351 Cleveland

[manatee91]

Need some advise since I've been out of the loop for about 25 years. I have a 70 Mach I with the 351C 4v carb. I remember these cars as very fast. My son and I are restoring this car and pulled the motor today. I'm sending the rest off for someone else to fix for me. Anyway, we want a street/strip car. It had an automatic but the car is set up for a 4 speed which I have in another Mach I. Will the flywheel from the 351Winsor motor work on the Cleveland?

What about preformance parts, I know holley, aluminum intakes. Not sure what hydralic cam to use and what to have done to the heads. Seems like the Cleveland blocks had some oiling problems that needed correcting too.

Would you change pistons, if so, what compression?

Thanks for any advise!!!

Ronnie

[hobgoblin351]

Hey Ronnie, no the flywheel from the Windsor will not work with the Cleveland. Nor will much else for that matter. Most people these days go with the windsors, parts availabiltiy,fuel injection and so on. I wanted to run the engine that came with my stang. I modified it heavily but it is what came under the hood.....almost.
There are enough performance parts available for the cleveland to get the job done. But, you'll have to choose mild or wild. There is not much inbetween. There are enough cams, and piston combo's. But the big choice is in the heads/intake manifold selection. 2V heads and manifold will give you up to 5,500rpms. Edelbrock performer, or Weiand Action+. They are good duel plain manifolds. Here's the messed up part. Edelbrock's performer RPM or Weiand's Stealth will both take you to 6,500/7,000 RPM's but they dont make them for Clevelands. The naext step for a Clevenad is a single plain the Torker or The X-celerator. Which dont work well with 2V heads or small cams.
What I did was go with the 4v heads and X-celerator manifold. To help with the low RPM's I added a set of port plates. They cut down the intake port size increasing the intake flow velocity, and give you a better low end. Once you get the rpm's up this thing goes lke nobody's business. My cam is probably a bit bigger than I should have, so you might wnat to bump it down. As far as oiling, Clevelands have bad oil properties. Starvation to the rear bearing I believe. Run roller rockers, add restrictors (restricts oil to the top of the motor, not needed due to the roller rockers, keeps it down at the bearings) and use a high pressure high volume oil pump and you should be fine. Good luck

[rbohm]

sorry hobgoblin, the flywheel from a 351w WILL work very nicely. in fact you can use the flywheel from ANY 289, pre 1981 302, and any 351w. they all have the same balance factor, crank bolt pattern, and tooth count(157 and 164), just be sure to get the right one. if you use the oil restrictor kit, and you are a fool if you dont, you dont need a high pressure pump unless you plan on racing the car. a stock pump will work well. edelbrock does make a number of good intakes for the 2v heads as does weiand. for the street you need just the performer intake for the 351c. if you want to rev above 5500 with more power then the weiand x=celerator is the one to use.

[manatee91]

Thanks for your help. I have the 4v heads. Now I have found out that I have one bad piston, now should I replace that one or go for the forge pistons. MOney is not much of a factor at this point. I was going for the stroker kit but I think that would be too extreme for my usage, just a daily driver for me and my 17 year old son.

I'm glad the 351W flywheel will work, that will save some.

I haven't heard of the oil restrictor. Please tell me more about it and can you get it at the local parts stores.

Thanks

Ronnie

[rbohm]

well since you need to rebuild the engine anyway, i would pick up a set of probe pistons. they are lighter than most forged pistons, and they are "cam ground", meaning they are an oval shape, you will never see it by looking, and thus they can run tighter bore clearances for quieter operation. never replace one piston as they are a matched set and you can throw the balance off quite badly. have the rotating assembly balanced, but dont spend the money for blueprinting as it is not needed on a street motor. the restrictor kit is available from your local ford dealer that deals in the ford racing parts program. what they are basically is plugs that screw in to the passage to the cam bearings. they have a small hole drilled in them, about .090 as i recall, to allow oil to the cam bearings, but they force 90% of the oil to the mains and rods. neat settup really. your machinist can install them easily.