I've never seen this question asked before and I wonder what yall's opinion on this is. I've noticed that unlike other manufacturers Ford has had over a half dozen completely diffrent v8 engine degsins since the 50's....Why?, Were the engineers at Ford just bored or sumpin?

 

Changes in peoples requirements/emissions ratings.

 

That just dosen't explain it as most other manufacturers got by through that time period with only a couple three diffrent V8 engine types.

 

All manufacturers have had different motor designs.......The SBC's and GM's very intelligent interchangability have made them somewhat of an icon. But let's not forget the fact that when even considering GM, all the divisions had different motors that shared displacement. The Chevy 454 has nothing in common with an Olds or Pontiac 455........Chevy 400 is totally different than Pontiac 400 or Olds 403. ALL the divisions' 350's were propriatary at one time. Compared to Ford, GM had waaaay more "different" V8's.
(didn't even throw in the different Buick V8's in that fray)

Ford's weird practice of changing things.......sometimes in midyear....is more bizzare to me than the different engine families.

Let's compare the different makes/motors;

Chevy had a "W" motor(?) that I think was a 409
Ford's Y block was replaced by the FE's to compete.

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Chevy came up with canted valve "Mark" series that included 396's, 402's, 427's, 454's and the current 496.........the 502 is also included but was never in a production car.

Ford's answer was the different variations of the FE and then the "385" series which included the 429/460 and 370's in medium trucks.
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The small block Chevy was aprox 7 YEARS ahead of the small Ford motors. But both had unbelievably long runs.

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Ford had the KING of small motors with the Cleveland but like Big stated, emissions and crappy fuel killed the big headed small block Ford.

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The 351m/400 were supposed to be a stop gap to hopefully phase out the 385 series but also the Windsors. We know how that worked out.
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Chevy came out with an LT1 version which was heavily based on the original SBC but is a different motor with little interchangability.
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Chevy has the new from the ground up LS series of motors which share NOTHING with ANY previous SBC except for bore spacing.....let's throw in a short lived LT-5 DOHC Chevy 350 made by Lotus as another "different" V8.
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Ford has had the MOD motors since the early 90's

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A quick synopsis of this novel is Ford has barely any more different V8's than Chevy and waaaaaaay less different engine families than GM.




[edit] I'm sure there were a few motor families I left out (like the MEL series from Ford) but the point remains the same.

 

DOHCmarauder is correct. Ford, MOPAR and other manufacturers usually had a family of engines that were used in all of their products and interchanging them was not a proboem but GM had a different engine family for each of their line of cars and they couldn't be interchanged. Buick, Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Cadillac and the trucks all had different V8 engines and many were the about the same size. GM got away from this in the late 70s when they had to pay out millions of dollars when they ran out of Oldsmobile 350 engines and used Chevrolet 350s instead and "forgot" to tell anyone. It was during one of our fuel shortages and the Oldsmobile engine had a higher fuel mileage rating and people sued. That was about the time GM converted the 350 to a diesel and we all know how that worked out.

 

I think it's just a higher standard of engineering. They wern't trying to make a one size fits all motor. They don't have a jack of all trades and a master of none motor. For the most part, each motor design is specialized to the apllication it's designed for.

For example, rather than just sticking the canted valve head on a 351w (that was already optimized for tourqey truck/large car use) they desinged a whole new motor around the head, so the head could perform it's best.

The Y block superceded the flat head, but it had to be replaced because it wasn't space and weight effcient enough by the end of the 50's. It weighed 610 lb's and could only support around 300 cubes.

The SBF is a master piece in space and weight effciency. It's one of the very best engineered engines you will ever find. Everything is smaller, lighter, and more compact. I can't think of more successful motor in racing history overall.

Rather than just stroke the 302 they came out with the 351w, so that correct engineering principles could be retained.

The FE is smaller and lighter than other engines of large displacement of the 50's and 60's, particularly considering it's extra stout structural integrity, but it's not really a big block in the same sense as the BBC or the B-RB.

The 385 is Ford's only true automotive big block, and it's basically a scaled up SBF. Once again it is true to correct engineering principles.

 

Yes but the SBC has had the same bell housing since 1955 so all can be interchangeable including the 3.8 and 4.3 v6's, SBC is on it's 5th gen.

 

The only thing the current LS V8 has in common with the original SBC is that it's a pushrod, 2 valve per cylinder, V8.

 

Unfortunately, the LS1/LS2 Chebby engines are very powerful and very efficient.
The new Vette has over 500hp and gets good mileage and passes emissions @ 427ci.

 

What exactly were the 351W's 'correct engineering principles'? And, not to take anything away from the Windsor's very successful racing heritage, I think it's a stretch to say that they were as successful as a SBC. As for Ford having more V-8's engines, I think Ford tended to design their engines more for a specific application than G.M. or Chrysler did. The original Windor's were designed for and Falcon, Fairlane, and Comet, and they were a bit lacking for the larger cars. The Clevelands were high performance engines, and with the emissions regulations and trend away from muscle cars, the were redesigned into a low cost low performance engine to replace the FE's in larger cars and trucks (the 351M and 400). The FE's were originally designed for large Fords and Edsels (Ford-Edsel, get it?). They were a great engine in their day, but once again emissions regulations and excess weight did them in. The Lima's were Ford's modern big block, originally for Lincoln only but later successfully adapted into Ford trucks. I think the Chevy Small Block and Chrysler LA were just more flexible designs, and thus could be used in a greater variety of vehicles than what Ford had.

 

After a little research, that does not seem to be exactly true.

 

I have a 62 Fairlane 500 with the 221 V8 that has 48,000 miles on it. The horsepower rating must be the old rating system that was "slightly optimistic" as the power is minimal with the 2 speed automatic transmission. They were good engines but the oil rings were so good that they scraped the oil off the cylinder walls so well it wore out the compression rings. As a result, they wouldnt use oil but they "puffed" out of the breather and would finally throw oil out of the filler. Remember, the 62 49 state cars did not have a PCV, only a breather tube on the rear (V8) or side (I-6) of the engines.