After a 3 day thrash to get the drive train up and running.  All kinds of little stuff just makes you crazy - #3 header tube hits the frame rail, carefully wired fan electrics made the fans run backwards, fabbing radiator mounts, leaky fuel lines, etc.  

The motor is a 351C, .030 over with heavy TRW pistons, stock rods, open chamber 2V heads (home ported) set at 9.3:1.  A mild 226/230 Crane hydro cam helps it go.  We just wore out a set of Energizer rockers and are on a new set of Harland Sharps.  I used the Crane adjustable rocker kit - it has nearly 2000 passes on it, so don't think that setup won't work.  Induction is a 2V Funnelweb intake (Parker Racing - Australia) and a very used 650DP.  The motor had 1860 passes on it when I pulled it.  The bores were clean and straight, we just ran a 400 grit ball hone down 'em.  Crank looked perfect - even the Crane springs checked fine.  But I replaced them anyway.  Bearings looked fine too.  The only thing shot were the valve seals and rockers.  New pump, chain and gears, gaskets, bearings, top two rings and we're good to go.

After two soft test passes, I let her run it out - car ran 7.90 @ 87, 7.92 @ 87 and an aborted 7.91.  Which is just about what the motor ran in the Falcon last year. Tranny shifted automagically at 5500 on the 2-3 (needs to be 6000) so we'll probably go to a manual valve body to fix that permanently.  Thought I fixed that last year - guess not.  With a little break in time and shifting the tranny at the right RPM where the motor likes, it may pick up another tenth.  Car's got a new 9" (4.56) and a fresh 351C, so now all she needs is paint.  And new slicks.  And some tranny work.  And a new Pro Stick to go with the manual vb.  Maybe sometime in there I can work on the Falcon.  And maybe I'll race the truck for a couple of weeks.  


 

sounds like you've had some fun!  Congrats on finally getting to make some passes.

Good luck getting the Falcon going.  I'd love to hear what it runs when you get it to the track.  

For every 100 or so nay sayers who knock the Cleveland for poor oiling, main journals are too big, or that it wont jump to life like some cookie cutter engines, its nice to see someone having fun and working at making the combo work. Nice job, keep us posted.  

Thanks.  Your sig indicated a Mopar relation, think you guys have more "oiling problems" than most.  Except maybe Buick.  351C has the same system as a 429/460 and you never hear people whine and carry on about the oiling system in the 385 series engines.  Works good for us.  Most of that is just bad info getting handed down.  

The worst problem with the 335 and 385 engines is that if you lose a lifter on the passenger side -like out of the hole lost- you lose pressure to the mains.  Related, if you wear out the passenger side lifter bores, you need to sleeve them up to get system pressure back up.  Just buy good parts and keep 'em clean.  

I measure pressure at the back of the block over the rear main, which is the last stop before the oil goes down the driver's side gallery.  With right at .003 on the rear main in this engine, I see 58 lbs at 2000, fully warm running 10w-30. That's after feeding the mains, the whole passenger side  valve train and cam.  I see no problem here lol.

Total oiling system "mods" on this engine are - 9 qt pan with 8 qts, windage tray, HV Melling Select pump, moly pump shaft, cam bearings in upside down with a .040 hole drilled from the main saddle and strict attention to detail and clearances.  t gets shifted at 6000 twice every pass when it's in battle.  About 500ish passes per year.

Note - the main journals on a 351C are smaller (2.749) than a 351W and 460 (3.000).  The 351M and 400 use the 3" mains.  

Thanks  

Good info on the 351C.  

Yes the nay sayers lump it all together as the 335 series. Not that it matter, with people like you showing what can be done with these engines is all that matters. Perhaps you can take on a 400 and shut em up for good.  

Not knocking on anyone, but why do people like to race the 1/8th mile? Just never seemed as much fun to me. Its fun to sit at the top end of the track and watch people fly by.  

You know Nova,
I thought the same way until I considered stop light racing on the street. Now before anyone gets their underwear bunched up, I don’t condone street racing. However, the majority of at least my driving on the street is 0 to 70mph (aprox.) acceleration. This is only my perspective; others may have different views on 1/8th mile drag racing.  

Another reason would be safety.  Its a lot safer to top out at 70 or 80 MPH than 110-120 MPH.  Even a slow car tops out at 90-95 MPH on a quarter mile track.

Another would be land...it requires quite a bit more land to run a quarter mile track as opposed to an eigth mile.  Land can be very expensive.

I'm sure there are countless other reasons.  I'd personally rather race on a quarter mile...but understand why 1/8th mile tracks are popular.  

Cool, nice to see something other than the typical 5.0.  I happen to have a soft spot for the '69-70 bodystyle, especially fastbacks.  That should work out to mid 12's quarter right?  The closest track to me is an 1/8th mile, so I'll be doing some of that myself.  

1/8 mile - for the reasons listed, typically.  The races come quicker, which is better for any crowd that you draw.  It takes less time to run rounds, and I HATE sitting around in the pits.  Lets go, get on with it.  Insurance is way cheaper, there's less breakage (usually - we have our days).  Break the racer's cars and they're not coming next week to buy a run card.  Not good for the track.  Land is a definite problem - if our track went 1/4, the shutdown would run through the back lot of a Motel 6 and the turnout would be in the KOA.  Most of the 1/4 tracks around here (few) have either converted to 1/8...or died.  I also  personally think it's a rush, you really have to get-er-done to go rounds.  You hit 3rd and here comes the stripe, make your play NOW. Unless you killed 'em on the tree.

7.90 is about mid 12s.  The car and motor should be able to go nearly 11s - that same motor in my Falcon at an extra 100 lbs (3250 total race weight w/driver) ran best of 7.72 in San Antonio.  Same drive train too.  After I get the tranny fixed, it ought to be good for 7.70s at the Motorplex for the bracket finals.

I love the 70 and I like the "notch" style especially - but it's definitely the wifes car.  I can drive it around, but I can't put my helmet on and sit up in the car.  My head hits the roof.  I'm going to put a poly seat and 5 point belts in it and I'll have to adapt the seat tracks to the poly or I'll never be able to get in the durn thing.  

Gets better - car ran 7.75s @ 88 in good air this weekend.  If we ran at Texas Raceway or Ennis, that'd likely be a 7.5 something (we're about 1000+ feet higher than over there).  Meanwhile, I'm racing "UPS" style - runnin' the truck.  

I was supposed to be somebody's bye run, but in the first round I draw Billy's big orange truck which runs 6.66 @ 100+.  I go .040 on the tree and run 10.41 on a 10.40, Billy breaks out trying to catch me.  We laughed so hard about that we couldn't hardly stand up.  

Looks like you had some fun! Tell me Chris, how do you get the Mustang to pick up like that? what suspension mods does it have? (would love mine to leave like that!)  

It just goes.  The air was mucho better this weekend - our first test weekend we were at around 3000' and this weekend it was more like 1000' (which is really good since the track is at 1719').  Also, the car has a complete new 9" and that's getting loosened up.  Plus, she's getting used to the car.  It ran a 7.82 on Friday, then a bunch of 7.86/7.87 passes.  The barometer was still kinda down and the air temp was about 45F.  So it's mostly driver and mechanicals.  Here's how I tuned it: The motor has the same 650DP that I used when it was in my car - I pulled it off in November, poured the gas out, stuck it in a 2 gallon zip lock bag, pulled it out when the motor was ready and stuck it back on.  So total "tuning" has been to set the timing when the engine warm.  I'm so lazy.  But I do try to build our stuff so it doesn't need a lot of attention.  I've been runngin this engine for 4 years, so I kinda know what it wants.

The suspension is simple - The front is stock springs and CE shocks set to 90/10.  Upper control arms were dropped 1" and it has poly lower bushings.  The rear has stock springs with poly front bushings, South Side Machine lift bars and 3 way CE shocks set to 50/50.  The tire pattern looks really good at 12 lbs, so it may stay like that.  I would like to move her to Caltrac bars and Rancho shocks next year - we'll see how the CE stuff goes.  I beat up one set a year in the Falcon before I switched over to the Ranchos.   With the 1.72~74 60's the car is running, if it had Caltracs there'd be about 1" of air under the left front tire.  I think she's going to have less trouble hooking this car than I do with mine.