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351W Build Advice: Any engine build threads? Planning ahead.

bbaltered

Jr. Member
Joined
Jan 17, 2012
Messages
109
I've thought about a 408. But every 408 I've heard sounds like a dragster or some kind of monster, lots of lope. I want something powerful, yet understated until I get on it. What would be a plan for that?

As far as sounding like a dragster with lots of lope goes , that has more to do with what cam you run and not the cubic inches . As said before a 351 with a good set of heads will make an easy 400HP . My 347 makes 400HP and is really nothing special , Edelbrock E-STREET heads and a flat tappet hyd cam .
 

ntsqd

heratic car camper
Joined
Jan 30, 2005
Messages
3,229
Loc.
Upper SoKA
I'd spend the bulk of the budget on first: a good set of heads, second: a hydraulic roller cam.

Horsepower is found in the cylinder heads more than any other place. Port design and chamber design have both improved dramatically in the last decade. It isn't magic or an accident that the LS family of engines is proving so popular. It is that they enjoy a well designed cylinder head.

Hyd roller cams can have more area under the Lift Curve because they can have much more aggressive opening and closing ramps than a flat tappet cam could ever have. Said differently, a hyd roller cam will whack that valve open, hold it at max lift for longer, and then slam it shut; all without excessive overlap or long duration. Perfect for a low speed torque producing cam. Can have a short duration, low overlap cam that holds the valves at max lift for much longer than a flat tappet can.
 

tatersalad

Bronco Guru
Joined
Jan 17, 2009
Messages
1,067
I ended up having to put a 1 inch BL on mine after going 351 cause the pass. header was to close to the floorboard.
 

KyleQ

Bronco Guru
Joined
Apr 24, 2008
Messages
5,480
I ended up having to put a 1 inch BL on mine after going 351 cause the pass. header was to close to the floorboard.

I was there too, but then I hacked the collector off, added a 45* bend and welded it back on. Easy fix :)
 

77RHINO

Full Member
Joined
Feb 22, 2011
Messages
308
I have the ford racing aluminum heads and love them on my 351. Came with good beehive springs to .600 lift, and I used roller rockers as well. I had already installed a 1" body lift for all the other reasons and was able to use a 1" spacer to keep my edelbrock carb up off the motor. I do have an opened up scoop on my hood as well though.
 

half cab

Contributor
Guru Bronco
Joined
Dec 8, 2010
Messages
16,306
Jim,if you decide to build ur self? Get this book!!
 

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half cab

Contributor
Guru Bronco
Joined
Dec 8, 2010
Messages
16,306
Guess I should had read the whole thread. I went back n read n saw where you said you have the book on the 1st. page:cool:

My bad...gotta quit doin that.
 

rjmunson

New Member
Joined
Oct 5, 2016
Messages
14
Loc.
Denver
Hey ObscureMachine,
Similar to others found my roller 351w in a wrecked 97 F250. $200 at the local U-Pull.

I was always told to figure about $1k for a good machine shop effort. I came in slightly under that at about $900. Magfluxed, pressure plate bored .030 over, line honed cylinders, line hone/square mains, line hone cam races. Fully decked and squared head surface. Machined for stroker rod clearance. Acid/hot tank, shot peened, new freeze plugs, cam bearings/plug, oil galley plugs. Late model 351w blocks have a tendency to crack btw at the middle cam bearing race, have this checked before doing any other work on it!

I picked up a 408 Stroker SCAT rotating assembly from Summit after shopping around a bit. Agree with most here that this part takes a bit of calculation knowing your stroke, deck height, gasket height, piston dish, head cc's all comes into play figuring out your compression. Few missed calculations her can mean the difference between a whole lot of fun and whole lot of detonation. Paid about $1100, kit 1-94306.

Would agree with the rest on the Alum heads. I found some GT40 replicas in aluminum on Ebay, brand new. 64cc chamber, 190cc runners, .530 lift for about $650. Still need to add rocker studs, pushrods, rocker arms, etc...

As for the cam, this is where we all get to do what we want! I like a bit of lopey sound and will likely go with a Ford Racing Cam (E303) or a Comp Cams Magnum (35-440-8). I found the software you can download from Comp Cams called Cam Quest to be really useful for playing what-if with the cam calculations. Also as mentioned before I sent them a note asking what they recommended and they got back to me in a day with kit options etc...

All in I figure I will easily be $3500 in the fully balanced and assembled long block. I'm going carb and quite a bit of whats on the old tired 69 351w will move over, however stuff like new oil pump, new dizzy/ignition, gaskets/seals, harmonic balancer, bolt kits, timing set all add up quickly. Maybe another $500+

Hope this helps, good luck!
 

my79f

Newbie
Joined
Apr 13, 2009
Messages
22
Is anyone running the edelbrock top end kit for the 351w? Its a bolt on kit, with advertised 440hp on a 9.5:1 motor. One of the magazines installed it on a 92' model year engine straight out of the junkyard, and pulled right at 460hp.

The kit is using the edelbrock 185 cnc ported heads. This sounds like it could be a great option, i just havent seen any real time reviews on it. Price is right at $3600.

https://www.jegs.com/i/Edelbrock/350/2090/10002/-1

What are the thoughts on obtaining this same end result piece mealing a package together for cheaper?
 

71sport408

Sr. Member
Joined
Sep 17, 2003
Messages
411
Loc.
Mandan
I may have a custom ground Erson roller cam that I had cut for my 408 once upon a time. I was thinking about swapping out my big cam at the time and worked with Erson to get a good torque monster. I can’t remember if I sold it or not but if I didn’t, someone can have it. It’ll take me a bit to dig around for it though.
 

sykanr0ng

Bronco Guru
Joined
Aug 11, 2014
Messages
5,363
Is anyone running the edelbrock top end kit for the 351w? Its a bolt on kit, with advertised 440hp on a 9.5:1 motor. One of the magazines installed it on a 92' model year engine straight out of the junkyard, and pulled right at 460hp.

The kit is using the edelbrock 185 cnc ported heads. This sounds like it could be a great option, i just havent seen any real time reviews on it. Price is right at $3600.

https://www.jegs.com/i/Edelbrock/350/2090/10002/-1

What are the thoughts on obtaining this same end result piece mealing a package together for cheaper?

The trouble with most of the magazine builds is if they are car magazines they are more interested in high RPM horsepower and don't care about the lower RPM torque that we want for a Bronco.
 

my79f

Newbie
Joined
Apr 13, 2009
Messages
22

ntsqd

heratic car camper
Joined
Jan 30, 2005
Messages
3,229
Loc.
Upper SoKA
1) Something is a little off on that article's dyno chart. It shows the stock TQ & HP curves meeting a little low. They should meet or cross at 5252 RPM, instead they meet and stop at 5200. HP always equals TQ at 5252. If it does not then somebody has been manipulating the data poorly. Easy to see why they should meet or cross at that RPM when you look at the HP Formula: HP = (TQ * RPM)/5252; If RPM = 5252, then HP = TQ.

2) Too bad the chart starts at 3k, would have been much more useful for it to start at idle. Still, the way I read it that engine made about 380 ft-lbs at 3k. That's not too shabby. The author chose the Performer RPM because it would look better in a mag article geared towards street car guys. I'd like to see someone reputable do the same test on the std Performer kit. Perhaps even better would be if they did the same test with both the hyd roller and the std hyd flat tappet cams

3) It is a wonder that engine didn't die from over-heating. Look at the red silicone coolant hose at the water pump. With that kink in it the pump should have sucked it closed.
 

my79f

Newbie
Joined
Apr 13, 2009
Messages
22
1) Something is a little off on that article's dyno chart. It shows the stock TQ & HP curves meeting a little low. They should meet or cross at 5252 RPM, instead they meet and stop at 5200. HP always equals TQ at 5252. If it does not then somebody has been manipulating the data poorly. Easy to see why they should meet or cross at that RPM when you look at the HP Formula: HP = (TQ * RPM)/5252; If RPM = 5252, then HP = TQ.

2) Too bad the chart starts at 3k, would have been much more useful for it to start at idle. Still, the way I read it that engine made about 380 ft-lbs at 3k. That's not too shabby. The author chose the Performer RPM because it would look better in a mag article geared towards street car guys. I'd like to see someone reputable do the same test on the std Performer kit. Perhaps even better would be if they did the same test with both the hyd roller and the std hyd flat tappet cams

3) It is a wonder that engine didn't die from over-heating. Look at the red silicone coolant hose at the water pump. With that kink in it the pump should have sucked it closed.


All great information to consider. Do you know anything about those heads? Brand new for $1000, seems like those would be a great budget aluminum head. A little back story, I dont currently own a bronco. I do however have an all original 72 single cab short bed with 53k on the clock. All the bronco guys seem to build motors similar to what i would like to run in the f100. Im just trying to figure out the best budget build that is upgradable later on.
 
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