OK, so I went to another wrecking yard to look at a '95 F250 (manufacture date- 09-94 ) with a 351w motor. The starter was out so I crawled under to check the casting number. Cleaned off years of gunk and found number - but - the two middle letters of the F4TE bunch were missing. The whole string looked like - F--E-1603-AA-12 - not sure about the 1603 being correct but that same number pattern, the AA-12 is right.

The numbers that were present were all cast, raised above the surface of the block, standing a good 1/16" high. I cleaned the area thoroughly, thinking maybe those couple letters were perhaps stamped/punched into the block (I don't have a lot of experience) but saw no trace of that. So I then looked for tool marks, thinking that for some reason someone may have chiseled or ground them off, but if they did it was an extremely neat job.

Anybody ever heard of this? Is it supposed to look like that? Is this a common Ford block defect? Or has someone done something weird here, maybe trying to disguise a non-roller block or whatever. It's very strange.

I will say that it was sort of dark under there, but I cleaned it thoroughly and used my lighter to see. Those letters were not there, at least not cast like the others.


Rob

 

HMM, that's strange. I guess without pulling the intake, it may be hard to tell if it is a roller or not.

 

pull a valve cover and measure a push rod, not sure what the lenth is but it will be shorter than a non rollor

 

The non roller 351 pushrods are about 8.15" long. Roller rods will be a good half inch shorter. Not uncommon to find casting flaws such as missing numbers or letters. Unless someone swapped the motor, it's a roller 351 there.

 

Here's a pic of the casting. On closer examination under better lighting it does sort of look like a casting defect. I'll know definitely this weekend when I get a chance to take it apart. The yard owner was unwilling to let me take anything apart at the yard, saying it was a good motor and he didn't want it taken apart unless bought. So, I took a chance and it's mine now.

Also scored a '95 Explorer rearend for $250, 8.8, 3.73 LS w/disc brakes. It'll work under my Ranger real good.

Rob

 

Make sure you get the Exploder master cyl and proportioning valve too for the rear disc brakes.

 

At last, success! I was a happy man when I saw the lifters. I apologize for the poor pics ($20 Walmart digital camera, hard to aim and focus).

The lifter valley is pretty clean, no deposits of gunk. The oil is well used, the cooling system water rusty with no sign of antifreeze. New gaskets on water pump and timing cover. Plugs were all dark but no trace of oil burning. Autolite 24 Double Platinum, wires in good shape. An old set of shorty headers, smog pump not connected, Egr was hooked up.

The distributor is corroded to the block and will not turn or come out (any suggestions?).

All in all, about or even a bit better than I expected. I'll know more after I get the heads off. I'm hopeful the block is good, heads too. And that the lifters are re-usable, tho factory Ford replacements are not that expensive, compared to aftermarket lifters.
Already got a tank and Magnaflux set up for next week.

Things are looking up,

Rob

 

If you want the motor to turn more than 5500-6000 rpms, the stock lifters are fine. If you want a higher reving motor, get a set of Crane's factory style replacements, these run about $200 a set and will rev to 7500. Get the distributor out? BFH and a pipe wrench.

 

BFH and a pipe wrench. Gotcha.

Stock lifters will be good for this motor. I'm out for torque and good all round driveability, with a good interstate cruise in overdrive. Might occasionally pull a small travel trailer, 24-26 ft. Probably only rarely stomp on it.

So, I only want 300-350 hp, 5500 peak power, 6000 redline. I was going to start another thread and see what people thought would be the easiest way to generate that much power. My thoughts were to put on a set of longtube headers, dual exhaust w/h-pipe, flowmasters, an HEI ignition. Flex fan and new horizontal flow radiator. Separate trans and oil coolers. New alternator, A/C compressor, and old style round PWS pump, just for appearance.

Am not sure what to do about induction. Don't really need that much flow for 300-350 hp so stock heads might be OK, maybe just a little combustion chamber work and a good valve job. EFI or carb is my main decision. The engine monitor and control capabilities of EFI are attractive, but the complexity and difficulty of diagnosing problems is a detriment, especially on the road. I'm tempted to have a go with a Mustang sequential mass-air setup, but I'll probably go with a carb for simplicity and ease of troubleshooting. Dual plane intake, probably an Edelbrock Performer w/Holley 600-650. Fab some cold air scoops on either side of the radiator. Don't know about a cam choice yet. I'm open to suggestions. Reliability, durability, and ease of troubleshooting and repair are my main goals, along with enough torque and horsepower to make driving it fun.

 

5.0 HO cam will work good as well as the ported E7TE heads. Perhaps upgrade to 1.94/1.54 valves. Keep the clutch fan, flex fans rob power.
I saw a dyno test awhile back in Hotrod where they went from a flex fan to a clutch fan on an old 340 dart and gained 12hp with no other changes.

 

Don't bother with the 5.0 HO cam, it's barely a notch above what's in the motor now. The cam there now is the best you'll find to use with a carb, even though it's an EFI grind. I run this cam in a carbed 5.0 in my 89 Ranger, but with ported E7 heads (that should be what you have there now) and the lift bumped by a set of 1.7 Cobra roller rockers (Crane sells these new now as their Energizer line--pedestal mounts) The cam in that 351 now specs out as such: 256/266 advertised duration with a .422/.445 lift (with it's current 1.6 rockers, bump that to .445/.473 with 1.7's. This is only .030 less lift and 10* less duration than the HO cam. Mine runs so well with this cam and carb that unless I told you it had a carb, you'd never guess otherwise. Take the heads off and open up the exhaust sides, raise the roof, open the walls, remove the Thermactor bumps, and blend all this down into the bowl under the valve. On the intake side, just remove any rough, sharp edges. Polish the chambers to minimize detonation from hot spots. I don't know what you're planning on putting it in, but if it's an F series truck, the radiator is plenty big already. Ditto for an E series van. You won't gain anything on a radiator swap. The stock 351W fuel injection is pretty much trouble free if you go that route. I had my 95 E150 (351W) van for 10 years and rarely ever had problems, certainly no more than I'd have had with a carb. Only problems I had were these: 1st time it turned out to be a dirty air filter, second time was vapor lock, that was in climbing up out of Boulder Canyon from Hoover Dam, towing a trailer in 120* summer heat. The culprit turned out to be a dirty radiator & a non functioning fan clutch. Third time was the Throttle position sensor. Instead of diagnosing it at a shop, I simply changed all the sensors , one by one. I figured after 9 years, it wasn't a bad idea to change em anyway. The only mod I did to that van was install a K&N filter and remove the intake silencer from the filter box. There was virtually nothing that thing wouldn't tow.

 

 

 

Got the heads off today, and the dist. - pipe wrench worked good. :-) They are E7TE heads w/valves about 1.75 int, 1.5 exh according to my tape measure. Nothing was loose or obviously wrong with the rockers and pushrods.

Some carbon buildup, especially on the interior pistons, and a small pool of oil in #8, probably drainage from the way the engine was sitting? No overbore marking on pistons but seven were marked Y35 and one (#2) was marked Y31. Don't know what that means. Weighted pistons for balance?

So I'm guessing all stock stuff in pretty good shape. Got the pan off, too. Pretty clean inside.


Take the heads off and open up the exhaust sides, raise the roof, open the walls, remove the Thermactor bumps, and blend all this down into the bowl under the valve. On the intake side, just remove any rough, sharp edges. Polish the chambers to minimize detonation from hot spots.


I've never ported or polished anything in my life, tho I do own an air grinder and some gnarly looking grinding bits. I have spent some time reading on T.Moss's porting site, which in more oriented toward intakes rather than heads. His focus is maintaining small runner size and flow velocity rather than sheer volume, but I'm sure you guys have seen that site. He's got plenty of formulas for calculating stuff.

I also looked around to see how hard it would be to make my own flow bench. Doesn't look that bad. Use a shop-vac for suction and a mass air meter to measure flow. Saw some inexpensive home-built designs that could be made fairly cheaply. Might be able to get enough accuracy for comparative readings between runners on a head.

Or I could just have someone who knows what they're doing port them. :-) I certainly wouldn't like to screw them up. Tho I do have a few old 5.0 engines to practice on.

This motor is going into vehicle #1 of my sig, and the motor from that (which I hope is a factory roller also) is going into vehicle #2.

Rob

 

Never tell two fat chicks to "Hop in the back".