Need serious advice for a 351 4v cleveland built up!

What year Rancheros?

 

I'll bet his Rancheros were all 1976-79's. All came with the pig 351M. My brother's "pig" 351C 4 bbl 71 Torino ran 14 sec quarters in completely stock form with a 3.00 geared open diff 9" rear on the street tires available in the early 80's.

 

IMO had we not had a gas crunch in the 70's the Cleveland would have reigned supreme.....

Besides I have seen a few pig windsors starting with the late 70's

 

Fact.

They fit.
The worst parts are the plugs/wires and the exhaust.
Everything else is simple.

You will have to practically pull the engine to get at the spark plugs if you don't shave the towers. I would never do another 351 of any flavor without shaving the towers. It makes too much sense not to do it. Will save your sanity when it comes to normally simple things that are a nightmare without modded towers. I put fancy tall valve covers on my 351c, only to find out that I had to pull the engine just to get the valve covers off!

I had stock iron exhaust on one for a while. The manifolds were either 1970 Mustang or 1970 Torino... I have long since forgot which fit. They had to be heavily ground down in order to fit. All the bumps, ribs, and knots of useless solid iron sticking off the sides has to go in order to fit them. There must be 10# of iron with no purpose at all sticking off every side of those manifolds. If you are going with a manual tranny, the driver's side manifold will exit right where the mechanical linkage needs to go. A C4 auto would be the best fit. I also used a set of Tubular Automotive headers. They are good stuff. You can get them 'off the shelf' in a few different tube sizes that 302/351w guys only dream of. You can also special order them even bigger if you like. These headers come as 8 individual tubes that slip fit into the collectors. Then there are tabs welded to the parts that hold it all together. The slip fit is good and tight, and after a while it will become practically permanent if you are not careful. These headers only come with the same cheap black paint as any brand, so I order mine without paint, seeing as how they need to be repainted no matter what... Unless you send them off for coating.

Anyway... save your sanity and shave the towers. Use a C4 auto with floor shift. Use shaved iron manifolds or Tubular Auto headers.

 

There are plenty of threads and 'how to' write ups here on shaving the towers.

Here is a current thread on a tower shave happening right now.
http://mmb.maverick.to/showthread.php?t=54238

I used to think of it as 'major surgery', but it really isn't.
It is just cutting out a bent piece of sheet metal and replacing it with a flat piece of sheet metal.

If you look around the gallery here, you will also see a great many pics of 351c engines in Mavericks. I have some there among them.