Hello,
I have just bought a 1978 f150 ranger with a 351c swaped into it.
This is my 1st truck that I will be building doing a full restro over the years. As i am 19 and am starting to get into this.
I do not know much of building engines and numbers just cam shaft blah blah. I am going to rebuild this 351c but I have a guy who will do the work for cheap if I buy the parts. When I am looking on summit and stuff I do not know what all the numbers are with the parts like cam shafts the durrations like .034 stuff like that.
I am looking to build a 351c into 400-500 horse power and would like to build it with a lot of torque as its going to be a 4x4 bogger.
Can anyone help me with this build I am stuck at a dead end and my dad sent me here because of the knowledge on here.
Thanks
Chris
Other option is build a 460 but is it going to be too heavy for a f150 as they never came in them and will it fit?

 

Dollar for dollar you will get a lot more out of the 460 & no it wouldn't be too heavy.

 

if you want the 351c to have 400hp and good torque you will need to stroke it, I agree the 460 woulb be a better choice

 

Shoot for about 9.3 compression,dual plain intake,crane cam crn-133042,headers.,MSD ignition.That should get you close to 350HP with decent torque. I built my 351c 4bbl w/a bigger cam in a 69 Mustang that has 400hp but it sacrifices the low end for the top end.Try to keep your goals within reach or you`ll never get finished.

 

Thanks for the info.
Thats where im stuck to pull the 351c or just buy a 460 that needs rebuilding and just stroke it with a kit from speed 0 motive and start there.
I am not sure, I do not know anything about motors thats why I am really stuck.
I am wondering how much this would cost and what would it cost to get a shop to do it type of idea. All of our local shops know what to do but they told me to rebuild a 460 it would cost 5grand? Thats nothing performance wise so with adding performance to it like a stroker kit, thats going to run me 10grand or so. I could buy a new crate for that?
How hard would a rebuild be to do in my garage for a newbie and a girl friend who would take it super slow and build it from the block up?
What would a machine shop have to do?
What could I do?
Stuff like that.
I think it would be fun to rebuild a engine and learn myself with the knowledge of books and the net and you people.
I just dont know where to start or what to do lol

 

What I did was read the books to learn. Get the engine shop to rebuild the 351 short block, take it home and put it on an engine stand, and you can put the heads and oil pump and pan on along w/the water pump and stuff.Once you get it on the engine hoist put the spacer plate on the back and then put the flex plate on w/new bolts.You`ll need some tools,a torque wrench for sure.You got to make sure that the converter is seated in the trans. before you line up the converter w/ the flex plate.I get someone to turn the engine w/a breaker bar on the damper bolt so I can get to bolts while I`m under the vehicle.It will take some time to get it all together.Get you dad to help out, it would make for a good father / son project.

 

What does a rebuild cost around, what did you pay? Would it worth to stroke it as you can buy kits for 900 bucks to make it into a 383? Would that be worth it. Bored it .30 over put a stroker kit make it into a 383. Slap a nice cam in it with some heads and theres a decent engine that will sound nice and have good torque and hp?

 

Dude... I was in a similar situation just this past year; my bro, my father, friends had
all rebuilt engines but I had never done it myself. Been working on cars for over 25 years
and have gone so far as to remove & reinstall an intake manifold, head & piston in a
351W when I was a kid but that was the extent of my major engine work (unless you
want to include engine swaps but that's just basic work, not much disassembly involved).

Bought a 1981 F-350 400 4x4 T-18 about 3 years ago... read this forum for about two
years, bought the Tom Monroe book, had input from others. And finally, beginning last
April or May and with the help of others, removed and disassembled the 400 M-block
that was in my truck. People showed me what to look at, what to inspect, what to
measure, stuff like that.

This brought up all kinds of questions, e.g.:
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/7...ssageways.html
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/7...of-valves.html
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/7...i-pistons.html

There are pics in my gallery, 1981 400 or somethin' like that.

I bought another block & partially-rebuilt heads from Craig's list. I took everything to a
machine shop, told the guy my/our findings; he boiled & magnafluxed & measured and
confirmed everything and found one or two things that I'd never measured (crank
clearance in the journals comes to mind, might have been more). He bored & align bored
& decked & polished the crank &balanced & built the heads & installed the rings on the
pistons & installed cam bearings. He got me TMI pistons & a cam & bearings & a gasket
kit and all the other goodies necessary to assemble it (minus the intake mani & carb, I
already had that) and I took it all home. Took him about a month and cost me about
$3300, the entire project was around $4500.

I then had a friend who used to be a professional engine rebuilder in a previous life help
me assemble it and teach me along the way. Took us about a week, doing most of the
work in the evenings after work. Another 3-4 weeks to reinstall it into the truck, attach
all the accessories, etc. etc. etc. and get it running. It has just under 1,000 miles on it by
now and there's still some fine-tuning of things that I'd like to take care of but it's drivable
& usable. The entire project took about 7 months.

Man, I CANNOT recommend that you do this yourself, given your current knowledge of
things. Assembling an engine is a very detailed procedure, involving precise
measurements taken by specialty devices and decisions made along the way. I can
almost guarantee you that if you & your gf try this yourselves, it'll take at least a year
and the end result would be something you or nobody else would have any confidence in
(if it even ran without any oiling problems).

Do as that previous poster suggested - get the professionals to build your block & heads,
you can do final assembly of some of the less-critical components (you'll still need help,
though). The people who do this for a living are GOOD at it; they're professionals who
know what they're doing, know what to measure, where to look, what to look for, what
can be done about it, what the alternatives are, all kinds of stuff. I can't emphasize this
enough.

Take your time finding a machine shop you trust, ask lots of questions.

 

Hey man,
Thanks for the info, that really got to me.
Thank you a lot.
I was crazy to think about rebuilding it myself. But I have learned a lot about things reading.

 

I agree alot, the small spots are the toughest and prone to get your build wrong, better to get an expert watch and learn...

 

I built a 351c that was running almost a horse a cube for under 2g. That was with stock intake and exhaust. It was punched 30 to about 358 ci. The thing to remeber about these motors is that you don't need a lot of duration on the cam. Just a little more lift. The 2bbl heads have a 2.05 intake valve on them. The big thing is balance the rotating assembly. That and you need to go to a Crane adjustable rocker arm conversion kit. If you can find 4bbl heads, be careful with them. The head needs to be machined to unshourd the intake valve. Find a good Ford mech that knows these motors. Good luck with it. It can be a torque monster if done right with a 6600+ RPM if done right.

 

Thats not bad,
Shes starting to tick pretty bad, did a oil change used some lifter mechanic in a can crap and used a 10w 40 no change. Shes getting old, my dad said why dont I just buy a reman 460 to slap in there. For 1300 you get a reman - hot tanked cleaned right up for 1300 then build from that.
I thought hey thats smart, looked into it and I think I am going to aim down that road.
Thanks for the info

 

The first thing you need to do is verify you have a 351c. They didn't come in these trucks and lots of things mount up different. A 351M would be more likely and could be converted to a 400 during a rebuild.

 

Did you do a compression test and see where you are? you could just have a couple of dead lifters, or a worn cam thats causing the lifters to tick.
What heads do you have? 2v or 4v? are you sure it's a cleveland? if so, what year? Does it have adjustable rockers that might need adjusting?

Before yanking it out, tossing it in a scrap pile and forking out a heap of money for a stock rebuilt 460, "take a look inside"

400-500hp is easy to do and for way less than $10,000 and with off the shelf goods.

With a 460 you might be able to hit a higher hp with out investing as much, but if you have a good 4V Cleveland that needs to be woken up, well then, you have a good head start.

See whats wrong with your motor, then I'll tell you what I did to my screamin 351C to hit 455hp

 

Hello,
I am not sure what year the engine is but the mechanic that did work on the tranny said its is a 351C the guy owned the truck before me did the swap in it.
It is ticking like a *****.
It has some power in it still. I think its a 4v I will get more info on it asap.