Ford 351 power ?
 

OK , I know there's no shortage of Chevy gearheads here , this one's for the Ford guys :D

I ran a boat for many years that had a 351W in it .
Bone stock, centre riser manifolds , 4 barrel Holley and through leg exhaust.
A great little motor that served me well .

What would have been the power and torque numbers for this motor ?

My guess is that (crankshaft) on a good day was maybe around 235 ? I have no idea about the torque figure.

I need the information as a starting point for re-power considerations .
Thanks for the help .

Re: Ford 351 power ?
 

madbouyz
I also had a 351w in a 24' Pantera a couple of years ago. It was stock internally but had an edelbrock intake, holley 650, and edelbrock exhaust log manifolds. I would say it was at around 245-250 hp.
I considered doing some work to it but never got to it before I sold it. As for making power it will easily get to 300-325 with the right heads and cam. If you can get a copy of Desktop Dyno and you can play with different set ups...the numbers may not be exact but they will definetly help you get started in the right direction.

Re: Ford 351 power ?
 

In the Mid 90s Volvo Penta used a port fuel injected 351 Ford that was rated 275HP.
Torque? My guess around 350ftlb.

Re: Ford 351 power ?
 

Thanks guys ..

I actually went for a test run in a Donzi 18 with that exact same motor .. I think it was at the '93 Miami Boat Show.
With 4 people in the boat it was a memorable ride to say the least !

Pantera .. Your motor might have put out a few more ponies than mine ...

I just need some numbers to put to my 'benchmark' as I don't want to go under or go wildly in the opposite direction either. Gas is holding at about 6.50 a gallon and it aint gonna go down ! !

Re: Ford 351 power ?
 

My ski boat motor was the same. 235hp. My dad still has this 82 master craft 1,212 hr. still runs great. These motors run great in boats, lots of torque. Great reliability. A good upgrade and rather inexpensive is the GT-40 heads. Will get motor to 295 hp with good reliability. Call discount inboard marine in SC. They can tell you all about this and get you parts for the Fords.

Re: Ford 351 power ?
 

:eek: are you crazy, ford stopped marinizing there motors for a reason, very hard to get parts now and was not one of Fords "better ideas"

Re: Ford 351 power ?
 

:rolleyes:

My Holman Moody 351W (1970 Donzi 18 2+3) has been going strong for years! Runs great, amazing torque. I recently rebuilt the heads and swapped the intake for a Weiand Stealth. Even better now.

Re: Ford 351 power ?
 

I know most folks have their own strong opinions regarding Ford vs GM but I have to admit that this was a great little engine. Lived it's whole life in salt, and was still reliable, smooth and remarkably economical.
I guess it's safe to assume then that it was probably 235hp (cs) and around 300ftlb.

I don't have much personal time under my belt with the GM 350 (pretty wierd huh?) but have a strong feeling that will change in the near future :D

Thanks again

Re: Ford 351 power ?
 

I did one for a friend this summer after he holed a piston. Turns out he was using crap 87 octane from the corner gas station. Compression on these old 351's was too high for that. Other than that, the engine itslef was in great shape for as old as it was.

Re: Ford 351 power ?
 

Personally I love Chevy power BUT I can tell you from experience the 351w is a great little motor. Parts are very easy to find. The only HARD part I ever had finding was an aluminum oil pan. So I sand blasted my old one and primered with some industrial type primer and painted with 4 coats and it never had any problems.
If you want you can email your engine specs and I can run it thru a dyno program I have and tell you what it is approx. pushing HP and torque. Same time I'll try different heads and intake or cam to see what it can do for you.

Re: Ford 351 power ?
 

Thanks for the offer .... it was a completely stock 351 with the 4v Holley etc .. no tricks ..

Unfortunately what with the way some of these old boats are kept running .... an odd bunch of miss matched parts really .. The re-power will be a whole new package from the ground up.
I just hope that the guy I gave the old stuff to has some real fun and does it up a bit !

I do see a GM in my future though ...... :eureka:

Re: Ford 351 power ?
 

If you are looking for a complete Volvo Penta/GM engine package, I have a great source!
A friend of mine bought a 320HP/5.7GSi for his 18' Donzi last year and is VARY happy.

Re: Ford 351 power ?
 

Actually Pat .........

It probably would'nt hurt to look into that out of interest .

I have a potential supplier who I have worked with here over the last year or two and out of all the suppliers , his was the most realistic quote .

The problem comes when you have to install and go to them for their help and there is NO goodwill involved whatsoever because THEY did'nt sell YOU the engine ... know what I mean ? (In other words they have you by the short and curlies)

Steve

Re: Ford 351 power ?
 

Ford never marinezed the engines to begin with, the only reason that Merc stopped using them was strictly financial. They were great packages and parts are still available for them.

Re: Ford 351 power ?
 

After working on mkany many ford/mercruiser 888 packages and the 302s have found hard to get parts and never that great, ranks up there with the 470s and 485s to each there own.... I wont go looking to replace a sb chevy with a ford, if thats what you have then id work with it but between the two would have to stick with chevy I own ford trucks so dont get me wrong I like ford just not in marine applications

Re: Ford 351 power ?
 

Ford motors are great marine candidtes, beyond any Ford Chevy pissing match stuff. They have a much higher rod ratio stock which lends itslef to building torque curves that work better in a marine application. A lower rod ratio, such as any stroker motor without rod length changes produces, tends to make more torque down low and drop off well before desired operating range for a boat. The only draw back to Ford's in a marine application is that they were never a mainstream marine engine so parts are a little hard to find but they are defenitly out there.

Re: Ford 351 power ?
 

I'm not a ford guy but in my private water ski lake I have to get up to 36 in about 200 ft. and I'll tell you that the ford will get up to speed faster in that distance than my new 375 zr 6.0 motor. I repeat.......parts are not hard to find for the 351.......

Re: Ford 351 power ?
 

I know it's not in a boat! I have recently built a 351w,now a 427 stroker for my bronco. 400hp 500tq. My engine builder says by changing the cam we should get 500hp and around 500tq.There are all kinds of after market parts for the 351w. It is a great engine with many possibilities.

Re: Ford 351 power ?
 

The Ford 351 Merc is 233 HP stock.

I have a 302 in my old '74 Nova that I hopped up. My boat kills the guy with a newer 21 Nova that has a 350 in it.

I just put center rise manifolds and 3" thru hulls on it. Unfortunately it got down to 20 degrees up here in Michigan, so I had no choice but to winterize it before I got one last chance to test drive it.

I have to admit, that I had to do some looking, especially on ebay for what I wanted for my motor, but I really didn't have that hard of a time finding parts. To date... 4bbl Edelbrock manifold, Carter 6117 carb (actually from a 327 Chris Craft Motor), Prestolite electronic distributor, MSD Blaster II Coil, MSD 8.5mm wires, Holley fuel pump.

I gotta say that the MSD coil is sweet as hell! I swear, you could pour water down the carb, pump it and it would still start. I don't know that I actually gained any speed, but it sure starts quick now.

And for the record, this is the first Ford that I have ever had.

Re: Ford 351 power ?
 

[QUOTE=canajun]The Ford 351 Merc is 233 HP stock.


I guess that's at the crank right ?

They were'nt rating at the prop back then .

(is your Nova a 'Brownie' one ... maybe a 19 ?

Re: Ford 351 power ?
 

My Holman Moody 351W is rated at 290hp at the crank... I think they were a little optimistic!

Re: Ford 351 power ?
 

233 measured at the crank sounds about right.

My Nova is a '74, 21'. It's a pretty big boat for a 21. High sides and heavy too. I always liked the old Novas when I was a kid, so I bought this one for a couple hundred bucks in basketcase shape and completely re-did everything. The old Nova hull is an awesome design. I can handle 4' rollers with ease. Try that in a 21' Baja! (My buddy has one--it doesn't really work)

I had it up to 48 (measured on GPS) last summer. It's killing me not to have had a chance to run it since I ditched the old log manifolds and put the thru-hulls on it! I only ran it for about 5 min after I completed the conversion. Surprisingly, it wasn't that obnoxiously loud.