Good day community
I’m new member from thailand. I have 70 cougar with 351 engine but i don’t know it is 351c or 351 w. I am looking for caburator,distributor and ignition system with newest technology such as electronic control etc. For good fuel consumption and avoid often tuning and fit for original 70 cougar. Please suggest me any brand and part no.?
Thank you very much.
Welcome to the community! This is kind of a lengthy post, so I hope it’s not information overload, or sounds like I’m talking down to you because that is definitely NOT my intention. I’ve posted some pics to help you determine what 351 you have and will try to give you some advice to help you determine what you’re looking to get out of that engine as well as some tips to help you determine if the engine that’s in it is going to be reliable enough to handle those upgrades. So here goes:
If you’re looking for an uprated carb, intake, distributor, etc, you need to know which one you have first. Second, just throwing parts at it will not necessarily make it faster/more powerful. The first thing I would do is check compression and look for both good compression, as well as cylinder balance (the difference percentage wise of your compression from cylinder to cylinder). I would also do a leakdown test to make sure that your engine holds those numbers for a good amount of time. Those test will help determine ring seal, how good your valve seals are, etc. One of the easiest ways to tell is where the upper radiator hose connects. In picture one you’ll see that the upper radiator hose and thermostat housing go straight into the front of the intake manifold. What you don’t see in picture two is that the thermostat housing connects to the top of the block.
If all of those things check out, then you need to decide realistically what rpm range you want that car to operate. Do you want a car that is peppy/fast and reliable with good torque that doesn’t load up and foul plugs at a stop light or during extended idle periods? Are you looking for something in between a street engine and a drag engine?Or are you looking to build a strip killer? Be realistic about your goals. And thirdly is hood clearance
A very good street combo would a low rise intake like an Edelbrock Performer or Weiand Action plus the factory Cleveland 4V intake. Both of these intake manifolds work up to about 5500-6000 rpms which is really where a true street car tends to operate rpm wise. The Performer rpm or the Stealth are two other options that will work better if you decide to go hotter than the combo I’ve listed later on, but might give you clearance issues with your hood. You could find a re-buildable Ford four barrel (great performing reliable carb), or go with something like the Holley Street Avenger, The Summit 2008M dual feed is another good one (I have it on my 289 and it works great, is easy to adjust, and has proven to be both reliable and great performing), or the Edelbrock Performer 600 cfm carb. I wouldn’t go any higher than a 600cfm carb. A comp 268H cam is a good street cam, as is the xe256. XE262. All three cams listed will work well the intakes listed above. You COULD go with the Pretronix ignitor to replace the points. Just be sure to use either the Rocketman relay or the Ignitor relay to provide a full 12v to it. You could go with a Pertronix Flamethrower distributor instead of replacing the points with the ignitor module which will make advance curve tuning a little easier, but will still need the relay. This is just a mild street setup that will work with a factory torque converter, will give you more performance, and give you decent gains that won’t sacrifice reliability. If you don’t go with a performance cam, I would stick with a low rise dual plane four barrel intake like the Performer, or the Action Plus.
You might be surprised how much you can find in tuning what is already on the car. Just getting your factory distributor’s advance curve dialed in (total advance and how quickly it comes in), and getting your factory carb’s jetting dialed in can net as much as 30 horse depending on how fresh, or how good the engine is to begin with.
But all of this is moot until you figure out which you have. Do NOT order any parts until you figure this out. Because those parts you’re looking at do NOT interchange.
I know it’s a big post, but I’m trying to help you avoid pitfalls that I found myself in when I first started to build/modify engines for more performance. Trust me, if anyone has made some stupid moves in that dept., it was the younger version of me.
Welcome to the forum, I think guitar74 has put you on the right track, feel free to ask more questions. god luck with your Cougar and enjoy.
X2 on the informative post. I thought this post was more directed to a EFI conversion like the link below ,only added as an example since the engine is still in question. Can we clarify?
Thank you for information. Your information very helpful for me. At present I just finish overhauling my engine . The purpose of building this car for daily use.Original carburetor is 2bbl 356 cfm. if I want to use 2BBl. do you have any recommendation. And what is different the fuel consumption rate between 2BBl and 4BBl. ?
The difference in fuel consumption between the 2 & 4 bbl is really negligible if you don’t have the throttle wide open constantly. That being said, you would need a different intake manifold. If you’re looking for a little more cfm, you could go with either the 500 cfm Holley two barrel (they have a manual choke), or the Holley Street Avenger 500 cfm 2 bbl which has an electric choke. I’ve used the Holley two barrel before and it’s not a bad carburetor. Both will bolt right up to your factory intake so you wouldn’t have to shell out more money for a different intake.
If i choose your recommended carb. Can you suggest me for model of distributor and ignition system? What other do i need?
If it were me I would go with the Pertronix Flamethrower distributor and the pertronix relay to power it. The Distributor is around $250 US, and the relay kit is another $40-$50 US. The ignition is all contained inside the Pertronix Distributor so you will save yourself a little on not having to go with a separate ignition box. If you go with the Flamethrower that has the Ignitor 3 electronics you also get a rev limiter and capacative discharge (multiple sparks per firing) built in as well. I’m running it on my 289, and love it. I would go ahead and get the Flamethrower 3 coil to match the Flamethrower 3 distributor as well as some larger plug wires (8-8.5mm). I’m running MSD wires with mine and the are nice. They are around $80-$100 US depending on where you get them from.
If you need some help dialing in your advance curve, I will be happy to help you out with that. oh yeah and I should have been a little more clear on deciphering between the windsor and the cleaveland. On a Windsor, the thermostat housing mounts on the front of the intake like the first picture. On a Cleveland in mounts to the top of the block in front of the intake. So easy way to tell:the upper radiator hose goes straight to the intake on the windsor, and on the cleveland it will appear to mount to the top of the engine block. Sorry about that.
Good Luck and Happy Tuning,
Al
I check on pettronix website and found many model of framethrower distributor. But i cann’t find relay and framethrower III distributor. What should i get for your recommendation. Should I choose your 1st choice or 2nd choice for my daily use? If i choose 1st choice .Does it come with framethrower coil?
Do You Have a Windsor, or a Cleveland?
If it’s a Cleveland here’s the link with the distributor: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/pnx-d7132700/overview/make/ford
If it’s a Windsor here’s the link with the distributor: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/pnx-d7131700/overview/make/ford
Here’s the coil: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/pnx-44011/overview/
Here’s the relay kit: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/pnx-2001
All of the links posted are at summit racing equipment. I would go there because they have live chat reps that can also point you in the right direction if you aren’t sure about a part that is listed.
I never heard as to whether you have a Cleveland or Windsor so I posted distributors for both. The coil and relay kit aren’t model specific so you can use them with either distributor.
I hope this helps. Also, I’m going to suggest a couple of performance suppliers as well. www.jegs.com, www.summitracing.com are two of the more reputable ones. Also for replacement and factory/restoration parts, check out www.classic-cougar.com. The three I listed below I have not only dealt with, but have had a great experience with.
As far as for daily use, you could go either way. I drive my '68 very frequently and with the ignition setup I have (Pertronix Flamthrower w/Ignitor III), have never had an issue with it. In fact, with the quality of points sets seeming to be diminishing every time I buy a set, would feel much more confident using either the pertronix ignitor for a stock distributor, or the Flamethrower all in one distributor over the points. This is going to be the next thing that goes on my '65 Galaxie.
That looks to be a Windsor. The upper radiator hose comes out of the intake manifold not the engine block . A picture of the front, kinda of top view will help confirm.
Can i use same carb in windsor and cleverland?
Yes, you can use the same carb on either. And as Allen said, a top and front shot of the engine showing an unobstructed view of the upper radiator hose will help us a great deal in helping you identify your engine. But from all appearances, it does look to be a Windsor.
Upper radiator hose, valve covers and exhaust manifold heat shield confirm it is not a Cleveland.
Thank you very much for your help. I will put update photo you regularly.
Cool. Would love to see how it progresses.