1952-59 Ford Installing the 302

not sure if you read my post a while back, but I put a 351W in my old 55 fairlane. I had to use an early 80's bronco exhaust manifold on the drivers side. and I had about a 1/2" gap between that and the steering box

 

Sure did thanks. I have a '77 351 from a Lincoln Versailles and if I go that route, I'm going to go with a bit of power upgrade. I would love to have headers but may be forced to go with manifolds. That sort of defeats the added power thing. I'm not sure if the '77 ones will work either. It seems like there was a mustang manifold that exited towards the rear like the y does but I can't find anything on it yet. I'll have to research the early mustang stuff.

 

Br***spike: I understand an FE is a good fit and they make headers for it! I saw a 460 in one and looked great. I just did not want the 460 due to other considerations.

Rockabillykat: I saw a car with the 351W and the bronco/mountaineer manifold you reference. I don't want to go that route for the reason b***spike indicated, would negate much of my effort ($$) spent on increased flow (my Edelbrock heads have 2.08 intake valves). Would be fine for a stock 351W (non high-performance version). But do appreciate the input; it is an alternative and the manifolds are readily available and reasonably priced.

My regret has not been the choice of engine, but when I completely rebuilt the front end, I should have gone to Mustang II, rack-and-pinion. The steering box is the problem.

 

I agree, the steering box is the main point of contention here. I chose to stay with the original manual steering since I'm not doing anything more than cruising down the road. Had I decided to build some type of high performance car, a conversion would have been the way to go.

 

I hear ya! i kept my 351w pretty stock with minor upgrades. when i tried installing the jeep power steering box it would hit the manifold no matter what i put in it. i would have to make a custom header. so i went back to the manual steering box. a 302 would've been a better canidate but i already had the 351 and it was a great running engine.