Can any of you recommend a good performance book for small block fords? I just came in to a solid 351w out of a 1990 Eddie Bauer Bronco.. well I actually have the whole bronco but no ***le so I may be selling the 4wd parts and s****ping the rest. Anyway I don't want to ask a 1000 questions before I do my own research but I also don't want to buy a junk $20 book that tells me what I already know. Nothing... and a whole bunch of it. Any under the table tips are welcome too. I don't know a thing about a Ford motor.
Well for 62-69 Bob Mannel's book is a freakin' Bible For everything else... Well, I have a copy of George Reid's book. It's decent.
knuckle, Two or three questions to begin with: 1) Does this engine need to be rebuilt, or does it have good compression on all cylinders, no oil consumption to speak of, etc.? 2) What do you want to do with it? 3) What's your budget? As a very general rule, the OE SBF cylinder heads are not particularly good. It is possible to improve them, but often you will spend nearly as much to do so as you would buying aftermarket cylinder heads. There are a ton of choices out there because of the popularity of the 302/5.0 and the Fox Mustang, and prices aren't too high. There are a few late factory heads that are worthwhile to use for a mild performance engine...and, for a very mild engine (i.e. what we used to call a "cam/headers/carb" engine or slightly improved rebuild, the existing heads will be fine. Well...I also have to say that I'm not really impressed with any newer book I've seen for any of the FoMoCo engines, but I haven't seen the Bob Mannel book, so I'll try to check it out sometime. The one George Reid book I own is so riddled with errors that it's laughable (just one example being that "all 429/460 heads are equally good"). Maybe his SBF book is better.
Thanks man. I'll look into George Reids book. Does it give a rough list as to what will swap on a small ford?
Well it has about 2500 miles on a rebuild. It was used in the woods as a hunting buggy so they didn't care about the ***le. They take pretty good care of their stuff even if it is a beater. At least I know where the motor came from. Really just wanting to build a t******* little sbf. As of now I don't have anything to put it in. Kind of a show and maybe half ***ed go motor. I may look for a truck later to stick it in with a 5 or 4 speed behind it. Not sure how much I want to stick in it. Was thinking I would pull the EFI off and sell the whole mess cheap. Throw a carb and intake on. Get some used ignition parts off egay on the cheap. Maaaybe a set of flat tops and a ridiculous cam will definitely be in the mix.
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