[DeTomaso] Another great day at the track....

[MikeLDrew at aol.com]

In a message dated 6/13/09 8 27 30, davel at emspace.com writes:


> Have you got your engine build and setup specs posted someplace?
> You mention it's performance often, and it's made me curious.
> Seems reliable though.
> 

It is that, at least.

As it turns out, my timing is apparently quite retarded--I am probably a 
victim of a bad harmonic dampner, with a timing ring that has slipped.   So 
the timing has been set with a timing light with no reference to the reality 
of the engine inside.   As a result the engine sounds weird, and makes no 
meaningful power.

Having said that, I once sent a listing of my engine's components to Dan 
Jones, saying that I thought I may have perhaps the worst 351C ever built, and 
asking if he concurred with that assessment.

He did. :>)

It was built in 1992 or so, essentially for free, by a small race motor 
shop in Vermont, that was highly successful and built all the winning Ford 
motors for the roundy-round local stock car racers in Vermont, New Hampshire and 
upstate New York.   However I have the feeling that they really didn't know 
anything about the 351C.   I had no input in the motor other than choosing 
the intake.   The motor consists of:

Replacement 351C block, bored .030 over (never sonic checked or anything 
like that--back then I didn't know about such things; my motor was on the 
original bore when it came apart and the shop bored it .030 over automatically)

Stock crank/rods, fitted with TRW pop-up forged pistons, for 10:1-ish 
compression with...

Open chamber 4V heads, machined for roller rockers, ported and polished 
(the car came to me with the heads set up like that and I just reused them, 
more or less as-is).
One-piece Manley SS valves, titanium keepers

FPP 4145B intake (the one with the notch, which I didn't want, subsequently 
machined flat so the carb base is flat, mostly eliminating the notch in the 
process)

Holley 700 double-pumper carb

Pete Jackson quiet gear drive

The heart of the motor is the cam, and the engine builder chose a rather 
radical hydraulic flat-tappet cam from Comp Cams, the 32-235-4.   Specs appear 
here:

http://www.compcams.com/Cam_Specs/CamSpecPrinterFriendly.aspx?csid=845

Advertised powerband is 3000 to 7000, which is bloody useless on the 
street.   

At the end of the day, this motor is a dog, at least as far as I'm 
concerned.   It feels dead and lifeless down low.   Peak HP on a chassis dyno 
(measured two times, ten years apart) is 265-ish at the rear wheels (that's 
through a stock Euro GTS exhaust which I know robs power; I subsequently gutted 
them and put Y-pipes inside the cans).

I am considering having a new motor built, but reusing as many of the 
useful components from the old engine as possible--intake, valves, keepers, 
block, oil pan, water pump, the new damper I'm about to install, MSD distributor, 
etc.   I see new heads, new cam, and a stroker kit in my future....

Mike


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