[DeTomaso] Alu engine

[jderyke at aol.com]

I did some research before buying a Fontana a few years ago. This ex-race block measures 45 lbs lighter than a 351-C block on the same scales. And only a nut-case would add stock iron heads to such a block, and aluminum heads are some 60 lbs lighter. Choose bolt-on components wisely (light crank, aluminum flywheel, alum waterpump, alloy alt/AC mount, mini-starter, alum carb) and the savings will be in excess of 130 lbs for a running engine. Put another way, I expect my engine to weigh about 400 lbs fully assembled and ready to run; a similar all-iron 351-C weighs 550+ carb & starter (factory wt). Most aftermarket blocks accept far bigger bores safely and no problems with thin cylinder walls, so displacement and power is pretty much whatever you want (or can afford).

As for price, this is NOT cheap! A block will run $3500 at best; heads- $1200 bare and there's nearly $1000 worth of parts that muct be added to heads that cannot come off iron 351-C heads. Flywheel- $400, water pump- $125. All told, if you get out catalogues and start ordering, you'll spend around $10,000 in 30 minutes or so. Used from E-bay or a swap-meet- maybe 2/3 that price if you get lucky of already own some good stuff. Keep in mind that used parts of this sort can be a real risk of buying someone else's blown-to-h.. and fixed disaster. How WELL they're fixed is another story. 

Then you get to put the puzzle together.... or pay someone $80/hr to do it for you. There have been several Pantera owners that did this in 2013 & one in 2012 and I'll bet they have over $25K in their  lightweight, big-power motors. Matter of fact, I think one friend that changed his mind on what he wanted still has a very low-mileage nearly-new all-aluminum stroker for sale for $25K (it cost him more). Call any of the Pantera vendors: two that I know built such engines in 2013 for members. Be sitting down when you call. Good luck, Rob- J Deryke

 

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Rob Dumoulin <rob at dumoulins.net>
To: gudmund frøland <gudmundfroiland at yahoo.no>
Cc: detomaso forum <detomaso at poca.com>
Sent: Mon, Feb 17, 2014 5:36 am
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] Alu engine


Anybody care to speculate how much such a build would be from scratch and how much weight it would save over a stock block and heads?


Rob DuMoulin
904.476.8744
rob at dumoulins.net
www.kbsi.co
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/rob-dumoulin/0/1b6/58




On Mon, Feb 17, 2014 at 4:06 AM, gudmund frøland <gudmundfroiland at yahoo.no> wrote:


Just came across some interesting engine build.
http://www.mustangandfords.com/techarticles/engine/1312_all_aluminum_351_cleveland_engine_build_alloy_awesomeness/


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