> Who the heck would put a distributor on the BACK of a motor!!!!
Keeps the splash off.
Today you can run a hose over an ignition system without a burp. But I sure remember when even a little damp killed the engine. Better insulation.
> Tunnelport...oooooooh! SOHC...ahhhhh!
Exactly. All the Ford mills designed in the 1950s had pushrods where the valve ports should be. They made the ports skinny, they even stacked them up, but they were still mediocre breathers. TunnelPort was never a production option (it was dealer installed), and was a bit ugly, though it did finally make the FE breathe.
The SOHC, rare for good reason, ran into other problems. NASCAR banned it on sight. And I wonder if that chain would have stood 500 miles. The kits got shunted into 1/4 mile work, and they burned the FE's main bearings at RPMs which the Hemi took fine (for 7 seconds). The strange cure was to turn-DOWN the main bearings to fit the smaller Hemi bearing (and shim-up behind that). The surface speed (circumference times RPM) was just a little high for even few-second life at obscene RPM on the bearings of the day.
Which is no knock on the FE as a truck engine, but by '67-'68 even Ford was tired of the FE as a luxury car engine and brought out the 428, their first (post-WWII) large engine which would breathe.
IMHO, early 289s are fragile and often sludged-up before 100K miles, long before a 283 would throw its chain. The oil-pump shaft was as thick as a pencil and twisted easier. (SE oil would have been a real help, but it was all SC in those days.) There's also the awful non-seal at the front of the intake manifold (better silicone helped later).
The 351W has the same heads as the base 289/302 (extra bolt hole?). The breathing is entirely fine for the low aspirations of that period. I had a set of Hi-Po 302 heads I cudda put on my 351, but never did. (Wouldn't make sense without changing the 2.5:1 axle, also spark and carb.
I got out of the 351W and into a Honda. Much like the CB750 bike of my boyhood, with doors and more tires (but still transverse Four with meaty exhaust plumbing). It has half the miles of my 351W and I am not happy. There may be a problem with the IAC, but the ECU is doing something stupid about it, makes the car nasty to drive. And now the SRS light won't go out. Not to mention the airbag recall, non-recall, and now recall again. I left it at the dealer open-ended.
I do still have a FORD. 1967(?) 200 CID 3-cylinder. No distributor either.
