Mystery 351w
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Elder User
Joined: Sep 2002
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From: Lakeville USA
Mystery 351w
I just bought a parts truck with a 351w and zf tranny. It is an 88 f250 and the engine is not stock. How can I tell if it is an HO? Roller cam? How can i tell which heads are on it?
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If the motor is fuel injected then to be a roller or roller compatible it will have a F4TE engine code. If the motor looks stock as in nothing has been disturbed and has a 4bbl carb on it then it is H.O. if it has a 2bbl then it is not H.O.. But keep in mind that H.O. carbed motors only mean it has a 4bbl intake and 4bbl carb nothing else is special. Hope this helps
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Actually the code I mentioned is under the block casting number. So when you find the long casting number on the block see if it doesn't have F4TE under it to the right if it does it still doesn't mean it is a roller just means it can be, otherwise, there are no real signs of what the motor might be as far as roller compatible or not. As a note the first lightning motors were F4TE blocks and not one of them were roller motors all used flat tappet cams, but they were roller compatible. It doesn't really matter you lose a couple of hp and cannot run an as aggressive cam as you can with roller but you can still make some nice hp and tq with a flat tappet, Good luck
Postmaster
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Given it is a F4TE block and it currently doesn't have the roller setup you will need to find a ho mustang or roller 5.8 and take the spider retainer and H bars out of it you might get away with using the roller lifters but why even do it, get new ones. If your block is not a roller motor or even roller compatible you can still do this however you have to drill and tap the bosses in the oil valley and you have to use a special reduced base circle cam (good luck trying to resale that) if you choose to use a HO mustang roller spyder and H bars. Worse case scenario there are kits available to retrofit a roller to a non roller block and then you can use the standard roller cams no machining required and no spider bars. Good luck
Last edited by jwtaylor; Oct 13, 2003 at 11:52 AM.
