Cleveland gurus in here!------->

[mach1972]

Well I did it. I sold the 98 and have decided not to buy an 05, I am now strictly old school with the 72 mach. I love the car and the looks I get in it but it begs for more power. I am able to keep a few parts from the 98 - the best being my nx wet kit.

I would now like to put all of my attention into this car. There are a few things I need to finish but it is more than road worthy, no need for paint or body work. I am just now putting in all new suspension and bushings so the next logical step is the engine/trans.

I have secured an aod trans, I may keep the c6 but I am undecided at this point. The motor I am working with is a 72 351 cleveland with 2v heads. I have a holley street dominator intake with holley 750 vacuum secondary carb waiting to be installed. I don't want to stop there.

I would like a decent 400+hp with my nitrous kit, it shouldnt be hard but I would like to get 300hp without the juice. I will need help picking a cam and information on a roller setup, I saw an article in mustang monthly but the didn't go into too much detail. I know crane made a kit at one time but who knows if they still do.

I am also considering going stroked with this. I am not sure if price is woth it so anyone with experience should chime in here.

I plan on getting a 3k stall converter with 4.10 gears and traction-lok, thus I am leaning toward the aod trans if the install is pretty straight forward. Either trans will get a performance rebuild prior to the engine swap.

The car came with headers and I will go with a 2.5 H pipe back to the tips.

Well there it is in a nutshell, I need any and all reccomendations and help, pretty much starting with a clean slate. Keep in mind I am putting some of the money planned toward the 05 into this but I am not rich by any means. I would like to keep the engine costs within 2k.

Please, any input is helpful, help me enjoy the decision of staying classic!

Thanks,
Josh

 

[slackr]

Your goals seem realistic enough, but as for specifics, there is a forum you might be interested in:
http://www.network54.com/Forum/119419

Good Luck!

 

[JB66]

I did 350+ hp in my 70 Torino (351 4v, automatic) just by installing a '72 351CJ cam when I rebuilt it.

 

[Hack]

If you want to get Cleveland performance, you should go with the 4V closed chamber heads, IMO. For the numbers you are talking about, you shouldn't need nitrous. You could even make those numbers NA with the 2V heads, but I'd still recommend you get the 4V cc.

I'm putting together parts for a mild 2V build, and I'm starting to wish I had gone the 4V route already. Why spend a bunch of money on an engine build and settle for 2V?

The network 54 link provided by slackr is the best place to look. There is a build forum there where people post builds and the numbers their builds made. I recommend you look in the build forum and pick out something that looks like a good fit, then ask in the regular forum for opinions.

Good luck with your C build!

 

[RogerC62]

You ought to be able to squeeze 400hp out of the cleveland without the nitros for $2k. I don't have anything specific that you should do except pay special attention to the oil system. The forum slackr recommended is a cleveland only forum and should have some good info for you.

 

[Platonic Solid]

Most of my links to past Stangnet threads on this question are unfortunately dead. This one still survives though (I'm going to bump it so it doesn't disappear) Help me build my 351C-2V

 

[bnickel]

pesonally i would go with the aussie 351-2v heads, you get the closed chambers of the 4v heads and the accompanying boost in compression and keep the port size of the 2v heads, thereby increasing air velocity in the ports up, resulting in better a burn of the mixture and increased torque down low where you need it in the street. comp and crane both make roller conversions for clevelands and i think crower does as well. a stroker is certainly a good option, check www.speedomotive.com for their stroker kits. i don't know what headers you currently have on the car but they are most likely better than stock manifolds so you should be ok there, which will save you a little money. i'm not sure if you go with a stroker and better heads and still stay within your 2k budget especially if you get a roller conversion cam, just the cam and the conversion kit will likely eat up about half of that budget or close to it anyway. you may have to weigh your options pretty carefully and come up with a compromise. if the car is going to be your daily driver i would go with the aussie heads and roller cam and forget the stroker for now, you'll get better overall performance and driveability out of a stock displacement motor with good heads and cam than a stroker with crappy heads and a too big cam, but that's just my opinion and i'm sure there are some people who will disagree with me. if you can squeeze it into the budget you might even consider a fuel injection setup of some sort, like a holley projection with ignition controls too, that alone will get you a lot of driveability on the street, like better mileage and low-mid rpm torque, it won't help you out with max power at the top end though and you might even lose a few hp up high which i wouldn't worry about too much for a driver, you do have the spray should you need it . one thing a lot of people might tell you is that you can't run the ignition control part of the holley pro-jection because you need a late model TFI distributor and ford never made one for the cleveland, but the 460 disributor is a drop in for any 351c, m or 400. anyway that's my advice take it how you want

 

[Mach1steve]

Intake & stuff

I beleive the intake you mentioned in your opening post only fits 4V heads. You can't use a 4V Intake on 2V heads, different port sizes, bad bad bad mismatch.
I built my 351CJ to 425hp-400ft/lbs without the use of anything but Carbs & Cams.
650 DP DF Holley, Edelbrock Torker Single Plane Intake, Roller Rockers, Cam Research Hyd Cam 540/560 lift, Forged TRW domed pistons (10.4 to 1 comp), 4V Open Chamber heads, 1 peice Stainless Steel valves, Roush exhaust port stuffers, Crane Fireball ingnition, rotating assmbly balanced, windage tray, HV Oil Pump, Aluminum water pump(for weight).

You won't get to 400hp with 2V heads, unless maybe you use the Aussie 2V heads with bigger valves, or NOS.

Mach1steve
www.muggziperformance.com

 

[Hack]

I just want to add - do NOT put a high volume oil pump in a Cleveland, especially with the stock oil pan. The one problem I read about most is too much oil being pumped into the tops of Clevelands.

I guess my best advice is: don't take one person's word for what to do. Find a consensus of experts.

 

[GaPonyFarm]

Pick up a copy of the Engine Builder's Handbook. You'll find a lot of good information to get you started. The 351C is not the easiest build to do, but if you get it right, its a torque monster and 400 rwhp N/A is a piece of cake.