Well the doghouse came off today and I got in touch with a local guy looking for a flatty for his panel. I believe were even swapping a running 351w and c4 for the flatty. Kinda torn but, kinda relieved.

 

Sounds like a deal to me!

 

Sounds like a darn fine trade - and a great swap candidate. I bet you know where to find a bunch of Bonus Built nuts if you need help along the way. Really glad to hear that you're sticking with blue oval power, too!

 

Bob, I just placed a running flatty on Ebay, Its not too late ! shameless plug Flathead Ford 1932 1953 1951 car truck running engine : eBay Motors (item 330433458171 end time May-20-10 19:15:00 PDT)

 

well I got my 351 today. It an 83? 351 HO with the factory 4 bbl . I'm going to go through the normal stuff. Tell me if I missed something. I'm working on desmogging right now. are there store bought block off plates for some of the emissions crap or am I making my own?

List:
plugs
oil/filter
fuel pump
waterpump
starter
pull the carb rebuild/look over
dizzy cap - rotor- wires

 

does that carb have a fuel filter at the carb fuel inlet if so dont forget to check it

 

The air pump garbage is the first thing that I always chuck in the scrap pile, but I learned the hard way may years ago that removing and blocking off the EGR valve is a mistake unless you recurve the distributor advance and rejet the carburetor. The EGR system reintroduces a small amount of inert exhaust gas to the combustion chamber to reduce certain exhaust emmissions. We all know that and nobody cares. There are other side effects, though. It also cools the combustion chamber and allows the use of a leaner air/fuel ratio without pinging. When it's working properly and the engine is in good tune, it has NO effect on performance.

If you remove the EGR valve and reuse the stock carb and distributor, it will ping terribly. The carb jetting and advance curve are factory calibrated for the EGR. To make it stop without rejetting, you'll have to retard the timing so much that it will be gutless. You can rejet and fatten the mixture up enough to make it quit pinging and allow you to run enough ignition advance to get the performance back, but then your fuel mileage will fall off the cliff.

IMO, the 351 HO was a decent factory power plant in its stock form. If you can live with the EGR valve it will make you happy just like it is. If you take it off, I can almost guarantee that you'll be chasing your tail trying to get it to run right for quite some time. I went through all this with a 351W many moons ago and ended up burning holes in two pistons from the pinging. I recurved the distributor and went with an aftermarket carb and intake on the replacement engine. I got it tuned out so that it ran great and didn't ping, but the fuel mileage was never the same.

 

Forgot, when removing the Thermactor y-pipe from the back of the heads, you can get Ford part# F4ZZ-6E086-A to plug the holes in the back of the heads. They are the same threaded inserts that are used in the front of the heads and they are fairly inexpensive.

 

it might be more powerful , but it ain't as purty as the flathead was .................

 

here are some pics of it getting in there. I'm going with a 4spd OD I have a few questions?

1. where do I measure the engine level? from the head or intake?
2. is it supposed to be level?
3. 351w I need a flywheel what works? only 351w or 302? oz??


I have an edelbrock carb and intake on the way along with a new dizzy and motor crossmember. I'll still need headers, exhaust, shorter driveshaft, and maybe a radiator.

 

Bob,

You don't want it level. It needs to slope down towards the rear about 3 or 4 degrees. Most of the tubular crossmembers like I assume that you ordered will allow some pivot to adjust the angle. The ideal thing for you to do would be to figure out what height you want the engine to sit at and then mount the crossmember and let it hold the weight of the engine. Then, jack up a rear wheel and rotate it until the pinion flange is dead vertical. Set an angle finder on it to figure out what your stock pinion angle is. Once you have that, you will mount the angle finder on the transmission and then raise and lower it until it is at the same angle as your pinion. They front and rear u-joints MUST have the same operating angle to properly cancel each other out and eliminate vibration. If the angles are more than a degree off, you may well have vibration issues. Check this out:

jniolon.clubfte.com/drivelinephasing/drivelinephasing.html

Lots of diagrams and an easy-to-follow write-up of what you need to accomplish.

 

In further looking at your pics, I see that you already have the tranny mount sitting on the crossmember. In that case, you might want to vary the height of the engine to get the proper angle to eliminate the possibility of having to cut the tranny crossmember to get the angle right. In either case, the goal and procedure is the same. John's article will tell you everything you need to know.

 

Looks like you're waist deep in having a whole lot of fun.

Ideally, you want the carb pad on your intake manifold to be level when the truck is at normal ride height. That should give you the correct angle mentioned above. All 351W's are 28oz imbalance. You'll need to know what your bellhousing is from and get the correct size and ring gear tooth count flywheel so your starter will work.

For the radiator, your stock unit (if in good condition) will cool the small block. A radiator shop can make the modifications to the water necks so you only have one each top and bottom. That said, I would still recommend, if not now perhaps in the future, an upgrade to an aftermarket replacement designed to use a pressure cap, and take advantage of the better cooling abilities gained from 14 lbs pressure vs. 4.

 

check with npd about the radiator . my local shop wanted 500 to recore and repair mine , still with the flatty , and i was able to by a us radiator built new one for 325 .... it might be cheaper !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Thanks, Gents. I'll have to figure out the tranny mount first then go from there. I also want to verify the engine mounts will give me the height I want also..

I found new flywheels on line for $84 but I want to call around locally, the engine is from an 84 truck. the tranny and bell is unknown I think it's from a mid 70's granada...