DeTomaso Mailing List: October 99, Message #31

I've recently been talking over Clevelands with a hard 
core Ford racer.  He's built racing 351C's, 400's, SVO's
SVO's, etc.  I thought I'd pass on some of his hints.

He doesn't care to tap a 351C for screw-in core plugs.
The big taps required put a lot of stress into block.
He recommends the press-in plugs, sealed by red/brown 
Permatex.  For racing, they use hardblock to partially 
fill the waterjacket.  He says the block needs to very
clean before the hardblock is poured.  Any residue will 
keep the stuff from properly adhering.  They send their 
blocks out to American Metal Prep, a local outfit.  
They like the block to be 80 to 100 degrees F and they 
fill to the bottom waterpump bolts with the block tilted 
slightly forward (since the coolant will slosh back under 
hard acceleration).  He reports no cooling problems.

He thinks a 400 is stronger than a 351C and doesn't have 
the thinwall problems, so they don't hardblock it.  The 
400 also has a much thicker deck.

He cautions against skimping in the valve train area.
Use good quality stainless steel valves, cut the guide
plates in half to position each pushrod independently, 
and use good quality pushrods.  All the heads in his
shop had titanium retainers and Comp Cams roller springs.

After a baffled, oversized, oil pan, he believes the most 
important oiling system modification is to bush the passenger
side lifter bores.  The bushings are bronze and you 
adjust the oil hole to suit whether you're running solid
or hydraulic lifters.  In his tests, this modification
was worth 20 to 30 psi (hot) at the rear of the engine.
The mod can be done easily (and cheaply) on a Bridgeport.  
The original bore is used to locate and is simply bored 
oversize for a press fit bronze sleeve.  Once the sleeves 
are in place, you hone them for a fit similar to the 
original clearance.  You *don't* want a lifter seizing
in the bore.  I have a set of the sleeves and the 
installation tool that I'll have Mike Dailey scan in 
and post on his ever expanding Pantera web site.  The 
sleeves are available from Bruning, Dixie, and Bearings 
Incorporated under p/n 1416-12.  He also uses the screw-in 
restrictors and likes to use low profile, high strength 
magnets in the oil pan.  The magnets are a Ford part, used 
in a variety of ford and Mazda transmission pans.  No need
to rigidly attach them, they never move around.  He 
typically uses 4 to 6 in a gated pan.

He uses 37-1312 4150 Methanol carb rebuild kits when 
rebuilding Holley carbs.  They come with the good Teflon
gaskets and high flow alcohol power valve.  He also 
mentioned the green accelerator pump cups from Ford (late 
model 460 application) are a good upgrade if you have to 
contend with blended fuels.

He uses the SVO Fel-Pro 1023 head gaskets which have a 
4.100" bore diameter.  A341's are for Cleveland, B331's
for Windsor.  He showed me two holes on the head gasket 
which they enlarge to match the passage in the head.
Mike Dailey and I tried to take a digital picture of 
this but it really didn't turn out very well.  We'll 
mark them better and take a close up.

Another thing he likes to use is a brush hone after the 
typical ball hone.  He showed me some SAE papers to back
up his opinion.  He claims the rings seal quicker, last 
longer, and that 90+ percent of the stuff that packs up 
the filter after a rebuild goes away.  The brush hone is 
inexpensive and available from Goodson and Osborne 
Peterson under p/n HB280427 for a 4" to 4.5" bore. 

He also likes a four hole spacer to improve the booster
signal and mixture distribution when using a single plane 
intake manifold.   You can put them down in the plenum if 
the additional height is a problem.  He showed me a trick
"traction control" spacer they use for racing.  It appears 
to be a normal four hole spacer but has a push/pull cable 
routed to it which moves the spacer within a spacer.  Pull
the cable and it acts like a restrictor plate.  Great for 
the end of the race when the track gets slick and the tires
go away.  A simple O-ring provides the seal at the cable.

He likes long rods for durabilty reasons and has noticed a 
torque gain in the low to mid rpm region. He had several 
stroker cranks in the shop, all with 6" or 6.2" Chevy 
journal Eagle rods.  He also likes Total Seal gapless rings 
but warns you have to read the instructions when you install 
them, particularly the part on PCV when running them on the 
street.

Dan Jones