'95 351W compression ratio?
Hotshot
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 11,141
Likes: 25
From: south louisiana
I called Ford Motorsport, and they said that all post-'86 blocks were setup for a roller cam, even the 351 blocks, but they didn't have roller cams installed in trucks until around 1993 in the 5.0, and the 351 "supposedly" never had a roller cam installed from the factory, but it has the spider plate retainer bolt holes already installed, so all you'd need to do is throw a roller cam, roller lifters, and a lifter retainer plate down and you'd have a roller cam 351. Keep in mind that if you're running roller lifters that you need double valve springs. They are great at reducing friction, but they are heavier than flat tappet lifters, so it takes more spring pressure to keep them from floating. You can get single springs that will supply enough force to keep them down, but they will fatigue faster than double springs will, that's why factory roller engines came with double springs. TK
FTE Legend
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 31,930
Likes: 1,499
From: Ottawa, Ontario
I have never seen a factory roller motor with double valve springs... and I have been inside a few.
Cargo Master
Joined: May 2007
Posts: 2,071
Likes: 36
From: British Columbia
The 351 in Lightning pickups had a flat tappet cam while the regular 94-up (possibly late '93) truck 351s had the roller camshaft. This is from published manuals.
Presumably Lightnings got a flat tappet camshaft because they had a different camshaft profile, and Ford didn't care to design a roller cam for this low production application.
Presumably Lightnings got a flat tappet camshaft because they had a different camshaft profile, and Ford didn't care to design a roller cam for this low production application.
Posting Guru
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 1,712
Likes: 1
From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Maybe it was because the aftermarket WAS factory IMO, but then again I'd never owned a truck with the mighty I6. Double springs are definitely better for heavier roller tappets but to this day I haven't seen a factory-built Windsor motor with 'em- thanks for setting the record straight! I hate to think somebody got bad info after Google pulled this thread up for some poor soul looking for info- better late than never- you absolutely never know when closing the loop on a cliffhanger thread could make the difference between gittin'r'done and a 3am knucklebuster.
Anyhow- long road since the 10 years since this post popped! My '77 with the 302 that I built to the 9's has been stolen and I replaced it in '04 with a truck that I bought for $2k and still own to this day. I live in Hawaii now (active Navy) and would not think twice about driving my original I6-and-E40D cross country again, despite the 293k miles of faithful service- assuming I could get a lift across the Pacific.
The only thing the 300 I6 can't do is drive across the Pacific.
Cheers!
-TK
Senior User
Joined: Oct 2018
Posts: 166
Likes: 0
I called Ford Motorsport, and they said that all post-'86 blocks were setup for a roller cam, even the 351 blocks, but they didn't have roller cams installed in trucks until around 1993 in the 5.0, and the 351 "supposedly" never had a roller cam installed from the factory, but it has the spider plate retainer bolt holes already installed, so all you'd need to do is throw a roller cam, roller lifters, and a lifter retainer plate down and you'd have a roller cam 351. Keep in mind that if you're running roller lifters that you need double valve springs. They are great at reducing friction, but they are heavier than flat tappet lifters, so it takes more spring pressure to keep them from floating. You can get single springs that will supply enough force to keep them down, but they will fatigue faster than double springs will, that's why factory roller engines came with double springs. TK
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