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New Intake and Reworked Heads
The 351W had a two barrel carb and would "blue smoke" when it was started up after setting for a while.
I knew that the smoke meant that the valve guide seals were probably in the oil pan and oil was seeping
down around the valve stems after the car sat for a while.
I decided to just put on a new aluminum four barrel intake and carb and let the heads go for a while.
Unfortunately, things didn't work out that way. The motor had never been apart. The intake was almost
welded to the motor.
I finally pulled the bolts out of the heads and remove the thermostat housing. That
allowed me to get a pry bar up into the intake through the thermostat housing and put some pressure on the manifold.
Having the heads loose helped, also. I now had the manifold off but had to go ahead and pull the heads.
I took the heads to a local hot rod shop and had the exhaust valve seats replaced with hardened seats. They vated the heads,
milled them down to true them up, did a complete valve job, put everything back together with new valve guide seals
and ground down the valve stems to allow for the material that was milled off the heads. Two of the rocker arms were split
where they contacted the valve stem so I bought a complete set of rocker arms. I also replace the lifters and push rods.
I bought a fel-pro valve job gasket set. I bought fel-pro 1250 intake manifold gaskets that are made especially for aluminum
intake manifolds.I painted the heads Ford blue and put them back on. I left the old spark plugs in while I painted the heads
and installed them so it would keep junk from falling in the spark plug holes. I put in new plugs.
I bought an Edelbrock manifold and Edlebrock 600CFM four barrel carb. The first thing I did was throw away the cork end
gaskets that came with the intake gaskets. I used Edelbrock gasket glue to attach the intake gaskets to the head. I took
four bolts about 5 inches long that were the same size as the bolts that hold the intake down and cut the heads off them.
I screwed the bolts into the head to be used to guide the intake into place. I then coated the intake side of the intake
gaskets with a very thin coat of silicone sealer (I used the high temp red but ultra-blue would probably work fine). I then
applied a thick bead of the silicone sealer to each end of the block where the intake would rest. I put a little extra in the corners
where the intake, head and block meet. I then placed the intake on the motor and started some of the regular intake bolts. I removed
the temporary guide bolts and then torked the intake down in three stages. I let the silicone sealer set up over night.
One thing you might notice is that I replaced the heater outlet in the front of the intake with a second water temp sensor. I installed
a digital water temp gague to keep track of the water temp at the thermostat. No particular reason for doing so other than just curious.
I had installed the Printronix ignition module two years ago. It has worked great.
The next step was to put the stuff back on the front of the motor, install the distributor, and the carburator.
Next was the carb linkage. I had to make that out of an "all thread" rod and some parts I got at Home Depot
Next , I installed the fuel line, plug wires, and an Edelbrock air cleaner.
After I finished, I decided I didn't like the way the plug wires ran over the valve covers. I bought some blue metal wire looms
and installed them. I think it makes for a much neater look.
The thing I liked about the Edelbrock carb was that it worked right out of the box. The car ran great. All I did was set the timing.
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