www.the351cforum.com

I cut the divider down on my performer after words and opened the ports up a bit, but havent run it since then. It's an improvement over the cast iron 2v intake for sure, but it's not a great performance intake. Who knows, the xcellorator might not have worked as well on the street if I would not have had a 3500 converter in it and a 4.11 gear.

kv racing

I never made it to the 1/4 mile with the performer intake. When it ran 8.8-8.9 in the 1/8, I knew I had to make some changes before I went to the 1/4. My experience with the Xcellerator #7516 intake on the street was just fine. I ran a BG Speed Demon 650 and had 2500 stall and 4.11 gears. Tires were Hoosier QTP 26x9.5 Drove around town just fine. My only problem was keeping the engine cool.

After I put the Comp 282s cam,the Weiand intake and MSD6AL I was cruising the streets and had my buddy Jeremy with me. On the way back home we stumbled upon a 2000 SS Camaro. He just put a cam, headers and 3.73 gears and had drag radials in it. We went to the back roads south of 170/377 (Falcon knows where this is). I ran him a 20 punch got him by 2 cars. 40 punch got him a little under a car. Then last race from a dig and he said I had at least 4 cars. Fun and that was actually my last street race in the Cougar. They really started cracking down and were not just writing tickets but charging with a felony and impounding you car on the spot.

That got me to take a good look at my setup. It turns out somebody did open up the ports. Instead of cutting the divider they put in the spacer I think. I'll give it a try at least...

I tried to upload pictures but it says that the attachment quota has been reached. What does that mean?

I cant remember for sure, but I think I had a four hole spacer on it. An open would have accomplished the same thing as cutting the divider down. I'm all for using parts you already have, thats for sure. I bought the xcellorator and a set of pistons from a buddy of mine back then (probably about 30 years ago), and I think I only paid about 100 bucks for the intake. It was new and had never been bolted down. He changed his mind and decided to build a windsor instead of the cleveland so he was selling all his C stuff. The motor was in a car I had bought and didnt run at the time. It was a 70 Maverick and I was going to build a drag car out of it. After starting the disassembly process, I decided it was going to require more work and money than I was willing to spend on it, so I sold the car but kept the motor. It sat on the floor of my garage for a couple of years. The one day I decided I wanted to put a motor back in my Mustang. I stuck a pry bar on the crank. It spun over, had compression, what the hell, let's stick it in the car. I stuck a different cam in it (an old hydro that was in a different motor when I bought it), and dropped it in the car.

As for image hosting, I think it means the website has reached the limit is allowed to host pictures. I have started using https://imgbb.com/ for a third party hosting service since photobucket sucks now and wont let you do that anymore. This one is free and pretty easy to use.

OK so the heads are off. As expected with a standard bore 51 year old engine there is some carbon and a small ridge in the bores maybe .002" by the feel of it. There are some spots in one cylinder- maybe moisture got in it but they feel smooth to touch and it seems a ball hone should take them out. Should i pursue the original pistons or start looking at piston options?

jacek

Did you look in the classifieds and see kv racing has standard bore dome pistons for sale? With open chamber heads I think that will get you in that 10.75-11:1 compression area. I guess you will have to mic the bores and have kv racing mic his pistons and figure out if you can hone your cylinders out to cover the piston swell tolerance. Just a thought. If not, then kv racing also has a set of SRP .030 flat top pistons for sale too.

Those dome pistons would make for a potent street rod. Only problem I see is you living in California last time I checked your highest pump octane is 91 right? Maybe different from county to county? You could make your combo E85 and run it all day. Just another thought.
-Matt

None of those pistons will work with stock rods and crank though. The two standard bore, domed sets have some weird pin heights on them. The flat tops are for use with a 3.85 stroke crank.

If you're wanting to do it correctly, have a machine shop hone the cylinders for you. They are not round or straight at this point and a ball hone won't do anything but follow the current shape. A torque plate hone is the correct way to do it and will make sure that you will have good ring seal, no matter which direction you go with pistons/rings.

_________________
Brent Lykins, Lykins Motorsports
www.lykinsmotorsports.com
brent@lykinsmotorsports.com

That's up to you, how much you want to spend, how long you want it to be apart, etc. If you buy pistons, just be aware that machine shop costs have gone thru the roof the last 10-15 years.
Personally, for just a weekend bruiser and no more ridge than that, I would probably stick with the factory cast pistons. They arent as strong as a forged unit, but for a street car they are fine. I would run a hone down the bores, put some fresh rings and bearings in it, and put it back together.

Thank you. I'm pulling the crank tonight and, hopefully, tomorrow I'll take the parts to the machine shop. As far as decking the block:
If the piston clearance is in specs, should the piston top be flush with the top cylinder surface? right now it feels like about .020-0.030" below at TDC.
On the other hand, if I decide on new pistons, does decking the block matter?