351W HIGH FLOW WATER PUMP UPGRADE
351W HIGH FLOW WATER PUMP FREE

I am a SBF Newbie and rebuildig my 351W on my own.Īll small block Fords are notorious for three little gotcha problems that always seem to sneak up on ya, especially in the middle of nowhere. Is this something that is necessary with any 351W or just high revving ones?

Yes, Allllllwayyyys run an aftermarket HD oil pump drive in your Ford. If and when you do shear the roll pin on your Ford (any Ford) distributor its a good opportunity to drill the shaft and gear for the larger big block Chevy size roll pin.

351W HIGH FLOW WATER PUMP FREE

If you really want to see nice as-cast booger free iron castings check out the 390-401 AMC blocks and heads. The Ford stuff needs TLC too, its just much nicer to begin with than the GM stuff. You'd be suprised to see how much nicer and cleaner the Ford castings are compared to the GM castings. The bonus of not gashing your fingers IS a nice plus, too, though! Not only do those sharp corners and flash disrupt the return flow of oil to the pan, they are potential areas for stress cracks as well. 'Deburring' and cleaning casting flash out of drain-back holes and smoothing out those passages is part of any halfway decent rebuild. Plus, it saves your fingers from getting torn up when cleaning and assembling Not a bad idea to do to a Ford too I suppose, though I've never looked inside one. There is a lot of that shit around the oil drain holes in the valley and the heads. On a small block Chevy motor I like to spend time going round the interior of the block with a die grinder, taking off all the burrs, casting marks, ridges etc that will hold oil from draining back. Stock pick-ups stuck on HV pumps also cause problems because they can't flow enough oil to the pump.īottom line (for most Ford engines) is that if your going to run a HV pump you need to run an aftermarket HV pick up and a high capacity pan. I suspect that the oil pan may have been pumped dry a few times causing damage to both the pump and the crank journals due to oil starvation. Oil pumps wear out after a loooooonnnngg service life or they ingest debris and get trashed.they don't just fail without cause. You loose the wedge and you get momentary metal to metal contact and you start flaking bearings - in short order you pull the overlay off the bearings and start damaging the crank journals. You gotta feed it alot of oil to maintain it with a large diameter journal and high engine speeds. The bearing speed goes through the roof at high RPM causing alot of stress on the hydrodynamic wedge the oil generates between the crank journal and bearing surface. The main reason for this on the 351W is the large (3') main bearing journal size. For the 351W, however, a high volume pump is not a bad idea - especially if your going to stretch its legs a little here and there.

You HAVE to carry extra oil if your going to run a high volume pump.period.ĭo you need it for your 351W? As a rule of thumb high volume pumps aren't needed for most 'mild' motors that are kept under 5500RPM. 8500-9500RPM drag and marine applications are not uncommon for us.

High RPM small block Fords are one of our specialties. Go for the hi-vol pump & Melling is a great brand.

351W HIGH FLOW WATER PUMP UPGRADE

If you do decide to go with the hi-vol pump, I would tell you to upgrade to a heavy duty oil pump drive no matter what - helps prevent spark scatter due to flexing of stock drive w/hi-vol pumps.įor a street car, I'd tell you to stay away from hi-press pump though. And since most speed shops & rebuilders are familiar with the SBC, that's the advice you get. The 'suck the pan dry' phenomemon is worse for SBC - that's why they sell a lot of oiling restrictor kits for those engines, but not for SBF. It comes apart about every 6yrs & I've only ever put new rings in it (next time will likely need a rebore though) I polish all entry points & drain holes as well.overkill on the street? Yeah, but my engine (stroked 351W) has lived since '87 and driven HARD. If you keep your engine clean, you'll have few problems unless you're doing extended hi-rpm driving (low gears on the hiway), but around town you're not going to suck your pan dry - especially if you use a Canton. FWIW - I've run a Hi-Vol oil pump in every SBF engine I've ever built (and it's more than a couple).

351w high flow water pump