Heads: well, I'm assuming you have the 2V open chamber heads and my advice their is to send them to a respectable head shop to get them ported, and have the bowls and chambers cleaned up. Also get the heads milled and get some flat top pistons so that you can get around 10:1 compression w/93 octane gas. Get the hardware to match the cam.

Cam: looks like you are limiting yourself here. If you have a flat tappet hydraulic you can definitely make more than 400hp, but you may have some driveability issues since a bigger cam will be necessary. Call a cam grinder and tell them your entire set up, ask Moneymaker on this forum - I'm sure he'll respond to this post.

Intake - for 400hp probably a Weiand xcellerator, 750 Holley DP.

I don't think you "are dreaming", the 2v Cleveland heads are definitely good performers, just clean them up to so that they can flow enough to hit your performance level and support them with parts that don't act as an air "bottleneck". Slap some 3.91 or 4.11 gears in it and watch those Camaros from your rear view mirror.

Flat top pistons in a zero decked block with heads that have been shaved around .030 should give a good compression ratio that will still run on pump gas. A solid cam with around 235-240 @ .050 on the int, with a LSA around 106-108, a good single plane intake, a 750 DP Holley, a 3500 convertor, and a 4.11 gear and it should run pretty good. Also, for the transmission choices, I would sell both of those and buy a c4.

A very achievable goal. I recently helped a guy in the Pantera club spec out
a rebuild on his 351C. He wasn't really looking for 400 HP. He just wanted
something with good low end torque and throttle response. Here's the results
from the engine dyno session:

lb-ft hp

4000 413 314
4250 401 325
4500 386 331
4750 382 346
5000 380 362
5250 357 357
5500 344 361
5750 341 374
6000 275 314
6250 272 323

Here's the build:
Holley 650 (too small)
Edelbrock Performer 2V
Aussie 2V heads, 2.125"/1.65" one piece stainless valves, bowl ported
shot-peened stock rods with ARP rod bolts
Crane 1.73:1 roller rockers
4 bolt main block
Weisco 0.020 over flat top pistons
MSD Pro Billet distributor
Taylor wires
Comp CCA-323084 hydraulic flat tappet cam 222/226 @ 0.050" lift,
0.531"/0.531" lift, LSA 110

I tried to talk him into a Weiand Xcelerator 2V and a bigger carb but he
was only interested in torque. With the Weiand single plane, a better
carb and a windage tray, he'd be over 400 HP with torque to match. In
a Pantera, it'll pull 20+ MPG on the highway too.

I put together a similar package for another Pantera buddy. His Pantera
had a basically stock open chamber 2V engine with Holley Street Dominator
(small port economy type single plane) and Pantera GTS headers and he was
not happy with its performance. He wanted something that would pull from
2000 to 6000 RPM with some idle lope. I talked him into:

ported Aussie 2V heads
Weiand Xcelerator 2V intake
Holley 700D (smaller than I recommended but he already had it)
Harland Sharp 1.73:1 roller rockers (already had on hand)
flat top pistons
Comp 282S solid lifter flat tappet cam (part # 32-238-4)
236/236 @ 0.050" lift, 0.570"/0.570" lift (minus 0.022 lash), LSA 110
windage tray
MSD 6AL ignition

Charlie didn't put the engine on the dyno but is very happy with the
combo. Should be comfortably over 400HP and still be very streetable,
at least in a 5 speed Pantera.

If your budget will withstand the $250 to $300 core charge for a set of
Aussie closed chamber 2V heads, use them. They will permit you to run
more compression on pump gas. Use flat top pistons (KB 179 or TRW L2379F)
if you pick the Aussie 2V heads.

If you stick with open chamber heads, your goal is still achievable but
you'll need to pay more attention to the timing, fuel, and cam (more total
overlap) to keep from pinging. Find a set of real 351C-2V heads. They
have a better exhaust port than the usual 351M/400 heads. With open chamber
heads, you can run a flat top piston and mill the block and heads to get the
compression up or run a small dome KB (KB149) or TRW (L2348F) piston. Be
aware that TRW makes two different domed pistons. L2408F is a domed piston
designed for open chamber heads only and use the thinner 1/16", 1/16" and
1/8" inch race rings. Compression ratio with 76.2 cc heads would be up
around 11.45:1. That's too much for pump gas. The L2348F pistons have a
smaller dome meant to clear the tighter closed chamber combuston chambers
but, of course, they can also be used on open chamber heads. The L2348F
will yield a bit over 10:1 compression with a 76cc head, about as much as
you want to run on pump gas with open chamber heads. The KB149's will give
a bit more compression, 10.5:1 or so.

Given that you want to stay with a hydraulic falt tappet cam, I'd suggest
something like an Erson 232 degrees @ 0.545", 108 LSA, with variable
duration lifters (Rhoads, Crower, Crane, etc.), a Weiand Xcelerator 2V
intake, as tall a 4 hole spacer as will fit, roller rockers, MPG Services
windage tray, MSD 6AL ignition, 2.1"/1.65" valves (bowl ported and port
matched), 1 3/4" diameter headers into a 3" dual exhaust with cross-over
pipe, 700 to 750 CFM carb (the old 735 Holley off a 428CJ works great on
the street). If you want to run a Boss 429 hood scoop, a variable CFM
Predator (with idle circuit) would be an ideal carb.

Dan Jones

quote:

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Originally posted by Daniel Jones:
> If you want to run a Boss 429 hood scoop, a variable CFM
Predator (with idle circuit) would be an ideal carb.

Dan Jones

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Hey don't give away all the secrets....
BTW in my application the idle circuit is worthless. Runs fine with the air bleed needle closed.

wrong username

kv

Also the 2348F piston also uses the smaller ring package.

The "M" heads do have a terrible exhuast port. It can be made better with alot of grinding, but stil not as good as a true 2v C head.

quote:

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Originally posted by Kyle:
. What is the biggest lift figures I can go with before having to flycut pistons?

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The cam in my current race motor is .628/.625 lift, using the 2348 pistons, and heads that have been shaved .050, it has plenty of valve to piston clearance. With any kind of "normal" street/strip cam, valve to piston clearance shouldnt be an issue. The only time I ran into valve to piston clearance problems was usoing a zero decked block, the .050 shaved heads, 2408 pistons, and a roller cam that had .650 lift. It was tight, but it cleared (should have had some "adjusting" done, only had about .060 intake valve to piston clearance).

Kyle: Large lift is wased on 2V heads. They reach peak lift at a much lower lift than 4V heads.

Ford Racing makes some bolt on roller rockers that don't need guide plates or any machining to use. They are 1.73 ratio and sell for 259.69. Anybody used them? Also, any camshafts from the Crower garage sale list stick out as good to use? The $60 price tag is mighty tempting...

http://www.crower.com/sp/gs_cams.shtml

So, I already have one set of the bolts the MPG trays come with and that's how I'm going to mount the Milodon tray.

quote:

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Originally posted by kid vishus:

So, I already have one set of the bolts the MPG trays come with and that's how I'm going to mount the Milodon tray.

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I foud out yesterday that the MIlodon tray will not work wihtout their mounting kit. The MPG bolts sit too low and will not reach the Milodon tray. Oh well, it was worth a shot to try and save some bucks. Now I have to order the Milodon mounting kit.