I was thinking that if I had to start completey over with a motor for my Falcon, a full race 347 might work fairly well, but as I'm not familiar with that combo maybe someone here could comment.

I like the idea of a compact, light weight power plant. I would need to make close to as much horse power as my present 377 makes to allow 10.90 index racing if desired. Present combo is 13:1 compression with roller cam (don't have the specs handy) 4V ported heads and alky injection.

I would like to reuse the toilet, of course, and assume there is a manifold that would work for that. Compression ratio would need to be at least 12:1 for the methanol. I see crate motors that come close to what I think might work, but they all seem to be about 9.5:1.

What would the best heads be for all out power? I'd like to use aluminum for weight savings.

Would the power band be close enough to the 377 for my 4:86 gear to work? The RPM at the line in quarter mile is about 7400 at 135 MPH or so now, according to the former owner. I've not run anything but eighth yet.

I really can't see myself changing from Clevelands for a while. I've got most of 3 more of them before I run out of parts, but Cleveland stuff is getting hard to find and all good things come to an end.

I could almost see trying a 347 with Cleveland heads. Those heads can make some serious power and I've got a couple more sets. For factory castings, I don't think they can be beat.

I suspect a sheetmetal intake would be in order for that combo as I doubt if there are any commercial ones.

Anyway, food for bench racin, huh?

Oh yea

I was going to sound in with Blue Thunder, Trick Flow 'R' or Yates heads. All flow 325~ish on the intake side... I believe Blue Thunder has 8.2" deck intakes (I'm not real familiar with the toilet; Dominator flange?)

The 'crate motors' are all flat top pistons and typically make 10:1+ c/r with 60cc chambers. Domed pistons would likely need to be made for Yates canted chambers, but there's your 12:1 and then some.

Those Dart Iron Eagle blocks sure are cool ...

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1965 GT coupe, 333ci aluminum headed/solid cammed stroker, four speed, 3.70:1 9"

http://www.kuntzandcompany.com/

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1965 GT coupe, 333ci aluminum headed/solid cammed stroker, four speed, 3.70:1 9"

One more thing I forgot. It needs to be fairly torquey. Power Slide starting it 1.76 1st gear.

I do think one shift instead of 2 is more consistent.

Cleveland heads have such huge ports for a relatively small cubic inch motor to require a fair amount of RPM to get enough flow.

This motor would have to have GOOD rotating parts, I'd think.

Kunz could no doubt do a combo like this, but I'd have to mortgage KV to pay for it!

Nah, I'd have to pay them!!

www.rfedd.bigstep.com

I'm happy with my mild 347, but its a 99% driver and a 1% plaything at 12.5 seconds at a time.

With that and a lighter power plant, would big torque be so important with the glide?

A 2600 pound total weight with driver would make it leave fairly well even with the glide with a 347, I'd think. Of course that screws up 10.90 index racing cause it would be too light.

Getting really stupid, how bout a lighter version with a high winder 347 and a stick shift? Add the Cleveland heads I've got with the high exhaust plates and raised intake runners.......

At any rate, I'm going to run Clevelands for the forseeable future. Changing over will be costly as not much of the Cleveland stuff will transfer over. I'm happy with what I've got, but down the road, a more modern (read available) motor may be necessary.

Ron Feddema has one of the coolest 65 mustang fastbacks out there. He has a 347 with some of the best parts money can buy, but off the bottle, it isn't that much faster than Alex's car, and his is limited to 'stock' compression, factory heads, and a 480cfm carb.

I'd stretch a 8.2" deck (289-302) out to 331ci, but if there is no restriction, the (windsor based) engine I'd build is a 351W based stroker. Those really make the power.

Did anyone see the article in Car Craft where they took a 10.5 compression 408 with Victor Jr heads and ran 9.89 no bottle in a Fox mustang? They hit it with a 200hp shot of the bottle and ran 8.69! The car was fairly lightweight, and was tubbed... but made the power. On a chassis dyno, it made over 700 REAR wheel horsepower. This is with a stock block, and the no bottle runs were made with 92 octane pump gas!

I tried really hard to convince Ron to build a 408 back when he was in the planning stages of his 347, but had no luck. He was actually openly debating it, but went with the 347.

Clevelands rock as well... as long as their cylinders are filled (to hold up to major power), and they aren't required to make gobs of low end. The 351C has got to be the prettiest pushrod V8 engine ever produced. Using facory parts, it's also the baddest of the bad when it comes to small blocks!

Good Luck!

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Mike Burch
66 mustang real street
302 4-speed 289 heads
10.63 @ 129.3
http://www.geocities.com/carbedstangs/cmml_mburch.html
http://www.fortunecity.com/silverstone/healey/367
http://www.mustangworks.com/cgi-bin/moi-display.cgi?220

quote:

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Originally posted by Dad Vishus:

Getting really stupid, how bout a lighter version with a high winder 347 and a stick shift?

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Stupid? haha, that's about the best way to do it, killing 30 cubes and using the twin-geared slushbox from hell (or GM as the case may be) isn't going to go as fast.

As for 347's being "OK" , a local guy runs a giant turbo on his wedge headed 347 in a 3240lb Mustang and goes 7's with one of those "horrible" Powerglides, it's been pretty reliable.

A turbo'd 347 that runs in the 7s would about have to use a Glide or a stout manual. I doubt if you could build a C4 that would stand that much horsepower. In a 3200 lb. car running 7s I'd think that would take 1000 HP plus. Glides are used in Alky floppers that make way more HP than that, so I know one could be built up to handle 1000.

I'm not crazy about a GM trans in my Ford, but they are efficient and consistent.

I will admit that a 347 and a Glide would probably not work real well in my car as it sits, but it was sort of a "what if" kindof discussion.