Hello everyone,

I recently picked up a 96 351w and tore it down today. Things look relatively normal to me but I am very inexperienced when it comes to rebuilding engines. My plan is to rebuild this for as budget friendly as possible. I want to put most of my money in heads so the less machine work the better. It looks like the stock heads, which I am not sure what they are other than stock on this engine had two what I am assuming are burnt valves on the #2 and #6 cylinders. All of the cylinders seem to be in decent shape as I could not detect a ridge with my fingers and the cross hatch looks what I consider to be decent but I really have no clue.

I attached some pictures, not sure if you will be able to spot the wear or not. Sorry if they come in oversized.

Any comments or observations or other things I should be looking for would be great.

 

Why did you tear the motor apart? What was it doing or not doing that made you think it needed a rebuld?

 

Never heard it run, bought off CL. Guy said it had 180k out of a bronco that had gotten laid over so it "had oil in the heads". Figured it was better safe than sorry. I plan on swapping it into my 78 f100.

 

OK, looks like you have a good candidate. To have a reliable motor dismantle it and take everything to a machine shop and let him tell you what it needs, its most likely the rod ends will have to be trued but the crank may be good with a polish. Talk to the shop in advance to see if they are a bunch of robots that just grind everything or if they will actually take the time to measure first and just do what is necessary.
What are your power goals for the engine? You said you plan to put money in heads so does that mean aftermarket heads? The stock heads aren't worth investing in IMO.

 

X100....

 

I see from another thread you have going you have a 400hp goal. You will need a complete aftermarket HCI combo and more compression for that so plan on an overbore with new pistons an rings and you might even consider just buying new con rods, the stock rods can handle that power but it costs as much to have ARP bolts installed and have the big end trued as it does to just buy new rods with the bolts already installed.

 

He will need to add balancing to his budget with new rods.

 

Paul,

Thanks for the replies! I was doing some research last night on the forums and consistently saw your name pop up with a bunch of great advice and perspectives. You rock!

I was definitely planning on going an aftermarket head route, my experience with my 5.0 and E7 heads taught me that lesson.

As far as what my actual plan for the truck will be its pretty simple,

I had an 01 Chevy Silverado for years that was my all around truck. It was a dog with I think they were rated for about 230HP and 300 TQ with the LS motor. It worked fine but just never felt like a performer. My goal is build my F100 into a similar rig but with a little extra performance. I am not all keyed up about horsepower but I want something that will cruise nicely, tow when I need it, and do the occasional burn out. Living in Portland OR I am subject to emissions testing with the F100 so an all out powerplant isn't really an option at this point. As far as my 400 HP and TQ goal those seem to be popular numbers to start with and then budgets, education, happy wives, and children all play a role in reducing those numbers.

So my "build ideas" thus far are:

AFR 165 OR Edelbrock 5025 heads
Camshaft: ????
1.6 Roller rockers
Flat Top pistons (I doubt I need forged since I won't be running crazy numbers or induction)
.030 Overbore

As far as transmission, I would like to swap in an AOD eventually but they seem to be hard to come by around here, they are available but not as much as I would like. Not to mention from my reading they are pretty pricey to rebuild so that may have to wait for a bit. In the mean I am planning on keeping the C6 and possibly put a shift kit in it.

I am currently looking for a machine shop now to have this conversation with but I was not pleased with the last TWO shops I have been to when I rebuilt my 5.0. So if there are any local guys who are the Portland area that made a recommendation, feel free to let me know.

Thanks for all the input guys. I am really starting to appreciate this forum more and more.

 

Don't hesitate to step up to an AFR185 with this displacement you won't hurt torque output which will be significantly higher than what a 5.0 makes. This will be a carbed motor correct? You don't actually need a very big cam to get 1hp/cu in or a little better with good heads and a milder cam will produce cleaner emissions as well as better street manners, you could even use an EFI friendly cam.

 

Paul,

I have been seeing people say just go directly to the 185, however, summit has the 165 on clearance for 650! instead of the the 185 1375.... So that has been kind of a deciding factor. The 5025 heads are a happy medium in price and performance according the hotrods article
http://www.hotrod.com/articles/ccrp-...ads-that-work/ . Admittedly they DO NOT cover the AFR heads as a comparison so there is that.

As far as camshafts go, in effort to keep costs down, see a theme here?, I was hoping to keep my stock camshaft. I haven't pulled it to see what the wear is like though. I had done some reading that suggested that the cams that were in broncos were pretty decent. I do have an E303 in my mustang and I am happy with it but if I can save the $$ I will.

 

The stock cam in that motor isn't bad but it does compromise power for emission, Desktop Dyno suggest you would get about 290hp@4500rpm and 370tq with a 9.5:1 motor using a 650cfm carb and headers. Just for reference a Comp Cams 35-320-8 produces 370hp@5500rpm and 400tq, that's still a really mild cam that will idle relatively smoothly and produce great throttle response, and of course it just shows that the stock cam would be a bit of a bottleneck with that engine combo.

And I agree for that price it's hard to pass up the AFR165s, they're still way better than stock heads.

 

Just FYI, the price of $650 is for a SINGLE AFR 1472(-1) head, and Summit only has 1 of those. That's probably why it's on clearance.

 

As an update: I took the camshaft out and it showed minimal wear on the journals however, most of the lobes had signs of wear as did most of the lifters so those will be replaced after all. So much for saving money on those parts.

Paul when you posted the HP and TQ numbers were those for the AFR heads? Can you recommend a desktop dyno that is free to use?

Good catch xlt!

 

 

Have the block magnafluxed, especially the saddles between the mains and cam journals. I've heard these blocks are susceptible to cracking in this area. Seems strange the cam lobes are worn, most I've seen are fine after 100K miles. But then seeing the sludge in your pics of the heads, that would explain the wear.