Ok here's the deal. I want to see what you guys think I am gonna be pulling after this rebuild. I am gonna bore the block .030, Put Badger Pistons in it and deck the block for a 9.5:1 cr, put a Crane 272/284 (.524"/.519") cam in it, Ford Racing aluminum roller rockers, Weiand Action+ Dual Plane Low Rise Intake, Holley Truck Avenger 670 CFM carb, port and polish the heads, phosphor-bronze valve guides, 3-angle valve job, stainless valves, K&N, 1-3/4" Dynomax Headers, 2-1/2" dual exhaust w/ Dynomax Ultra-Flo mufflers, HV Oil Pump (I doubt that matters). The other thing I was wondering is how much power would I gain with balancing and blueprinting? is it necessary? how much would it cost? and is it worth it? I have heard that balancing is pretty common but that blueprinting is only for the extremist. What's your opinion? As amazing as it sounds, this whole rebuild is only going to cost me about 2200-2400 WITH machine work. That can be attributed to the fact that my 58-year old Father (in-law) and 28-year old brother (I am 17) are both into engine building. My dad is really serious and has most of the tools to turn out a 700-horsepower Pontiac 428 (which he did by the way) naturally aspirated, of course. We find it hard to believe that there are very many blocks that can compete with the Cleveland. Because of that, we have built several of them from street-mild to race-wild. (We turned 600 hp out of a smog 400). We are really good at it but we still don't have any idea where our figures are going to land when we build one. The other question I have is how is this motor going to do on the street (in a 1978 Ford F-250 4x4)? I want it to have power when I want it but still be able to cruise the highway with at least 8 mpg. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

>Ok here's the deal. I want to see what you guys think I am
>gonna be pulling after this rebuild. I am gonna bore the
>block .030, Put Badger Pistons in it and deck the block for
>a 9.5:1 cr, put a Crane 272/284 (.524"/.519") cam in it,
>Ford Racing aluminum roller rockers, Weiand Action+ Dual
>Plane Low Rise Intake, Holley Truck Avenger 670 CFM carb,
>port and polish the heads, phosphor-bronze valve guides,
>3-angle valve job, stainless valves, K&N, 1-3/4" Dynomax
>Headers, 2-1/2" dual exhaust w/ Dynomax Ultra-Flo mufflers,
>HV Oil Pump (I doubt that matters).

Your compression isn't all that high, your cam is decent but not over the top, 670 CFM is a good size carb, but again not massive, everything else gives you pretty good airflow, my guess is between 300 and 400, hp, and reasonably streetable. You will get pretty good performance.

>The other thing I was
>wondering is how much power would I gain with balancing and
>blueprinting? is it necessary? how much would it cost? and
>is it worth it? I have heard that balancing is pretty common
>but that blueprinting is only for the extremist. What's your
>opinion?

Blue printing is very expensive, and yes it is for the extremist (like me). It happens in an air-con room where the temp of everything is held constant. The bores are honed to their exact correct sizes, the gaps and spacings of everything (I mean everything!!!) are brought down to the minium tollerences. The weight an ballance of every lifter, piston, rod, valve, spring, anything and everytrhing is homogonised. Here are some web pages which describe blueprinting a 351 C:

http://www.falcongt.com.au/PHASE2.html
http://www.xpfalcon.com/Engines/Cleveland.htm
http://members.tripod.com/lyc_42/fordv8/cleve/cleve.htm

If you want to rev your engine up, or keep it for a very long time, yes it is a good idea, but not worth it for everyday use, power gains are not much compared to the cost.

Ballancing is not as extreme a blueprinting, and in my opinion is worth it. But well, for normal use you don't need it.

335C

 

 

What is a fair price for blueprinting , and for balancing????thanks , fd

 

Blueprinting isn't exactly an over the top, rocket science operation. All it woulkd really include over a " normal " rebuild would be align honing the mains and index milling the block with a BHJ fixture. And YES it is worth it. Most guys argue that a block doesn't need align honed because when they tore it down the crank turned okay. I'd certainly hope so with 100k plus miles on it ( everything pretty well clearances itself by then ). What it all boils down to is, when you build a motor without doing all the work to a " seasoned " block, it's like driving with the emergency brake partially on. What I would consider a waste of money for anything but a competition motor ( especially where it's class racing where competition is very stiff ) is CC'ing the heads and port matching the intake manifold.