Hey folks, I am chasing information regarding the amount of V8 Windsor engines Ford has produced, worldwide? Someone told me it was in the neighborhood of 100 million, but I'd love some published evidence.

Any ideas on the numbers?

Thanks in advance,
James

 

when we consider not only the 351W engines that were produced for the automotive industry we must include commercial, industrial and marine applications as well, the number of actual engines produced could be very close to 100 million but i doubt there is any way we could put actual number on production figures, perhaps we could ind out how many plants were making this engine for how many years and how many engines were built per year.......... too much research for this boy..

 

Why ?

 

Yeah, I thought it would be pretty close to a number like that.

To answer the question of why, I run an historic road racing car in a class that requires standard cylinder heads. Drivers of 1969 Mustangs are applying to have alternate Dart heads approved for their vehicles on the grounds that 351W heads have become hard to find and are more expensive than the Dart alternative. Obviously they're just chasing heads of a better design than standard Windsor. I wanted to use production figures to show that there were so many 351W motors produced that to claim the heads are rare and expensive is a joke.

I will use production figures from various models in the year 1969 to show that just for the year 1969, there were so many cars produced with those motors, not to mention commercial, industrial and marine, as you say, that you have to use standard heads.

Any idea where I could get F-Truck production figures for 1969 from?

I appreciate all your input on the subject.

 

There may be 100 million Windsor engines built, but the heads worth using were probably the late 60's and early 70's models. I think starting around mid-70's, the 351W got the same tiny valves as the 302s, and bigger chambers to reduce compression ratio.

When you say "standard", is there a limitation as to what kind of porting can be done? With a lot of work, you may be able to make a 302 head flow, and you get the smaller chamber.

 

I can understand this as 351W heads may not be locally available in many of the cases, this would make the cost of replacing the factory heads an expensive proposition, stock Windsor heads are of very poor design and the flow numbers are comparable to a 305 chevy head, that's pretty lame. I would encourage the head swap but put limitations on which heads can be used to keep the competition in check..

 

Sorry, I should have said 'standard casting'. So long as the casting is standard, you can port it and put big valves in it, or whatever you like (so long as you don't ADD metal, you can take away as much as you like).

The class has many different types of cars competing, not just the Mustang, and so to claim that the Mustang needs better heads, when everyone else has to keep their factory castings, is very unfair. My argument has always been "if you don't like the components available for the 1969 Mustang, don't race a 1969 Mustang".

I had researched a little on the heads (I'm not that knowledgeable on Ford products) and found that indeed the late 60's/early 70's heads are the best ones. The class allows the C09E and D0OE heads, and it is my assumption that these heads are quite plentiful over in the USA, and more than likely quite cheap when compared to the Dart alternative proposed.

 

The "good" 351W heads are the early 70's (as has been pointed out) And in addition to these, there are the later production 302/351W GT40 heads, which have the same sized valves as the 69-74 Windsor heads. The GT40 heads are far more plentiful than the earlier castings, which are becoming harder to find here in the US. The circle track guys are lately being allowed to run Dart heads in the US as replacements for factory heads. The 69-70's F series trucks never had the "better" heads, the 351 Windsor wasn't used in the F series until the 1980's, it was used in the late 70's Econoline vans, but by that point, the heads on these engines had the same porting and valves as the 302's