[DeTomaso] New Engine
Mark McWhinney
msm at portata.com
Tue Aug 14 15:47:33 EDT 2007
Given Trevor's requirements, is a Cleveland block even in the running?
1) 430-500 HP
2) Durable
3) Streetable
4) Spirited driving with some drag runs
-----Original Message-----
From: detomaso-bounces at realbig.com [mailto:detomaso-bounces at realbig.com] On
Behalf Of JDeRyke at aol.com
Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2007 12:18 PM
To: trevor at fougere.com; detomaso at realbig.com
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] New Engine
In a message dated 8/14/07 1:06:51 AM, trevor at fougere.com writes:
<<....50% compression loss. Coolant in the oil. Coolant in the exhaust.
The
same cylinder that necessitated a rebuild approx 3-5,000 miles and two
owners
ago. Haven't taken the heads off yet, but I'm expecting more bad news.....
>>
Worst case- start looking for a new core-engine now; coolant in the oil very
likely means the cylinder wall is cracked, or (less likely) a head is
cracked.
A 50% compression drop may mean a thin piece of cylinder wall has blown into
the water jacket; this happened to us with a silver-dollar sized chunk of
wall
during a competition event, from a simple backfire on an engine bored
0.030-over. Ford said that Clevelands should not be overbored AT ALL and
only offered
0.003-over pistons for home-fitting.
Once you find a block, have it cleaned and sonic-checked for thin cylinder
walls. Wall thicknesses below 0.080" means the thing is only safe to use in
a
truck or as a lawn ornament, not as a high-horsepower engine. Most
previously
overbored blocks are in this category. Blocks with enough wall thickness
these
days are few & far between- see the archives thread by Pat Orlando, Allan
Foster and others who lost 351-Cs and had to spend much time finding a
suitable
core to work with. Many cautious owners have stockpiled a couple of good
core-engines for such future disasters.
Also, changing to a 351W does not guarantee the thin-block syndrome will not
reoccur. Sonic-test all Fords! And find a builder who is familiar with the
peculiarities of the early-'70s Ford V-8s.
Good luck (or at least better luck than you've recently had!) -J DeRyke
<BR><BR><BR>**************************************<BR> Get a sneak peek of
the
all-new AOL at http://discover.aol.com/memed/aolcom30tour</HTML>
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