The 429/460 main caps are exposed as well.

 

seems im mistaken, i was looking at FE's and the 534 family
my lack of experience with the 385s should have told me to keep my mouth shut

 

I think having the webbed main bearing caps would indicate the V8 in question was designed a REALLY long time ago (FE, Y-block) rather than merely a long time ago (Windsor, 335, and 385 series) as the "newer, lighter" V8's were designed without webbed main caps.

As to the big block/small block question, that question applies to Chevys, not Fords.

 

the nice thing about my 400, is i get to call it a cleveland. the ricers want to see under the hood, right on the air cleaner it says 351-4v premium fuel. its at this time i learn if i got them beat. they usually say, look at the pretty windsor.

well its been a few months, and they now know its a cleveland, and they dont want none, as do some of the chebbie lt/ls 1 guys.

should i tell them its a 400?

 

Would a 351m be considered a big or small block. What is the difference between this a 351 a 351c, 351w, and 400m?

 

ok, i give. rather than abuse this like usual, ill be nice and honest. well sort of.....

big block and samll block are terms used to denote GM (aka chebby) engines. ford has always used the term "engine family" to denote its engines.

since i could go on and on over these terms and intems, ill be breif.

the windsor family, as noted above is the 220/260/286/302/351 engines. commonly denoted by some ford and all non ford people as small block ford.

the 385 family, as noted above 370/385/429/460 engines. commonly denoted by some ford and all non ford people as big block ford.

the 335 family, as noted above 351c/351m/400 engines. this is where the fun begins. it has the same bore spacing as the windsor family, the heads can be used on the windsor family. so you can call it a small block. the bell housing pattern is the same as a 385 family block, the block size is larger than a windsor, yet smaller than a 385, but can be called a big block.

so now having informed you of the facts, is it a big block or a small block. if this was mcdonalds, you have a small fry, a large fry, and something inbetween, a medium fry.

since this topic has been so overdebated, i really dont think it matters much to most of us, just stop calling by chebby terms.

 

The <a href="http://www.motorhaven.com/"><a href="http://www.motorhaven.com/"><a href="http://www.motorhaven.com/"><a href="http://www.motorhaven.com/">351w </a></a></a></a>is a taller version of the <a href="http://www.motorhaven.com/"><a href="http://www.motorhaven.com/"><a href="http://www.motorhaven.com/"><a href="http://www.motorhaven.com/">302 </a></a></a></a>engine which has a 3-1/2" stroke. All 3 of the 351's have the same bore, bore spacing and stroke. It has the same main journal size as the 351M, but has the small bolt pattern of the 302.

The <a href="http://www.motorhaven.com/"><a href="http://www.motorhaven.com/"><a href="http://www.motorhaven.com/"><a href="http://www.motorhaven.com/">351c </a></a></a></a> shares the same small bolt pattern as the 351W, but has 2-3/4" mains, and different design heads.

The <a href="http://www.motorhaven.com/"><a href="http://www.motorhaven.com/"><a href="http://www.motorhaven.com/"><a href="http://www.motorhaven.com/">351m </a></a></a></a>is a destroked 400. Except for it's 1" taller deck height, its large 429/<a href="http://www.motorhaven.com/"><a href="http://www.motorhaven.com/"><a href="http://www.motorhaven.com/"><a href="http://www.motorhaven.com/">460 </a></a></a></a>bolt pattern, and 3" mains, and it's larger #1 cam bearing, it shares the same design as the 351C. It is virtually identical to the 400, except different crankshaft and pistons.

All of these engines have enough differences in size or design between them to keep you from easily swapping parts directly from one to the other. Having said that, none of these engines are so different, that with some strong desire and good old fashioned ingenuity, that any of their parts could be swapped between all of them. That's what makes these engines so interesting and challenging.

 

Actually I think the FE and 385's would be a large fry and the Wheezers would be a small fry and the 335's would be a small fry container with the same amount of fries as the large fry. it made sense in my head but typing may have screwed it up.

I think that the 400 and <a href="http://www.motorhaven.com/"><a href="http://www.motorhaven.com/">351c </a></a>made excellent power but what the heck happened to the 351M. I picked up this one for $200 and it makes 140HP and gets a measly 8 MPG. I thought this was supposed to be a smog engine that got good mileage. I had a <a href="http://www.motorhaven.com/"><a href="http://www.motorhaven.com/">429 </a></a>CJ that made 450HP and got close to 18 MPG. I guess I can't figure out why fewer cubes = poopy mileage. I don't know anybody that gets any better mileage. Somebody help

 

mileage is all in the power, your <a href="http://www.motorhaven.com/">351m </a>only has 140hp so it's realy straining if it's in a truck, should have gobs of torque tho. you can get some bolt ons for that motor and make it a little better, but you really need to add about 100hp to it. that or convert it it EFI.