Technical 351W

Good afternoon fellow virus dodgers,

With the extra free time, I've been turning wrenches on a 351w. It's my first engine build, but I'm prior service, so don't hold back if I do or say something dumb. Insults are welcome.

The junkyard said the engine was out of a 1996 F250. It was sold as a core due to a bad miss and it wouldn't stay running, so I stole it at $200 including accessories. (Plugs were shot and the heads let fuel flow through each valve. Extremely low compression.) I ordered a re-ring kit on eBay.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/94-97-Ford-Truck-351W-5-8L-Windsor-Engine-Re-Ring-Rebuild-Kit-/361736990544

I've done a lot of reading, but never ran across the difference in piston ring gap for 94 - 97. It looks like the seller sent me a kit for an older 5.8. The piston rings didn't work, so 30 seconds of research and I'm educated on the Ford Metric/STD swap in the late 90's with the roller block. I'm outside of the 30 day return window. Before ordering the metric piston rings, is there anything else I should concern myself with in this kit? It looks to be a late 80's or early 90's ring kit. It has an upper manifold gasket for EFI and a 1 piece rear main.

I'm fairly certain the same rods/crank were used other than those few screwey years in the late 60's early 70s, but I'd like a confirmation before pulling the trigger. Any reason the bearings/seals wouldn't work? Cam bearings worked fine. Bought a 240 grit flex hone. The bores had a .002 taper, so I opted to keep the bore.

Heads: 185 AFR 58CC - SKU 1388

CAM: Advertised Duration (Int/Exh): 272/280; Duration @ .050 (Int/Exh): 221/229; Gross Valve Lift (Int/Exh): .549/.565; LSA/ICL: 112/108; Valve Lash (Int/Exh): Hyd/Hyd; RPM Range: 2200-6200;

The machine shop said I'd run into valve clearance issues with this setup. I know that it's hard to determine at this point without someone else having done the exact same heads/cam, but given the lift of the cam, does anyone have personal exp on the likely hood (I'm going to check the clearance either way. .080 on the intake and .100 on the exhaust.) I'd rather buy a set of pistons than spend 3 hours fly cutting.

Maybe 2 early to give advice on the subject (prior to starting the engine), but the CarTech books are amazing!

 

I'm running a .583" lift cam in my Windsor with the stock pistons..... But I'm also using the twisted wedge heads on my '95 roller block..