Engine Masters Challenge, CHI Heads, and Cobras

[Commander]

Originally Posted by Manowar

We used to cast an 8.7 and 9.2-both have been discontinued for lack of response. We still have about 25 9.2's in both main sizes which is why they're still on the site. We now only cast 8.2 and 9.5 in iron and aluminum.
Those were original Ford deck sizes, but I'm not sure which vehicles they were in. I think the 9.2 was used in passenger cars and possibly the Pantera, which had Cleveland heads.There are many more Windsor experts on the forum than I.

Pantera had a full blown Cleveland engine in it, block AND heads. The 9.2 was the Cleveland block deck height. 9.5 was the Windsor 351 block deck height. The 8.2 deck is for 302's.

The cleveland block should be noticably different than the Windsor block, or are you just casting Windsor blocks in different deck heights? If so, wondering why CHI heads (is that an offshoot of a tea company?) aren't big movers is fairly simple nowadays. It would make a bastardized engine (cleveland heads, that aren't really cleveland heads, mounted on a Windsor block). Everyone nowadays seems to be moving away from mutts into purebreds. They just want to say it's a Cleveland engine, or it's an FE (better yet a sideoiler whatever that is in their minds including aluminum-headed, aluminum water-pumped...). They don't want to be explaining what a 3V head is when they don't even know what the "V" stands for.

There's a shift happening in the "hot rod" world; you can see it in the number of people who buy crate engines instead of building it themselves. Originality, even NOS parts, purebred, in a kitcar are preferred.

edit: by the way, your 8.2 deck block business may decline in the near term as Ford has released their BOSS 302 block which for actual all out performance and strength, looks great. Though I don't believe it will be available in aluminum, just diesel-quality iron.