very interesting so far... i live in brownsville, Texas (southern tip of texas) so mexico is like 5 minutes from me. I do see a lot of trucks (f-150's) from mexico, mabey the block came from a truck. don't really know, but i thought that might me the source of the block.
Going to take pics in a sec. The owner originally thought it came from a '77 Bronco, but then he thought it was a ford replacement block. He works at a Ford dealer and could not find any info on it. However, he measured everything and assured me it was a true 351 made in Mexico
The rust really isn't as bad as it looks. Most of it is surface rust and will flake off and not pit. The inside of the block (between the pistons) is what i'm worried about. All the threads will have to be thread chased and once it is cleaned up real nice it will hopefully be a solid block. What do you all think for $50?
well for any doubters out there they do exist i had one and had a ford motor rebuilder identify it as that. shadrack, take a good look at the pic of the 302 mexican block posted and look at where the distributor sits compared to where the bottom of the intake sits. the 351 has more distance between the 2. and yes for some reason the the cast numbers are wierd. i heard that they put them in vans.
I also heard they put them in vans/bronco's. I also heard it was a factory Ford replacement block for the parts department? And yes, it is definately a 351 block. It is at the shop currently (should be picking it up this weekend) getting bored .030, hot tanked, magnafluxed, clearanced for a 418 stroker, new cam bearings, new freeze plugs, etc. etc.