There is a very clean 1997 F-350 4Wd 351 powered truck for sale for too much money here. It belongs to our local Ford dealer. Clean trucks with new parts are rare in this part of rural New Mexico. So, I am tempted. Currenly, I have three trucks down and out for various reasons and reliability have become essential. I am sorry to admit that for about 20 minutes I was thinking "Vortec" but then Henry Ford appeared to me in a vision on a cloud overhead and commanded me to kneel by this burning engine block and repent. OK, not quite.

The 351 seems to have an excellent rep but I do not know that much about them. Are all 351's "windsor" related? What does the "Windsor" name mean? Was the conversion from carburation in the original models to fuel injection handled well by Ford? What is the real story here?

Thank you for any information.

 

The Windsor is a small block. It's got a small block transmission pattern, and shares many characteristics with other small blocks, like the 302. Fuel injection or carbed, doesn't matter, a Windsor is a small block.

 

351 W around since '68. Shares bell and many characteristics with the 302, but has a taller deck. By 1997, which I think is the last year for this engine, it was sorted out pretty good. In reading around this site, not many complaints come out about these engines. No design flaws like poor oiling or poor cam drive etc.

Read the threads right here for more.

 

So, I was wondering, is the 351 a small block???

 

Owned a '95 F-150 with the 351.....it was a RCSB 4X4.

I LOVED nearly everything about that truck except its relative lack of power.

When I say relative, GM came out with the Vortecs the next year or so and my neighbor had the GM......it was ugly how much more power he had.

I can't imagine how doggy the 351 would be in an F-350!!!


Concerning reliability/toughness; I would say they're fairly stout.



As far as are all 351's Windsors.......no, but it's not something you need to be concerned with; After the early 80's. they were ALL Windsors.

W simply means where it was built, as opposed to C which was built in Cleveland or M which stood for mistake. (just kidding M fans....huge debates on what M actually stands for)


All the 351's have unique characteristcs with the C and M being somewhat related.



Useless trivia time:

Ford actually had 0 351's and FOUR different 352's..........I'll let you guys mull on that for awhile.

 

4 with 4.00 x 3.50 Bore and Stroke. The madness continues to this day.

http://www.babcox.com/editorial/ar/eb40228.htm

Good to see Ford continuing a tradition....

 

yeah but 352W, just doesn't have the same ring to it.

 

LOL..............makes you wonder what EXACTLY "MODULAR" was supposed to mean!!!

 

My next question was how the 351W stacks up against the Vortec but DOHCMaradauer answered that for me.

 

great motor

 

I'm no expert, I'll be the first to admit, but I'm gonna argue this one. W doesn't mean where it was built, nor C or M. If this was the case, where were the Y block Ford engines built, or the FE. These letters simply stand for the engine family. Ford first introduced the Y block after the flatheads, ie the 312, they were demolished by Chevy's small block, then we got the FE series, AWESOME motors, 332,352,360,390,428, somewhere in there or shortly after was the Windsor family of engine, 289,302 351. I'm not positive but I think the 351C was introduced before the Windsors, and mostly as a race engine, they are superior in design to Windsors, and even today chevy copies the head design. Then we have the 385 family, ie 429 and 460. Oh and before the 385 family and FE family was the MEL family, 383, 410, 430, and 462. OH and M stands for MODIFIED or M block. The 335 family was nicknamed Cleveland, insidently after the plant Cleveland, Ohio, so you're correct on that one.

 

Wedefyu- Here's the scoop: 351w is the only true Windsor, the 260- 302's are sometimes incorrectly referred to as Windsors. The 351w came first, when Ford raised the deck height on the popular 302 type motor and increased the stroke. The next year they created a motor that was 351 ci based on the 335 series motors. With 2 351ci motors available in the same year (1970), Ford needed a way to differentiate the 2 so it named the 302 based motor after it's Windsor plant in Canada and the 351 335 series after it's Cleveland (Ohio) plant. Although they are called "Windsors" many 351w's were built at the Cleveland plant. The true meaning of "M" was Midland, but it quickly became known as Modified in many circles because the "M's" are basically "modified" Clevelands.

 

Right on...........except more jihads have been fought over what M actually stands for then in all of the middle east.


And while it's just a play on words, the 351C was the original 335 series motor......the 351M/400 were taller block 335's introduced a year AFTER the 351C.

 

I assure you, like doug stated, W stands for Windsor and C is for Cleveland; The engine plants where they were built......as with today, even the Modular motors are identified by Windsor or Romeo.

FE is "Ford Engine" and Y was because of the deep skirted block.





Don't mean to be rude, but you really need to brush up on Ford motor history.

Like stated, the 221,260,289, 302 are not considered Windsors even though many people call them that.....the 221 which spawned the family was introduced years before the canted valve head first introduced on the Boss 302.

The 351 Cleveland was a new block that utilized the canted valve BOSS heads.....but AFTER the 351 Windsor was introduced.

If ANYTHING, Ford copied the canted valve head off the big block Chevy......Chevy NEVER used the canted valve design on a PRODUCTION small block head.

TODAY, on the LS series of GM engines, GM went to the symetrical ports that Ford has always used on their small blocks....but as always, it's still an inline valve design like the Windsor (or all other Ford small blocks save the BOSS 302 and Cleveland)

So no, Chevy did not copy the Cleveland heads for their small blocks....




Don't forget the little known 370.....it is also in the 385 series.



Depends who you talk to concerning "M"....and also often debated is MEL stands for "Mercury, Edsel, Lincoln"



Well, 351M/400 are also in the 335 series and they are NOT considered "Clevelands".

 

Ditto, the Cleveland and 385 series heads were Ford's version of the Chevy "mystery" motor they wanted to run in Nascar in the mid 60's (better known as the 427) Ford and Mopar objected to this due to the fact Chevy didn't have it in production cars. Ford dropped their objections after Chevy agreed to sell Ford one of the engines. Two years later the 420/460 went into production. The Cleveland followed two years after that. The Cleveland also shares block design features with the Oldmobile V8's, in the timing cover housing and fuel pump. Now the circle has come around with Chevy's LS V8's sharing design features with Ford V8's. The LS1 heads will bolt on a Ford block with minor mods to two head bolt holes. The deck height is .020 shorter than the Windsor's