[DeTomaso] A new engine in my future?

Tim Morgan morganuci at gmail.com
Thu Aug 27 21:00:18 EDT 2009


My 73's existing engine is somewhere in the neighborhood of 350 HP.
Recently, it was making a strange noise, and the oil smells of gasoline and
there are a lot of metal filings on the oil drain plug.  Assuming it's
toast, that leaves me with a few choices:

   1. Rebuild my existing engine
   2. Buy a new block, transfer everything else (heads etc.) from my old
   engine
   3. Buy a crate motor

I'm leaning towards #3 because it seems like the fastest and easiest
choice.  I also want to end up with a better, more powerful motor than I
had, as long as I'm doing this, and buying a crate motor gets me a bunch of
new, hi performance parts all in one package.  Then the question is,
Windsor, Cleveland, or something else?  I'd like to stick with Cleveland for
a number of reasons, including being able to reuse a lot of what I already
have, such as my fuel injection system.  But of course, Clevelands are much
less plentiful than Windsors.

So, I was looking at this particular engine:
http://www.tuffdawgengines.com/ford_351C_445hp.htm.  It goes for $5195 as
described.  He will install my intake manifold (sorry, I don't know what
model it is, but it has the fuel injectors installed in it) in place of his
normal manifold.  His price includes testing, balancing, shipping, etc., as
in the description, but not breaking it in or dyno testing it.

Is there an alternative that I should look at?  He has 100% positive
feedback on eBay (on 19 transactions in the last 12 months), but does anyone
have experience with Tuff Dawg engines, good or bad (you can write to me
individually rather than post if you prefer)?  I'm in the greater Seattle
(Issaquah) area.

Also, what cam or cam specs would be good for a fuel injected Cleveland for
street use?  He thought that the optimum would be different than with a
carb.

Tim



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