getting my 351C rebuilt got some ?s

porkchop

Founding Member
Aug 17, 2002
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Waxhaw North Carolina
I am getting my 351C with 4v heads rebuilt. I am going to get it bored .30 over and i am getting forged pistons. Im going to have about 10.5 compression ratio. 1st question is do you think that my reconditioned connecting rods will hold up good. Also i am not sure about what cam to choose. i was looking at some cams from comp cams. Can you tell me what i could expect from the following cams. 280H, 286H, 282S, and 294S. any help would be appreciated. Thanks
 
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your reconditioned rods should be fine if you aren't going to be using forced induction, 10.5 is a very reasonable ratio. If the car is a street car, I don't think I'd go toward the 294 or anything near that high. The 280H gets good reviews and is a good all around cam. Depends on whether you want a strip screamer or a street car.
 
Get ARP bolts in those rods. Fords are notorious for weak bolts.

I have to disagree with SbT on the cams.
Hydraulic cams run much rougher than solid. The 280H will actually have rougher idle and less torque than the 294S. Not that I recommend the solid, it does have the drawback of requiring more frequent tuning than the hyd. cam.
In order to recommend a cam, we really need more info on your car.
Things like:
Weight
Usage
Tranny
Converter
Gears
Intake
Exhaust
Etc...
 
porkchop said:
I am getting my 351C with 4v heads rebuilt. I am going to get it bored .30 over and i am getting forged pistons. Im going to have about 10.5 compression ratio. 1st question is do you think that my reconditioned connecting rods will hold up good. Also i am not sure about what cam to choose. i was looking at some cams from comp cams. Can you tell me what i could expect from the following cams. 280H, 286H, 282S, and 294S. any help would be appreciated. Thanks

Reconditioned rods will be fine. Get some quality bolts, and ALWAYS RESIZE WHEN REPLACING BOLTS. Get the beams polished and shot-peened if you so desire, it will strengthen them even more.

I know you didnt ask about any other cams, but I wanna throw my vote in for the Lunati Bracket Master II 00093. I have this cam. It is a BEAST of a cam, yet idles very nice. I run my idle 900 RPM out of gear and about 750 in gear. Even with a BAD carb tune, it has enough torque to get into 3rd gear SMOKING before the car moves. It is a little more $$, but DANG... worth it in my book. It is a hydro cam.

Other than that I would go with the 286H for a street car and the 294S if you plan to race the car on a regular basis.
 
thanks for the info so far. The car is a 1971 Mach1 and it weighs how ever much it weighed out of the factory. Im going to be driving the car a decent amount but i want the car to get up and go when i want it to and when i take it to the strip. The tranny is a c6 with a B&M 2400 rpm stall converter. Gears and intake are stock right now but they will come very soon after the rebuild. I am wanting 3.50 gears and im not sure on what intake i am going to get. The exhaust is the manifolds hooked up to dual exhaust with no crossovers and they have glasspacks. I will also upgrade the exhaust after the rebuild. I will get a set of headers, 2.5in. x pipe and i am undecided on the mufflers. And yes i was planning on getting new rod bolts. Thanks for the info so far.
 
I don't see a 286H listed... Do you maybe mean the 284H Extreme Energy?

Assuming thats the cam you're talking about, between the 284 and the 280, I'd go with the 284. The 4V heads are restrictive enough on the exhaust side but coupled with your temporary usage of manifolds, they're really gonna be restrictive. BUT, if it were me I'd want more converter for that cam personally, but it might be enough to work. You're DEFINITELY gonna want to get gears, probably should have tackled them first, because with the factory gears its gonna be a major slug getting off the line with a cam of any decent size, and the factory intake will run out of steam before that cam. The 284H is a bigger cam in general with the 280 Magnum grind, depending on your driving style you might want to consider the next cam smaller than the 284 in the Extreme Energy lineup. In the 351C I'm building, I'm going with the either the 284S by Comp or the F246 by Crane, more or less the same, proven, solid flat tappet cam, but I'll be running 3.89s and a 4 speed.
 
LMan said:
Ive never heard this before.... a hyd flat-tappet running 'rougher' than a solid-lifter cam.. Can you elaborate?
Performance hydraulic cam compared to a performance solid of the same specs, both flat tappet:
The hydraulic will idle rougher, have less vacuum, less throttle response, less torque throughout the range, a narrower power band, and far less tuning needed than a solid lifter cam.
For a solid cam to act the same as a hydraulic in respect to idle, vacuum, low end torque, etc... it would need 20* more duration at .050".
The big drawback to solid cams is that they require more attention to detail and maintenance than the hyd version. That is why hydraulic cams were developed.

Porkchop:
All the hydraulic cams mentioned so far will diminish vacuum needed to run power accessories.
I like the idea put forth about using the Comp Extreme Energy that is one step below the XE284.
They are a very aggressive lobe design and dual pattern.
The C can use a dual pattern cam, and one step lower would give you back vacuum. Also, considering the weight of your car and stall converter, I think you are looking at too large cams. If you do go with one of these 280-somethings, you should probably look at more stall and more gear.
270H or 274XE got my vote. XE more than the other.
Then you can keep your street manners, stall, 3.50 gears, etc...
Dave
 
definitaly get quality rod bolts the oe ford ones tend to crack at the head of the bolt
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