[DeTomaso] 4-bolt Mains

[Rich]

I was a gearhead in the 60’s.
My opinion is Ford added 4 bolt mains to clevelands to stop the chevy guys from saying they had a 4 bolt engine and the clevelands originally were not.  The 350 chevy’s needed 4 bolts to keep them together the Ford’s 351C did not.

From: jderyke at aol.com 
Sent: Sunday, December 29, 2013 3:45 PM
To: steve at snclocks.com ; Detomaso at poca.com 
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] 4-bolt Mains

Yes- a few. All Panteras were supposed to get the big-port 4V heads and 4-bolt mains in the blocks. But I've seen a couple and heard of a few more that got 2-bolt main engines. No big deal unless you have more than 500 bhp AND regularly spin the engine over 6500 rpms. Then 4-bolt mains may help to keep the main bearings held down more tightly. 
ANY 351-C block can have 2-bolt-main caps replaced by 4-bolt main caps. 
1)-You'll first need to find a set of 4 bolt caps and the 20 bolts. They were never available separately, so any you find will have come off a blown-up or worn out block. Sometimes the vendors or big engine shops have sets available for $125 or so.
2)- add them to the block with the big bolts and using the caps as drill guides, drill the ten extra bolt holes for the 3/8-16 SAE side bolts to the proper depth. Then tap the holes you just drilled to 3/8-16 SAE thread. 
3)- Take the block to a machine shop and have them line-hone the main bearing bores with the caps installed and all bolts torqued to specs. Replacing ANY cap on any block causes a minute misalignment of the cap, which causes that bearing to not run perfectly true, so all three steps are necessary. IMHO, not worth the trouble on a stock 351-C block.




-----Original Message-----
From: Stephen Nelson <steve at snclocks.com>
To: Detomaso <Detomaso at poca.com>
Sent: Sun, Dec 29, 2013 9:27 am
Subject: [DeTomaso] 4-bolt Mains


Did some of the Panteras come with 2 bolt mains?

Stephen Nelson
 


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