DeTomaso Mailing List: September 97, Message #57
     



From: dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us (Dave Williams)

Subject: Re:  Re:  427 questions

Date: Mon, 01 Sep 1997 20:16:00 -0500



-> Just scared of the thin cylinder walls



 Wayne Gapp and Jack Roush used to wind those weak, thin 351Cs - the

American blocks, not the Australian parts - past 10,000 RPM, making well

over 600HP, back in the early '70s.  They had to chuck the blocks after

a season, but we're not talking about that kind of power output in a

street motor.  Not unless you're talking about "Italian horses."





-> longer crank throw putting more pressure on the thrust side



 The longer rods will help that some.  Again, at 6000-6500 it won't make

a whole lot of difference.





-> plus the well-known oiling system weaknesses



 Um.  Many Australian builders maintain there's nothing wrong with the

stock Ford layout for their Bathurst motors and they're not bringing

them home in baskets.  The 429/460 and BOSS 429 are very similar, as are

about half the engines GM makes.  It's not the equal of the Windsor,

which has the cleanest oiling system I know of, but it's not a crippling

drawback either.  And if you don't like it, it's easy enough to

duplicate the old Hank The Crank or Holman-Moody external oiling setups.





-> plus the rather flexy main bearing webs in the block (Roush says

-> that even if you deburr them, they'll still crack over time).



 Roush is probably talking about substantially more HP than we are.





-> the 9.5" deck ht allows longer rods than the 351C's 9.2", without

-> pushing the ring pack into the wristpin hole.



 True.  But the .300 isn't a deciding factor either.  Lots of 3.75 and

4.00 stroke Chevys out there with 9.2" decks too.





-> And finally, you have yet another step in turning the 400 crank to

-> 2.750 main dia



 Trivial.  I cut 2.75" Cleveland cranks down to 2.25" for 302 strokers.

So does everyone else who doesn't use billet cranks.  Doesn't hurt 'em a

bit.





-> where the 351W has none of the above potentially disasterous

-> problems, just a bracket mount fab job.



 Putting a 400 crank into a 351W block is a bit more work than that.

You'll also need custom pistons or to cut the canted valve reliefs in

Windsor pistons, plus a 4V intake to fit the 9.5" deck, which means

either the very expensive Motorsport part, adapting a Windsor intake to

the Cleveland heads, or the (no longer produced) B&A intake, which has

2V ports.





-> Did I miss something? J DeRyke



 I think we're approaching this from two different directions.



====dave.williams@chaos.lrk.ar.us========================DoD#978=======

  can you help me...help me get out of this place?...slow sedation...

ain't my style, ain't my pace...giving me a number...NINE, SEVEN, EIGHT

==5.0 RX7 -> Tyrannosaurus RX! == SAE '82 == Denizens of Doom M/C '92==

                                                                                                                   



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