Newbie mods for a 351w

[afterglow]

I'm currently running a 351w with a Holley intake manifold, tiny 4v Holley carb (500 cfm I think) and Hooker long tube headers.

I'm thinking of doing some basic mods to the engine...bigger carb, heads, cam & lifters. I have little to no knowledge of working on engines but will be using a mechanic. What specific mods would you suggest?? It's a street machine so emphasis should be on torque & reliability.

Any suggestions??

 

[67Dylan]

How much money do you want to drop on the project?
Is gas mileage important? What kind of intake on right now (other than Holley brand)?

Off the top of my head... 650 DP, AFR 185/TrickFlow head, & custom grind cam. Maybe an intake swap, depends on the one on there now.

You're going to get as many answers as ppl reply. Good luck.

 

[afterglow]

How much money do you want to drop on the project?

I'm thinking around $1.5-2k for parts.

What kind of intake on right now (other than Holley brand)?

It's a Holley Street Dominator dual plane intake. I'm hoping that I can still use this intake with the new setup.

And gas mileage isn't that big a deal. Thanks for your suggestions so far....

 

[69gmachine]

With that budget, you can get either aluminum heads, or get your stock ones ported by Power Heads. Get a new timing chain, cam and lifters for sure. Too many variables and choices to recommend one in particular. Call someone like Comp Cams and ask them for help.

I would eventually replace the intake with either a Weiand Stealth or the E'brock Performer RPM. If most of your driving will be on the street, get a vacuum sec carb. If you will frequently be taking it to the drag strip, then go ahead with the DP. There are so many articles in mags like 5.0 & Superfords, Muscle Mustangs & Fast Fords etc. you should take some time to read up to get some ideas. Just make sure the emphasis is on bolt ons, not a mega buck racing engine.

 

[brin0357]

Go with some windsor senior heads.

 

[forplay]

If you can increase your budget to allow for some good heads,cam,lifters,rockers,and carb. You'll be real happy with the results. I ran a stock 2v 351w for years. Then added a 600vs rpm intake and mild cam to my stock motor. That made a difference. Then I went to RPM heads,700dp,and a little more cam. Now that made a big difference. Then I rebuilt the short block with 10-1 compression,that was even better see a pattern here.

Any ways stay with your intake and small carb until you can change the heads. If you want a little from what you have set up the cam alittle.

 

[bnickel]

what gears do you have now? if a higher gear like stock 3.00:1 you migbht want to consider gears before upgrading the engine too much. also, unless you have a manual trans or an automatic with a high stall convertor and lower gears like 3.70 or 4.11 you need to stick with a vacuum secondary carb because the double pumper will make the engine bog otherwise.

honestly the combo you have now with just a bigger carb and some better gears will yield a pretty fun package for around town driving and cruising and even some mild performance use at the drag strip.

 

[67Dylan]

Yeah, tell us more about your current combo so we can accuratly help you. As bnickel pointed out... start w/gears. IMO every combo (minus turbos) should start w/gears.

 

[Max Power]

AFR heads are great, but they will eat up most of your budget.

 

[brin0357]

Like ive said before, get a nice set of iron heads with 2.02's and 1.6's and port em up.

 

[forplay]

Unless you get better heads, I wouldn't go for a bigger carb,or gears over 3.20-3.40 for now. Once you have better flowing heads then I agree more gear 3.70-4's range are awesome,plus a bigger carb. With a near stock 351w your better off keeping the rev's lower(gears around 3.40?) and the carb smaller around 600. A stock 351w just doesn't breath that good,so why would adding a large carb a 4.11 gears help it?

 

[afterglow]

I'm currently running an 8" 3.25 non-posi rearend. One of my upgrade plans is to get something like a 3.8 9" posi since the car is not going to do much highway cruising at all. BTW, the tranny is a C6.

So, what should my priorities be?? Bigger carb? Gears? Camshaft? Manifold? Heads??

 

[67Dylan]

Unless you get better heads, I wouldn't go for a bigger carb,or gears over 3.20-3.40 for now. Once you have better flowing heads then I agree more gear 3.70-4's range are awesome,plus a bigger carb. With a near stock 351w your better off keeping the rev's lower(gears around 3.40?) and the carb smaller around 600. A stock 351w just doesn't breath that good,so why would adding a large carb a 4.11 gears help it?

So unless he purchases heads he shouldn't do gears???? I don't quite follow, please explain a little more. Gears will wake up any undergeared combo, meaning geared for gas mileage over performance.

 

[Max Power]

Gears and heads are the most important performance improvements. While the whole thing is a package, I think gears and heads are the most limiting on SB Fords and where the most improvement can be made.

Afterglow, if you want something simple, get the Edelbrock Performer RPM package and a set of gears.

 

[bnickel]

So unless he purchases heads he shouldn't do gears???? I don't quite follow, please explain a little more. Gears will wake up any undergeared combo, meaning geared for gas mileage over performance.

agreed. the engine does not NEED heads in order to use the better gears. a 3.89 gear will work fine with stock heads and a slightly bigger carb, remember he is only running a 500 cfm carb, installing gears and keeping the 500 cfm carb will result in the engine running out of fuel way before it runs out of air to feed the engine.

better heads will allow the engine to more effectively use the gears. the 3.25 gears would be a good all around performance/economy compromise gear and would be fine for a car that doesn't have overdrive and spends a lot of time on the highway though.

my personal recommendation is that if you are planning on upgrading to a 9" rear then wait and do it later and go ahead and do the cam, heads and carb now. if you are going to keep the 8" rear and just add the 3.89 gears and posi do that now before doing the heads. you may find that with a better carb and deeper gears you'll have the combo you are looking for without needing to spend big bucks on aftermarket heads. also someone mentioned getting your stock heads CNC ported by Powerheads and that's a good idea as well. much cheaper than most aftermarket heads and will also outflow a big number of them as well.

 

[68RCodeConv]

Back in the day my brother had a 67 coupe with a stock 289-2V and a 4-speed (wide ratio). Motor floated the valves at about 4700 rpm so he shifted at 4500. Came from the factory with 2.79 rear gears. He tried both 3.25 rear gears and 4.11s.

Even with a small-cube non-revving motor it was still faster from 0-60 with the 4.11 gears than either of the others. Sure they sucked on the highway but IMO you are going to improve your acceleration times with 3.89 gears no matter what else you do to the engine.

He surprised a lot of SS396 Chevelles with that car.

 

[forplay]

So unless he purchases heads he shouldn't do gears???? I don't quite follow, please explain a little more. Gears will wake up any undergeared combo, meaning geared for gas mileage over performance.

Yeah we can all agree that gears will make up any combo out there. But thats not to say that all cars will run the 1/4 mile faster with 5.14 gears right?
If so then why not just run 5.14 gears in everything? Why not, because stock motors can only rev so high. And some will run out of rpm before they even reach the finish line, and others will be way out of their power range.

All Im saying is that from my own experience and from wathcing others. It's the total package working together that makes the fastest car.
All motors have a peak power RPM band,thats where you want keep it while racing. The less it drops or goes beyond it the better.
I'm just adding my opinion like all others,not saying I'm right ot wrong it's just what I've seen and learned.

 

[forplay]

Back in the day my brother had a 67 coupe with a stock 289-2V and a 4-speed (wide ratio). Motor floated the valves at about 4700 rpm so he shifted at 4500. Came from the factory with 2.79 rear gears. He tried both 3.25 rear gears and 4.11s.

Even with a small-cube non-revving motor it was still faster from 0-60 with the 4.11 gears than either of the others. Sure they sucked on the highway but IMO you are going to improve your acceleration times with 3.89 gears no matter what else you do to the engine.

He surprised a lot of SS396 Chevelles with that car.

I agree with the right traction and suspension you'll be faster with 4.11's over 2.80 gears,from 0-60 now after that you might justrun out of RPM's or get so far out of your power band it'll falll flat.

Always work towards a total goal,know what kind of driving your going to do. Whats more importain and work towards that. I agree do gears first,just saying don't expect a 10 second car from adding 4.11 gears alone!

 

[afterglow]

Thanks guys. I've ordered a 670cfm Holley Street Avenger and 3.8 Richmond gears today. I'm still undecided on how to go about doing limited-slip but will probably go with a Currie 3rd member.

I'll use that for a while but I'm also thinking about Canfield heads + Jay Allen cam or an Edelbrock Performer RPM combo for some time in the future.

 

[jbuening]

Fellas i don't think adding large valve heads to a stock bottom end is a good idea. Unless his cam has pretty low lift, he might be hitting the piston with those larger valves. I kinda shot myself in the foot in my rebuild cause i reused the stock pistons (they were still nice and my budget was tight). Now that i have the funds i cannot just simply add aluminum heads with larger valves because of clearance issues.