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I love it! Those aren't even the "high performance" Cleveland head! I think just about everyone went straight to the 4V head for serious performance use and the 2V mostly got ignored. There is some pretty good potential there.
I love it! Those aren't even the "high performance" Cleveland head! I think just about everyone went straight to the 4V head for serious performance use and the 2V mostly got ignored. There is some pretty good potential there.
The reason for that is because the 2V intake port is awful, about the right size but very poorly shaped for some reason. The 4V port while huge is shaped much better than the 2V. A 4V port with no work will easily out run a 2v with lots of porting on a 408 cubic engine like this one. What's interesting is that the 2V exhaust port is pretty good. I've always wondered why the 2V design ended up like it is because it could have been very good.
One thing about this engine is it is Australian and has the closed chamber heads. Another thing is the 2bbl. engines were designed to produce their peak HP an torque about 1000 rpm lower than the 4bbl. engine and were designed after the 4bbl. engines and were never intended for high performance. Personally I believe the 351C was one of the finest pushrod V8's to ever come out of Detroit. These little engines ran head to head with 427 FE's and 426 Hemi's on super speedways. It's a shame it died so young thanks to emissions, fuel shortages and corporate decisions.
I've run those Australian 302 closed chamber heads on the dyno before and they were a disappointment. I look a the 351 C as the small block engine with the greatest performance potential. This doesn't mean that they were a good factory combination; they weren't. They have tremendous potential simply because of the cylinder head and valvetrain layout. I'm pretty confident that I could build a 408C with high compression and have it make or be very close to 600 horsepower with no porting done to the 4V closed chamber cylinder head. That's amazing for a design that came out in 1969.
Also they didn't run head to head with 426 Hemi engines on the super speedways. When they ran at the same time the large engines were running restrictor plates and or rings where the smaller engine wasn't.
I've run those Australian 302 closed chamber heads on the dyno before and they were a disappointment. I look a the 351 C as the small block engine with the greatest performance potential. This doesn't mean that they were a good factory combination; they weren't. They have tremendous potential simply because of the cylinder head and valvetrain layout. I'm pretty confident that I could build a 408C with high compression and have it make or be very close to 600 horsepower with no porting done to the 4V closed chamber cylinder head. That's amazing for a design that came out in 1969.
Also they didn't run head to head with 426 Hemi engines on the super speedways. When they ran at the same time the large engines were running restrictor plates and or rings where the smaller engine wasn't.
The advantage they had in Nascar in those days was the small displacement engines were given a huge weight advantage over the big blocks. I totally agree with the 600 HP with a cast iron motor. That's even doable nowadays with a stock stroke.
There are a world of internet stories about these engines that are pure bull. They get repeated until people take them as fact. I've had a Cleveland or two around for the last 25 years and other than not being able to pass a gas station I haven't found most of the stories to be true. I think with T. Meyers blocks and some of the excellent aftermarket heads these engines will be around long after my old *** is gone.
The advantage they had in Nascar in those days was the small displacement engines were given a huge weight advantage over the big blocks. I totally agree with the 600 HP with a cast iron motor. That's even doable nowadays with a stock stroke.
There are a world of internet stories about these engines that are pure bull. They get repeated until people take them as fact. I've had a Cleveland or two around for the last 25 years and other than not being able to pass a gas station I haven't found most of the stories to be true. I think with T. Meyers blocks and some of the excellent aftermarket heads these engines will be around long after my old *** is gone.
I've had a T Meyer block here that he sent to me to check out and compare with another aluminum Cleveland block. Tim's block is very nicely done with a lot of great features. Most of the Clevelands that I've built have been for DeTomaso Pantera applications. Most of the time they want a 383 or 408 build, hydraulic roller cam etc for pump gas street driving.
i think a lot of the negative stuff about the Cleveland simply comes from the era when it was produced. Camshaft development, valvetrain and internal reciprocating parts availability for the engine has come a long way since then and allows the design to really shine.
The phase 2 Australian 4 door Ford Falcon XY GTHO with 4V 351 Cleveland was reputed to be the fastest 4 door production car in the world at the time.
With the rev limiter disabled it was capable of 145 MPH.