what to do????????

[My 1965 truck]

I'm in a situation. I want to rebuild my 351c because i simply don't know what's in it. It runs good but I know it's got miles on the engine due to the amount of slugg I saw when i changed the valve cover gaskets. I 'm trying to save money but it's gonna cost me $2000 or more to get this done(stock w/ mild cam), paying someone to do the work, no problem however, I could go to Advance and buy a crate for less. If anyone could tell me the advantages of both i would appreciate it. Atleast with Advance i would have an 18 month warranty. Has anyone ever done this. i've heard good and bad things about buying engines from Advance. So, you can see why it's up for debate.

[jwtaylor]

Your right the use of autopart store blocks can be controversial, like you said it has a warranty and they will exchange fairly easily, however, it will require your time to pull and install, potentially over and over.

IMO, find a local machinist that comes recommended, very important they be recommended by a few people, talk with them. It might cost about the same to have them do it, this way should you wanna bump the compression or adda performance cam, it won't be as big a deal and probably won't require as much out of pocket, than if you added these things after you received the longblock. Good luck with whatever you decide, btw, cleveland motors can make some decent hp with stock heads. An example in a performance book I purchased.

They took a 351c w/t 2v stock heads added:

**flat top pistons to achieve 9.25:1 compression ratio
**custom cam from John's Mustangs & Classics
110 lobe seperation
lift intake / exhaust .560 / .585
duration intake / exhaust 232 / 236
**edelbrock dual plane intake and holley 750 cfm
**msd ignition
**heddman hedders

hp on the dyno
2500.....................142
4000.....................273
5000.....................360
5500.....................391
6000 peak..............405


here is the good part

the torque

2500..................373
4000..................409
5000..................420 peak
5500..................410
6000..................387


Who knows, with a little more compression and newer designed camshaft (this book is kinda old) the numbers are bound to increase. something to think about, good luck

[Mike G]

If you have the machine shop do the build, they will probably stand behind the motor for a period of time as well. How much money do you want to spend and are you going to do any work yourself? Of course, when it comes to these toys, it's your time or your money, which is better to spend...

--Mike G

[Ecuri]

I think you answered your own question when you said "I don't know what's in it". You will still be there with crate engine. It's also a lot more fun to drop by the machine shop and see your engine being built and knowing the people personally who work on it. There are not much (if any) pride packaged in a crate. GL