exactly how old are the 351c model blocks? i had a chance to get one a couple months back but i opted against it. was that a bad move?

 

71-74 also dont get scammed and buy a 400 block. To the untrained eye its hard to tell the difference, the 400 is essentially a tall deck cleveland and is useless

 

First get a virgin Cleveland block. Meaning not over bored but stock bore. If you get lucky the 4V(4 barrel carb version of the Cleveland) in D2 casting number for 1972 has 4 bolt main caps on all 5 bearing caps. Not a must but a great find as the 2 bolt blocks are plenty strong.

You can push the stock rods and crank up to and above 500 HP because the Cleveland cranks are high nodular iron and come with good rods. Just ad ARP rod bolts. Balancing is a must and I paid $250 for external balance. Austrailian Muscle Parts has the 2V Aussive Cleveland heads for $350 and If you want a little more power over the 2V open Chamber USA Cleveland heads they are worth the Cash. Focus on having a good valve job done, bowl and short side work. The exhaust will flow 200 CFM with a good valve Job and a bowl blend and no extensive porting. If you have 4V heads you can get 450 hp with a little less torque down in the lower rpm range without any port work. Just a bowl blend and a good valve job. You will need to pay 150 to get the heads machined for a mechanical cam and more than likey 300 for valve job and guides. My heads with the cost to buy, do giudes, valve job and expensive ferea valves cost 1600.00. More than an aluminum head yes but the are fully ported, have trick valves and make a ligit 500 HP on engine only.

Bottom end, Moroso oil restrictors for 10 bucks, only restrict the number 2 to 5 camshaft oil mains. I used melling edge orifice lifters(flat solid) that only allow oil up top when the cam lobe lifts the lifter high in the lifter bore. This keeps oil at the crank during high RPM blasts. You can go cheap and use a stock replacement melling oil pump and a rear Sump 351/400 M oil pan from a bronco or 1980 and up F150. 17 bucks buys the much needed ARP oil pump shaft and 50 buys the ARP rod bolts.

Open chamber heads go with TRW forged flat tops for 240 bucks and closed chamber heads go with KB 13 cc dish hyperutectic pistons for about 300. These Kieth Blacks are the ones I run to keep the compression pump gas friendly.

100 bucks for plasma moly rings, 100 to refinnish the stock crank, and 62 bucks for Clevitte rod and main bearings. Ford Racing 9 index timing chain is a must to get the cam degreed in properly. I paid 60 bucks and did all my parts shopping at summit. Gaskets by Felpro for 50 bucks.

The 3/8 .080 wall push rods were 160 and the raised 3/8 guide plates were 50 bucks. Rockers are stock 1.73 ratio by comp cams as well and were 250. I used Ford racing Tall aluminum valve covers to clear the rocker arms and the cost 117. The intake I was using was a wieand Xcelerator 2V for 212 at summit. I sold it for what I paid for it and changed to the Parker Racing Funnel Web 2V and gained 5.5 MPH which is and easy 50 hp gain. That intake was bought at Ford Performance salutions for 450 and worth every penny. The custom Flat solid cam from comp cams was a 140 dollar deal.

HeddmanHedders supplied the 17/8 long tube hedders through summit for 447 dollars. Looks like big money but twice the header that BBK, MAC, Flow Tech, JBA and so on makes. These are a bad *** header. I have pics if you wish to see them. I went with a 750 AED HOM carb bought from Holcomb Motorsports at 500 bucks, again worth every penny. I also run a melling HV iol pump and canton race pan and windage tray. Not a must but a very wise investment. Oil pressure on my combo is 100 PSI cold, 64 psi at cruise and 80 PSI when I am at full throttle hot engine. I run about 18 degrees intial timming with the other 18 coming in mechanically for a total of 36 degrees. MSD Distributer and 6AL box and Blaster ss coil with Ford Racing plug wires and 10 dollar Autolite copper plugs two steps colder than factory. This is a well thought out combo that was built cheap and runs very hard on motor. I drive this car daily, it has a very racical shake the earth idle and these numbers are with 3 inch exhaust through Dynomax mufflers.

 

pic of header and Cleveland

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Time slips

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On the Street

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I have a Cleveland in my 72 deTomaso Pantera. The engine is a "Beast". It is easy to work on and can be built mild to wild. Here is a link to a forum exclusive to the Cleveland

http://www.network54.com/Forum/119419/