Hello boys and girls!

Im seriously looking at buying my favorite ford, a XY Fairmont with 351, top loader, 9in etc etc. Im only a young bloke, and as such have spent all my time looking at motors running EFI etc. I have never ever looked into a carby motor, nor have I ever looked at the 351 in detail (but if i buy it, that'll soon change)

Basically, its stock at the moment apart from a few GT bits (the front spoiler, shaker and rear wing). Im planning to ditch the spoiler and wing, paint the sucker and slam it on a fat set of 12 slotters. And just cruise.

But while im cruising, i would just still love the idea of having 400/450hp under the right foot. Im told that acheiving this with a clevo is a piece of piss.....im just wanting to know, roughly how am i going to get there, how much is it going to cost and what things should i be paying attention to? things like, while a standard bottom end cope with that grunt etc etc.

Does anyone also know if the GT parts i mentioned a Fairmont factory option or are they add ons?

Cheers.

the wing may well be a factory option, but the shaker and the chin spoiler are add-ons

400-450hp isnt that hard, how much it's gonna cost depends on how long u want it to hang together

keep the rear spoiler, it's a finishing touch for the XY's

Dont get me wrong, i love the spoilers....but they belong on GT's. This wont be another GT replica. I will hang onto it but.

I'd be after a motor that had a fair whack of torque, but was generally reliable and used as little fuel as possible (yeah right). One day i'll go for a alloy headed stroker, but for my first real project car, i'm just wanting a nice cruiser.

Well according to the media, they came out with about 280 or so horsepower, but in reality, the gt's were up around 400 horsepower. So to get 400 isnt gonna take much

But this aint no GT

Its a fairmont

looks like im going to have to spend a week learning all that has pushrods, 8cyls in a vee config and carbys!

the XY GT's were rated at 300hp, the HO's were rated the same, but in reality they were closer to 350.....

if you're after a tuff cruiser, aim for an engine built for a s**t of torque, but only around 300 hp

in a relatively light car like an XY (compared to todays falcons) 300hp will still give you a quick car, and with a very torquey engine, it'll be a lot better mannered on the road

remember the immortal words of carrol shelby; "Horsepower sells cars, but torque wind races"

Yeah looks like ur in the same boat as when I started on here. got a 351 with all the same gear. on the dyno is got 136rwkw and 1711Nm (or 427Nm once u go via the diff, 4.11). so if its about the same ur already sitting on a nice engine. Ive gone for a new eletric dizzy, a new cam, new 302cc heads with 4v intakes and a set of roller rockers, weiand intake and a holley carb, havent had it slapped together yet but from what ive heard this is basically the first simple steps. Next would probably go a solid cam, efi and finally a forced setup. So yeah theres plenty to do an millions of combos that people reckon have worked for em in the past, so happy hunting.

This isn't gospel - but an interesting read

http://phystutor.tripod.com/stang/engines/engines.html

hmm 4.11s in a cruiser wouldnt be good Just get 3.5 gears, 2500 hi-stall and a shift kit and you would be pissin along.

400hp should be relatively easy. My mates ZH runs a 351 with a dual 2.5inch berklee exhaust with magnaflow mufflers,extractors, crane cam, 650holley, rebuilt bottom end, ported/polished heads, edelbrock performer manifold, electric fuel pump, msd ignition and a rebuilt bottom end and that was good for 420hp.

now its got a weiand manifold, solid cam, 750dp holley and should be good for around 500hp.

Its acheivable but expect to spend about 3-4grand. Best way is to give it to a performance shop and say here, give me 400hp. Drive in drive out 400hp no worries.

yeh get the pig... just as a warning, everything that you buy is going to cost you more than you first thought. Keep the top loader, autos are for girls that dont know how to change gears. 3.5 diff is a good enough balance for street driving without having to rev the tits out of the car to go at speed. There are a few niggly bits and peaces that will give you a headache once you start playing, but basically it is all good fun. Oh one other thing, dont forget the car will need to be basically rewired for all the mod cons if you want them, a fuse box with 5 fuses just doesnt cut it when you start adding stereo gear and the like. At the end of the day, get it so that I have someone else to talk to about pigs of cars

One of the most overlooked things on a clevo is to get it ballanced, this alone will allow you to use more factory parts as it is easier on them.
Any clevo heads will give you 400hp if flowed correctly, Most blokes will use 4V inlet & exhaust valves, this is unessesary as the clevo works best flowing 75% of the inlet thru the exhaust ports (flow benching is best)
by using 4V inlet valves you will sacrafice lower down torque ,and gain 5-8hp at top end. Ford cranks are well up to the task, as is the cast iron rods, Best to hve them polished & shot peened tho'.
Most people use HV oil pumps as well, simply not necessary if a restrictor kit is fitted (highly recomended) A HV oil pump will cost U around 5hp and put extra load on distributer shaft. Use a cam that is ground to suit your'e comp ratio ,bore & stroke & head flow readings & dont put on any cheap extractor/exhaust set up as this will not allow the full potential of the engine.
or stroke it with a mild cam & head set up ,thats the easy way to make torque (and bigger fuel bills!)

All i can say is if you gotta build one from scratch and you don't have a 351 crank and rod. Just buy a stroker.

<a href="http://www.pro-stroke.com">Pro-Stroke</a>

May not have the outright HP. But more torque than you ever seen..

Wait til 383XD comes back from his honeymoon, He tell how good it is....


AS for 4v head, for get it they are rubbish for all but an out and out race engine.

Ports are way tooo big and have no airspeed at low RPM.

Go for a good set of ported 2v. Go see Joe Gatt at Superflow head at hoxton park. what he doesn't know about clevo head isn't worth knowing.

Maybe 4v valves in a 2v head is as far as you go....

I agree keep the toploader, and when fund allow stick a tremec in it so it 5spd.

pending on the tyre combo. I agree 3.25 or 3.5 would be as far u go. Clevo aren't a big REV engine (Except for yours Yobboford) so 4.11 is over the top..

As for Spark, good electronic dizzy and coil. MSD are good, but over the top for a street engine.

Edelbrock torker or performer manifold are great.

As for Carbs. i know every one say holley holley holley. And i will be flamed for saying otherwise. But do your self a Favour and spend the bucks and buy a edelbrock performer Carb(750cfm) or a Carter Competition. They are basically the same Carb. These are f.....ken great. I know of atleast a dozen people thet have bought, borrowed, stolen these carbs and all were holley people to they got one and now only use holley carbs as bookend on there bookshelf in the garage.

the engine will run cleaner, stronger, have more grunt across the range and will probably even be better on fuel. Again 383XD has one on his Boat with a 351 and it will hall 3 a*** skier out of the water with ease and still get a good 5hrs skiing from 100l of fuel....


Matt

Clevo aren't a big REV engine (Except for yours Yobboford) so 4.11 is over the top..
I would have to disagree my clevo with 4V heads (412 cfm@28'') produced 581hp on 98 oct pump fuel @ 6800rpm.
and this was with all ford internals(crank, rods ,XE casting 1925X 4 bolt block)
I put it thru hell 8500rpm ,as the power drop off point was not until over 7600.It was recently dismantled and found to be in that good cond it didn't even need new big end bearings after 20'000km's with 4.33 a** end
I'm not having a shot at you, but clevo's built "CORRECTLY" (blueprinted,ballanced & machined) are pretty tough. and most of all don't cost the earth to wake up, unlike these 5L windsors.
kenny:

i got 351 4ma, 4v valves in 2v open head , stage 3 hydraulic , roller rockers , performer manifold y extractors into 3 inch , had 600- 750 carbs , 6 inch rods -302 , 9.5 comp , 2500 stall , 3 to 1 a** all equals 230hp at wheels , big sump , gear set totasl cost about 6 grand and i built it myself
only raced a el gt and kicked butt changing at 6000revs

heads at moment gettin new springs for a solid stage 4 cam , single plain manifold , 4 into i exhaust extra total 1900 bucks
ill find out at the nats what she pulls

have fun with everyones info- theres info out there everywhere