some very fine 0000 steel wool to clean up the valve covers and then sanded the fins down to 400 grit, finishing with more steel wool.

I next tackled the engine painting. I hosed the entire engine off with a prestigious amount of lacquer thinner to get all the oils and contaminates off. I used almost 1/2 gallon. Dried it in the sun. Then I masked up the rest of the engine, sprayed it first with some aerosol black SEM self etching primer, then topped it off with some of POR15's Ford Corporate Blue Engine enamel thinned with 50% lacquer thinner so it would spray easier. I used some crappy chrome valve covers to mask the valvetrain. It turned out really great. Good shine, color and finish overall.

Next I need to clean the intake manifold bolts and get that mounted permanently.

At this point I still needed headers, a clutch kit and some few other bits and pieces before the swap happens.

[grabbergreen84]

Lookin' good!

[xctasy]

And that right there ^ is why I think Clevelands are the best piece of metal sculpture ever made.

The 1973 March 1 is the nicest Mustang. Harder Better Faster. With the right 351 options and mods.



Even the DEWALT DC720KA 18-Volt Cordless you bought sells so well because of its 73 Mustang March 1 color scheme...



And it was Edsel Ford II, in this picture right here, that copied the formula, and made the Cobra 207 HP 4.9 P and 216 HP T code 5.8's see the light of day.



The later 4 speed 4-bbls in 4.9 or 5.8 GS, GXL , or Cobra form were much more economical, and even though they were 3600 pound cars, they were amazing touring cars. Wheels magazine in 1977 used on that could do Sydney to Perth in 33 hours at a real 76.9 mph average speed...and use about 10 US mpg thrashed. To get an 76.9 mph average for a 2500 mile jouney, you had to do 105 mph at times. And the 4.9 they used would top out at 118 mph, or 126 mph as a 5.8.

http://www.drive.com.au/motor-news/m...508-37yu9.html



The block you have is a T code 5.8, which came out from either the XC Falcon/Fairmont, ZH Fairlane 500 Auto, or P6 LTD auto.

You can decode the engine numder here http://www.fomoco.com.au/id.html

My first ever drive of a V8 was the Baker Construction 1976 ZG Fairlane 500 351 4V, the same kind of T code Aussie block engine.

It was a silver rust bucket which could do 16 second quarters on its 2.75:1 9 inch four wheel disk braked driveline. 4350 Motorcraft 4-bbl carb, dual exhausts, 290 hp, 2V heads with 9.4:1 compression.It ran on 97 octane leaded gas.

As long as you didn't thrash it, it would do 16 to the US gallon in Auckland. The 302's sales out numbered 351's 5 to one; most Aussie blocks, contray to Des Hammils info, were found in Fairmont sedans and wagons, which were company rep mobiles, and sold really strongly, and the 4.9 option continued to be standard on most Fairmonts untill October1980 when the Fairmont Ghia got downgraded to a 126 hp Alloy Head 4.1.

It lost 62 hp, and went down from a 16.9 second quarter mile and 118 mph top speed to a pedestrian 18.3 second quarter, and 109 mph. Fuel consumption improved from 13 mpg US to 22 mpg US

By 1982, the New South Wales emission standards had them further split into H, B,T or P code Aussie engine blocks.

Phillip A Martel did the rework of the MEL 383, 410, 430 and 462 into the 385 sries Lima 429 and 460 for 1968. He must have been busy, because the 351 Windsor was done by him for 1969 too. Bill Gay and Joe Macura was influenced by Martels head design, but they are also very similar to the Mark IV Mystery Engines heads from Brand C, and have the same rockers and retainers. The whole 335, 385 and Windsor, Cleveland and Boss 302 programs were perfectly synchronised to make the Lima, Windsor and Cleveland plants crank out the hotest production V8's. As soon as they failed to sell a million a year, the tooling got sent to Australia, although it was damaged in a huricane on route to Australia in 1974, and a bulldozer broke loose and hammered millions of dollars of CEL2 foundary machines. Returned to Detriot for repair, the tools had to be regraded due to the intense hardness of Australian Pig Iron. Due to the oil shocks and Fords logistic issues in Canada, the US and Geelong, it took 5 long years from the first US block, but Aussie headed 302 2V's of November 12 1971 to progress to an all Australian block 302 or 351...it didn't happen until April 29, 1976!



From "Ford Cleveland 335-Series V8 Engine 1970 to 1982" by Des Hammill from Veloce Publishing Ltd.

Here is a picture of the first 230 or 240 hp 2-BBL Y code 302c 2v. It then became a P code 4-BBL 302 in July 1976. The block you have is a T code 5.8. Aussie engines had there own VIN and DSO codes, some were the same as Mercury's, some were different. 170 pounds of the engine was Made in America's Cleveland engine plant, the balance making up the final 569 pounds. A Y- code is was a grocery getter with a US block, and it could do 16.9 secs and 112 mph top speed in a 240 HP dual exhaust 4 speed or C4 Falcon Two Door Hardtop, or a 17.8 second quarter in a 230 hp single exhaust XB Fairmnt Station Wagon.


It got a tiny Bendix Technico Stromberg WW 2-bbl, but they were 15 mpg cars if babied, 12.5 mpg if driven normally.


http://s1215.photobucket.com/user/xe...on4-4.jpg.html




And there was the core shift, the block sleeves, and the over heating problesm form the right hand side Recirculating ball steering box that crimped the header pipe on that side of some X-series cars. The carb changes hurt the fuel consumption, the ignition had its fair share of problems, and the 4V heads were all gone before the end of the XB GT.

The 1979 to 1982's were true 15.8 to 16.1 second cars if four speed 5.8's. A bad 4.9 auto LTD with NSW emissions yielded a 18.8 second quarter mile in a 3400 pound lux barge, but most 4.9 autos could do sub 17's.A 1979 Fairlane 5.8 in the wet could do 17.2

By 1983, Ford Australia replaced all the 4.9 and 5.8 V8's with a Port EFI 250 cubic inch 4.1 liter in line six. A difficult to accept come down when GM Holden was selling 308 cubic inch 14 second SS Commodores with 248, 275 and 295 hp Improved Performance Brock engines which did 129 to 138 mph at 5800 rpm with 276 degree cams, headers, and Quadrajet 4-bbls, four speed M21 gearboxes, and 3.36 or 3.08 axle ratios.

Our EFI 4.1 Falcon 4 speed non overdrive manual had just 149 hp, and weighed 3163 pounds that year, and did 0-60 mph in 9 seconds, 16.8 second 1/4 miles at 81.2 mph one up, 0-60 mph in 9.9 seconds, 17.2 sec at 79.9 mph two up.

The heavier Fairlane EFI 3 speed non overdrive auto with the same 149hp engine weighed 3362 pounds without people, and did 0-60 in 10.5 sec and a 17.7 at 78 mph for the quarter mile, one up. Adding another 230 pound person, it took 11.2 seconds to 60 mph, and 18.1 seconds at 76.5 mph.



Wait till you get it running. You'll see why theres nothing quite like a Cleveland 351 Ford V8

[Zap's 85 GT]

Wait till you get it running. You'll see why theres nothing quite like a Cleveland 351 Ford V8

Oh, it's been running. I'm just taking you down the build-up road first.


Some of the ancillary parts started showing up. The custom Pro Systems 780 d/p carb and the stainless steel headers.



Here are some mock-up hero shots of the engine.







The old and very similar looking engine coming out, and come engine compartment detailing before I drop the new engine in.

[xctasy]

A good solid lifter cam and those proper US 4V heads will have made all the difference.

I won't spoil the rebuild ride.

But your 1977 block came from the finest year for the unassailable 351C's

See "Part 1&2 - Pirtek Australian Touring Car Legends at the 2010 Gold Coast 600 "

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xL0i4neOdr0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CrZ5M9PKhs

Ole Yella 351C's all the way, man!

[Mike1157]

You do really good work, I am impressed that you took on that lifter bore reaming/honing process by yourself w/ what....a hand drill?

As meticulous as you are, I probably dont have to tell you to check, but in every instance where I have had to use a O-ringed block, the head was cut with a receiver groove, and a copper HG was used.

You didn't say what HG you are using, but I'd be real leary of using a standard HG that will already have an internal fire ring built into it and have that O ring under it, potentially causing a compression escape path that could lead to a failure.

It may not happen, I may be alarmist for nothing, but Cometic expressly told me not to run the O ring in one of my past project blocks when using their MLS gasket.

[Zap's 85 GT]

The lifter bore reamers have a self guiding pilot on the nose that does a great job of keeping the bores straight, even when done by hand. As straight as they were originally anyways. They are pretty much designed to be used in that manner. There are people that get bent out of shape thinking you need to bore them via a alignment fixture to get them super perfect, but I don't see the benefits other than bench racing. I believe there are tolerances and this process still falls within those margins.

The o-rings are a bit of an annoyance. The head gaskets that came off were std FelPro fare with that copper spray everywhere, and the heads had no receiver groove or sealing issues. The o-ring'd setups I've seen use special head gaskets so that's a different scenario. But the 351c head gasket compression ring is not concentric and the o-ring is, so the o-ring really isn't doing what it's supposed to in this application. Not quite sure what the machinist was shooting for when building this engine. In the end I'd rather have the high ring vs the low spot of leaving the ring out, so that's why I reinstalled it. At least it's not the bigger .040" dia o-ring so it's not as big of a factor. I used a std .044" FelPro head gasket again without issue so far. So so far so good. Block deck is flat, heads are flat. I don't foresee any long term issues.

Here it is with the new engine in place.









When it came time to install the headers I ran into a problem with the drivers side header interfering with the z-bar clutch linkage....

[Zap's 85 GT]

Double Post

[grabbergreen84]

I'd rather have the high ring vs the low spot of leaving the ring out, so that's why I reinstalled it. At least it's not the bigger .040" dia o-ring so it's not as big of a factor. I used a std .044" FelPro head gasket again without issue so far. So so far so good. Block deck is flat, heads are flat. I don't foresee any long term issues.

Are the rings open-ended, or did you solder the ends together, making a true ring?

I'm just thinking that if they're open, and if there's any gap between the ends, that it might compromise the head seal.

[Zap's 85 GT]

I used this video as a reference when I reinstalled my o-rings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfqE2jgf9qs

[Zap's 85 GT]

After getting the engine installed I had to modify my drivers side header to clear the z-bar/clutch linkage. These headers were obviously only intended to be used in an automatic transmission application. They were a very good price for stainless so I took the gamble that it would be something I would run into and be able to remedy. I bought myself an Everlast TIG welder and having my first go at it being with stainless steel was pretty ballsy. I purchased a header flange to bolt the primary tubes to before I started dissecting what I needed to in order to perform the modifications. It turned out pretty darn well if I do say so myself. The hardest part was having to cut the collector off and weld it back on. Stainless is tough stuff to work with.

[qikgts]

Great thread! Thanks for sharing your path to completion!