351W Build

[P72Ford]

I don't think you'll need a girdle if you don't plan on hooking the car hard on drag radials or similar. They are nice looking, but hardly worth the expense for cosmetics only.

I second Thain's suggestion on the transmission. May want to swap the governor in the one you have in the meantime though, as the power band is going to be different with you new engine mods.

[Brown_Muscle]

That’s good to know about the girdle- no drag radials here!

I’ll look around- I was most likely going to get a new torque converter to match the engine, go off of whatever the cam grinder recommends to match it.

A new governor is a good idea! I’m sure the engine will be happy up to or beyond 6K

[mitymerc]

You will definitely need the governor if your power band is that high.

The TransGo unit has served me well and their tech support is 2nd to none.

[gadget73]

See what John did with the nuked trans out of his 86. That would serve as a core.

[86VickyLX]

That’s good to know about the girdle- no drag radials here!

I’ll look around- I was most likely going to get a new torque converter to match the engine, go off of whatever the cam grinder recommends to match it.

A new governor is a good idea! I’m sure the engine will be happy up to or beyond 6K

I have a 92 trans that does work. It could stand to get serviced with some seals replaced and a valve body. A nice converter would probably help as well. It has park too! Just needs a broken bolt extracted for the shift linkage mount. It decided to break when I tried removing the shift linkage when I pulled the trans.

[Brown_Muscle]

So I was able to pull the motor apart this weekend- No sign of any cracks but i still have to take the cam bearings out tomorrow to be sure. Cylinder walls are almost like new- no lip to speak off, has all its crosshatching. I'm fairly certain i can get away with just having it honed. Main and rod bearings were all in serviceable shape. I'm hoping to have far lower machine shop costs than I was expecting-
Most likely Ill have it hot tanked, magnafluxed, and generally just have it gone over. I don't see why it wouldn't take standard size bearings, which I could install myself.
Anyone on here have any idea what having a shop do that would cost based on experience? The less I spend on that, the sooner i can get the heads.

[mitymerc]

As far as the Rear cover support goes, I have detonated 2 rears in the MegaMerc, always on regular street tires. To be fair, I have done many monster burnouts and it has made a "few" dragstrip passes....

[gadget73]

if you need to mic the crank, I've got micrometers. Unfortunately I do not have a set of inside mics to do the bores.

[clutch47]

Just catching up on this thread. I'm a fan of studs in the mains and a girdle if you can squeeze it in with a new pan.
Down the road...a strong bottom end let's you do whatever you want.
Kinda puts the whole "2-bolt isn't as strong" to bed too...

[Brown_Muscle]

I don't think I'm going to be needing an engine girdle, the cost to make the engine 500-600HP is substantially more, and at 400-425 it's well within the safe limits.

Gadget- thanks, I may take you up on that, however I'll probably have the machine shop check everything while its in there and just confirm that it'll take stock pistons/rings/bearings.

I tried googling it to no avail- anyone know if these have cast or hypereutectic pistons?

[Brown_Muscle]

Picking up the engine from my buddy Nicks august 5th. Machine shop said to disassemble it and bring it down. Here's what i'm looking at for bearings and piston rings:

Bi-Metal mains: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/k...05si/make/ford
Bi-Metal Rods: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/k...14si/make/ford
Ductile iron plasma-moly coated rings: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/HSN-2M4346

Any thoughts on these parts? Much research pointed toward the bi-metal bearings of this type as opposed to the tri-metal.
I also should have enough money for the cam and heads, but I need to see how much the machine shop cost me first.

Also, any roller rockers I should stay away from? Lots of options out there, and tons of used ones for sale

[gadget73]

always been told iron rings are what you want for standard N/A engines

[Brown_Muscle]

Cast or ductile? I know the cast ones are supposed to be quite weak, so that’s why I want to go with ductile

[gadget73]

either should be fine, point being you don't need chrome or moly rings. Cast iron is really only weak if you try to bend it, which it doesn't do in an engine unless something has gone really wrong anyway. Ductile will bend more than cast iron will.

[Brown_Muscle]

I dropped the block off to the machine shop about 2 months or so ago. It's getting bored .30 over, forged 12CC pistons, smaller 1.5/1.5/3mm plasma-moly rings. Having it zero decked (actually .005 in the hole) so that i'll have proper quench to avoid pinging. (should be .044 with a .039 felpro head gasket). Hopefully the rods and everything else will check out OK.

Final compression ratio with the 66CC trickflow 190 11r's should be about 9.5:1, and with the aluminum heads and a good tune will run on 87 just fine. I have to see how much money i have left after the machine shop costs, I'd like to get started on the trans build as well. It'd be awesome to have this all ready to go in by the spring. (someone, somewhere is laughing at this timeline)

[Quincy]

I swear by ductile rings, Brown_Muscle, not sure if that's what you went with.

[Brown_Muscle]

Yes top rings are ductile, plasma-moly coated.

Block was decked .005 in the hole, crank bore line honed, rods re-bored/honed, rotating assembly was dynamically balanced. I assembled the rotating assembly and cam. It's all ready for the heads, and to degree the cam (as necessary)

I found out I can use the coolant crossover pipe for the heater core from a mustang, so I'm going to do that to neaten things up.

Also sometime this spring getting a Wide-Ratio AOD from another member on here and beefing it up a bit.

[Quincy]

Also sometime this spring getting a Wide-Ratio AOD from another member on here and beefing it up a bit.

I remember we talked about this, but I don't remember - do you have a C4 now? If so, please let me (us!) know how everything goes and what you have to change as far as things that don't bolt right up. Of course if I make the change, I'm going with a full-manual valve body, so I don't have to worry about backshifting into low, etc.

[Brown_Muscle]

Just a regular AOD with a shift kit. Served me well for many years

[Quincy]

Just a regular AOD with a shift kit. Served me well for many years

OK, so you're just going from one AOD to a different AOD. Gotcha.