One of my favorite things about the cleveland is the dry intake. You can pull the intake and get to the valley without pulling the distributor or draining antifreeze...and when you pull the intake no antifreeze gets in the valley and into the oil pan.
I ran a mildly built 400-M in a 77 Ford F-250 4x4 for quite a while. Good power and fair mileage. About as good as anything else at the time. Make sure to use a Ford style thermostat that shuts off the bypass as the stat opens. A Chevy stat will fit, but not shut off the bypass and you'll have overheating problems. If you find an Edelbrock Streetmaster 4 bbl intake check the heat riser crossover very carefully. They were cast very thin - in error - and pop a hole pretty quickly. Mine was new and didn't stay leak-free very long. You can still use them by filling the port with paper towels and a thick mudding of JB Weld to plug them off. The towels so you don't have all the JB falling down inside. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I'm wondering what the compression ratio is on the original posters engine? Low compression works well on the street. If you build the engine for it. My 462" Buick has 9.0/1 CR and I run 87 octane summer and winter with no probs. The heads are 8.7/1 CR, milled and the block decked along with the forged pistons in use give the engine 9.0/1 CR. A very mild cam completes the package CR-wise and headers, ignition and intake do their little HP addition bit. The 8.7/1 CR heads are fairly common. The ones to watch out for are the 7.9/1 CR heads. My 31's 455 Buick engine has a pair of these. I dunno what the Buick engineers thinking was there, by my thinking is they'll make terrific doorstops here in the windy Dez....
And to add further confusion, IIRC, the '71 400's had the same motor mount bolting pattern as the SBF's. 1971's 400 had non-smog related stuff on it, so it achieved respectable numbers. timing was straight up, and had better compression. after that, timing was retarded 4 degrees....and they do still sell the adjustable Cloyes double roller timing chain.
Sorry Don but there absolutely was a 351C 2 barrel. The 351M came along later and has a different deck height, completely different block, same as 400M. The 351C 2bbl did have different heads that were smaller port size, actually better for a mild street motor than the 351C 4bbl heads.
Agreed. 2v heads on a Cleveland make for a better street motor. The Aussie heads are more desired for the 351M/400.
Yeah, I always thought the basic 351C, M, and 400 Fords are same looking basic block. I know there's differences internally and with heads, carbs, pistons etc. but it's tough to tell 'em apart just by looking at them. I might be wrong, but I don't know if the Ms ever came with factory 4bbls on 'em.
in a word, no. However, there's rumors of an X (for experimental) casting number of a 4bbl intake. Never seen one, though. easy way to tell a Cleveland from an M is the raised 1" portion where the thermostat housing sits next to the dist. on the M.
Aussie heads work well on a Cleveland too - closed chambers and 2-bbl sized ports/valves - great street combo. That and the sheer size of them...
Sorry didnt know about the difference in Deck height M or C. Just remember the 4 bbls having HUGE ports (Did a 72 Cougar Clevland in late 70s for a customer.) and often see fellows order the Clevland intake only to find they have a tiny heads and the maniflod they ordered was for a 4 BBl engine and had huge ports. . I stand corrected.
I had a 72 ranchero I ordered new with a 351 HO motor, and had it dyno tuned and they said it was puttin out more torq than the 390 FE . I now have another ranchero with a 400M with Wiand 4 barrel, and its a torq monster. They can be made to run.
yeh the 351 HO had them big ports, that was its main problem, it ran really good wide open, but was bad gas mileage. ports too big for the street.
http://jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12781&highlight=351+cleveland Search function brings up some good info too
I ran a 351C in my circle track stocker in '81 and '82 then again in my IMCA modified from '85 to '87. I like the 2V heads for street use. Look for a Holley 2V intake (Street Dominator?)... great from 1500 to 5500 rpms. I first used an Engle solid flat tappet cam but the engine ran much better after Chet Herbert ground a cam for me... don't use a split duration cam... that's for Chevies and the Ford doesn't run as well with 'em. The exhaust side of the heads are a little restrictive but you probably won't notice it on the street since they flow more (despite the design) than most other engines of the era. They like a little more oil pressure if modified. Use a restrictor kit to limit oil to the valve train and use a 100# spring in the oil pump if you plan on revving it... the oiling systems need help to supply enough lube to the crank... (if you need a spring and restrictor kit I MAY still have one in stock... lemme know) These engines are durable as hell... my pit guy "hot lapped" my stock car in the wrong gear (1st instead of 3rd) for nine laps on a 1/3 mile track before the engine blew. IWe figure he was running over 9,000 rpm all that time. It dropped a valve... we replaced the head and had Arias build a new piston for us and we put the engine back together a week later.
I still have my 351 Cleveland complete with factory 2 barrel carb. It's patiently waiting for the right project.
Well... its been a while for me waiting for the new repro C blocks, I should of picked up on Weasels "clevor" idea in 08. So I finaly now desided to join the CLEVOR club... kinda... 32 valve Dominion Arao boss intake port heads on a 428ci rpm maxx block. I got Clevors on the brain now
Are you a fellow Pantera owner also or just pics.I have 4 Clevelands including the original one from my Pantera.The talk of port size can only be apreciated by setting them on a bench next to a nice BBC and you realy get how large they are.Dan
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