Ram Air with 351W

[dwm9ersfan]

My 351C took a dump and looking to purchase a 408 stroker to replace it was wondering if I will have issues with the ram air working on a windsor motor.

TIA

Darrel

 

[Sheriff41]

Should work fine as long as you have the right height intake/carb setup. Just check the clearance between the hood and the air cleaner.

 

[mrgmhale]

Any time you can bring in fresh cooler air to any engine you should. For our 73 Mach 1 the air filter housing lower section would not fit in top of our Holley carb, so I removed the plenum and opened the two acoopninlets to allow cool air to flow all the time (it is never driven in the rain). It helps keep the entire engine compartment cooler than normal.

Although cooler air helps performance it is no substitute for turbo or super charging. It does help performance but it is doubtful you would ever feel the difference, but you will hear the added engine roar at WOT. Go ahead. Ask how I know. Heh heh.

 

[Hemikiller]

Like Sheriff said, it depends on the intake you're using. Best thing to do is to measure from the carb pad to crank centerline on both engines and determine your next move.

 

[Stanglover]

Here's a "trick" we used to do back when I was prototyping air cleaners at Canadian Fram. Get some plasticine (any color will do!!) roll it into sticks about 2" long. You'll need a few to get the entire area covered. Place the sticks on top of your existing air cleaner, hopefully and original, pressing them down so they hold in place. I'm sure you get the idea. Once positioned, shut the hood firmly. Open the hood and measure the height of the sticks afterward. That is your clearance between hood (and plenum) and cleaner cover. That is the dimension you need when the Windsor is in. A spacer could be used under carb if it needs to come up, or a thinner one to lower it. Frame mounts may also play into this, then it might snowball into drive line angles etc. etc. That's not an area I have experience, but my senses tell me it could be so.
Best bet, go buy a Cleveland and loose the possible issues.

 

[tony-muscle]

It will be easy to add spacers if need to raise it. It can be lowered with some ingenuity and working the plenum.

 

[dwm9ersfan]

Thank you all for your comments, struggling with decision to replace motor or rebuild.

 

[Sheriff41]

Rebuild the Cleveland would be my advice. Windsors are great engines, but they don't compare to the grunt and performance of a Cleveland.

 

[AcesArneson]

Rebuild the Cleveland would be my advice. Windsors are great engines, but they don't compare to the grunt and performance of a Cleveland.

Agreed, now is a good time to rebuild a Cleveland, most of the high performance parts are back in stock. You might even take this opportunity to perform a more extensive rebuild. Ever think about EFI on your Cleveland? Look at 460EFI guys a ProM. I just ordered the EFI intake complete with fuel rails, hoses,etc… from the 460EFI guys and the MAF/ throttle body kit that hides inside the air cleaner from ProM. There’s a lot more to the conversion but it can be done. Gives you the option to run a 4R70W tranny too!!! Can’t wait to get this beast out back together.