Need 351 Cleveland HP suggestions

[Daniel Jones]

>So I am stuck with 2V heads and from what I read the Aussie heads are a
>good choice due to the quench chambers.

Yes, the Aussie's are good providing you're running a flat top piston
for 10.5 to 11:1 compression ratio. If you've installed a dished
piston, you might have well started with an open chamber 2V head.
The ports are the same but the chamber will tolerate more compression
on pump gas, so they'll make more power. If you run a stroker (or nitrous
or supercharger) and need to dish the piston to get the compression down
with Aussie 2V heads or quench 4V heads, use a D-dish with the dished
part of the piston under the chamber and the flat part under the quench
pad (or better yet a mirror image of the quench chamber). That way the
quench effect will be preserved.

>I remembered the main reason I went with the Aussie heads on my 351C:
>I have just enough hood clearance to run an Edelbrock F351 2V intake
>and as far as I know no one makes a 4V intake that is the same height
>or lower.

Edelbrock makes the Performer 4V for 4V heads which is the same height
as your F-351. Also, the Ford over-the-counter aluminum 4V dual plane
intake is similar in height. Offenhauser also makes some low 2V and 4V
intakes. The Offy Dual Ports are fuel economy intakes and the Offy 360
intakes aren't much of an intake (they do make good blower manifolds
though). For comparison, here are some height measurements I made of
351C intakes. The measurements represent the drop from a straight edge
laid across the carb pad to the closest point where the end rail bends
inward (each end). Measurements are in inches:

Holley Strip Dominator 4 5/16 5 3/8
Blue Thunder 4 7/16 5 3/8
Edelbrock F-351 Performer 2V 3 1/2 4 3/8
Ford aluminum 4V 3 1/4 4 3/8
Offenhauser 360 4V 3 1/2 4 1/2
Weiand Xcelerator 2V 4 3/16 5 1/8
Weiand tunnel Ram 9 1/16 9 3/8
base 6 1/4 6 1/4
top 2 3/4 3 1/8
Motorsport A351 (Roush) 6 3/4 6 3/4
A331 (Edelbrock version, not Roush) 4 3/8 5 5/16

I'm sure the bulletin board will hose the formatting. Does anyone know how to preserve the spacing?

The difference between my Xcelerator and a Strip Dominator is a quarter
inch but it sure looks like more than that to the naked eye. I run the
Weiand Xcelerator 2V with a 14" diameter drop base air filter case and
2 1/4" tall K&N element. It's about as tall a combination that will fit
under the a stock Pantera engine screen. The top just clears the Holley
choke tower (probably hurts high RPM breathing) and the bottom just clears
the distributor. Some drop base air cleaners will rub on the distributor
(some distributors are taller than others) and a Carter AFB has a lower
choke tower which might give you a bit more room to play with.

>Dan, thanks for correcting me about the intakes and more importantly, the
>Aussie port sizes. I read that they were larger, so what you said is very
>interesting.

You're welcome. I've read the port size deal before but it's a myth.
You pretty much have to take anything written in the magazines about the
351C with a grain a salt. I've got 2 four inch binders full of Cleveland
articles and most of them are wrong. Journalist majors write most of the
magazine articles, not hot rodders or engineers, unfortunately.

Dan Jones