Need Advice on 351C setup on 71 Cougar

[jwchatm]

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Hi,
I have a 71 Mercury Cougar (3700 lbs approx.) a 351C 4V and FMX Tranny. I am building it for some light bracket racing and need to know what kind of HP and 1/4 mile times I could expect when done. I will give you the complete setup below:

4V quench heads with 2.250 intake/1.710 exhaust valves. block bored +.030 and using TRW Aluminum forged Flatops. Sealed Power standard gap chrome-moly rings. Lunatti 290/300 .563 lift Bracket Master II cam and matching lifters. Harland roller rockers with guideplates. ARP head, Main, Rod, Exhaust bolts. Hooker Comp headers with MPG Head Service Port Plates for both intake and Exhaust. MPG Head Service Windage Tray. Threaded valley oil restrictors to prevent cam load. Pistons, Flexplate, balancer, rods and crank have been balanced and rods have been recon'd, shot peened, and polished. (this is a 2 bolt main) Oil holes on crank have been rechaimfered for better bottom end oiling. I am running Richmond 3.73 gears with Richmond mini spool. Dual exhaust with H pipe and Flowmaster uncappable Warlocks (2 1/2") Mallory Unilite electronic distributer with Blaster 2 coil. Cloyes double roller timing, Accel extreme heat 9000 plug wires. Transgo FMX heavy duty shift improver kit and TCI 3000 rpm stall. 125hp plate style single solenoid/stage NOS kit. Holley 750 double pump with mechanical secondaries. Offenheiser single plane intake.

Now, I need to know along with the horsepower and 1/4 mile times, the following:

With the rechaimfered oil holes on the crank and the valley oil restrictors and windage tray, should I use a standard or high volume oil pump? Also what carb and intake do you recommend for this setup? I know this is a dumb question but what spark plugs are the best for this setup. Are there any recommendations for upgrading the ignition system? Does anyone out there have this setup? Any suspension recommendations. Opinions? Please let me know this is my first bracket racer and I am a rookie to say the least. Thanks!!!

John

[chebbiesux]

first of all, you have a massive cam. that thing is way too big for those gears and converter...it's gonna fall flat on its face until 4000 rpm, so you either need 4.10s and a 4000 stall or what i would go with is 4.30's with a 3500 stall. less wheel spin because of the converter and less slippage at higher rpm.
your intake and carburetor setup seem alright, but i fear you might be a little small on the carburetor. i run a 750 on my 360, and it seems just right, maybe an 800 would be ideal for your situation, but try the 750 out just to make sure. going smaller is always better than too big on a carburetor.
your probably gonna make max power at around 6000 rpm. this mostly depends on what you have done to the heads, but everything else sounds pretty wicked so i would say 525 hp wouldn't be over estimating with a motor that done up. with the nitrous you can probably expect about 100 hp extra unless you have a nitrous cam, than your n/a hp would be down by about 30 but you would pull the full 125 horse out of the nitrous.
what kinda compression do you got? you need at least 9.5:1 if you wanna live with it on the street, 12:1 or more if its a race only machine.
i would expect mid to high elevens on the motor, maybe high tens on the nitrous but probably not, more than likely low low elevens when everything is said and done.
i would go with a high volume oil pump. if my guesses are anywhere near correct your still gonna spin the engine in excess of 6500 rpm and your gonna need the oil to be there all the way to 7000 in case you have to play catch up at the race track.
and lastly, i run ngk v-power plugs in all of my cars. they work really well all the way to 7000 and they don't foul up as often as the bosch platinums that i ran for a season.
let me know how close my estimates are once you get it to the track

[Cbass]

Yeah, it all depends on your gears and what sort of tire you can run.

Have you thought of a MAF EFI setup to your car? You can make 600-700hp without much trouble with one... The 95-97 F series used a 351 windsor, with MAF SEFI. The intake manifold would require a little machining to fit, but I wouln't use it anyways. TF makes a nice intake for fuelly Fords, and I saw it used on a 351 Cleveland Pantera.

This is the kind of setup I am considering for my 77 400CI Windsor.

[Cbass]

Bugger! I pulled the motor on my LTD, and it turns out it's a 400M. For those of you who aren't in the knowin, the M code means it is a Cleveland short block! It is stroked for 400ci, but still uses a Cleveland crank, rods and pistons. The heads are interchangeable with cleveland 2V heads, but I'm not sure about 4Vs.

It goes in an RX7... It will have all manner of ricey stickers all over it(mazda speed, racing beat, rice rice rice), and one big sticker under the hood. POWERED BY FORD