Technical 302 Windsor or Cleveland?

Thanks, I wondered about the Cyclone for years, I always thought that the 70/71 version of the car was a neat car but never knew what they came with. I figured that by that time there were no "mercury motors" but thought that maybe by some freak of the imagination that Merc had done something special with the Cyclone. I just don't remember seeing that many of them around, not like the Torinos.

 

Nothing to add,,but you guys certainly are informative. HRP

 

What was always interesting about Mercury is while they almost always shared hi-po motors with the Fords, Mercury offered them in more car models. In '67, if you wanted a 427 in a Fairlane, it was only available in the Fairlane 500; the Fairlane GT was limited to the 390. Mercury offered them in any Comet model, even the bottom-of-the-line 202. You could get a 289-4V in a Comet, but not a Falcon (although neither got the 289 hipo).

Mercury did have two 'Mercury only' motors in the post-383/430 MEL motor era although neither could be termed 'high performance'; the '66-67 410 ci FE (standard in Park Lane wagons, optional in other full-size Mercs) and the infamous '68 427 FE sold in the 'GTE' Cougar. This motor was detuned with a hydraulic cam (the only 427 to use hydraulic lifters and it required a special block to do so) down to 390 HP) and was the last appearance of the 427 in a production car.

 

The 1972 HO had a solid lifter cam like the '71 Boss, but with shorter duration. The CJ had a hydraulic cam, and was available '71-'74. For '73 and '74, all the 4 barrel Clevelands were CJ spec.

Technically, the Boss engine is also called an H.O. The Mustang it came in was the Boss 351, but everyone calls the engine a Boss to distinguish from the '72 H.O.

Incidentally, the 351 CJ cam has identical duration/lift specs to the 428 CJ cam.

 

Most in the USA think the Cleveland died in 1974 or so, not true at all, the machinery/casting to make Clevelands was sent to Geelong Australia and we then made 351 and the Australia only 302 up to 1982.
My first V8 was a Cleveland 302 in a 1975 XB Falcon, it was gutless slug of a thing with 2v Stromberb WW carb from the factory, mine had been swapped to a Holley 350 by PO.
The engine is a real sleeper, throw in a cam, big manifold, a Holley 600/750 and the thing can go hard and the sound they make at 6 grand +
I don't know any reason to make Boss 302 Windsor engines in Australia when you can find a good Cleveland 302 for only a few hundred dollars.
Other than the extra weight over a 302w based engine.

 

351W has larger main bearings, so the oil pan is different. The head bolts are larger, so spacers are needed to put 351W heads on a 302. The oil pump has a larger drive shaft, so the distributors are different. The firing order(cam sequence) is different (but the same as 5.0 H.O.). The taller deck also means accessory mounting is different.

 

Edelbrock is (was?) making heads & intakes for this, don't remember if for the 302 or 351

 

While most Ford guys were trying to get a Cleveland motor to hold together when you back out of the throttle on a dirt track, we put 289 heads on a 351 Windsor to build a cheap reliable high compression engine. Windsors were the red headed stepchild that nobody wanted. Everyone was paying premium prices for Cleveland engines that had oiling, cooling and valve train problems. Windsors were plentiful, cheap and basically a larger version of the proven 289/302 line. In the end, the old proven design won out over the Cleveland and the even worse M series.