In 1973, we needed a race car. We had competed a small block Ford in the lower SS classes for two seasons, but NHRA decided to cut these classes off, so our car was obsolete. We looked at the specs NHRA had for Ford engines. The 427 and 428��s were just too expensive and if you didn��t have the SK or Canadian heads, you were fighting an uphill battle. We wanted a combination that had a moderate horsepower rating that we could afford to build and campaign. Ford tended to place very high horsepower rating on their engines, making most of them uncompetitive. One combination showed promise. We were gluttons for punishment, I guess.

That combination was the 1964 250 H.P. 352. (An engine that was never known for power, better suited to run irrigation pumps, as stated by one of our Ford competitors) The engine specs were: 4.0 bore, 3.5 stroke, same as a 350 Chevrolet. The Chevrolet used a 5.4 C-to-C rod, while the Ford used a 6.540 rod. Rod length to stroke ratio along the lines of the 302 Chev. The cylinder heads had big ports and valves, but were feeding a lot fewer cubic inches than the 428��s. Compression ratio was a little light at 9:1. It used the Autolite 4100 carburetor, around 600 CFM. On paper, this combination looked excellent to us. It��s chief competition would be the 250 H.P. 327, which carried a HP factor, and the 220 H.P. 283. We figured it could handle both. The only challenges were actually making power, and keeping it alive. (The 352 connecting rod was nowhere near the strength of the 390 rod). Since nobody ever won a race on paper, we went for it. Car was a 1964 two door sedan Custom, 15.05 Lbs per Horsepower. 3762 lbs.

Treating the 352 like a miniature 428 was a giant mistake. Especially in the intake manifold. We took what worked at the time on a ��28, a 427 Sidewinder and ported it to match the cylinder heads. The long rods, and low piston speed, coupled with a 9:1 compression made for an extremely slow air charge. The class index at the time was 12.80. We ran 13.2 at the Winternationals. Expected this to improve, multiple camshafts and converters were tried. We fought the combination for whole season and never went any faster.

We had always raced with four speeds, and really didn��t know the finer points of racing a car with an automatic. Using the original, cast iron case Cruise-O-Matic didn��t help either. We figured a season for on-the-job training. We were convinced the automatic transmission was at fault.

For the next season, we put a four speed together. First time out, car still went 13.20. We were absolutely devastated. We had one guy already bail out, saying the car would never run.

Edelbrock had just released the Streetmaster intake and we got one. Out of the box, the ports were very small, about the same size as the small block intake. Since the car was an absolute pig, we figured we had nothing to lose and bolted it on. Expecting nothing we took to the local Super Stock meet, now running on a 12.60 class index. As usual, we would make a warm up pass, minimum heating the tires, low shift points. I remember thinking the engine sounded a lot different, louder and crisper. To say we were surprised when the car went 12.70 on that pass is an understatement. It was the intake all along.

The car was now competitive. I think it ran 12.40��s with the unmodified intake. We steadily dialed it in, porting the manifold in steps and seeing a performance improvement with each step. The engine really liked RPM. 8200 on the starting line, shift points in the 7200 range. We found that the connecting rods needed pins to hold the bearings. The rods were forged steel, we had them heat treated, shot peened and stress relieved. They were quite strong, and we never broke one, but they tended to spin the rod bearings at 8000 RPM without the pins.

We suffered our share of problems. Not the least of which was quite a bit of static from our fellow racers. The first season, when the car was uncompetitive, the Chevy, Mopar and Ford guys couldn��t be friendlier. (They especially enjoyed racing us. First Round Dog Food, I think was the term;>) That all changed when the car started running fast. Now, we were ��persona-non-grata�� This was no surprise, we had previously raced a 260 in SS/X so we knew how ugly things could get. One of our biggest detractors was a fellow Ford racer.

Do you still have the engine? Fox Mustangs are getting pretty cheap.

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Originally posted by JCQuinn@work:
Great story, thanks for posting it.

Do you still have the engine? Fox Mustangs are getting pretty cheap.

John

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Welcome to M&M, Bill!

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SCOOP

oddly obsessed with big scoops on little Mustangs

65 coupe,351w,C4,Big Boss 429 hood scoop,8" 3.40 TracLoc.

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Originally posted by Rory McNeil:
I remember that car!! Big red 64, big launch, 1-2 shift at about 20 foot out. Seem to remember it at Mission points meet (1976 or?)in an all Ford 4 speed final with Van Cleve`s 427 Fairlane.I recall that Jerry Pruitt ran a 83? or so Mustang with a 352 4 speed in GT/G ome years ago, pretty much put it on the rear bumper at the Seattle Nat`l event in the mid-late 80`s. I remember Jerry Valentine telling Jerry Pruitt that the Pinto flex sterring column wasn`t legal, haven`t seen Jerry or the car since.

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