1982 Ford LTD-S 351W Police Car

[Quincy]

Rotating short block is all assembled, I still have to check the cam with the cam degree kit I got. Trickflow heads have been on backorder for a month...the supplier says they still arent sure when they will get them to ship to me. I'm sure Trick Flow is short handed now due to the virus.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]55529[/ATTACH]

Looks like nice work! Maybe your cop box vs. my wagon would be a good match race when we're all done, but I have a feeling you'll have your project deployed long before mine. Say, which pan is that, the factory 351W Panther, or the "conversion" one from a Bronco/F150? I'll explain why I'm asking in a while...

[Brown_Muscle]

Looks like nice work! Maybe your cop box vs. my wagon would be a good match race when we're all done, but I have a feeling you'll have your project deployed long before mine. Say, which pan is that, the factory 351W Panther, or the "conversion" one from a Bronco/F150? I'll explain why I'm asking in a while...

That would be a fun race, I’ve never raced a car on a drag strip before, but I’d like to take the LTD someday to see what it’ll do.

It’s a factory pan with the dipstick mounted inside. They’re known to leak, so I removed the piece the tube goes into and resealed it with black RTV instead of the cork gasket. I don’t expect troubles. I’m going to plug the block dipstick hole with a metal plug

[gadget73]

The Fox Mustang 351 swap pan is also the same as the panther 351 pan. Probably the only reason this part is available.

[Quincy]

That would be a fun race, I’ve never raced a car on a drag strip before, but I’d like to take the LTD someday to see what it’ll do.

It’s a factory pan with the dipstick mounted inside. They’re known to leak, so I removed the piece the tube goes into and resealed it with black RTV instead of the cork gasket. I don’t expect troubles. I’m going to plug the block dipstick hole with a metal plug

I know that the Panther 351W pan is still available. To gadget73's point, I've been told elsewhere by a lot of the guys who have done the 351W conversion that they are now getting the Bronco pan as part of the conversion kit in some instances.

Here's my issue: The core motor I bought came with the double sump Bronco pan (it came out of a Bronco, after all). The Mustang guys are telling me that sometimes they have to tweak some stuff to get it it work in their cars. The center section is deeper than the Panther 351 pan, and there are some other minor variances. You might say, "well just get the Panther pan, it's cheap and you know it will work". All good except someone installed a HV oil pump on this motor (which I'd like to keep), and they did a decent job of adding a little clearance piece to clear the deeper pump. I wish I had some idea how much tweaking I'm in for trying to get the Bronco pan in the Panther. I'll probably just end up getting an aftermarket baffled pan (e. g. Moroso and the like) for a Mustang 351W conversion.

I'm glad you mentioned about the stick. That's what the Bronco pan has, too, I will check the sealing if I keep that pan. By thy way (more nosiness!), what pistons are those?

Panther 351W pan:



Bronco Pan:

[gadget73]

unless the oil returns have been cleaned up to get oil back to the pan more quickly, honestly an HV pump is not a good idea. In extreme cases its possible to push enough oil to the top of the engine that it starves.

[87gtVIC]

unless the oil returns have been cleaned up to get oil back to the pan more quickly, honestly an HV pump is not a good idea. In extreme cases its possible to push enough oil to the top of the engine that it starves.

I have heard this quite a few times. No opinion for or against here, though the vast majority of people advise against one. I will also mention to make sure you have a good oil pump driveshaft in there.

[Brown_Muscle]

Unless you're doing full out racing all the time, and have a good 7qt+ oil pan... It's really not necessary. I bought a hardened ARP oil pump driveshaft, for insurance. I think it's more work and money to go with a different pan and the HV pump than to get a $60ish factory style pan.

The pistons are forged Autotec (by Racetec) 12cc dished pistons. modern 1.5, 1.5, 3mm plasma-moly piston rings. They seem nice, lighter than stock too.

[Quincy]

Good point on the drainback holes. Mopars don't suffer from that issue like Fords and Chevies do, the oil can literally pour right on the cam and back into the pan. I'm running full grove mains, and I like the HV pump for extra insurance. The point you make is a good argument for an aftermarket higher capacity pan, *but* a high volume pump is never going to move any more oil than a stock pump @ a given pressure. I use the 10 psi per 1000 RPM rule. The excess will pass right back into the suction side via the regulator valve. If a HV pump is moving a massive amount of oil up top, it's because there is a pressure drop enough to close the calibrated regulator valve and deliver full volume. And yeppers on the ARP pump driveshaft. While keeping the drainback issue in mind, I still want the capacity to move more oil.

[Quincy]

I'm gonna look up the specs on those pistons you have. I just realized that the lightly used (or so I thought) forged units I was going to use are toasted.

[Quincy]

They seem nice, lighter than stock too.

I assume you're going to have this all balanced?

[gadget73]

I bought a hardened ARP oil pump driveshaft, for insurance.

I don't think its an issue on D-spark but John had problems with that shaft on a TFI distributor. The shoulder is too high and it caused the distributor to bottom out on the shaft. Had to shave the distributor shaft down for clearance. D-spark I think is about 1/4" shorter than the TFI which is just enough to make it work.

[Brown_Muscle]

The rotating assembly was dynamically balanced, crank bore line honed, all rods honed, block zero decked (well .005 in the hole..). it got the works. heres the current build thread: http://www.grandmarq.net/vb/showthre...1W-Build/page2

You'll need the part number, my machine shop who's a dealer was able to order them cheaper than i found online. 4.030 pistons PN: 1000469

Good point Thain, I was going to check clearances beforehand as I remember him telling me about that. I'll eventually be using a Holley hyperspark distributor. not sure about clearances on that one

[Quincy]

That's a nice build, Brown_Muscle, done right. Mine's way more sleazy (but getting more and more "blueprinted" as I keep finding FUBAR parts in this supposed "good, recently rebuilt" 351W. You know the story!... ;-)

[Quincy]

Wow, just looked up those pistons - them's IS some fancy pistons!!! Almost a shame no one will ever see them once you button the motor up, they're like little works of art!

It looks like I'm going to downgrade from the slightly used (but turns out they're nuked) forged TRW/Speed Pro units for some hypereutectic cast that I scored on the cheap last month. The top ring is just a tad lower than the forged units (which is good, as I'll explain), but no dish, so I'll be up to around 10.5:1 I need the top ring placement to be same/lower than the original units or I'll have to rebore to +.040" (+.030" now) to avoid hitting the slight wear ridge that's present. These pistons fit the bill, fortunately. I've never had good results having a ridge reamed, either myself or a machine shop, so I'm reluctant to do that. I'm going to check the bore clearance on these hypereutectics - if it's too much, I'll go ahead and bore and get whatever forged gives me the compression I want. With sufficiently tight bore clearance, these hypereutectics are supposed to handle up to 600 hp - we'll see (whether I can squeeze out 600 hp and whether they can handle it if I do!!!)

[gadget73]

If you drop the distributor in before the pan goes on you can just reach in there and make sure the drive shaft isn't bottomed out. If it has any vertical movement, its fine. If its good with a stock distributor, just compare that to the Holley when you get it and verify it matches up. Should just be a measurement from the end of the distributor shaft to the shoulder where it sits against the block.