[DeTomaso] Aluminum 351 Block

[JDeRyke at aol.com]

In spite of claims to the contrary, I've only ever seen one (1.0) aluminum 
Cleveland block. Matter of fact, I carried it into a PCNC monthly meeting a 
couple of decades ago for a show-and-tell. It weighed 89 lbs bare. It was one of 
perhaps a dozen blocks cast up for Ford, for projects like Gurney's racers and 
the like. It accepts ALL Cleveland bolt-ons, and while it was designed to be a 
dry-sump, it used an in-the-pan pump mounted between cast outriggers from 
Cleveland main bearing caps, with a shaft that protruded thru the front of a 
modified stock pan, to be belt driven off the crank. The rules then were quite 
restrictive in terms of 'non-production' parts in racing. FWIW, this very same 
historically significant block, now built into a complete streetable engine with 
Yates heads, is for sale in the POCA News for March, with only test miles in 
a kit-Cobra on it. I couldn't afford it in the '80s and still can't. Some 
things never change.... J DeRyke


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