DeTomaso Mailing List: December 2000, Message #43

I'm about ready to cancel my subscription to these guys.......

This article was really a disservice to Cleveland fanatics, or wannabe's.
Because of this extremely poor article (and others like it!), +.040 bored
blocks like the one on eBay right now will continue to get $300 bids on
them!!!!!  Drives me nuts....

Mistakes that I noticed.... probably LOTS more....
Block numbers D0AE-L and D2AE-CA are listed as two bolt blocks, but I have
seen them as 4 bolt blocks too!!!   Most are indeed equipped as 2-bolts,
however, these particular castings doooooooo have the extra bosses cast
into them and can be made into a 4-bolt setup!!!!   BETTER, would have been
to list the blocks without the extra bosses, and yes THEY DO EXIST, counter
to what M&F sez (another mistake)..., and those blocks should have been
listed as 2-bolt, listing any castings with the dual option as a 4-bolt.

They made no mention of the screw-in freeze plug Boss motors in 71.

The picture of the "2V heads" was actually a picture of a pair of 4V open
chamber heads.. "My god Jim! Look at the size of them ports!"

The author, Jim Smart, (who I wonder about his name and capability....
great photographer, but lousy Ford tech writer!!!! IMHO!) goes on to say
that if you are going to build a "serious performance" motor that you have
to go 4 bolt bottom end.....  also garbage!!!  The 2-bolt bottom end with a
stud girdle should be adequate for most people doing any serious
racing.....   Actually, anyone serious, would be using a NEW Windsor
Motorsports block anyway...... new metallurgy, better castings, better
oiling.....blah blah blah... and the heads will bolt on...... get a new
intake....

PS, there is a 351 Street Boss intake on e-Bay right now!!! For anyone
thinking of the Aussie head/351Windsor thing.... oooh ooooh oooh!  Open
plenum "Torker" style.

Back to my ranting.... Smart goes on to mention the THICK wall castings
allowing overbores of up to .060!!!! HAH!  If these blocks were so thick,
why did Ford offer a .002" larger piston ONLY!?   Gee Wally, Jim never
heard of core shift has he?

A couple of months ago, Smart also wrote an article smokin on the venerable
and bullet proof Versailles disc brake rearend.  He all but said that these
were the worst thing that Ford ever built.  Non floating calipers, lousy
gear sets (true actually!), and rotors that cracked completely around the
circumference of the hat section.....

I have probably seen over a hundred of these things at swap meets and in
cars, have rebuilt 3 or four, and have NEVER seen one with fixed calipers,
have NEVER seen any cracked rotors (worn down to the vanes, but not
cracked!!!), and everyone knows that a 9" centersection with good gears
drops right in place of the anemic 2.75 gearsets!!!!!   Unless you WANT to
go fast!!!!

I believe that Mr Smart was trashing what may be the most well built rear
end, (for many cases, not all, ie 4x4 Bronco) that Ford ever built! It
certainly was overbuilt for the sludge pots that they came in!!! (78-81
Versailles, 75-81 Granadas and Monarchs) Powered by a smogged down 302
(some 351's in 80 or so), there was no way you could damage one as equipped
from the factory!!!! With F250 truck axle bearings, you don't worry about
them!!!  The only weak spot that I am aware of, is the caliper adjuster
design. Apparently, if you get a high mileage unit, sometimes the self
adjuster screw thingy doesn't work correctly, however, if the caliper
e-brake arms are not installed and adjusted correctly (pay attention
Mikey!) THEN you may run into problems too... which may be more so the case
than high mileage!!!!  Have you EVER seen a magazine actually FINISH a
rearend swap article where they ACTUALLY connected the e-brakes and showed
pictures of the final product.....??????? Not me!!!!   "..... all that
remains is to connect the driveshaft and the emergency brake cables and
you're done!"   ...no small job.....  Please see shop manual for proper
adjustment and installation or problems may result......

Anyway, if Jim Smart wanted to write an article that was interesting,
finding out WHY Ford built such a rearend in the first place would be a
storY!!!!  Was it for some NASCAR thing????  What????

I wrote a blazing letter to the editor (and so did MANY others according to
the mail bag this month!) and saw nothing back or no mention of it.  All
they could do was make light of some guy giving them grief for their
misstatement about the parting line on a forged vs cast crank! A pretty big
mistake if you ask me!!!!!!! duh!  THey sell to millions and not everyone
may get the next months issue to read "duh, we're morons and here's the
correct picture of a forged crank parting line...." so the missinformed
readers go merrily on their way, paying big bucks for cast cranks.... not
knowing any better....  Not a good way to run a magazine that is read by
newbies and oldies alike!!!! 

At the end of this guys letter, the writer was being a bit sarcastic and
said that he would bet his "all original Boss 302 68 Convertible" for
printing this letter or something... and the editor made a big deal to
print it as if everyone knew that there never was a 68 Boss built BUT the
writer.... I think that the writer knew this too, but was trying to slam
the magazine and they were too DUMB to recognise it!!!   Made bigger asses
of themselves by highliting it and then printing the 351C article.......IMHO.

SOOooooooooo, don't believe everything you read, right D-MAnn!?
Have a great weekend guys! ...and gals!
Steve