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swampfox

this will be mainly a weekend driver.that said, i still want to be able to haul ass when the urge hits me!

http://www.summitracing.com


Rebuilding takes some careful thought but don't let it intimidate you. I did my 1st 350 when I was 17 years old and it went over 80k befrore I got rid of the car and it was still running strong.

Rebuild yourself is the best bet, get the block and crank machined, definitely get some forged pistons, the autozone engine will have cast, summit has good kits for reasonable prices

Is this a performance engine or just a weekend cruiser? makes a difference when selecting parts

Youll find a lot of good info here also, best Ford tech site on the net, they have a cleveland forum there also

http://www.corral.net/forums

A couple of thousand dollars or so for a engine. Well that's better than for my Ford 7.3 Diesel. I thought I was going to have to replace it and they were talking about $9000 installed. I checked at Auto Zone and a few other places and they wanted about $5000 to $7500 for a long block. Got lucky and just had to have the heads rebuilt.

Check in the Car Craft mags. They have companies with two page ads, I forget their names (PAW, Performance Auto warehouse, I think, is one). They'll have combo kits. Like the heads, pistons, rods, rings, etc. So you can build your own, but the parts are already machined and fitted. They have some kits that come with everything, heads already cleaned and machined, cam, I mean everything. You just gotta put it together. They also have long blocks and short blocks already assembled.
The cam companies have good web sites for info, but if you do the above, it takes all the guess work out if it.
If you piece it together, you'll pay through the nose, maybe not get everything to work together. If you go with one of the kits I mentioned, you can put together a pretty good motor, get it running and tuned, then add stuff later.

Me too.

sprintmj19

i know only the basics when it comes to auto repair, so how would i go about finding the correct combo(pistons,cam-shaft,carb,ect..)for good performance? i may do a rebuild on my own but i am not sure how to decide what my best options are.thanks for any advice

Wasted youth.

How can you speak with such intelligench at 1 A.M. ?? I can't even spell.

When you look at the head gasket/valve side of the head:
You'll see just the valve faces, spark plug hole and just a small amount of casting around them on a closed chamber head. The chamber will be like a tri-oval, just surrounding the valve faces and spark plug hole.
On an open chamber head, you'll see the casting around the valve faces is almost round, about the size of the cylinder.
Open chamber head may be lower compression, but it all goes to what pistons are used. Lotsa' arguments over which is better.
The quench area is the area on the cylinder head gasket face that goes from the cylinder wall out to where the valves are closest to the gasket surface. This is usually flat. With the right piston, you can use this area to put more of the air/fuel back into the combustion chamber.
This will all go back to the combination, meaning what pistons are used with what heads, compresion ratio, along with what cam is used with what size carb, and how this vehicle is going to be used.
If you buy this already built, the right pistons will be used with the correct heads.

I'll stick to building them myself.

Bought a old chevy truck with a blown 1968 lg. journal 327 in it for $500.

Built the motor for $1200. Now I have a sweet 4x4 wit a 500hp rear wheel dyno for an investment of about $2000.

I got lucky that it still had the old fuelie heads on it. Heads can add quite a bit more $ to a rebuild if thier cracked.

I would never recommend a motor from autozone. If you want a crate motor, shop around some of your local race shops.

I actually have a 351 lying around my mecanics shop that is about 400hp if your interested? I think he wants around $1500.

It is a brand new rebuild for his car, but we just ended up going with a big block when his old engine blew.

[Edited by aceinstaller on 02-24-2006 at 11:24 PM]

Is your car down and out ?? What's wrong with the current engine ??

What I do is buy used and rebuild it myself. You get a lot more for your money and the personal satisfaction.

I'm not a big Ford guy but when I had my Mustang I rebuilt a 351W I was told to use the closed chamber heads and that's what I did. Now picture a 77' Mustang II with a 351 in it.

Swampfox will be able to give you all kinds of Ford advice he's into them. I'm a chevy guy.

mattm

nice, but i doubt i could talk my wife into a $2,690.99 advance on my allowance

Here's the real one I was looking at. http://www.jegs.com/webapp/wcs/store...0763&langId=-1

mattm

what is jegs?

You can get one from Jegs around that price. Maybe a bit more and the quality will crush auto zone. I would even get a crate from Ford before there.


Jegs is about $1,000 dollars more but check this one out. http://www.jegs.com/webapp/wcs/store...0763&langId=-1

[Edited by mattm on 02-24-2006 at 09:58 PM]

i was thinking of getting a rebuilt 351 cleveland for my torino from autozone, the long block runs $1416.99. I was wondering if anyone here has purchased an entire engine from autozone and if you did was there any trouble with it?
one more question if you please:what is the difference between closed and open open chamber heads(good and bad points for each)and hi quench heads?
thanks for any help