Building up a Six-Cylinder Engine:
http://www.mustangandfords.com/techarticles/5283/

Very intriguing read!

 

here's my take on the situation:

before buying my truck, I really didn't care about fords, and as far as I was concerned, ford spelled "Fix or repair daily" and spelled backward, it's "found on road dead." After my truck took a dump last night, I"m still holding to that until I see some better performance out of it.

Anyway, look on that inliner's site, and you'll see plenty of people running 12's and 13's with chevy 250's and 292's, along with some bonneville guys. There's even an AMC 258 that is used for mud drags that he said pulled too hard without wheelie bars to get a good race on pavement.

Why do people build V8's? because unless your car says "supra" or "Skyline gtR" on the side, it's cheaper, easier and just plain better to build a V8 for power. If I wanted, could I get an 8 second ford 300 or chevy 292? (chevy might be easier, you can get more aftermarket parts for it) Yeah, I probably could if I spent a bajillion dollars on it. Or, for $15,000 I can go to the GMPP catalog and buy a chevy 555 ci V8 that runs 8's out of the box. Saw one in a 65 cutlass tube car running high 8's. Show me where you can make an 8 second tube chassis built around a "big block" 300 or 292 for $15,000 and I'll change my stance.

are they good motors? yeah, they are. they're pretty reliable, long lived, etc. are they "torque monsters"? no. my 83 delta has a 307 that makes 245 lb-ft at 1600 rpm. I'd hit it. are they high revving motors? not with a FOUR INCH stroke and a 4" bore on it they're not. If you want to build these motors for power, port and polish the heads, bring up the compression to a high streetable number (9.5ish), give it a small 4bbl and headers and a rumpy cam that builds as much torque as low in the curve as possible and forget about anything over 4,000 RPM. Your key to making power in a big six like this is making as much torque from 1500-3000 RPM, and having your HP peak be right around 3500 RPM. Once you go higher than that, you're just turning your motor unnecessarily.

at least, this has been my experience with the long stroke amc 258 and the chevy 292.

 

Gee whiz Wally, my 300 makes over 300 ft-lbs from 1500 rpm to over 3000 rpm with over 270k miles on the stock long block. I'd classify that as a torque monster. You won't find many engines that will make more torque per cubic inch than a 300 at low rpm.

Do you have anything new and useful to add? It's bad enough that year old threads are being reincarnated almost daily; now we've got to hear the anti-Ford and anti-300 comments in them as well. Sheeesh.

 

With all due respect and not trying to start a war here, but the 300 six DOES have, in effect, a couple of V8 heads welded together. The head on the 240/300 six has the same valve train components as a 302 V8.

I followed a lot of what Ak Miller did in the sixties and he did NOT put a lot of money in it. In fact Ak Millers whole mode of operation was about ingenuity and building reliable horsepower on a shoestring budget. In the early fifties he took a built up piece of Junk with an Olds V8 to the Mexican Road Race and gave LOTS of EXPEN$IVE Maseratis, Ferraris and the like a SERIOUS run for their money with it. But, that's another very interesting story.

The 300 that Ak built had a stone stock bottom end, save for the pop up pistons that were actually V8 Ford pistons. The carburetion was three Webers and a manifold that he welded together. About that time a fourbarrel manifold or two went on the market and I expect that they are still available.

The bottom end of the engine is tougher than a V8 because there are seven main bearings which support each throw with a main bearing on each side. Overall, it has more bearing area than a V8.

Today a similar engine could be built for much less money than a V8 as long as you are capable and willing of doing some home grown work. Start with a good block and fit a set of whatever V8 pistons he was using, cam it, do some home shop port cleanup, use the biggest valves you can work out, split the exhaust (headers are probably still available for truck or small ford chassis,) use a duraspark distributor from a later engine.

Maybe even use an FI system from a later engine, although a four barrel would probably outflow it.

I fully expect that a stone reliable high performance 300 could be built for pretty low dollars.

Now to the issue of practicality. Is it practical, maybe not, should it be on the best hot rod engines list, probably not, but it would make a great, low bucks engine that wouldn't just be another SBC.

Have a great day,
Doc

 

S.S.

Here, Here & good on ya', mate.
Nice to see those kind of #'s on a High Mileage Engine that is Obviously being Well taken care of.

If S.M.83 dislikes FoMoCo so much & Especially the 300 I-6, then FTE is Not the place for him since he seems to be getting off on Bashing them & Promoting the other Detroit Manufacturers that he prefers.
And NO, it Does Not take $15,000 to build a goer of 300 I-6, more like $4246.00 if you Have to have All the work done by a Performance Builder & a 1/4 of that if you Do most of the work Yourself, so to quote Bugs Bunny, "What a Maroooone".

 

is that the STOCK motor? If so, where are you getting your info? I'd like to get my hands on that thing, because mine sure as hell doesn't make 300 lb-ft anywhere in it's powerband. I'm going to be lucky if I'm seeing 200 lb-ft with 138K miles on the clock. Weren't the carbed ones rated at 225 lb-ft anyway?


and I added positive comments. 4 bbl and headers, raise the compression and give it a port and polish, or even better - an efi head.

If you want me to explain why I "bashed" fords, I will. Just PM or email me, and I"ll explain for ya how I've had problems with ford in the past.

And please don't rip on me for posting in this thread, I saw it open and posted. Someone else brought it up.

 

I think a 30's Hotrod with a inline six would be different and a cool ride.I have seen some Hotrods with Pinto engines and some Japanese four cylinder engines.They are different but,I think a mildly built inline six would be fun to drive.

Brian

 

Which part of "stock 270k mile longblock" did you not understand? Everything in it is an original Ford part. I got my numbers from a dyno.

 

long block doesn't include headers or an intake. there could be a number of factors to make them breathe better. Don't be rude because I questioned you, I'm just trying to learn from you guys, even though you may not like what I have to say.

 

S.M.83

"Longblock" surely DOES include All those things When one is Making Statements about a Factory Installed Engine, the Owner Has Not Made Any Mods To It & Clearly Stated So. And "YES" sometimes a Goer of an engine Will come off the assembly line that Will Perform Beyond Normal Specs such as S.S.'s, fore I've been a Witness to such a thing. Mothers '60 223 I-6 in her Ranchwagon of the same year Would Stomp All Comers in a Stop Light to Stop Light Incounter. Sometimes the Right Parts are In the Right Place to Be Mated w/ the Right Block in the assembly line to come up w/ Performance Specs close to a B&B & P&P Engine.

As for YOUR Bashing "FoMoCo" Vehicles, This Is Not The Place To Continue To Do So in the Fashion you have choosen & Not The Place To Promote Other Vehicle Manufacturers As Being Better! We've all had our share of Problems w/ Vehicles BUT, that is to be expected because they ARE a Man Made Piece of Technology & SOMETIMES a FEW Bad Ones WILL Slip Through to give the Owners headaches & This Happens to ALL of the Vehicle Manufacturers.

As for Being "RUDE", Cheque YOUR Own Sentence Phrasing before you Critique Someone Else. Yes I Know Full Well That You Were Not Making Your Statement To Me.

 

I don't consider a long block to include manifolds, just a complete shortblock plus head(s). My truck does have headers and an off road pipe, but if you search this forum you will find that the general concensus is that headers are no better than stock manifolds. I only installed them because the stock cat pipes rusted out and Ford wanted over $600 for a new one. Regardless, it's an old worn out motor that's probably down at least 20-30 ft-lbs due to age. I never claimed the truck was stock, just the engine.

 

I did not mean to bash ford, I was simply speaking of my experiences. I'm sorry if you took it as negative, and I realize that it does seem rather negative. For the record, I've seen people with lots of miles on plenty of fords that are really great cars/trucks. And I've said, even in this post that I like my 300, but I just wish it had the stones that my other vehicles have. If it was more than a work truck to me, I'd rebuild the motor to give me the power I want, but I'm not too concerned about it in its present form, because it gets me from a to b. If I sound like I'm talking up gm cars, it's really because, besides AMC powered Jeeps, that's all I've known, and I suppose you could say I've been "brainwashed" by the Oldsmobile people.

and to SS, I'm sorry if I offended you, I certainly didn't mean to.

About the longblock/shortblock thing: My father owns a private auto supply company, where I work whenever I'm not in school or working elsewhere. We supply aftermarket engines for people, and they are availible both in long and shortblock versions. When we order the shortblock, it's the oil pan, block, timing chain, camshaft, and bottom end assembly. When we get the longblock, it's the whole bottom end (everything in the block), plus the entire valvetrain, and the head(s). The customer supplies their own intake and exhaust, since usually the intake and exhaust is application specific, and those parts are reusable from the old motors. Also, the valve covers aren't shipped. HOwever, the engine is a plug and play thing. By that, I mean that it's timed to what it should be, and you add liquids, an ignition system, and the manifolds and it's totally driveable like that.

 

The French Town Flyer over at Fordsix has a pretty neat 300 six dragster. Seemd to be pretty competive.

 

Slant six "Hot Rod" motor!!!

ROTFLMAO!!!! now I got coffee spew all over my screen!!!!


Actually - I hear, there were some slant 6's made that were aluminum blocks
rust free boat anchor~!

We learn fairly early on, the secret to speed is cubic inches and cubic dollars. Cubic inches is always a V8. only hot rod 6 bangers I really remember were corvairs and those were in dune buggys - they were putting V8's in the back seats and the rear engine compartments. - and didn't some wise guy make a front engined 'vair?

 

I've acually seen a 300 in a Model A. Different, sure, but still looks good. My nephew's 300 is lookin pretty show quality too. The 4V intake & header helps with the hot rod look. The 300 is an under-estimated streetlight racer.