351m vs. chev 350 Which has best torque? horsepower ratings stock?

 

well the 351M is a bigblock ain't it?

i know the M's are good low down torque stump pullin motors. a little low in the HP but nothin a 4bbl and some other goodies can't help out with.

a 350???? winding it out. neighbor had one in a 2500 excab long bed 4X4 with a 4l80E and towed a mini backhoe with it. Towed Ok ish.....has 260k on it now, all towing that mini backhoe, 3rd tranny. motors still strong and doesn't use any oil or leak. Good motor but i think makes it power up too high. 5K rpm downshifts scare me. anything over 3k scares me. but small blocks are like that

both good engines

DT

 

I think a 351W would be a better comparison (it's a much better engine than the M besides). Besides, the 351M wasn't known for having a whole lot of horse power, didn't have much torque, either (but it did develop torque at a pretty low r.p.m.), had a pretty thin block that usually couldn't be bored past .040, and had that infamous Cleveland oiling system. I was around when the 360 and 390 were replaced in the F series by the 351M and 400 in 1977, and that was a big dissapointment. No, I wouldn't want to compare a 351M with a Chevy 350, I would have to admit the Chevy is a better engine.

 

If you want to go fast for cheap, the SBC 350 is the way to go. Cheap to build easy to get horsepower out of, torque is good too. A favorite of many performance enthusiaists. A very potent and solid power plant, but from my personal experiences durability and longivity have not been a strong point on a SBC. I have seen quite a few Chevrolet 350s break in mud trucks (where a Ford 351 would rattle and smoke and continue to run), once they get rattley and tired they are not long for this world...they die fast. Don't get me wrong, the 350 is a great motor for this application (among many others) when they're fresh they run strong. The great thing about SBCs...they have over 30 years of interchangeablity, and they have tons of aftermarket support. The Ford 351m is a true workhorse... very tough, long living, torquey, and extremely reliable. The 351/400m motors were designed to be the replacement for the FE series V8s (badass motors). Unfortunately these motors never did get a fair chance at receiving any high performance yummys from FoMoCo. The M-blocks were severely choked down with low compression smog heads, detuned timing, EGR valves, cat. converters, low performance smog carburetors and intakes, and the list goes on. Bottom line is they were choked and detuned smog motors. They were built when the EPA had their hands in everything in Detroit, it was a terrible time for the American V8. Due to the poor breathing, and low compression these motors did not make comparable horsepower numbers to that of the Chevrolet small blocks. However the torque numbers were quite impressive compared to the Gm small blocks. From a durability stand point the Ford M-blocks have Gm beat by a long shot. I would use a Ford Truck powered by a 351/400m to tow my racecar powered by a Chevy 350 to the race track...just my 2 cents!!

 

i would have to say the chevy 350 the 351m just outright sucks.

 

LOL!!! The debate that'll never die.....IF you must use the term big or small block when labeling Ford motors (big and small is a GM thang) then the 351M/400 HAS to be a small block for one reason only; it shares the same bore spacing as a 302/351 Windsor.......in other words the heads will interchange between ALL small block Fords.....221,260,289,302,BOTH 351's, 400....etc...

It does use the 429/460 bellhousing pattern but there was actually 1 year where it used the small block pattern in a few cars.


A good discription would be a tall deck small block if you must.

 

I believe the 385 series (429/460) was built to phase out the FE....the 351M/400 was conceived to replace the 460(hence the same bellhousing motor mount set up) during the first gas crunch......based on the results, Ford went back to the 460 in trucks after a year!!

 

I don't know why people think the 351m/400 is big block engine they are a small block they do get confused with the 351 C which has the same cast iron timing cover. The 400 is probably Fords only square engine which makes it a fairly torquey engine its a tad piggy on fuel.

As for 350 Chevys you build them cheap blow them up rebuild them again if the block isn't tweaked. In this area or B.C. matter of fact you can't find many used 350s forsale anymore because they are in demand people are buying them up. The local wrecking yards usually have a 350 in their yard for a couple days to a week and its gone same with 454s they are in demand.

Supposidly its people that are building hot rods and people in racing are buying the 350s they build them up and blow them up they go through allot of engines.

As for which is a better engine the 351m is the work horse engine leave it stock and it will run for years. The 350 Chevy is the play with engine build them up and blow them up.

 

yeah the 400 is not a big block yet the ford 330/332 can be called a big block.

 

Yea the 350 chevys seem like a really cheap motor compared to any motor ford makes. Longblocks in Jegs are advertised $1600.

 

When the 'Midlands' were around, we used to see a lot of them with bad core shift. The sand cores inside the block moved when the block was cast. This gives you cylinder walls that are not concentric, as in thicker on one side than the other. Sometimes after rebuilding they would be chronic overheaters, due to a thin cylinder wall. Another problem was Ford's integral air injection heads. The air (smog) pump passages were drilled holes in the head, and they ended as bumps with holes in them right in the middle of the exhaust ports. I just don't remember them as workhorses, not known for being powerful or particularly reliable. They were never used in anything larger than an F-350, while both the FE's (as the 361 and 391XD) and the Lima's (370 and 429) were used extensively in larger trucks. Also, for as long as the 351M and 400 were around and available in the F series trucks, the 460 was too. And the 460 was a workhorse, no question. With fuel economy very close to a 400's.

 

Yeah i forgot, There are technically no Ford BB's or SB's there are engine Families. Brain Fart. But i know the M's are lower RPM motors than a SBC.

DT

 

actually the 351w 351c(cleveland) were both introduced about the same time 1969. the 351c was built to make better use of the then in production boss 302 heads. It was made to be a sbc350 killer. and in that role it was. problem was it was decided that ford no longer wanted to build 2 different 351's so after 4 years of detuning, the c was dropped. and since ford was planning the demise of the venerable FE engine family it needed a replacement in this cubic inch range. so ala the 302/351w they added to the deck height of the 351c and came out with the 400 and they changed the bellhousing pattern for the c6.(289-302-351w-351c all were small blocks) the 400 was considered a medium block. It soon became apparent that ford could not keep up with demand for the 351w. So in what I like to call an "ignorant stroke of genious" they destroked the 400 to come up with the 351m(modified). there are only a few parts that will interchange between these 3 engines. and there are no visable diff between a 351m and 400. but the 351c is a smallblock and the other two were medium blocks, they are noticeably bigger. and they were designed for torque and longevity,mostly in trucks and lincolns in the 70's and early 80's. not racing. And the 400 and the 351m were used in trucks from the 70's well into the 80's they lased around a decade. but polution controlls and poor mileage evetually killed them. just like the 460.

 

the 351m and 400 were never built to replace the 460, At that time as is now, you offer different engine sizes on the option sheet to fit the customers needs. eg Ford 302-351-400-460 GM 305-350-400-454 and Dodge 318-340-360-440.hows that.

 

That pretty much wraps up the history.

A 351W would be a much better comparison to a SBC 350.