Newbie mods for a 351w

[bnickel]

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.

exactly, if you re-use the stock pistons, the biggest valve you can run would be 1.94/1.60 which is only bery slightly bigger than the stock 1.84/1.54 351w valves and not really worth swapping out if you ask me. just buy some nice stainless stock size valves with under cut stems and have at it.

 

[afterglow]

I'm currently installing my 3.8 gears and new carb. I'm hoping that this will tide me over in the meantime.

So my next step should be to redo the bottom end?? What parts would I need to do this? Specific recommendations would be great!!!

 

[cowboy33713]

Howdy;
I'm currently looking at stroker kits for a 351w project I've got in the works.
You can get kits from a number of vendors on ebay- COMPARE CAREFULLY! Some kits come with balancer and flexplate, ready to install in your machined and prepped block, other require balancing, and do not come with balancer and flexplate. Pistons will be forged or hypereutectic, dished and flat top again, depending on the kit. I like balanced, KB or SRP pistons, Eagle or SCAT rods and crank. Go for a kit with longer than stock connecting rods; will build more torque. No need to spin it up as high to go fast. I found a set of World Products Windsor SR heads, new(!!!) from a fella selling out of a project that didn't take off for him. Same for a set of unused Crower full roller rocker arms. Nice. Plan a 408.
Just my 0.02
cowboy33713

 

[D.Hearne]

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


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....

Just to set you straight, a Street Dominator is not a dual plane intake, it's single plane. What 351W engine are you talking about here? If it's an early one, you've already got some decent heads, just you could use some port work to improve them some. They still won't flow what some aftermarket heads do, but they'lll be better than stock, unported heads.

 

[Max Power]

exactly, if you re-use the stock pistons, the biggest valve you can run would be 1.94/1.60 which is only bery slightly bigger than the stock 1.84/1.54 351w valves and not really worth swapping out if you ask me. just buy some nice stainless stock size valves with under cut stems and have at it.

There is so so so so so much more to heads than valve size. Port configuration and dynamics are where aftermarket heads destroy the originals. That's why aftermarket heads with 1.94 intakes outflow modified factory heads by a mile.

Besides, with 2.02 intakes, you start to get shrouding issues anyway.