Reply to "George, tell us about your motor..."

> My Pantera's motor is 100% stock!

I'd warn you about the stock valves but I know you already know. I got less
than hours on my first 351C before the head of an exhaust valve popped off,
destroying a standard bore block and closed chamber head. A friend recently
purchased a Pantera and I warned him about the valve situation. He decided to
just run it until he could build a motor similar to what you describe. Two
weeks later he called to tell me it was idling funny. He checked compression
and one of the cylinders was low. When he pulled the head, the valve was
cracked and ready to pop off.

> and a hydraulic roller cam.

Vizard has tested the Crane hydraulic roller lifters and says they are worth the $400
price. In his tests, they are worth a bunch of RPM. He also likes the
beehive springs.

> I most likely will not run an off the shelf cam, but will use my own specs.

Vizard spec'd the cam for my stroker. He originally spec'd a Comp Cams 3636
Ford journal Xtreme Energy hydraulic roller intake lobe and a Comp Cams
3637 exhaust lobe with a shorter rocker ratio, to be ground on a steel cam
core. When I called Comp, they said the couldn't grind it. Comp's Ford
hydraulic roller cams are ground on reduced base circle austempered ductile
iron cam cores and their steel cores wouldn't support the lobe profile.
Comp has 8620 steel cam cores but they are meant for high lift solid roller
applications and the tech at Comp (Hadley Owens) said if they try to grind
the 3636/3637 lobes on their steel cam core it would break through the heat
treat, leading to rapid wear. Not good. I ended up matching the lobes with
equivalent ones from Crane. Crane's 351C hydraulic roller cams are ground
on standard base circle 8620 steel cam cores and they were able to cross a
pair of lobes very similar to Comp's. I had a lot of trouble with the phone
monkeys at Comp (before the referred me to Hadley) and was expecting more of
the same at Crane. I asked the Crane phone tech a couple of questions he
couldn't answer so he quickly referred me to his product manager. I told him
I wanted to run a hydraulic roller cam in an aluminum Fontana block and the
first thing he asked was "Is this by any chance for a Pantera?" Hmmm, maybe
this guy might know what he's talking about. I gave him the specs Vizard
worked up for me and he said they could grind something similar. Crane's
closest equivalent grind would be an HR-238/365 lobe on the intake and an
HR-242/372 lobe for the exhaust. The specs ended up as:

HR-238/365 intake lobe
HR-242/372 exhaust lobe
238/242 degress duration @ 0.050" lift (300/304 advertised)
0.621"/0.595" lift (with 1.7:1/1.6:1 ratio rockers)
110 LSA
8620 steel cam core
standard base circle
compatible with Cranes coated steel cam gear

Chase said the durations would grow by approximately 2 degrees when ground on
the larger (relative to SBC) Cleveland base circle. The core was in stock and
they had it on its way within just a few days. Note tht Crane makes a steel
distributor gear for 351C's using steel cam cores.

I spoke with an engine builder that specializes in engines for Cobra replicas
and they recommended the Crane cam. They sell and use both Comp and Crane
cams and say the Crane cams have fewer problems. They also noted a potential
oil pressure leakage problem with reduced base circle cams like the Comp.

> I'd be interested in a "351 build-up" series when you get started. Especially
> your dealings with machinists and the "extra steps" one takes to assure a
> motor produces supreme power for the components chosen.

Have you seen Dave Williams site? He detailed a few 351C builds, including one
for a local Pantera owner:

http://www.bacomatic.org/~dw/alex379/alex379a.htm
http://www.bacomatic.org/~dw/alex379/alex379b.htm

Dan Jones