351w Hp?

[TAMARACK]

I Have a 1978 F-150 Ranger that I am restoring. I wanted to know the horsepower rating that the engine has. The valve cover sticker indicates that it is a non catalyst HEAVY DUTY engine, all the motor has is an EGR line to the base of the carb. Any Ideas ?

 

[BuzzGun79]

If memory serves me well,the HP rating is 156.these motors were tuned down in 1973 and droped considerably in HP from its predisessors,which put out 300

 

[DNFXDLI]

If that is an original engine..it will be a 351M, not W and what Buzz said applies....145-155 is what I recall.

 

[TAMARACK]

OK My Ranger then does not have its original engine or its C4 tranny. (I found that out when I just removed it, the tranny bolts were loose and it had yellow crayon junkyard writing on it ! ) The engine IS a 1976 351W (original valve cover sticker) The motor now has a New Holly 2bbl carb and and a different distributor on it. The only pollution control is PCV to the base of the carb. How did ingineers "tune down" these motors. Is the crank heavy duty
enough to put different heads on it to change the compression ratio?

 

[BuzzGun79]

Basically the 69 & 70 351w had better porting and larger intake valves in its head design.the 69-74 blocks are considered A "stronger block" than the newer versions due to weight reductions in blocks and components.the crank is not considered a heavy duty crank,the 351w does have large mains,due to its design it does not like Higher rpms.with that said tho the 351w can be made to perform quite well thanks to the 5.0 mustang of the 80's along with the aftermarket.It all depends on how much you want to spend for Dollars = performance.Now i had a 76 351 some time ago in a 77 f100 (the 351 replaced the 302 in the truck for the record) I added a 550cfm 4brl along with a eldebrock performer intake dual plane design, along with headers and a dual exhaust setup,a Summit Performance cam that had low rpm power capapbility since i pulled a large pop up camper.this yielded me the results i was after along without giving up its fuel economy and reliability of a daily driver.this will give you an idea,but options are endless,i wanted to stay on the conservative side but add some low end power to the engine in which i did.

 

[BuzzGun79]

Checkout this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Windsor_engine
It will give you information along with history of the 351w along with how it came to be

 

[Beach66Bum]

Great post BuzzGun, it's all about the torque, that is what gets you moving, but all you hear about is horsepower, just saying

 

[BuzzGun79]

Yes Roy that is true..in my case tho it was a daily driver so i did not want to go to taller gears,the 355 gear ratio was plenty along with the borg warner 4 gear with a granny first made heavy towing a breeze. once i added the performance mods to the engine the cam came in at 2500rpm and you could really start feeling her pull it would peak out around 4500-5000 rpms.She worked for me,got decent mileage,ran like a raped ape,and was very reliable.wish i still had it.sold the engine from it about 2 yrs ago to invest in the 79's project.