Popular Hot rodding ford engines

427 FE Ford Engine - Atomic EnergyBarry Robotnick Drops A 659hp Bomb With This 427 Fe Ford Powerplant.By Daryl WhitePhotography by Johnny Hunkins

In the world of chemistry, FE is the atomic symbol for iron, a basic building block in the construction of our universe. FE is also a symbol of early-1960s Ford horsepower, a building block in the universe of hot rodding. As the universe in space expanded and became more complex, the usefulness of our friend iron, FE, did not diminish. And as the universe of engine building expands and becomes more complex, the venerable Ford FE engine continues to prove its usefulness. In fact, the elegant simplicity of its design has been mimicked time and again as an unconscious tribute to those engineers at FOMOCO who, so long ago, set out to build a machine that would convert gasoline into horsepower.

Every car, every engine, has its group of devoted fans and experts. If you were building a big-block Mopar, you'd probably call Ron at Indy Cylinder Heads. Slapping together a big-inch mountain motor? Jon Kaase has a fairly good grasp of the concept. Building an FE engine? Barry Robotnick and his crew at Survival Motorsports are hard to beat. Barry is one of those "long-term, overnight success" stories that we hear about. His business has been quietly building engines, specifically FE Ford engines, for a number of years, and he's carved out his place in that niche market. In the last three years as a competitor in the Jegs Engine Masters Challenge, his horsepower-producing skills have ramped up quickly, and he's steadily gaining notoriety outside the nice little world of big-block Fords.

Keeping with the retro theme, Robotnick modified this period-correct factory distributor to utilize late-model Ford Duraspark guts. What looks like a single thin wire

actually contains the shielded dual wires necessary to trigger the MSD ignition box.

Barry was selected again as a competitor for the 2007 Engine Masters Challenge, and as in years past, he chose to build his favorite-an FE. Specifically, a 427 side oiler. Like any engine build, when approaching the Engine Masters Challenge, Barry took a good look at the application and the constraints of the build. In this case, the application would be a dyno challenge pitting some of the best engine builders in the country against each other using stock-configuration engines in an rpm range comparable to what most street cars and hot rods see. The constraints, well, there were many, but the basic gist was that the engine had to be 10.5 compression or less, run a flat-tappet cam, and drink 91-octane pump gas. How hard could it be?

A quick glance at the last several years of Challenges reveals a steady increase in the levels of torque and horsepower produced at these events. A winning combination-even with unlimited compression and a solid-roller cam-from just a few years ago might not make it into the Top 3 in 2007. Have the engines gotten more high tech? No. In fact, a concerted effort has been made to reduce the amount of big-dollar modifications and ultra-inaccessible parts in order to bring out the best in common-sense approaches to engine building. In other words, getting back to the basics like good heads, the right cam, and attention to detail. The things that Barry specializes in.

When constructing this engine in his head, Barry decided he wanted a theme to go along with it. His goal was to make it look like it just came out of an old hot rod. "Cosmetically, we made that engine look as much as we could like an original '64 Ford 427 motor that would have been in somebody's Galaxie back in the day," Barry says.

Indeed, at first glance it looks like a bone-stock, yet clean and pristine example of a survivor. It's when you look beyond the spit-shine and pop off the valve covers that you start to understand that this is not the same engine that came out of grandpa's cruiser. As hard as it is to believe by looking at it, about the only "factory" Ford items used are the distributor housing, timing cover, and crankshaft! Aftermarket support for the FE engines has slowly grown through the years with companies like DOVE, Blue Thunder, and Genesis Performance Castings providing a substantial inventory of new and replacement parts.

Barry is thankful for the quality of the aftermarket support for FE engines. These stunning valve covers with the Thunderbird decal are perfect repros and not just

cheap junk. Survival Motorsports offers them for $269.50 per set.

The foundation of Barry's engine began with a Genesis 427 block. There have been a number of different OEM versions of the FE block available throughout the years with minor variations in bore size, oiling system, and main-cap designs. Genesis took the best of the factory designs and improved on them. The most important feature that they replicated was the oiling system of the famed 427 side oiler. Although it is a staple in hot rod nomenclature like "Hemi" or "ZL1," not many outside the big-block Ford world know the intricacies that make up the 427 side oiler's namesake. The most obvious feature is an oil galley that runs along the driver side of the block with passages supplying oil directly to the main bearings prior to the cam and heads. The more common FE variants like the 360/390/428 versions run oil to the cam first, then down to the mains, significantly reducing the oil available at this key area. The '61-63 high-performance 390, and the often-forgotten 406 and the 427 were all designed specifically for solid flat-tappet cams, and as such, had no provisions to run oil to hydraulic lifters should one want to swap cams. The Genesis block allows this provision, as many street-driven car owners now prefer the low maintenance of a hydraulic cam. Another feature of the original side oiler that is replicated is the pressure relief valve at the rear end of the main oil galley, allowing the engine builder to alter oil pressure with different springs or shims. Something to keep in mind if you find yourself building a combination like Barry's is that the side oiler blocks use a different set of cam bearings, as oil travels to the top end through grooves in the second and fourth cam journals, then up through passages in the block and heads before ending up at the rocker shafts.

The FE block is a "Y-block" design similar to big-block Mopars. Where the standard Mopar blocks had two-bolt mains, the race-inspired Hemis had cross-bolted four-bolt mains. The FE engines followed suit with the "normal" blocks having two-bolt mains, but the side oilers (and now Genesis blocks) came standard with cross-bolted mains. Additionally, the Genesis block has the benefit of allowing up to a 4.440-inch bore size. Couple that with a possible 4.375-inch stroke crank, and the thought of a 532ci monster looks tempting.

Barry's crankshaft was decidedly more old school than the brand-new block. "The crankshaft was a 391 truck crank, originally out of a garbage truck or a dump truck," Barry reveals. Most FE engines came with cast-iron cranks, and save for the '65-67 427 engine with the "LeMans" steel cranks, the easiest way to get a forged steel crank is to pluck one from one of the heavy-duty truck versions of the engine family. Officially known as FT engines (Ford/Truck) instead of FE engines (Ford/Edsel), the 361/391 engines all used steel cranks, and all shared the same journal and stroke dimensions as their passenger-car brothers. The only modification necessary to use the truck crank is to turn down the snout of the crank, as the passenger cars and light-duty pickup trucks used a smaller inside diameter on the harmonic dampers. A trip to the machine shop quickly fixes that issue. Barry's choice when it came to modifying his crank was to send it off to fellow Engine Masters Challenge competitor and crankshaft guru Adney Brown of Performance Crankshaft for some serious updating. He did the usual stuff, grinding and indexing the crank to the factory 3.780-inch stroke, but after lightening, bull-nosing the leading edges, and knifing the trailing edges of the throws, the crank looked and performed as good as any NASCAR piece. Barry praised Adney openly: "What he did to that crankshaft was nothing short of stunning."

427 FE Ford Engine - Atomic Energy

The classic FE valve covers don't have any provisions for breathers, so at the rear of the intake, a crankcase breather (in place of the classic "road draft tube") is fitted

to allow the release of any pressure buildup.

Attached to the crankshaft is a set of Scat 6.490-inch H-beam connecting rods. Though they sound like really long rods, they are the factory length. Barry points out: "It's one of the weak points on the FE for parts, because in aftermarket support, although they're getting much better, there are no long rods for an FE on the market. The only rod choice is the 6.490-inch factory-dimension rod." That is not to say that it's a short rod when compared to the stroke, it's just that when compared to the deck height of the block, it forces the engine builder to use a tall, heavy piston. Always one to find the good elements in what he is forced to deal with, Barry points out that the tall pistons actually do a very good job of stabilizing the lightweight Speed-Pro rings and keeping the piston from rocking back and forth.

The pistons Barry chose for this combination are made by Diamond, and use a spherical dish to achieve the final 10.5:1 compression ratio. "It's a full round dish, where the center is deeper, like if you took a baseball and pushed it into the top of the piston." When choosing his pistons, his thought process brought him to consider that when the combustion process occurred, he wanted to center the pressure over the middle of the wristpin instead of wasting energy rocking the piston over as he envisioned with a traditional D-shaped inverted-dome design. "It seems to work pretty good. The motors don't need a lot of timing, the mixture seems to work out real well, and they make good power that way. I think it works well in concert with the location of the cylinder head on the block." The final portion of Barry's comments refers to the massive relocation of the cylinder head in relation to the bores. The dowel pins on the block remained the same, but the dowel locating holes in the heads were welded up and moved to shift the head closer to the lifter

valley. He moved the head so much that a portion of the locating dowel is visible beyond the edge of the head. The combination of the dish design and efficiency of the relocated combustion chamber allowed him to make best overall power with a mere 32 degrees of total timing.

Barry points out that the move to a spherical dish is not a total stab in the dark. "This is out of the LS1 world as much as anything else." Referring to the Ford Modular motors and new 5.7 Hemi engines, Barry says: "Those all have spherical-dish pistons in them from the factory. None of them have a D-shaped cup or anything like that in them anymore. We're mirroring factory stuff there. We're not leading-edge, we're just applying leading-edge stuff to an old motor." He adds, laughing: "They worked really hard developing that, we might as well steal it."

Finally able to quantify the effects of an electric water pump, Barry was surprised it only made about 6 hp; not quite the 20 or 30 that some claim. In a street

application, Barry prefers the loss of a few a horses for the peace of mind that comes with a beltdriven water pump.

The oiling system was not as high-tech as the pistons, but as it has been refined for a number of years, it did not need to be high-tech. "We blend from the oil pump into the block, we match where the oil enters the main bearings and blend those passages a little bit, and we restrict the oil to the cylinder heads." Barry used a Melling oil pump, and found this setup to be totally reliable. He admits to having the same problems as the Chrysler guys when it comes to windage, though. "The Hemi guys, to get the benefits of the kick-out-style pan on their motors, they mill windows on the sides of the block. I think that is the same issue I have. The Y-block minimizes the benefits of a good pan." He ended up using an out-of-the-box Milodon pan, surprised at its performance. "I've run really cool, swoopy pans on these things in the past, and that Milodon one actually made more horsepower, by about 3, compared to a billet-aluminum, swinging-trapdoor wild pan. I'm sure the cool pan was better in the car at controlling oil, and the way oil behaves, but because of the nature of the FE, it didn't have any advantage on the dyno, which was totally surprising and disappointing."

As for the ever-popular windage trays, he claims that he's tried with and without trays of different styles, and hasn't seen any real benefit or loss. "I normally end up running a tray on it just because I'd feel guilty not doing it, but I can't attribute it to a single bit of horsepower."

With the foundation prepared, Barry worked on the top end of the engine: the side where the real power is made. In years past, there were not a great number of choices when it came to cylinder heads for the FE. Medium-riser heads were plentiful and made good power. High-riser heads made better power, but with their height forcing the carb to sit a solid 2-3 inches higher than any other design, they were impractical without a hoodscoop. Tunnel-port heads, with their massive runners designed with pushrod tubes going straight through them, made incredible power, but were hard to come by, even in years past. Today they are almost extinct. Enter the Blue Thunder FE head. Similar in design to a medium-riser head, Barry acquired a pair of these jewels in bare form and had his friends at E/T Performance do their computer-enhanced magic on them. For those unfamiliar with the name, E/T Performance is most commonly known throughout the LSX world as a leader in CNC head-porting technology. Looking closely at the ports and chambers, they don't look anything like the early Ford designs. In fact, they look just like an LS1. "They tried to put an LS head into an FE head," said Barry.

This is the Twilight Zone of intake manifolds; E/T Performance did some major plenum modifications to allow the cylinder to draw equal amounts of air and not be

restricted. You can also see how the FE intake has the unique characteristic of running the pushrods through the intake manifold, forcing the removal of the rockers and

pushrods, and relashing the valves for any manifold changes.

As Barry was not overly concerned with high-mileage durability, they installed 5/16-inch-stem lightweight valves and performed a 50-degree competition valve job to work with some serious porting. In comparison to a traditional 45-degree valve job, the 50-degree valve job tends to kill a small amount of low-lift airflow. When using a cam with a good amount of overlap and lots of lift and duration, that can actually be beneficial, as it allows the intake valve to pop open a little bit without contaminating the intake charge with exhaust gasses. The downside of using 50- or 55-degree valve jobs is that it beats in the valve seats and valves much sooner than the 45-degree seats.

"Within the legal boundaries of the rules, we angle-milled the heads 1 degree. There's nothing in the rules talking about the location of the head on the block, so yeah, we moved the head around the block a little bit and that seemed to help. It's hard to say how much each of the individual changes helped because we never checked it out that way; we just keep on moving in directions where the package gets better. I know it's not the scientific method, but I don't have the budget to employ the scientific method all the time."

Operating the valves was the job of the T&D shaft rocker system. Barry is totally sold on the design. The key benefit he points out is that the burden of supporting the rocker arms was moved from a single long shaft with several individual support stands to a single long steel support structure with four paired rocker shafts. That change eliminates the fairly common failure of rocker stands and shafts breaking. And with an aggressive solid flat-tappet cam like the one from COMP Cams he's got thumping in this engine, he needs all the stability he can get.

Marvin at Quick Fuel built this Dominator for Barry a few years ago, and it has been on Barry's last three Engine Masters Challenge entries. The QFT is extremely

responsive, and takes changes well. A carb that produces predictable and expected results to jet and bleed changes is a valuable piece when dialing in an engine.

Barry's first choice of intakes was to use his tried-and-true Edelbrock Victor that he had from the previous year's Challenge. As a comparison, he decided he'd give a second intake a shot. "Early on, Martin, from Blue Thunder, wanted me to try his dual-plane." At first, the fully tricked-out Edelbrock beat it handily, but he thought he'd let his pals from E/T take a shot at the more street-oriented dual-plane intake. John and the guys at E/T were leery about the Blue Thunder intake performing at the same level as the Victor, but they took it in like a puppy out of the rain, and fed it plenty of carbide and cartridge rolls. Barry recalled his reaction when he got the intake back. "He brought me back an intake a few weeks later that when you took the carburetor off and looked down it, it was like something out of the Twilight Zone." Barry asked John whether he thought the intake would perform, and his response was: "It's either going to work good, or it'll be a turd." Barry says: "If you look at the dual-plane, the plenum shape in there and the interior layout is unlike any dual-plane intake I've ever seen. He's onto something. I don't know if it's truly revolutionary, but it's certainly different." Normally, the plenum divider would run front to back in a straight line, and sometimes there would be a notch milled into it to increase the plenum area. In this case, they shaped the plenum divider into an inverted rainbow shape and continued the runners, allowing their lengths to be closer to the same, and also creating a larger plenum from which to breathe.

They ended up installing the heavily modified Blue Thunder intake on the engine for final testing not long before it was to be shipped. They got their ignition, cam, and carb dialed in, assuming that afterward, they would just swap out to the "good" single-plane intake and make even more power. In back-to-back testing, it turned out the dual-plane-the "street" intake-beat the single-plane across the board. Barry was amazed. Time didn't allow individual exhaust probe testing to check fuel distribution, but based on the overall fuel curve and the amount of fuel needed to make the power, he felt it was definitely a great working design.

As a test to see how close he could get the engine to perform in real-world conditions, he ran his testing sessions with an electric water pump and a set of Hooker headers against the same engine with a belt-driven water pump and a rare set of cast-iron headers from a '63 Galaxie. As you'd expect, the tubular headers and electric water pump helped the engine make a good deal of grunt, to the tune of 659 hp. What you might not expect is that with the beltdriven water pump and cast-iron exhaust, the engine still made an amazing 606 horses! Imagine, this flat-tappet-cammed, pump-gas engine could be dropped straight into an early Ford luxo-barge and eat late-model Camaros alive!

When that first FE engine exploded on the scene a good 50 years ago, its designers might not have realized at the time how its fallout would affect the rest of the engine building world, or how long its half-life would be. The universe of hot rodding has evolved into an array of overhead-cammed, fuel-injected, and computer-driven technologies. Nonetheless, Barry Robotnick and his thriving business, Survival Motorsports, have proven that the FE engines can still inflict some serious damage in the battle for torque and horsepower.

Low-, medium-, and high-riser heads have different

intake designs, but all share the same exhaust location

and bolt pattern. The Cobra Jet 428 heads, however,

were built with dual bolt hole patterns for use with

different header designs. Black paint on the aluminum

head is part of the "street mask" that Barry put on his

engine.

The Blue Thunder heads come as-cast with a small heart-

shaped wedge combustion chamber and medium-riser-

style ports. After CNC porting, the runners and chambers

look eerily like LSX heads. You can also see here that the

locating dowel holes actually protrude past the edge of the

head, and the head bolt holes are slotted to accommodate

the shift. The cam timing and tuning were spot on. This can

be verified as these runners look as if the engine

has never been run, and don't have any traces of

soot, which would indicate reversion. The runner

design is very similar to the factory CNC-ported LS7

heads on the new Z06 Corvette.

These 5/16-inch stem valves with bead locks are the

hot ticket in a lightweight FE valvetrain. The small

stem diameter reduces the mass of the valves as well

as reducing the amount of airflow the stems block.

With the oil passages to the heads blocked off, the vital

fluid is passed through a set of hollow Trend .135-inch

wall pushrods, to the T&D shaft rockers. Barry has often

had to mill down the head bolt recesses in the head to

clear different rocker shaft systems. He says this method

is preferable to grinding the bottoms of the shaft bases to

clear the head bolts, as that weakens the supports.

If you bump into a set of these in an old barn, grab

them! These rare cast-iron headers fit a '63 Galaxie,

and besides looking super cool, provided enough

airflow to make over 600 horses with the 427 side

oiler.

You can see the beefy cross-bolted mains with ARP

main studs clamping the bearings in place. The old

truck crank shed almost 10 pounds on its way to a

new, more aerodynamic design.

The box-stock Milodon pan was a great performer at a

reasonable price. There has been debate over whether a

screen- or louver-style windage tray offers better results

in different engines, but Barry claims he hasn't seen much

benefit at all in an FE.

Don't let their smiles fool you. Barry (left) and his

partner, Tim Young, are two super-nice and

unassuming guys who will happily leave your butt in

smoke if you underestimate their abilities in making

BIG horsepower.427 FE Ford Engine - Atomic Energy

BY THE NUMBERS

SURVIVAL MOTORSPORTS 427 FE FORD

Bore: 4.250 inches

Stroke: 3.780 inches

Displacement: 429 actual cubic inches

Compression ratio: 10.5:1

Camshaft: COMP solid flat-tappet

Cam duration: 252/252 degrees

at .050-inch tappet rise

Valve lift: .640/.640-inch

Rocker arms: T&D shaft-type, 1.75 ratio

Lobe separation: 110 degrees

Installed centerline: 106 degrees

Top ring: .043-inch Speed-Pro

Second ring: .043-inch Speed-Pro

Oil ring: 3mm Speed-Pro

Piston: Diamond spherical-dish

Block: Genesis Performance Castings

Crankshaft: OEM forged 391

Rods: Scat 6.49-inch H-beam

Cylinder head: Blue Thunder medium riser

Intake valve diameter: 2.200 inches

Exhaust valve diameter: 1.710 inches

Intake manifold: Blue Thunder dual-plane

Carburetor: Quick Fuel modified Holley Dominator

Header: Hooker Super Comp 2-inch primaries

Ignition: MSD 6AL

Damper: Professional Products

ON THE DYNO

DTS DYNO DATA

SURVIVAL MOTORSPORTS 427 FE FORD

BEST QUALIFYING PULL

RPM TQ HP

2,500 445 212

2,600 450 223

2,700 458 236

2,800 466 248

2,900 470 259

3,000 467 267

3,100 459 271

3,200 456 278

3,300 456 287

3,400 459 297

3,500 467 311

3,600 478 328

3,700 486 342

3,800 492 356

3,900 494 367

4,000 496 378

4,100 502 392

4,200 512 409

4,300 523 428

4,400 533 446

4,500 543 466

4,600 552 483

4,700 559 500

4,800 561 513

4,900 562 524

5,000 564 537

5,100 564 548

5,200 562 556

5,300 559 564

5,400 558 574

5,500 557 583

5,600 555 592

5,700 553 601

5,800 551 608

5,900 547 615

6,000 548 626

6,100 545 633

6,200 541 638

6,300 537 645

6,400 534 651

6,500 532 659

351 Windsor - High-Torque Windsor

This 425-Cube 351 Makes 575 LB-FT And 607 HP On Pump Gas-Plenty To Break A Whole Bunch Of Drivetrain Stuff If You're Not Careful!By David VizardPhotography by David Vizard

This is the age of the stroker motor, and when it comes to cubes, it's pretty much a case of bigger is better. Nevertheless, just how much better is highly dependant on the utilization of those cubes. In essence, there is low-tech cube utilization, which delivers so-so results, and there is high-tech cube utilization, which as we'll see here, delivers dynamite results. Moreover, the cost difference between one and the other may only be marginal. Read on to find out why.

Laz Mesa (the boss at Mesa Balancing in Hialeah, Florida) and I have one thing in common-we both like big-inch motors. A few years ago, we did a successful project on a stroker 351 Windsor, and since then we have shared test data to fine-tune Windsor stroker combinations. This all came to a head when I got a call from Laz telling me that Pro Power had a new budget stroker kit good for street/strip power levels up to 650 hp. I had successfully used a Pro Power budget stroker kit in the past to good effect, but the latest iteration had an upgrade on the rods, and more importantly, the pistons. In addition, Laz had sonic tested a 351 block that was good for .060 over. This, with the 4.10-inch stroke of the Pro Power stroker crank, would give us 425 inches. That's a whole 21 percent increase over a stock 351 Windsor.

Cubes & Efficiency The Pro Power stroker kit used here (including bearings and rings) can be had complete with a damper (tuned to the crank) for $1,399, and for $250 extra, the whole lot can be balanced. But buying the cube-generating parts and installing it all in the block is the easy part. To capitalize on the extra cubes, two factors become super critical. These fall under the heading of volumetric (breathing) efficiency, and combustion efficiency. Maximizing volumetric efficiency means maximizing the combination of airflow capability, and velocity of the carb, intake manifold, heads, and exhaust, such that with the right cam, the maximum amount of air can be passed through the engine. Achieving good combustion efficiency starts with a carb that delivers a mixture with just the right amount of fuel atomization, and assuring that the quality of the mixture does not deteriorate too much by the time it has arrived in the cylinder. Along with this, we need an ignition system that has not only high spark power, but also the right advance characteristics. All this means a substantial number of parts working together in a well-orchestrated fashion. It did not happen overnight, but the final spec of our engine, which came together in total over a period of some two years, was just that, so let's look at the key issues involved.

Cylinder Heads We have lots of cubes to feed, and if any sort of real power is to be had, the heads must be able to feed those cubes. To do so requires good airflow, but that alone is not the answer. If we are looking for high torque over a very wide rpm range, then port velocity becomes a real factor. Not only that, but the wet flow characteristics must also be such as to promote good combustion. We realized that all this is a lot to deal with, so we started with a set of heads with proven performance-namely a set of 200cc intake port RHS heads. The goals here were to increase both flow and velocity. On top of this, we wanted to increase swirl, and refine the wet-flow characteristics.

Pro Power's new budget stroker kit for the 351 Windsor is the basis

of our stroker, and is good for up to 650 hp. With the 4.10-inch

stroke of the Pro Power stroker crank and our .060-over block, it

would give us 425 inches. This kit includes bearings and rings, and

can be had complete with a damper for $1,399. For $250 extra, the

whole lot can be balanced.

Made from cast steel, the Pro Power crank is

about 20 percent stronger than the alloy Ford

uses, and has about twice the ductility.

Mesa Balancing used a selected block for our build.

Normally, a .030-inch overbore would put

displacement at 418 inches, but ours was good for .

060 over, which allowed us to go to 425 inches.

351 Windsor - High-Torque Windsor

Pro Power rates its entry-level rods with a 650hp capability. If more power is required from this stroker kit, it has an upgrade to suit.

Let's start with moves to increase flow. Here, the first move was to increase the stock 2.02-inch valve to 2.08 inches in diameter. The seat for this was a trick-radius approach, 45-degree Cup Car profile that was successfully used a few years ago. The port mods had to deal with four issues concurrently-those being flow, velocity, swirl, and wet flow. To achieve these goals, the port was reworked to give it a slight bend, and the approach part of the guide boss was angled to move more of the air onto the cylinder-wall side of the port. This, together with a bowl rework and attention to the short-side turn, measurably moved head characteristics in the right direction. Packing this port rework into a couple of sentences makes it sound like it was all just so easy. The reality is that it was the sum of many hours of tedious flow bench work. The results, though, appear to be worth the effort. Even though these

RHS heads flowed very well out of the box, we still managed to tap measurably further into their potential. The wet flow patterns were tidied up, and swirl went up by about 30 percent, which in itself was good, as Ford heads traditionally are low on swirl. The extra flow was achieved with minimal metal removal, and with a final port volume of 208cc, the flow went up more than the port volume, which meant the already excellent port velocity of these heads was further increased.

Cam & Valvetrain For the valvetrain to be as near optimal as possible, it has to do two things effectively. First and foremost, it must open and close the valves at precisely the right time in relation to the crank's rotational position. Secondly, the valvetrain dynamics must accurately transmit the cam profile to the valves. Fail in either respect, and a serious chunk of output is lost. First, let's deal with valve events. Anytime the displacement goes up for a given valve size, the cam's lobe centerline angle needs to be tightened. Most cams are in the 110- to 112-degree LCA range. Whereas this might be handy to what is required for a typical 350, it is not going to be anywhere near best for our 425. Failure to get the LCA where the engine wants it by just 3 degrees too wide, and you can watch 25 lb-ft of torque disappear everywhere from this engine's torque curve. The number-one requirement then was a cam on a 107-degree LCA. Since this is a street engine, we opted for a hydraulic cam. Here, Laz uses custom grinds from Crane, COMP, and Cam Motion. The particular brand we opted to use here was a 252/256-degree hydraulic profile from Cam Motion. That, with the Crane rockers we were going to use, delivered close to .620-inch observed lift. That profile might seem rather on the large side for a street motor, but because we have taken care of business in terms of a high port velocity, this big cam will act smaller at low rpm than would otherwise be the case. That, plus the cubes involved, makes this cam act as if it is about 232/236 degrees in a stock-displacement 351. It doesn't look so big now, does it?

Now that we have the cam spec sorted, it's time to look at the hardware. High-lift hydraulic roller valvetrains are notorious for collapsing typical roller lifters. One of the best hydraulic roller lifters to combat lifter collapse is the Crane alloy-steel-body piece. We have run these lifters to as much as 7,800 rpm, so they should be more than up to the job. But there is more to these lifters than just a high-grade, heat-treated steel body. The internals are such that these lifters, when adjusted to Crane's prescribed one turn in, contain such a small oil reservoir that they not only cannot collapse very far, but also they recover very rapidly from whatever minimal collapse may take place.

Using the latest low-drag skirt on our piston for

our 425 build helped contribute to the strong

torque and horsepower results.

Before installing the crank into the block, all bearing

clearances were checked for both rod and main

bearings. The target was .003 on the mains and .002

on the rods.

Maximizing the port flow up to the mid .600-inch lift range

started with the machining of a trick valve seat job. The intake

valve size was stepped up from 2.02 to 2.08 inches. The

exhaust remained at the stock 1.6-inch diameter.351 Windsor - High-Torque Windsor

This is the finished chamber for our 425 Windsor with the valve "ghosted" in at .500-inch lift. In stock form, there are two main fuel streams. The smaller one (arrow "A") tends to wash the chamber wall area directly in line with the direction of the arrow. This, combined with a stronger fuel stream (arrow "B"), causes a large washout at area "C." After port and guide mods, the fuel stream is spread out more, as indicated by the solid yellow arrows. Also, by making the ridge (red arrow) more pronounced, fuel from the cylinder center side of the intake port is sheared into a finer state off the edge of this ridge.

The rockers were also from Crane. These nominally 1.6:1 rockers have a high off-the-seat ratio (about 1.72:1), which gets the valves open quicker-and that's important for success when a lot of cubes are involved. For pushrods and springs, we used COMP parts. The most important item in the valvetrain is the beehive spring. This allows us to moderate spring loads to counter lifter collapse without paying an rpm penalty.

Ignition! For an ignition system, we elected to use a Chevy HEI-style distributor made specifically for a Ford 351 Windsor by Performance Distributors. This has several advantages like low cost, high performance, and total simplicity. We told the guys there what the engine spec was in detail, and they built a unit with the appropriate mechanical curve built right in. Normally, we would also use a vacuum advance as well (for best mileage), and that too would be appropriately tailored for the job; however, our 425 was for all practical purposes a dyno mule, so we elected to use a Performance Distributors micro timing adjuster in place of the vacuum advance. This allows precise adjustment in small increments to get the very best from the engine in terms of WOT.

Intake & Carb

If we were building a hopped-up 351 for the street, the carb size most recommended would probably be a 750. This would almost certainly be paired up with an air-gap-style two-plane or maybe a Victor Jr. single-plane, but we have 425 inches here. This engine is more like a big-block in terms of displacement, so some serious reevaluation of the carb cfm was needed. If we step up carburetion in proportion to the cubes, then this engine is going to need something along the lines of 920 cfm. Also, for any motor that can potentially pass the 550-570hp mark, a Super Victor intake is probably the best bet. The reality here is that if this 425-inch Windsor did not make at least 570 hp, our engine building skills would be seriously called into question.

Apart from subtle port "bending," the large

guide boss of the final port was, with subtle

reshaping, instrumental in aiding wet flow, dry

flow, and swirl.

Did our wet flow efforts pay off? Judge for yourself from

this chamber shot taken after our dyno testing. Note

that the fuel wash (shown by the small patch of still-

shiny chamber wall just by the plug) is minimal.

Normally, this area is 4-5 times larger.

Not only did our port work improve wet flow characteristics,

but it also improved the swirl, dry flow, and port velocity. Note

how the flow curve substantially levels out at a little over .

600-inch lift (about where our valvetrain will lift, too). If flow

had continued to climb, it would indicate that the port could be

too big for the job.351 Windsor - High-Torque Windsor

The ultra-stiff Crane alloy-steel-body hydraulic lifter was a key factor in the building of our 425-inch valvetrain. By having a very low collapse rate, these lifters ensure

the motion input by the cam profile actually reached the valves.

For carburetion, Laz has a Cup Car carb builder that custom builds his highly functional carbs at a very nice price. The one built for our 425 was a custom piece with a booster design that had already established itself as optimal for this sort of application. Just as a reminder, the atomization produced by the booster/emulsion well/air bleed combo plays into our induction system's wet flow scenario. If the fuel droplets are too big, it counters most of the work we did refining the wet flow characteristics of the intake port. If the droplets are too small, too much fuel vaporizes in the intake manifold and cuts volumetric efficiency. Get things just right here, and it pays off. From previous testing, it has been established that booster selection and the appropriate detailing of a Holley HP 950 can, on a stroker motor such as ours, be worth 15 lb-ft and 15 hp.

The Rest Of The Gear We are now down to build details that relate to a dyno installation. Because it simplifies the dyno work, a Meziere electric water pump was used instead of a mechanical pump. These water pumps are typically good for 6-7 hp at 6,500 rpm, and as much as 12 hp at 8,000. For an exhaust system, dyno headers with a tuned secondary length were used. These headers had 1.75-inch primaries with an average length of 36 inches. These dumped into a secondary of 3.5 inches diameter, and a length of 14 inches from the end of the collector taper. Of the two, the secondary length is by far the most critical. Shorten this by 4 inches and the price can be a 20hp drop in output.

Dyno Time With our 425 on the dyno, expectations were running high. Eight degrees of initial timing proved to be a good starting point, and this fresh 425 Windsor lit off before the second revolution was even underway. It sounded good right from the start, and as soon as it had generated a little heat, it idled just fine at 825 rpm even before any carb idle adjustments had been made. After cycling the engine up and down from 1,000 to 2,500 rpm for about an hour, it was shut down and given a post break-in service that included an oil and filter change, and a head bolt torque check. The final phase of break-in involved cycling the engine from 2,500 to 4,000 for another 30 minutes.

By now, the engine was deemed ready for some exploratory pulls. The first was a 2,500-4,000 pull, and from this we learned that our 425 was making too much low-speed torque for the dyno to pull down much less than 2,900, where it was making close to 500 lb-ft. Since the mixture looked safe on the slightly rich side, runs were increased in rpm until we were seeing 6,000, where the motor was making a solid 590 hp.

The more optimally the cam is spec'd, the more

important it becomes to time it in correctly. The

intake centerline on this big-inch Windsor was set

Shown here are the retainers, springs, and valves used

in the RHS heads. The COMP beehive springs, originally

intended for big-block Chevy applications, delivered 150

With a higher off-the-seat ratio, the Crane Gold Race

rockers proved a good choice for the 425 inches that had

to be fed. With this higher opening ratio, the area under

to 103 degrees after TDC. pounds on the seat, and 390 pounds at full lift. the curve was greater, thus allowing better cylinder filling

and emptying.351 Windsor - High-Torque Windsor

An HEI on a Ford? That's the way we went, and

the Performance Distributors unit with its micro

timing adjuster (knob on lower left) proved just

the ticket.

At the power level we were targeting, an Edelbrock

Super Victor, rather than a Victor Jr., is the way to go.

Previous testing on nominally 600hp engines have

shown the Super Victor is worth 15-20 hp over the

Victor Jr.

The HP 950 for our project motor was custom built for Mesa

Balancing by a Cup Car carb builder who builds carbs only for

specific applications. This custom build service adds between

$50 and $100 to the price of the carb, but its worth

repeatedly shows up in the dyno numbers.

Now was time to start fine-tuning. Dropping the jet sizes by two numbers all around saw a little more power. This netted 4-5 lb-ft more everywhere, and about 6 hp at the top end. Some steady-state pulls under full load were made and held a while. This showed we were about dead-on from the mixture standpoint. Now was time to dial in the timing. The 8 degrees initial we used as our starting point produced 30 degrees total, which was all in by 3,000. We used the distributor's thumb wheel micro timing feature to gradually dial in some more timing. After about 10 pulls, we had optimal timing at 33 degrees total. An optimal total advance this low is a good indication that the burn is taking place fast and effectively.

Using a Meziere electric water pump is typically worth 6-7 hp for engines peaking in the 6,000-6,500 rpm range. We used a pump like this one for the power

advantage, and the convenience of dyno setup.

The lowest we could pull this 425 down to on the Mesa Balancing dyno was a shade under 3,200 rpm. At 3,200 rpm, it was cranking out a very impressive 517 lb-ft of torque. That's 17 lb-ft more than the peak torque of the Corvette LS7, which is virtually the same size as our stroker Windsor. From 3,500-3,900, the torque curve drops just below the 500 lb-ft mark in what can best be described as the intake manifold tuning hole. Here the length of the intake runners and the exhaust just don't coincide to do as much to assist cylinder filling as they could, but as 4,000 rpm comes around, things get wild. Here the engine comes on the cam; the intake, exhaust, and the big torque numbers reflect just how well this combination is working. We repeatedly saw peak numbers of 572 lb-ft, and on one run 575 lb-ft. That works out to a shade over 1.34 lb-ft per cube, and that (for a low-cost 10.5:1 pump-gas motor) is really good. As for horsepower, this Mesa-built stroker could hit the 607hp mark on every pull after the setup was perfected.

With this build we have shown once again the old adage that getting the right combination is the key to success, but that doesn't come as any surprise. What is more of a surprise is how cost-effective this build was. Sure, it's not at the bottom of the "budget barrel," but in terms of being reasonably priced, it's among the best budget-conscious builds we have done in a long time.

Dyno Test * 425CI Small-Block Windsor Peak HP: 607 at 6,200 rpm Peak TQ: 572 lb-ft at 4,500 rpm These are the kind of results that can be expected when the combination is right. Other than the dip caused by the combined effect of the intake and exhaust tuning at 3,700 rpm, this 425 was good for 500 lb-ft plus from about 2,900-6,300 rpm.

351 Windsor - High-Torque Windsor

Where The Money Went

Description: Price:

351/419 Pro Power cast stroker kit $1,199

Balancing $250

351 timing cover $62

Melling HV oil pump $56

Main girdle kit $205

Gasket set $130

Flexplate $49

Crank damper $200

Freeze plug kit $8

Oil pan $249

Finished machined block,

assembly ready $899

Heads, ported complete

with larger valve and beehive springs $2,100

Head bolt kit $62

Camshaft $299

Lifters $505

Rockers $305

Pushrods $109

Timing set $73

Water pump $72

Distributor $370

Intake manifold, ported

and plenum matched $495

Carb $679

Plug wires $82

Spark plugs $26

Misc. fasteners, gaskets, etc. $24

Total for parts $8,504

LABOR

Assembly $900

Dyno testing $450

Grand total $9,854

Bob Lathrop's Modest 351 Windsor - Wicked Little WindsorBob Lathrop's Modest 351 Windsor Makes 536 Hp On Pump Gas, And Leaves Plenty Of Big-Blocks In The Dust.By Daryl WhitePhotography by Johnny Hunkins

In the rural farm country of Kalona, Iowa, you'd expect to hear the monotonous drone of a massive John Deere combine working the fields. But on a good day, you can hear the raw horsepower of Bob Lathrop's badass 351 Windsor punching through the air.

Bob built the AFR-headed engine at his shop, Performance Unlimited, where he works on cars during the day and burns the midnight oil building race engines. He says there is just not a big enough market in the area to support a full-time engine shop, so he does what he has to, in order to pay the bills and keep the wolves at bay.

Let's back up a minute, and start at the beginning. Last spring, one of Bob's customers asked him to build an engine for a '67 Fairlane. Bob had wanted to build an engine for the Engine Masters Challenge, so why not build a 351 Windsor that would satisfy both? A project was born.

OEM small-block Ford blocks aren't known for being very stable or strong under high-torque loads so Performance Unlimited ran a main girdle from PRW as well as ARP

main studs. The girdle effectively joins all the mains together, distributing the torque load and reducing stress in the block.

Bob and his crew, Jim Keifer and Shawn Horras, found a '71 351 Windsor core from an old van that was in pretty decent shape. The early blocks are known to be way beefier than the later stuff, so he figured it would hold the 500-plus horsepower he was shooting for. For that power range, a main girdle from PRW was added for insurance. A call to the Eagle tech line confirmed that a plain-Jane set of SIR 5.959-inch Windsor rods would easily handle that load.

With an OEM Ford crank resting on a set of Clevite bearings, he found the clearance was dead-on out of the box at .0022 inches on the mains and .0020 inches on the rods. Crank thrust was good at .004 inch, and rod side clearance was again spot-on at .020 inch.

A Moroso front-sump pan holds the Pure Power synthetic oil that Bob likes to run. The Melling M-Select pump runs that oil through a Pure Power modular oil filter before feeding the bearings.

A Moroso oil pan (PN 20507) does a great job of keeping the pump supplied with fresh lube. It's been argued that in relatively low-rpm engines like these, an elaborate

system of anti-windage devices doesn't really show any benefits. Bob and the crew from Performance Unlimited chose to forgo a windage tray and scraper.

"There really isn't anything trick in the engine," Bob claims, though he admits that the pistons are, in fact, pretty trick. "Besides the heads, the pistons are the single most expensive part of the engine," Bob says. He had the gurus at JE whip up a really nice set of lightweight forgings that gave him plenty of piston-to-valve clearance, a very streetable 10.48:1 compression, and a 1.2mm, 1.5mm, and 3.0mm ring package. That package has a back-cut, moly-faced top ring with a .020-inch gap, a back-cut, napier-style second ring with a .022-inch gap, and a low-tension oil ring. A good portion of the friction in an engine comes from the rings, and using the low-tension oil rings and napier second really helped out, in this case dropping the amount of torque required to rotate the short-block to 16 ft-lb.

COMP Cams ground Bob a hydraulic flat-tappet camshaft with 240/246-at-.050 duration, and .576-/.583-inch lift on a 108 lobe separation. COMP also supplied the 1.6-ratio Magnum series rocker arms for this deal.

Oh yeah, and the heads? How about a set of AFR 205 CNC-ported heads that use a proven porting program and flow big numbers right out of the box? Not wanting to get the runners too big, Bob did almost no work on the heads. A small amount of epoxy was used to blend a variance in the pushrod restriction, and just a few minutes were spent with a cartridge roll on the short-side radius, masking the parting line where the CNC program switched from the intake side of the runner to the chamber side. These little touches brought the flow numbers up a solid 10 cfm on the intake. AFR has some of the most efficient combustion chamber designs on the market, and they were left as-is. The exhaust ports were also left untouched. Bob used the valves and retainers that came with the heads, and only changed the springs to a set from COMP that was set up with 140 pounds on the seat and 380 open. That kind of spring pressure can be rough on a flat- tappet cam, so the break-in was done with care.

The modular Pure Power oil filter uses a CNC-machined aluminum case to hold a fine stainless steel mesh oil screen. The unit flows double the filtered oil compared to a

paper element.

Tuning this relatively modest combination is what really made the engine shine. "We ran the Innovate ST-12 wideband system and had an O2 sensor in each header tube," Bob says. Bob claimed earlier that the only trick parts of the engine were the pistons, but it's clear that he spent a bit of time on the Edelbrock Performer RPM intake. "I have about 20 hours of work in that intake, raising roofs and reshaping plenums," Bob says. One thing Bob learned about the Performer RPM is that cylinder number one wanted to be lean, and number eight liked being rich. He played around with various dams, and moved some of the port walls around, managing to even out the fuel distribution and bump up the power curve at the same time. "My goal was to get the cylinders to behave as close to the same as possible," Bob says. Playing with valve lash had almost no effect, and he even tried to run a hotter spark plug

in the richest hole to combat a possible fuel-puddling problem. Dyno testing with a Victor Jr. never showed the same broad power that the Performer RPM did. The Victor Jr. was a little higher in peak power, but not enough to justify its use.

The custom JE pistons hang on a set of Eagle SIR rods. Low-tension rings greatly reduced the friction in the engine, freeing up precious horsepower. With many OE

auto manufacturers switching over to lower-tension rings, there is a greater number of hot rodders using them without the old-fashioned fears of oiling problems in the

combustion chambers.

A good part of the tuning effort was focused on the Charlie Morgan-built 1070 carburetor. Staggering the jets and air bleeds really helped cylinder-to-cylinder variance, and Bob dipped into some emulsion jet changes to even things out. "When I changed the emulsion jets, I got rid of a lean condition I had on all eight cylinders on tip-in," Bob says. Bob tried running an 850 annular booster carb, and it had a little better fuel curve, but just didn't make the power of the 1070. Referring to the ups and downs of power versus efficiency, Bob sighed and said: "That's the game we play. It's a trade-off."

All of Bob's hard work was rewarded with big power numbers, 536 peak horsepower and 488 lb-ft of torque to be exact. Did we mention this was on 91 octane pump gas and all at below 6,500 rpm? Again, with a flat-tappet hydraulic cam.

Bob's philosophy of building engines like this has always been to focus on a combination that's really responsive and torquey. "I've always been a torque guy," Bob confesses. "I think that's what got me into fifth place two years ago," he says, referring to his extremely respectable showing at the 2006 Engine Masters Challenge. That philosophy keeps his customers happy and his business growing.

Bob's engine build sheet sure might not look like it has very many trick parts, but he's proven that he knows how to put together a solid combination that will leave ordinary 351W pump-gas engines in the dust!

An efficient combustion chamber allows the tuner to use

less ignition timing to make the most power. Using the

least amount of ignition timing that makes the most

power frees up the engine, as the rising piston does not

have to fight as hard against the growing flame front as

the piston approaches top dead center.

COMP ground a relatively short duration for the

engine. A tight 108 lobe separation helps draw the

intake charge through exhaust scavenging, and the

early 102 intake centerline helps to start

compressing that charge quickly, building cylinder

pressure.

A PRW stud girdle held a good set of COMP Magnum 1.6

rocker arms. You can still see the CNC tooling marks on

the intake runners indicating how little the Performance

Unlimited crew had to do to make these heads really

perform. Bob indicated that he thought these heads

would also do well on an even smaller engine like a 331.

Using a hydraulic flat-tappet cam with aggressive lobe

designs forced Bob and his team to reevaluate the

springs that came standard with the AFR heads. A

spring with too little pressure might not control the

valve and could lead to valve float problems, while too

much pressure could lead to excessive friction and a flat

cam lobe. The intake manifold was the source of many late

work nights. Dyno testing modifications included

temporarily epoxying popsicle sticks in various port

locations to better control air and fuel movement.

These were later taken out and permanently

replaced with epoxy dams.

Modest by nature, Bob showed his tuning prowess by

working the carburetor to its limits. Staggering the jets,

staggering the air bleeds, and performing metering block

and emulsion jet changes finalized the tuning changes.

The HVH Super Sucker carb spacer has proven itself to

make power in a number of engine combinations. That

was again the case here. Signal to the boosters is

increased at a lower rpm, allowing the boosters to

activate and get into a stable fuel flow early on.

These Mac long-tube headers were designed to fit a

351 Windsor engine into a Fox-body Mustang. The

O2 sensors in each tube allowed Bob to fine-tune

each of the cylinders. Final dyno testing was done

with MagnaFlow mufflers bolted to the collectors.

Providing an accurate and powerful spark is important

when running an engine with high cylinder pressure. An

MSD 6AL fed the Blaster coil, and in turn, pushed the

spark to the Pro Billet distributor. An old trick in fine-

tuning the Pro Billet distributor is to slightly bend one or

more of the reluctor teeth in order to advance or retard

timing.

Bob Lathrop's Modest 351 Windsor - Wicked Little Windsor

BY THE NUMBERS

PERFORMANCE UNLIMITED 358CI SMALL-BLOCK FORD

Bore: 4.030 inches

Stroke: 3.500 inches

Displacement: 358 cubic inches

Compression ratio: 10.48:1

Camshaft: COMP hydraulic, flat tappet

Cam duration: 240/246 degrees

at .050-inch tappet rise

Cam lobe lift: .360/.364 inch

Rocker ratio: COMP Magnum 1.6 ratio

Lobe separation: 108 degrees

Installed centerline: 102 degrees

Top ring: 1.2mm JE

Top ring gap: .020 inch

Second ring: 1.5mm JE

Second ring gap: .022 inch

Oil ring: 3mm JE

Piston: JE, dished top

Block: OEM Ford 351W

Crankshaft: OEM Ford 351W

Rods: Eagle SIR 5.959-inch I-beam

Main journal: 2.620 inches

Main bearing clearance: .0022 inch

Rod journal: 2.070 inches

Rod bearing clearance: .0020 inch

Cylinder head: AFR 205

Peak intake flow: 295 cfm

Intake valve diameter: 2.080 inches

Exhaust valve diameter: 1.600 inches

Intake manifold: Edelbrock Performer RPM

Carburetor: Holley 4150 modified to

1,070 cfm by Charlie Morgan

Header: Mac 1 3/4 Fox-body Windsor;

3-inch collector

Ignition: MSD 6AL

Damper: TCI Rattler

Water pump: Meziere

DTS DYNO DATA

BEST QUALIFYING PULL

RPM TQ HP

2,500 364 173

2,600 374 185

2,700 383 197

2,800 393 210

2,900 404 223

3,000 413 236

3,100 419 247

3,200 423 257

3,300 421 265

3,400 416 270

3,500 411 274

3,600 410 281

3,700 412 290

3,800 418 302

3,900 427 317

4,000 439 334

4,100 451 352

4,200 461 369

4,300 469 384

4,400 477 399

4,500 481 412

4,600 485 425

4,700 486 435

4,800 487 445

4,900 488 455

5,000 487 464

5,100 486 472

5,200 486 481

5,300 484 488

5,400 481 495

5,500 479 502

5,600 477 509

5,700 474 515

5,800 470 519

5,900 466 524

6,000 463 529

6,100 457 531

6,200 451 532

6,300 445 534

6,400 439 535

6,500 433 536

460 Ford P-51 Heads - Precedent Ford - PreviewHuge power for big-block 460 Fords is a bolt-on deal with these breakthrough P51 cylinder heads from Jon Kaase Racing.By Steve DulcichPhotography by Johnny Hunkins

Of the domestic big-block engines, the 429/460 Ford 385-Series came to the party late in the game. Ford depended on the ancient but effective FE-series of engines for big-inch power through most of the '60s musclecar era, introducing the all-new big-block design in 1969. This new fat-block had commendable features, including a wide 4.900-inch bore spacing for man-sized bores, a healthy 10.320-inch deck height, and a spacious crankcase to swallow a burly long-stroke crank. Up top, the engine featured a canted-valve layout and huge ports, borrowing design themes from the famously successful Cleveland small-block series. It seemed like a design with tremendous power potential, and in Cobra Jet and Super Cobra Jet 429 form, the power output was noticeable (with rated outputs of 370 and 375, respectively). Ford's Total Performance attitude didn't stop there, either. Looking for the ultimate weapon in the NASCAR wars, the Boss 429 was created in 1969, and featured a radical canted-valve semi-Hemi cylinder head layout with the intention of fully exploiting the new big-block's power potential.

Ford's reasoning was well directed with the Boss 429. But for all the positive attributes of the Ford's big-block architecture, and given the promise of power offered by the base canted-valve heads and cavernous ports, the ultimate power available from the new design just didn't cut it. Ford's solution was a radical departure in the cylinder head layout-but why? Though the conventional 385-Series heads seemed like a conceptual winner, there were flawed design elements clear in retrospect. Foremost, the valve placement put the centerline of the valve faces too far toward the plug side of the chamber, crowding the outside of the cylinder bore. Combined with the valve angle, this layout...

Ford FE Engine Build - Blue Collar Blue OvalAffordable and Powerful Barry Rabotnick's 752hp Ford FE proves you can have your cake and eat it too.By Ray T. BohaczPhotography by Johnny Hunkins

Regardless if you look at this sport as a business or hobby, there are two distinct mindsets. There is the easy horsepower crew, which usually translates into a big cubic-inch crate motor from GM, Ford or mother Mopar. The other side of the isle is populated with the proverbial "engine guys," much in the mold of 48-year-old Barry Rabotnick. Taking hot rodding back to its roots, these individuals look to make horsepower the old-fashioned way--by themselves. They do not buy it out of a mail-order catalog. To this school of thought, many engines come to mind such as the Pontiac, early Chrysler big-blocks (pre-B and RB versions), Oldsmobile, Cadillac and AMC. Ford big-blocks certainly have the ability to belt out the power when a modified 385 Series is bolted to the dyno pump. Good cylinder heads are offered for this design and go a long way in affirming an IC engine is nothing but an air pump. Hypothetically, if someone wanted to produce 1.49 hp/cubic inch on 91 octane pump gas with an 11.8:1 compression ratio and their engine choice was an old dump truck-inspired FE, you would have to say they were either nuts or a Blue Oval Einstein. Well, at the 2005 Jeg's Engine Masters Challenge, West Bloomfield, Mich.-based Rabotnick did just that. He coaxed 752 horsepower from a 505 cubic-inch Genesis Manufacturing Inc. iron block FE. What makes this especially impressive is he did it on a workingman's budget with no real trick parts.

Growing up one mile from the famed street racing Mecca of Woodward Avenue, Barry's first running car was a 1968 Ford Torino with a 390 and a four-speed. Over the years, he has owned and raced about 55 different cars. Barry told PHR: "For no particular reason did I have FE-powered cars. It simply was always more a matter of racing and building what I happen to own and could afford at the time." Securing a degree in accounting, Rabotnick's love for internal combustion drove him into a career in the automotive aftermarket. After a combination of 20 years at Holley and the Speed-Pro division of Federal Mogul, just as he committed to build an FE for the Engine Masters Challenge, the demons of corporate downsizing delivered a pink slip to his desk. With a cooperative wife and the promise of starting Survival Motorsports, the project engine moved forward, albeit on an even tighter budget.

"Back when I was somebody in the industry and cost was not as much of a concern, everyone would tell me to move up to a 385 Series Ford. But what was I going to do with all of the FE parts I had accumulated over nearly 30 years?" Becoming intimate with the peculiarities of the FE, Barry came to realize that he had started to go just as fast as and even beat the Chevy guys.

Our feature engine, in true backyard hot rodding form, is a combination of parts that are old and new, and even some that are not supposed to work as well as they are at this power level. Many of the bolt-on items, such as the water pump and ignition, were borrowed for the challenge from Barry's '69 Torino racecar. "The crankshaft and connecting rods are straight out of the box from SCAT," Rabotnick stated. "The shaft is SCAT's inexpensive Chinese import that features 2.750-inch main bearing journals and big-block Chevy 2.200-inch rod journals." It is hard to believe, but the crankshaft is not even forged. It is cast in construction. The connecting rods are forged H-beam-style, made to BBC dimensions, and are 6.700 inches center-to-center. Bob Fall of Fall Automotive Machine in Toledo, Ohio, set up the balance so a stock-weight flexplate and ATI balancer could be used. The rotating assembly did require the installation of some mallory to quell any harmonics.

"If there is any story here," Rabotnick said, "it is in the cylinder heads and engine block. I am sorry to disappoint you, but when you scratch through the surface, my FE is nothing but an engine that was built in my garage at home." With the popularity of this Ford engine driven by the Cobra kit car rage, and six-figure musclecar restorations, Genesis Manufacturing in Indianapolis decided to make an aftermarket FE block. Basically a beefed-up version of the old Ford FE/FT (which stood for Ford Engine/Ford Truck), it tips the scales at slightly more than 30 pounds heavier than the original. Able to accept a bore of up to 4.400 inches and a stroke of 4.375 inches, Rabotnick played it safe and only went for a bore of 4.350 inches. "This way if I hurt it, readily available BBC Chevy ring sizes could be used."

Being employed at Speed-Pro when this project began, the company made three sets of custom pistons for Barry. Again, BBC lineage came into play and the off-the-shelf pieces were machined for FE valve pockets and 1/16-inch first and second compression rings. The oil control ring is unique in being a 4mm dimension from a 460 Ford truck application. The compression height of the piston is 1.340 inches and the skirts feature the factory Speed-Pro dry film lubricant coating.

Through his years in the business, Barry made many friends who helped with his project. Tim Meara of Sunnen Corporation, the engine machine tool manufacturer, told Barry that if he would drive all night to St. Louis, he personally would machine the new FE block at Sunnen's research lab. Other than the best in machine procedures, the only modification to the out-of-the-crate block is restricted oil flow to the valve lifters and cylinder heads. No trick coatings or stress relief were employed anywhere in the engine.

The SCAT rotating assembly can be clearly seen in the Genesis Manufacturing FE block. As Barry told us, there is nothing trick down there.

The good burn characteristics of the Blue Thunder FE cylinder head are visible by the flame path over the piston crown. Note how the flame does not enter the quench

region on the far end of the crown. Many racers do not use piston color tracking as the important tool it is to see flame travel.

The cam lifts the valves to 0.747 inches on both sides. COMP Cams PN 26099 springs with 700 psi/280 psi (open and closed, respectively) were designed for an oval-

track application. Barry says they last forever in a drag motor.

The Ford truck metric oil ring was used because it reduced the radial wall thickness, allowing good oil control and low tension. A standard floating pin and lock hold the

Speed-Pro piston to the connecting rod.Ford FE Engine Build - Blue Collar Blue Oval

"The real weak link in the FE has always been the cylinder head design along with the combustion chamber," Barry is quick to state. To further complicate matters, Rabotnick told us, "Ford offered three different versions of the basic casting with low, medium and high-riser applications. To a guy used to a Chevy, the engine was just too confusing to make any sense." Since horsepower is cylinder pressure and heat, an engine's propensity to detonate is increased with the specific output. Since our feature engine was based on the one Barry had in his Torino race car with the old Ford-style heads, the 11.8:1 compression ratio was chosen due to parts availability. Coincidentally, A. T. Francais of Blue Thunder Cylinder Heads, working in conjunction with John Marcella at ET Performance (of Walled Lake, Mich.) for CNC programming, was about to introduce a cylinder head that as Barry says, "took the FE into the 21st century." With a modern quick-burn Yates-style combustion chamber that is the mainstay of Pro 5.0 racers, the FE would now be fuel-friendly. In addition, the spark plug was moved to the proper location, closer to the center of the bore. This allows for less detonation and a cylinder pressure peak sooner in the crankshaft's arc of rotation past TDC. The medium-rise runner allowed 360 cfm of airflow at 28 inches of water. The exhaust port, though slightly shy of the commonly desired 80 percent of the intake flow, blows the spent gasses out at a rate of 240 cfm at the same depression. This value was obtained without an exhaust extension. With the proper six-inch pipe attached, the exhaust flow would pick up due to the elimination of sheer.

The deck on the Blue Thunder cylinder head is very thick and 0.102 inches needed to be milled off to achieve a combustion chamber volume of 72cc.

The intake manifold and carburetor are nothing too exotic, and feature an Edelbrock Victor FE that had a good deal of welding and reconturing done by ET Performance. This was required not only for good volumetric efficiency, but to match up and work with the CNC-ported medium-rise cylinder heads. The fuel mixing duties were handled by a Holley 1050 Dominator modified by Quick Fuel Technology with the company's float bowls and billet metering blocks, among other tricks. As Barry says, "The carb is so beautiful it could be a piece of art."

The one and only test session the FE underwent before heading east was done at Wheel-to-Wheel in Madison Heights, Mich. There, the Rabotnick crew ran into some disappointing results. "We struggled to make 600 horsepower, which was about 100 less than it did with the old Ford-style heads. This baffled everyone since the engine did nothing wrong other than being a pig." After much trial and error, it was discovered that the used ignition coil that Barry took from the Torino, due to budget constraints, had seen better days. Poor saturation was the culprit. With a new MSD coil bolted on, the engine produced 712 hp with a mixture of 12.5:1. This was after about two hours of undoing everything that, as Barry said, "got screwed up during diagnosing the low-power problem." On the Michigan dyno, the headers needed to be turned upside-down for cart clearance, and from previous testing, Rabotnick knew this was costing him about 12 ponies. So he calculated around 725 horsepower at the Engine Masters Challenge.

With a very conservative 27 degrees of total timing and a rich mixture, the engine was sent off to Long Island for the Jeg's Engine Masters Challenge. Barry knew that he was not going to win, but needed to play it safe to keep the motor together and keep him out of divorce court. With only a switch to 5W-20 Royal Purple synthetic oil from mineral-based lubricant, and the lower 91-octane spec gasoline, the time of reckoning was near. At Bill Mitchell's shop, the FE was out-gunned on paper by a host of other competitors. There, the mighty yet written-off Ford made history with 1.49 hp/cubic inch, or 752 hp. The engine picked up 40 horsepower with the spec fuel leaning out the air/fuel ratio to 13.5:1. Remarkably, Rabotnick made no tuning changes at all, not even an air bleed. No signs of detonation were present and nothing broke. That's always important for a working man. The power was good enough for ninth place overall. Not bad for a CPA turned engine builder.

PHR could not help but ask Rabotnick if he would've done anything different given the opportunity. His response was without hesitation: "This FE is a 752-horsepower engine that has many 450-horsepower parts inside. I will be back. This was only a shakedown run. I know where to find a lot more power." With a work ethic like that, PHR is sure Survival Motorsports and Barry Rabotnick will be a huge success. He just might bring Ford FE power back to the front burner. Sounds like the good ol' days all over again.

The oiling system consists of a Rabotnick-blueprinted Melling pump, Canton windage tray, and Milodon oil pan--strictly a workingman's oiling system.

The Edelbrock Victor FE manifold attaches to the Quick Fuel Technology Holley carburetor with a two-inch thick HVH phenolic spacer.

John Marcella of ET Performance worked with Blue Thunder to develop a CNC program to maximize the airflow in and out of the bore.

The Blue Thunder aluminum FE cylinder head incorporates a modern heart-style combustion chamber for quick burn rates and good flame travel. Note how the spark

plug is moved closer to the bore center and biased toward the exhaust valve.

The rocker arms and shaft are from Dove and feature roller tips and the factory 1.76:1 ratio. The pushrods are by Trend and are 9.425-inches long.

The solid roller lifters and camshaft were made by COMP. The bumpstick was ground for a total lift of 0.747 inch and 257/265 degrees of duration at 0.050 inch lift. The

lobe center is 108 degrees and the cam was installed one degree advanced from that position.

The headers were off-the-shelf Hookers from Rabotnick's Torino. They feature 2-inch primary pipes and 3.5-inch collectors.

The Blue Thunder competition-style cast aluminum valve covers look trick and do the job along with the MSD plug wires.

The obligatory K&N air filter made sure the FE would only ingest clean air.

The Quick Fuel Technology carburetor uses No. 88 jets and annular-style boosters.

John Marcella did a beautiful job of welding and reforming the intake manifold plenum and runners.

The attention to detail can be seen in the perfect shape of the intake manifold runner. Brass tubes are expoxied into place for pushrod clearance.

The Meziere electric water pump is 3 years old and was borrowed from Barry's Torino.

For the Engine Master's Challenge, a powerful MSD-7AL2 ignition system was employed.

Ford FE Engine Build - Blue Collar Blue Oval

Dyno Results

RPM TQ HP

2,500 550 261.6

2,600 553 273.6

2,700 556 286.0

2,800 562 299.5

2,900 565 312.0

3,000 563 321.7

3,100 560 330.5

3,200 557 346.4

3,300 551 346.4

3,400 543 351.5

3,500 535 356.7

3,600 535 366.6

3,700 545 384.0

3,800 559 404.2

3,900 574 426.3

4,000 589 448.6

4,100 602 470.3

4,200 616 492.8

4,300 628 514.0

4,400 638 534.0

4,500 646 554.0

RPM TQ HP

4,600 654 572.0

4,700 659 590.0

4,800 663 606.0

4,900 667 622.0

5,000 670 638.0

5,100 670 651.0

5,200 671 665.0

5,300 672 678.0

5,400 669 688.0

5,500 666 698.0

5,600 663 707.0

5,700 656 712.0

5,800 652 720.0

5,900 648 728.0

6,000 639 730.0

6,100 636 739.0

6,200 633 747.0

6,300 627 752.0

6,400 614 749.0

6,500 603 747.0

Engine Specifications

Bore 4.350 inches

Stroke 4.250 inches

Displacement 505 cubic inches

Compression ratio 11.8:1

Camshaft COMP, solid roller

Cam duration 257/265 degrees at 0.050-inch tappet lift

Valve lift 0.747-inch

Rocker ratio 1.76:1

Lobe seperation 108-degrees

Installed centerline 109-degrees

Top ring Speed-Pro, 0.017 gap

Second ring Speed-Pro, 0.024 gap

Oil ring 4mm Ford 460 truck

Piston Speed-Pro, 1.340 inches compression height

Quench clearance 0.037-inch

Block Genesis Manufacturing cast-iron FE

Crankshaft SCAT, cast iron

Rods SCAT, H-beam 6.700 inches

Main journal 2.750 inches

Rod journal 2.200 inches

Cylinder head Blue Thunder Ford FE aluminum

Intake valve dia. 2.200 inches

Exhaust valve dia. 1.650 inches

Intake manifold Edelbrock Victor FE

Carburetor Quick Fuel Technology/Holley 1050 Dominator

Peak horsepower 752 @ 6,300 rpm

Peak torque 672 @ 5,300 rpm

Blue Oval Brawler -- Technical Article -- Engine Masters MagazineCan a 385-series big-block Ford survive on 91-octane pump gas with 13:1 compression? Livernois Motorsports proved it could be done, making 816 hp with just 509 cubic inchesBy Steve DulcichPhotography by Matt King, Johnny Hunkins

This year's Engine Masters Challenge saw Chevrolet take the top two spots, but the Third-Place Ford entry of Livernois Motorsports was a contender right to the end. Scrutinizing the dyno sheets, one thing is abundantly clear, these fellows know a thing or two about making big power with Ford's 385-series big-block. A score of 1,258 points secured the Third-Place position, and the peak power output of 816 hp and 738 lb-ft of torque left no doubt of the seriousness of the effort. Naturally, we wanted to know a lot more about the specifics, and Livernois's John Lahone was more than happy to share the details.

When asked about his general philosophy in building this engine, Lahone laughed and noted, "My philosophy keeps changing every year. We were running a pretty small bore, but our cylinder head guys didn't let me run it any smaller than 4.300 inches. With the small bore we can run a long stroke and a short rod to speed the piston up, so we could run all that compression and make the cylinder pressure and not detonate so badly. With the short rod, it will pull the piston away from top dead center, so it won't detonate so much." The Livernois engine had one of the highest compression ratios in the competition at 13:1. No doubt that is pushing it with pump gas, but Lahone considered it an edge. John explained, "Last year we ran 11.6:1, and we felt that was too low. We did some combustion chamber stuff, and quenched it as much as we could to help keep it away from detonation." We queried about the quench clearance, and Lahone put it at 0.040 inch.

Maximizing the cylinder pressure without provoking detonation was one of the key objectives in building this engine. Lahone revealed that coming up with the combination required considerable attention to the camshaft. John explained, "We tested quite a few camshafts, testing them at 107- and 108-degree lobe separation. We ended up at 110. We had two torque peaks, and revising the cam got rid of most of the drop from peak to peak. The cam we ended up with got rid of some of the overlap, so we had a little more cylinder pressure at lower speeds, and it helped our numbers." Livernois went into the competition with a COMP Cams solid roller, with specs at 253/263-duration at 0.050-inch tappet rise, and delivering 0.775-inch lift. Working the valves are 1.8:1-ratio COMP steel rockers, stabilized by a Jomar stud girdle. The springs were set up to deliver 215 pounds on the seat and about 620 over the nose. Livernois used Jesel roller lifters, and a Danny B belt drive.

The cylinder heads are a key component in an Engine Masters contender, and here Livernois also made its final selection based on testing. Lahone told PHR: "We tested the first set of cylinder heads, which flowed really well, but the runners were fairly small, and then we tested a second set of heads that were quite a bit bigger, and we had better numbers with that. The airflow was better at the top, and we ended up gaining 13 points with the bigger heads. Instead of going for the higher velocity small ports, we went for a little less velocity and bigger ports and it responded." The approximate runner cross-sectional area was given as 3.25 square inches, which is definitely not huge, while the valve sizes measured 2.300 inches on the intake, and 1.900 inches on the exhaust. The cylinder head castings are the Ford Super Cobra Jet heads, and the modifications were not limited to the ports. The chambers were welded up to reduce the volume to 65cc, and to increase the quench area. Considerable material was added in the vicinity of the spark plug, increasing the surface area of the quench deck, again looking to increase the detonation tolerance.

To compliment the intake ports, the engine featured a much-modified Edelbrock Victor intake manifold. Lahone pointed out that the runner extensions added to the plenum had a noticeable effect: "The manifold was better with the runner extensions. When we made them longer, it helped us on the bottom, but it hurt us on the top. We just went in between, and we had better numbers with them cut back." The manifold was fully ported, and the extensions were rounded and radiused. Turtles were also tested in the intake plenum, but it proved to help on the bottom, but hurt at the top, and in the end no turtle was used. Single-plane intake manifolds were the norm for our big-block event, but Livernois also experimented with a two-plane. John disclosed: "We also tried a 180-degree intake manifold, but it really didn't help us; it made good torque at the bottom, but ran out of steam too fast."

Topping the intake was a Holley Dominator carburetor, and as with the intake and heads, testing determined the final selection. The best carb of several tested was from Dale Cubic--a modified 1250. The boosters are a custom design, with an unusual step. In the carb, the distribution was fine-tuned by staggered jetting, with the best setting determined by trying to find best power with the jetting combination. In competition tune, the brake specific numbers BSFC were as low as 0.330 lbs/hr/hp.

As with most competitors, testing time was at a premium. Waiting for delivery of many of the key engine parts set the Livernois program back, with a ring land failure in low-octane fuel testing being a low point. Overall, there were around 200 dyno pulls in the development effort.

Interestingly, Lohone feels that the engine needs to be built to be capable of making as much cylinder pressure as possible without detonating, and then push it to the point were it is detonating. John told us, "I think you have to detonate it to make it do the best that it can. Last year we didn't detonate, and we didn't do so well, and I think we went too conservative. This year we might have gone just a little bit too high on compression, but let's say 12.5:1 would have been just about ideal. I really think you have to push it far enough to detonate the engine on 91-octane fuel to get the numbers you need. You have to give something at the bottom, to avoid losing too much at the middle and the top."

That's not to say that the Livernois team held back when looking to delay the onset of detonation as much as possible. As a technique to keep the engine away from detonation, Livernois built a reverse cooling system, sending cooling water to the heads first. The quench, and the basic bottom-end configuration of bore, stroke and rod length were designed to allow the highest cylinder pressure possible without detonating, then the edge was pushed right to that detonation point. Moving that point upward, Lohone and crew went further, "We used coatings, and tried to keep the air as cool as possible going into the chamber. We coated the valves and the pistons; I would have liked to do the combustion chamber, but we didn't have the time to do that, and I would have liked to have done the intake manifold, but we were working on it right to the end."

To survive the detonation, custom Bill Miller Racing pistons were used. John filled us in on the details: "They were really heavy, and I don't think they were real good for friction, and I think we lost some points there." The piston tops were CNC-machined with a dish at Livernois, matching the shape of the chamber. The ring pack featured a Total Seal gapless top ring, and a Napier second ring, both measuring 0.043-inch section width, with a 3mm oil ring. The block was sleeved in all eight holes, extending the cylinder walls downward about a half-inch into the crankcase. Lohone disclosed the reasoning behind the sleeves: "I wanted to have the support on the pistons to keep the rings straight in the bores to help them seal better, not so much on the power stroke but on the intake stroke to get a good gulp of air. With the sleeves hanging down, the stability is increased at bottom dead center. I believe they also help keep the oil out of the cylinder bore."

As with most of the serious competitors, minimizing the friction was an avenue to more power. Anti-friction coatings were used extensively, and the journal diameters were reduced to 2.500 inches on the mains, and 2.000 inches on the rods. The bearing clearance was set at 0.0026-0.0027 inch. The rod bearings looked great, but the main bearings showed some signs of distress. John pointed out: "I think that cutting it down to 2.500 inches on the mains and having a 2.000-inch rod on it with that big a stroke lets the crank whip enough to work on the main bearings a little bit." How successful was the effort at minimizing friction? Lohone claimed that the completed engine turned over at only 22 ft-lbs of torque. The rings helped with the low rotational friction, which was reduced to just 6 pounds of tension on the oil ring, and the Napier ring was cut back. Other steps to minimize parasitic losses include roller bearings in the cam journal bores, and controlled oil drainback to the front timing case area.

Viewing the front engine accessories of the Livernois Ford, we find a mixture of serious race hardware and custom-made components. The Meziere water pump

circulates the coolant through a custom reverse-flow cooling system.

Livernois employed a knock sensor and monitor to keep a watchful eye on detonation level. The sensor screwed into a water jacket plug low in the block.

Induction was via a Dale Cubic-modified Holley 1250 Dominator, feeding the mixture to an Edelbrock Victor manifold.

A closer look down the carburetor venturis reveals custom modified boosters. The carb was stagger-jetted for optimal distribution, though the air bleeds were square.

The intake was lavished with heavy port work and welded runner extensions before it was in full competition form. Livernois regrets not having had the time to employ a

thermal barrier coating. The fittings at the thermostat housing are part of the reverse cooling system.

The effective runner length producing best power was arrived at by trimming the runner extension length, with changes in score being determined by dyno testing.

Inside the plenum, the Allen head bolt is evidence of turtle testing performed by Livernois.

Inside the lifter valley, we get a peek of the Jesel roller lifters, which ride in un-bushed lifter bores. The oil drainback in the valley is controlled by standpipes, and

directed to the front timing cover.

Under the valve covers resides a serious-looking valvetrain. The rockers are 1.8:1 COMPs, with a Jomar stud girdle providing additional support to the ARP studs.

Scrutinizing the dyno sheets, one thing is abundantly clear, these fellows know a thing or two about making big power with Ford's 385-series big-block.

Livernois had the opportunity to test two sets of heads and found that the larger version produced a better overall score. Some epoxy filling was employed to tune the

runner size. The intake port measures 3.25 inches in cross section, and feeds 2.300-inch valves.

A relatively large exhaust port was employed, as revealed by the port work extending all the way into the cylinder head bolt hole. The exhaust valve diameter spec'd out

at 1.900 inches.

Welding the chambers of the Ford Motorsport Super Cobra Jet heads reduced the chamber volume to 65cc, and the material added considerably to the quench surface

area.

Matching the combustion chambers with a mirror image is the dish in the pistons. This design maximizes the quench area. The machine work involved with creating the

dish was performed at Livernois.Blue Oval Brawler -- Technical Article -- Engine Masters Magazine

With the Ford's tall deck and Livernois' choice of a short

rod, the piston compression height was relatively tall at

over 1.600 inches. Note the full skirt on the custom Bill

Miller piston. Lateral gas ports were employed, and the

pistons were fully coated.

Total Seal gapless top rings handled the sealing of

combustion gasses, while the Napier-faced second ring

worked as an oil scraper. Both rings are 0.043 inches,

while the oil control ring measures 3 mm.

A small-block Chevy sized piston pin joins the

piston to the rod. The small end of the rod is not

bushed, depending instead on a casidium coating

to prevent galling.

Keeping parasitic losses to a minimum, Livernois machined

the oil pump housing and gears, reducing its pumping

volume. The oil pressure was kept to a minimum.

Inside the crankcase, it's easy to spot the cylinder bore

sleeves. The sleeves project 0.500 inch below the

original bores, providing extra support to the piston for

improved ring stability and seal.

Reduced main journals ride in 340 Mopar bearings,

with bearing spacers fitted to the block to take up

the difference.

Custom main bearing caps were machined by ProGram

Engineering to accept the small-block Mopar main bearings

in the Ford block.

A custom Moldex crank transforms the push of the

pistons to useable power. The crank was fully profiled

for minimum windage.

Vital Specs:

Bore 4.300 in

Stroke 4.375 in

Displacement 509 ci

Compression Ratio 13:1

Camshaft Comp, solid roller

Cam Duration 258/263 degrees at 0.050 in tappet rise

Cam Lift 0.775 in

Rocker Ratio 1.8:1

Lobe Separation 110-degrees

Installed Centerline 108-degrees

Top Ring Total Seal, gapless, 0.043 in

Second Ring SpeedPro, Taper Face, 0.043 in

Oil Ring 3mm

Piston Bill Miller, dish, 0.927-in pin

Gas Ports lateral

Quench Clearance 0.040 in

Block factory production Crankshaft Moldex, billet

Rods Leutz, 6.250 in

Main Journal 2.500 in, Mopar

Rod Journal 2.000 in, SBC

Cylinder Head Ford Super Cobra Jet, ported

Intake valve diameter 2.300 inches

Exhaust valve diameter 1.900 inches

Intake Manifold Edelbrock Victor, Ported

Carburetor Holley 1250 Dominator

Wicked WindsorWorld Products' new mega-inch Man O' War crate engine stretches the size limit of the Ford Windsor. and then some.

Bill Mitchell has done it all, from turning wrenches on the original Baldwin-Motion supercars in the early-'70s to fielding successful drag and circle-track race cars. He is best known, however, for the competition and street engines assembled through his New York-based World Products/Bill Mitchell Hardcore Engines shop.

Starting with Merlin big-blocks and evolving into Motown small-blocks, Mitchell has become synonymous with monster Chevy engines. That's changing, however, as he and World Products roll out a new line of Man O' War blocks, short-block assemblies, and crate engines--all of them based on the Ford 302/351 Windsor-type engine.

Moving into the Blue Oval business was a logical step because World Products already produces a successful line of Windsor-style iron and aluminum cylinder heads. Mitchell is also leveraging the lower-cost block machining process he developed on his Chevy-style blocks, which helps make the sturdy block castings affordable to those of us without sponsorship decals on our car doors.

With guidance and suggestions from a prominent NASCAR Ford entity, Mitchell revamped the basic 302/351 design to bulk it up in key areas, such as the front and rear bulkheads--each is about an inch thicker than the stock Ford 302 block. Iron was added to the cylinder banks to add strength and provide water passage room for large-displacement combinations.

The result is a block that weighs about 60 pounds more than a standard Ford 302 block, but is considerably stronger throughout. The thicker iron is complemented with standard splayed four-bolt billet steel main caps, which should all but eliminate the tendency for catastrophic cracking that isn't uncommon with the production blocks. It is a problem racers have tried to prevent through the use of stud girdles and other methods, but too much boost or nitrous can split the 302 block like a factor-10 migraine, usually through the lifter valley.

For DIY engine builders, the Man O' War is a relative bargain at about $2,400, making it much less costly than other similar aftermarket castings while also offering 5.0-style roller cam capability (so all the modern EFI equipment will bolt up).

Actually, Mitchell designed the Man O' War to accept all the components and accessories that were ever bolted to a 302 or 351 at the factory. Apart from some obvious bulges around the cylinders, the Man O' War looks for all the world like one of Henry's own castings.World Products offers the Man O' War in four deck heights, including 8.200 inches, 8.700 inches, 9.200 inches, and 9.500 inches. The 8.200- and 8.700-inch decks are 302-style blocks, while the two taller decks are 351-style blocks. The minimum deck thickness is 0.600-inch.

A "C" version of the 302-style block is available with mounting positions for the oil pump and distributor in the same location as the 351 blocks. With standard Ford 302 blocks, interference with the oil pump keeps maximum displacement to about 347 cubes; the Man O' War "C" blocks permit maximum 375ci "302." Add to all these versions either 4.000- or 4.125-inch bores and the capability of a 4.250-inch-stroke crankshaft, and it means a plethora of possible combinations, particularly for the crate engines.

Crate Engine HierarchyWhile the bare blocks are a boon to those who've already blown their Boss, the big news is the explosion (pun not intended) of crate engines that World Products has released under the same name. In fact, World Products offers a dizzying number of Man O' War crate engines, each separated in a specific hierarchy of power output and price. It's a carefully crafted spread of offerings designed to appeal to every level of enthusiast desire and/or budget.The five-step hierarchy includes Daily Driver, Cruiser, World Class, Hardcore, and Limited Edition. Each comes with iron cylinder heads and approximately 9:1 compression--all, that is, except the full-tilt Limited Edition engines, which come with 10.5:1 pistons and aluminum heads. Aluminum heads are upgrade options on the other engine classes.

The entry-level Daily Driver series, for example, features stock displacement, a 750-cfm carb, a mild hydraulic cam, and a warm output of 351 hp in the 351-cube version. It lists for $6,995.

Cruiser-class engines and above can feature increased displacement and correspondingly larger heads and carb. For the Man O' War, there are 351-inch and 427-inch Cruiser engines rated at 370 hp and 450 hp, respectively.At the World Class level, World Products' larger Windsor Sr. heads are added, along with an 870-cfm carb. A 427-cube version is rated at 495 horses with the optional aluminum heads, while 351- and 375-inch versions also are available. Interestingly, the 375ci engines are based on the 8.200-deck "C" blocks, so they'll fit under the hood of most cars without the need of a hood scoop.Up at the Hardcore level, the 427ci engine swaps the hydraulic cam for a solid lifter type, bumps up compression to 9.5:1, and is topped with a 1,050-cfm Dominator carb. It's rated at 500 horses with iron heads and 525 with aluminum lungs (the top-rung 525-horse version listing at $9,795).

The pinnacle of Man O' War crate offerings is the 460ci Limited Edition, which employs a solid roller cam, 4.155-inch bores, a Dominator carb, and a 10.5:1 compression ratio. For a list price of $10,995, it cranks out 575 horses and 550 lb-ft of torque, and is the subject of the engine build up depicted in this story's accompanying photos.

Inside the 460The Limited Edition 460 starts with a 9.500-deck 351 block making use of 4.155-inch bores and the maximum 4.250-inch-stroke crank, which is, of course, forged. The bottom of each cylinder is notched to make room for long-reaching H-beam connecting rods.

We followed Mike McIntyre, one of World's seasoned engine builders, through the assembly process, which is remarkable in its simplicity. The basic assembly is accomplished more or less like any handbuilt engine--one part at a time. It's the size of everything, from the bores to the intake runners of the cylinders heads, that really impress. Frankly, none of this would be possible without the strength and room afforded by the Man O' War block.

Mitchell won't reveal the ramp specs of his custom-grind solid roller camshaft, but tells us it is designed to maintain a streetable idle quality, but still deliver a noticeable lope as well as high-rpm performance. The 460's horsepower peak is 5,800 rpm, while Mitchell says the engine's upper limit is 6,500 rpm. The block is topped with a pair of World's own Windsor Sr. aluminum cylinder heads, which boast 200cc intake runners that have fast-burn-style 64cc combustion chambers. The tunnel-like intake paths are considerably larger than comparable Ford heads, which have 124cc runners. The valves are matched to the heads' tremendous flow, measuring 2.055 inches on the intake side and 1.600 inches on the exhaust. Not surprisingly, stiff, dual 125-pound valvesprings complement the valvetrain, along with custom aluminum roller-tip rocker arms with a 1.73 ratio. They're mounted on screw-in studs. Also, World adds two additional head bolt holes to the Man O' War block, which provide an extra measure of sealing.

But while the large-volume block and heads were in-stock items at World Products headquarters, the engine program hit a development bottleneck, figuratively and literally, when it came to intake manifold selection. To feed the engine's big passages, a 4500-series Dominator-style carb with a 1,050-cfm carb was needed, but there was a problem: nobody made a Dominator manifold for the small-block Ford. Apparently, natural displacement limits of stock blocks have negated the necessity for such a combination. Surprised and taken aback, Mitchell and company modified some aftermarket single-plane intakes to accept the 1,050 carb, which was what our buildup engine wore. Since our photo shoot, Mitchell has told us World Products is developing its own intake and will begin producing it shortly. The remainder of the engine's components makes for a complete package, including a deep-sump Canton oil pan, SFI-approved balancer, and even an HEI-type distributor from Mallory. Spark plugs and wires are installed, too.

As is the case with all World Products crate engines, the completed engine is pushed into a dyno cell for tuning and testing. A dyno report is attached to each engine and we've watched World's technicians start to pack engines into their crate while they were still warm. Simply put, they're fresh.Mitchell insists the Limited Edition 460, as well as all of his crate engines, is designed for effortless street duty. And while we weren't able to sample the 460 engine in a vehicle, it's easy-starting, tractable idle quality, and crisp throttle response on the dyno leant credence to the claim. Mitchell has a Limited Edition engine in his '33 Ford street rod. It's a 600-horse monster with the Dominator carb, solid roller cam--the whole nine yards. It's a street driver that he used last year on both the Power Tour and Americruise.If you're a Ford fan, World Products offers a wealth of new opportunities. And it's all thanks to a man known more for Bow Ties than Blue Ovals.

The new Man O' War Ford Windsor-style 302/351 block from World Products is the foundation for the Limited Edition 460 crate engine. It is thicker and sturdier in key

areas than Ford blocks, which makes the block stronger and capable of supporting such a large-displacement combination. In this case, it's a tall-deck/351-style block

with 4.155-inch bores.

All Man O' War blocks have splayed four-bolt main caps. The main caps are billet steel and the fasteners for the inner bolts consist of studs and nuts. This makes a stud

girdle unnecessary.

The reach for this 460ci monster small-block comes from a 4.250-inch stroked crank from Eagle. It's a bulletproof 4340-forged piece.

Next in the block is the camshaft. World Products doesn't want to reveal its secret recipe, but we can tell you it's a solid roller type that is designed to strike a balance

between streetable idle quality and high-rpm performance.

Behind the standard Ford aluminum front cover is a double-row chain. So far, this build is just like any other small-block Ford assembly.

The long-stroke crankshaft is complemented by Mahle-supplied forged aluminum pistons (with coated skirts) that deliver a 10.5:1 compression ratio. They're pinned to

Eagle 4340-forged H-beam rods.

It is a small-block, after all, so to make room for the high-swinging reciprocating assembly, the bottom of each cylinder is notched for clearance.

The high-volume oil pump assembly clears the recip assembly, too. World also offers a "C" version of the short-deck/302-style block, which allows for a 375-inch "302"

engine.

A deep Canton dual-sump oil pan is standard and is designed for the typical Ford crossmember. Still, you'll want to double-check before dropping into your Fox or SN-95

Mustang.

The Limited Edition 460 comes with aluminum versions of World Products' Windsor Sr. cylinder heads. And, yes, this photo shows an iron head because during our visit

there weren't any aluminum heads in stock. So, we left the iron head unpainted so it sort of looks like aluminum (c'mon, use your imagination). Whether iron or

aluminum, the Windsor Sr. has 200cc intake runners and fast-burn-type, 64cc combustion chambers.

Manley Severe Duty valves in the Windsor Sr. heads are 2.055 inches in diameter on the intake side, and 1.600 inches across on the exhaust side. Big valves are

mandatory for regulating the flow of high-flow heads.

Take a closer look at the installed cylinder heads and you'll see 1.437-inch, dual 125-pound springs. They'll handle up to 0.600-inch lift. Locks and retainers are from

Manley. The springs and valve seals are World Products' own parts.

Custom 1.73-ratio aluminum roller rocker arms from Scorpion are standard in the Limited Edition 460. They mount to screw-in studs.

Fuel and air meet in a 1050-cfm "Dominator" carburetor. World Products modifies out-of-the-box carbs to fit their specific combinations.

When World Products started development of its 460-inch Ford engine program, there were no Dominator-type manifolds for the small-block Ford. So, the company

modified other aftermarket single-plane intakes to fit. World should be installing its own new manifold by the time you reading this.

That's a big carburetor for a small-block Ford! Then again, at 460 ci, it's a huge small-block. Displacement limits with original-type Ford engines made aftermarket

development of large-passage intakes for such carburetors unnecessary.

A Mallory HEI-style distributor is standard, along with all the plugs and plug wires. The distributor is equipped with a plug-in for a complementing ignition box.

As with other World Products engines we've encountered, the level of finish de-tail of the Limited Edition 460 is very good. Among the standard components is a

competition-spec balancer.

All buttoned up and ready to rock. The Limited Edition 460 represents the pinnacle of crate engine offerings based on the new Man O' War block. This one is rated at 575

hp and 550 lb-ft of torque. It carries a list price of $10,995, which includes a 2-year/24,000-mile warranty. That sounds like a pretty good deal if you ask us. Every

World crate engine is dyno tested prior to shipping, and we can tell you that its advertised power ratings are generally on the conservative side.Wicked Windsor

All buttoned up and ready to rock. The Limited Edition 460 represents the pinnacle of crate engine offerings based on the new Man O' War block. This one is rated at 575 hp and 550 lb-ft of torque. It carries a list price of $10,995, which includes a 2-year/24,000-mile warranty. That sounds like a pretty good deal if you ask us. Every World crate engine is dyno tested prior to shipping, and we can tell you that its advertised power ratings are generally on the conservative side.

THE DOWN UNDER CONNECTIONAustralia, where Fords dominate the high-performance market like Chevys do in the States, is quickly becoming the hot spot for Blue Oval hot parts. One of the premiere purveyors of Ford performance parts is Cylinder Head Innovations (CHI), out of Campbellfield, Victoria, Australia (they have a handful of distributors in the U.S.A., with World Products being one of them). One of the best products is the 3V 218cc aluminum cylinder head--a design that was used on the runner-up Engine Masters finalist engine in 2002.Bill Mitchell has tapped into this as a source for exotic performance parts that fit his large-volume Man O' War blocks. In a reciprocal relationship, those new Man O' War blocks will be heading to Oz to feed a market hungry for Ford ultra-high-performance.Take a close look at the photo here and you'll see numerous features not standard on production Man O' War crate engines, including the 3V alloy heads, 3V 9.5-deck Dominator intake manifold and coolant cross-over bypass. CHI even made the cast-aluminum valve covers on this unique engine, which was scheduled for testing shortly after our visit. The land Down Under is definitely Oz for Ford fans.

WORLD PRODUCT'S MAN O' WAR LIMITED EDITION 460Test Data:

Engine timing: 30 degrees

Lash (cold): 0.020

RPM Torque HP Water Oil

TEMP TEMP

3,500 573.4 382.1 142 174

3,600 596.5 408.9 142 174

3,700 599.1 422.1 142 174

3,800 601.7 435.4 142 174

3,900 602.6 447.4 142 174

4,000 605.4 461.1 143 174

4,100 605.9 473.0 144 174

4,200 605.5 484.2 144 174

4,300 604.3 494.7 144 174

4,400 604.1 506.1 144 174

4,500 603.3 516.9 144 174

4,600 602.7 527.9 144 174

4,700 599.9 536.8 144 174

4,800 596.5 545.2 145 175

4,900 590.6 551.0 145 174

5,000 586.6 558.4 145 175

5,100 580.7 563.9 140 176

5,200 575.2 569.5 143 176

5,300 567.1 572.3 144 177

5,400 555.8 571.4 146 178

5,500 544.0 569.7 147 179

5,600 538.4 574.1 147 180

5,700 532.3 577.7 147 180

5,800 524.7 579.5 140 181

5,900 513.9 577.3 146 182

6,000 505.7 577.8 147 183

Test average: 597.81 lb-ft of torque, 505.9 hp

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS MAN O' WAR 460 LIMITED EDITION

Manufacturer: World Products, Ronkonkoma, NY

Engine type: OHV V-8; iron-block with aluminum heads

Displacement: 460 ci

Compression ratio: 10.5:1

Horsepower: 575 at 5,800 rpm

Torque (lb.-ft.): 550 at 4,000 rpm

Maximum engine speed: 6,500 rpm

Cylinder block: high-density cast-iron

Main bearing caps: four-bolt splayed; billet steel

Deck height: 9.500 inches

Cylinder bore: 4.155 inches

Stroke: 4.250 inches

Crankshaft: 4340 forged steel

Connecting rods: 4340-forged steel H-beam

Pistons: forged aluminum with coated skirts

Piston connecting pins: full-floating

Camshaft: solid roller lifter

Timing system: double-row chain

Cylinder heads: Windsor Sr. aluminum; 200cc intake runners

Combustion chamber: 64cc

Valves: 2.055-inch intake; 1.600-inch exhaust (stainless steel)

Valvesprings: dual 125-pound (seat pressure)

Rocker arms: aluminum roller; 1.73 ratio

Pushrods: 4340-forged steel, one-piece (used with guides)

Intake manifold: single-plane high-rise

Carburetor: 1050-cfm Dominator (4500 series)

Distributor: HEI-type

Miscellaneous: spark plugs, plug wires, oil pan, polished "Limited Edition" valve covers, SFI balancer included