351 Cleveland questions...

I was looking at Mach 1 Mustangs and Mustang Grande. I know they both have the 351 Cleveland engine.

I was wondering how much HP that engine generates.

Are these good cars that they were put in?

I know the Mach 1 has more fame but which car is better?

Fastest?

Best Handling?

Torque?

They ranged from about 155-to about 300 hp stock according to Ford depending on year. the BOSS made about 330. I perfer the windsor myself. I think the Grande is a little lighter. So with she same motor,tranny, gearing I'd say its a little faster.

351cs can make a lot of power pretty cheap. Even with the massive aftermarket for 351w/302s etc, I think the 351c can make more power cheaper. I know a guy who ran stock rods, crank, block(1/2 filled), and ported stock heads that made 650+hp. He ran low 6s(i think 6.19 was his best) in the 1/8th in a 2800lb car, which translates to high 9s in the 1/4.. the car was set up for 1/4 mile, so his gearing wasn't even right for the 8th. probably coulda ran a 6 flat with the right gears. The 351c based motor has won more championships than any other ford produced motor. It was only produced for 4 years in the states, that should say something! There are lots of myths about thier oiling and that all clevelands are high revving motors.. there is a more common 2bbl motor that isn't as rev happy, although even it flows pretty damn well for a stock head. Even though the aftermarket for the cleveland is a little lackin on the nicer things(supercharger/turbo kits, intake mani selection is a bit limited, etc) its not difficult to find the more common things, like pistons, rods, stroker cranks, roller timin, roller rockers, headers, etc. The stuff it does have aftermarket for is generally damn good. Currently clevelands have 4 aluminum heads in production, and the c302b, b351, etc heads that were produced by fords arent hard to find either. The race aluminum heads available are the Blue Thunder heads and Arao engineering heads(4valve per cylinder heads... never seen anyone with them, but they are available.. for around $4000!) The more streetable heads are made by CHI and AFD. AFD has a 2v and 4v version, CHI dubbed theirs "3v". They also have an EMC based head, which features the ports that Dave Storlien created for his CHI headed 351c entry in the engine masters challenge a few years ago - he came in second, almost came in first but made a few last minute changes that lost him a few hp. His final dyno pull produced 605hp at 6500rpm on 357ci(.030 over cleveland). All these heads flow in the high 200s - mid 300s range, and can be made to flow in the high 300s. I've seen ported production 4vs flow around 375cfm. There are two very good intakes currently battling for the 'best intake' position, the Parker Funnelweb and the Strip dominator, which is no longer in production. Both are extremely good intakes. The edel torker is good for 4vs, the weiand xcellerator is great for 2vs.
As for which car, I'm pretty sure the Mach is better. What years are you looking at?