Seeking information about the "Brute Force" engine in my Pantera.

KHey guys i know this is an old thread,

but i also have a “nascar” engine in my pantera, well at least tgat was how it was described to me.

original owner told me he paid 40k for an engine from hall that came straight from yates. Now im not saying this is acurate, but ive been trying to find any info i can, ive contacted yates many times, left messeges for Nick Ramey, their engine builder, nobody has returned my calls.

im just trying to find out “what i have” ive sent out the shaft rockers bad to T&D to be rebuilt, tge heads are A3’s canted valves, titainium with lash caps, svo 351 block, 9000rpm svo intake, with a 1050 barrygrant carb. 

Any info would be apreciated, also there are the numbers “3662” stamped on the block and each head. 

Ive included some pictures. 

Thanks joe. 

I like that center plate on those headers... 

there should be some documentation somewhere in the chain of ownership.

throwing out any identifying markings  like 3662 can open you up to a catfish ride. Oh Yea Yea that's our engine ... man did you get a deal!

Ya the headers were for a 351c not a 351w different deck hights, ive since had it machined down to match the outline of the manifolds. 

The original owner said he bought it, but never got a build sheet, this was in 1997ish. 

This car is like the “hall pantera” poster child, i think he just sent in the catalog with a blank check. 

Joe, are you inferring the deck height of your Pantera's engine block is the same as a 351M/400 (10.297) instead of the 351C deck height (9.215) or 351W deck height (9.500)?

That would explain the offset push rod cup adjusters.

Do you know if the stroke is 3.5 inches or 4.00 inches (or something else)?

George,

I believe the deck is 9.5, (Windsor block dont know why i said m lol) higher then a Cleveland, i have no idea what the stroke is, i do know its a svo block, when i pulled the valley pan i found the svo stamp code, its a 4 bolt main, either billet or cast caps (havent pulled pan), its got a solid roller cam (no idea what cam). Luckly the lash is scribed inside of the left valve cover. 

I can tell from your pictures that the block is a bit wider than a 351C. I'll go along with the block having a 351W deck height. That still explains the needs for offset pushrod cups, and the spacer for the 4 exhaust primaries.

If the engine was built circa 1997, and was equipped with A3 heads, it wasn't a current NASCAR engine, although the A3 heads & intake were most definitely "former" NASCAR parts.

$40K for the engine in 1997 is a wild number … not realistic. No wonder the seller couldn't provide a receipt.

The 3662 number stamped into the heads and block were most definitely the numbers of a well organized engine assembler. The question is who?  If Roush won't respond there weren't many Pantera vendors that were suppliers for SVO parts.  Two that I can think of, Hall Pantera and Pantera Performance Center of Colorado (Dennis Quella aka PPCC). Start with Tara at Hall Pantera. Dyno Don Nicholson was building engines back then too. Jim Kuntz might have been building street engines by then.

Keep an eye on the tappets … solid roller tappets are going to eventually fail;  unless that engine has a custom made rev-kit. They normally fail within 10,000 miles or less. The solid tappet lash clearance allows the solid roller tappets to bounce (chatter or oscillate) within the clearance, and this beats the little needle bearings of the rollers to death.

Wow thats more info then ive gotten from anybody, thanks George. 

Ill follow up on some of those leads,

Also i was mistaken on the heads, they are C3’s not A3’s, and they and the intake have been ported, as for the lifters, thats what im trying to follow up on now, i want to them to get rebuilt but they have no markings on them, I might have to resort to just replacing them. 

Here are a few more pics, 1 shows the casting number of the block.

thanks again Joe 

Interesting, the heads in the picture above (with blue masking tape over the ports) look like Yates C3 heads (based on the intake manifold flange). The valves in Yates C3 heads are not side canted. But the rocker arm assemblies in your earlier post look like SVO C302 rocker arm assemblies (in other words standard canted valve Cleveland rocker arms). So I'm perplexed regarding the identification of the heads.

Ford NASCAR teams switched from SVO C302 heads to Yates C3 heads circa 1993 … and Ford's NASCAR competitors began using a 9.5 deck height block circa 1996 (SVO M-6010-H351).

George,

after scouring the web, ive found some new info posted here in 2006, it was stated that the engine in my car was a 420ci. 

Not a “ Eureka “ moment i know, but evrey little bit helps. 

Thanks joe.