Tag 351 Windsor

hiy folks Ed here welcome back to Bullnose Garage. Today I’m doing something a little bit different. I have a product here from Dinox and a set of headers for my 351W. So, uh, they sent this set to me and, uh, asked me to do a little review of them for you guys, so that’s what I’m doing today. Um, now unfortunately I’m not going to have time, uh, to put those on the actual, uh, vehicle itself. I can’t get them on the engine, obviously the engine’s not ready for that. Uh, but what I can do is, uh, go through the package, open it up, take a look at them, see their quality, and let you know what I think. So let’s get into it. Hello!

All right, so here the box I got. We’re starting fresh. Everything is even still in the bubble wrap. So let’s take a look at these bad boys. These are stainless steel. They look really good. They come with brackets, reducers, your gaskets, and your hardware, and there you go. What you see is what you get. Now when I put these on mine, which I will, um, I think I’d probably go with ARP bolts instead of the ones that come with this. That’s not to say that these bolts aren’t good. I don’t know that they’re not good, but ARP is kind of the standard, and, uh, since I build a performance engine, I want to make sure that I get the best. So, uh, that’s what I’ll probably do there. But let’s take a look at these actual headers themselves. Oh man, I love new engine parts!

All right, so I will be the first to admit that I am not a header expert. I’m just some with a bullnose who likes working on in a spare time. But I can’t tell you when I think something is pretty high quality, and these seem to be pretty high quality. They are 304 stainless steel, and I mean this look shiny. I mean, yeah, they are beautiful. I can’t wait to get these on my 351 when I finally do that build. All right, so what do you get? You get a couple of headers, obviously, get a couple of reducers. Uh, this will take you from 3 in down to 2 and 1/2 if that’s the size of your exhaust. Obviously, you get the gaskets, and you get a couple of hangers, and you get your mounting hardware.

Okay, so let’s take a look at some of the important stuff, right? Obviously, like I said, they seem to be pretty well built. They’re nice and solid. Um, the runners on there look like they’re configured pretty well. Here’s the welds, so you can see what the welds look like. Um, I am not a welding expert by any means, but they do look pretty good to me. There’s your welds on top, and just for the sake of consistency, so that you can see how their manufacturing processes are for two separate pieces, here’s the other one, right? So I know how heavy these are ’cause I’m holding on to them, but how thick are they? On the tin, it says they should be 1.5 mm. I got my CID Harbor Freight caliper, and let’s see what it says. Oh, it’s not pull the battery out of there. Handy dandy Harbor Freight quality right there. Let’s get that back. Come on now, get on there. Hey, there we go. Battery compartment in there. All right, is zero. Okay, now we’re ready. Let’s see how thick it is, and it says 1.52 and 1.47 depending on how I roll it. Uh, obviously because it’s rounded, it’s kind of hard to get an exact measurement, but you know, I do think, uh, let’s see, there’s 1.6, 1.51. Yeah, I think that’s going to be, uh, exactly what they say it is, 1.5 mm.

So for the sake of complete transparency, there is one thing that I want to mention. The company Dinox that sent me these, again, they sent me these for free for me to keep them, put them on my truck. Uh, they’re not paying me for this, so, um, they are a little expensive. These are about, uh, $3.89 for the set on their website. Uh, now they have said that, uh, they’ll make a deal for my viewers. It’ll be down in the comments. Um, but, uh, they do come with a three-year warranty from Dinox. Um, now again, to be fair, I don’t know how, uh, good that warranty is going to be. I haven’t had to deal with their customer service. I have dealt with them as part of this, uh, this video preparation for them to send me these headers, uh, and they’ve been very responsive. They’ve gotten back to me within, uh, you know, 24 hours every single time. Now obviously they’re trying to get me to make a video to do release or to do a review for you guys, so you know, they’re trying to grow their business, they’re trying to reach out. You know, the other thing I’ve done noticed is that, uh, they’ve been posting a lot on like 4×4 forums and, uh, you know, other automotive forums trying to get their brand out there. Uh, so what they mainly make is, uh, exhaust stuff. They kind of specialize in EGR delete stuff, um, tubes and fittings and stuff to do those sorts of projects. So, you know, if you’re looking to do an EGR delete or, um, you know, they got a couple videos out there about, uh, um, exhaust dumps, electronic exhaust dumps, and, um, just a bunch of stuff it comes with exhaust. So if you’re looking into that, you may want to give them a shout. But they’re fairly new, so, uh, you know, if you’re willing to, they gave me a chance, small channel trying to get out there and, uh, you know, promote their products, and so I really do appreciate that. And like I said, I will definitely be putting this, uh, on my truck when, uh, when that time comes, uh, when I get that engine ready to go. So I’m looking forward to that.

And you know, as much as I’m not a mechanic, I am kind of a perfectionist, so I’ve been doing a lot of research on basically every part that’s going to go on that engine. And I wouldn’t put a part on the engine, uh, that I don’t trust, you know, and that’s just the way that it is. And even with my limited experience in headers and parts and that kind of stuff, man, these are, you know, these are heavy. Uh, they feel like they’re really well built, uh, and it just, it just they look beautiful. So, you know, take that for what it’s worth, take it with a grain of salt from me because again, I’m not a mechanic, I’m just a Schmo. All right? And I got these for free, but I will tell you that they’re not paying me, so, uh, the fact that I got them for free has not tainted this review or anything. It is just a straight honest, um, you know, what you see is what you get with me, guys. Uh, you know, we’ll see how they go. It’s like the bolts, right? I’m going to use ARP ’cause, yeah, anyway, yeah. So when we put these on my truck, uh, you know, when I want to put them on the engine ’cause I’m going to run on a stand, uh, we’ll see how it goes.

So anyway, as always, if you have any questions, comments, concerns, gripes, internet ramblings, put them below. Uh, I’ll have links below to all of this stuff and the Dinox website, uh, for more information. Thanks again for watching, guys, and we will see you next time.

Howdy folks, Ed here. Welcome back to Bullnose Garage, and today I’m with the donor. It’s been a long time since I’ve been out here looking at this thing. It has been sitting out on my lot for about three years, just sitting here under the sun.

Now when we left off, I had fogged the engine. If you don’t know what that means, it means there’s an oil that you put inside called a fogging oil. You put that down inside all the cylinders, run it around a few times, and make sure that it coats the cylinder walls real well. And you do that to make sure that no rust or corrosion gets in there if the engine is going to sit for a while.

Well, this thing has sat for three years, and today I’m going to open it up and I’m going to see exactly what kind of damage has been done in that three years with fogging oil applied to the engine. And to help me with that, I’ve got this brand new endoscope from Vivor. Now to be fair, they sent that to me. They asked me to do a review on it, and I figured what better way to do a review on an endoscope than to get back down inside this engine and see what kind of damage has been done. So we’re going to do that today. Stick around.

So before we get into this, let me tell you a little bit about this Boriscope camera from Vivor, because that’s one of the reasons I’m here. They sent this to me for free in return for a review of it. And so, you know, it’s far beyond me to refuse free stuff. So I’m going to go ahead and give you guys my honest opinion of this, and it’s actually really good, guys.

So last time I did this project, I used a computer laptop with a Boriscope that was like a USB plug, and it goes in, and I was balancing the laptop on top of the engine and trying to get video and doing all this stuff. This thing has all that built in. There’s an SD card in there. It takes video and pictures. The screen is right there. This just plugs right in. It’s USB charged. It’s really great, and one of the things I really like about it is it’s got three cameras on it. So there’s a camera on this end and a camera on this end and over here. So side to side, right? You get a camera both all three ways, and that’s really going to help me out going inside of here.

So this is actually the cheapest one that they make. On Vivor, it’s like 60 bucks. Use the link in my description to get 5% off, and yeah, you know, I have used endoscopes with my phone, right? So I’ve got a Samsung phone that I use for videoing right now, and those are always kind of rough because you got to get the right software, the right app, and they’re, you know, they’re all different kind. I’ve got two or three of them in the garage. They’re all different kind of apps that you got to use with them, and sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t. This is really plug and play. You know, I can’t say enough good things about it for 60 bucks. It really is worth the time to check it out.

So, you know, I’ll get into it. I’ll take some video with it. You can see the quality of the video, and we’ll get in and take a look at it. So, all right, enough about this. Let’s take a look inside these cylinders. I am super interested to see what it looks like in there.

So one quick thing about this, guys, is I’ve already got a video on how to fog an engine. I can’t really get into any more detail than that video gives. It’s really, really simple to do. You just need some fogging oil and a spark plug wrench, and that video goes into how to do it. So, you know, go ahead and check that video out if you need to figure out how to do this. Since I already have a video about it, I’m not going to get into it. I’m just going to open this up and take a look.

Spark plugs are still wet. Hopefully that’s oil. Oh, it smells like oil. All right, all the spark plugs are out. Now is the moment of truth. Let’s take a look.

All right, so we’re going to fire up my V-bore endoscope here. Oh, we’re upside down. That’s because of this thing here. There we go. Yeah, you can kind of see it. And we’ll get down inside. I’ll start the recording, and we’ll see what it looks like.

Okay, it’s recording. Hello. Oh, hello. All right, we got to turn the light on. Hello, light. There it is. Okay, now let’s take a look down inside of here. Oh, that cylinder looks like it’s pretty much up top. Yeah, you can kind of see where I scraped on there. It looks pretty wet in there still. It’s hard to tell cylinder number two or the second one. Oh, look at that. Yeah, so you can see those cylinder walls are in pretty good shape still in there.

Let’s flip this to a side view, and you can clearly see the crosshatch on that cylinder wall. And there’s the other side. Oh, wow. With that side view, you can even see inside the valves. That is cool, man. I didn’t expect to see that. That’s neat. Man, those cylinder walls look good, don’t they? And then back down. All right, let’s try the next one.

Oh, yeah, it looks pretty good. Oh, look at that. Okay, can you see there’s a valve top up there? Let’s go to the other side. Yep, you almost got it. There we go. See, there are lights on the side of this and the front. Dude, guys, you know, they’re not paying me for this. They really aren’t. For 60 bucks, this thing is really cool. I didn’t expect to be able to see the valves like this in here. That’s great.

And next. Yeah, cylinder looks pretty good. Piston head looks pretty good. Cylinder walls look nice and clean. There’s my valves. One of them, anyway. Now, I don’t know enough to know which one’s intake and which one’s exhaust, so sorry about that, guys. I keep saying it. I’m not an expert. So, it’s a little bit tricky to maneuver, and it’s kind of hard to see to know what you’re looking at sometimes with this.

All right, there’s one side. We’ll go check the other one. Yeah, there’s actually still a little bit of oil sitting down there. I don’t think that’s corrosion. I think that’s just a layer of oil that’s kind of, it’s old, right? It’s been here for three years, so it’s going to be a little gunky.

Oh, look at that. So, so far, my only real gripe about this camera is that it’s kind of hard to get a feel for which buttons change to which direction. Oh, this one’s close to the top. That’s what’s going on there. So, this flips back and forth, and this button flips front and side, and it’s kind of not super intuitive because they’re just arrow buttons. But other than that, in terms of like quality, oh, that’s right on top of there. In terms of quality and what it can do, that’s pretty impressive, and I got to say that it looks to me like the cylinder walls in this thing are just gorgeous. Look at that. I mean, this engine has been sitting out here in the New Mexico sun uncovered for three years. Pretty impressive.

All right, guys, now for the real test. 15 sixteenths on a breaker bar. Let’s see if this puppy will turn. Oh, yeah, that’s nice and smooth. That sure got a ratchet. Come on, get in there, you. There we go. Oh, well, the engine is smooth. The pulley’s out here, not so much. But, yeah, that moves nice.

All right, guys, there you go. I feel like I accomplished a couple of really great objectives with this video. First of all, I verified that this engine still turns three years later, and I confirmed that fogging an engine is a great way to make sure that it stays in tip-top shape while it’s in storage. And secondly, I confirmed my contractual obligation to VIVAR, so I get to keep this cool piece of kit.

Guys, this thing is awesome. I’m telling you, you see the video, right? It’s amazing what this thing can do. I love the camera on either side. That is so handy. This little handheld dealie that I have to go out and get my phone or hook up to a laptop or whatever. Guys, I’m being serious. These guys aren’t paying me. They’re not, right? But they reached out to me and said, you know, hey, Ed, would you like to do a review on this? We’re looking for some YouTubers to do some reviews on our products. And so I went through the stuff to become part of their program. And man, they’ve been really great. And this thing is cool. I should’ve got a long time ago. And I’m being serious. I’m not even, you know, I’m not doing the whole YouTube sponsored content, blah, blah stuff. I’m being serious.

Guys, I’m gonna be honest with you, transparent no matter what happens. This thing’s worth your time. If you need to look inside of engines or get down, I’ve used, not this one, but I’ve used endoscopes like this to verify whether or not my exhaust bolts are broken on my other truck. I used to get down into drain pipes in the house. This stuff, you need to have one of these laying around. If you don’t have one already, you’re gonna use it. There’s gonna be times where you don’t have another choice. This thing’s gonna save your butt to get into those places where you can’t see. I’ve used it to diagnose blockages in my air conditioning system inside the house, right? So these things are a lifesaver. And this one in particular for 60 bucks, I mean, you’re gonna pay 20, 25, 30 for one of the phone ones connected. And this is so much more convenient. It’s got cameras on the side.

I am sure that I am rambling on and I don’t really need to because you guys are gonna think I’m a shill and I’m not trying to be. I really am just that impressed. Okay. So again, fog your engines, guys. If you’re gonna leave them sitting out in the weather, again, three years, no tarp, New Mexico sun. Brutal. Guys, it’s brutal sitting out here like this. I tell you, it’s brutal.

All right. You guys gotta fog your engines. If you have any questions, comments, concerns, gripes, internet ramblings, wanna call me a sellout, comment below. Thanks again for watching. And we will see you next time.

Howdy folks, Ed here. Welcome back to Bullnose Garage. The 351 Windsor Ford small block engine is one of the most venerable engines that Ford Motor Company has ever produced. Today on Bullnose Garage, I’d like to introduce you to mine and talk a little bit about this engine and why I chose it for my build.

So let’s start this video off right by introducing you to the donor. The donor was originally a 1994 F-150 with an E4OD automatic transmission, two-wheel drive, and of course, the 351 Windsor. What follows is most of the research I’ve done on the 351 Windsor in preparation for swapping it into my truck. Keep in mind that I gathered almost all of this information from places on the internet, and none of it is personal experience because I don’t have any. That said, I’ve tried very hard to fact check and verify my information as best I can. I hope that this information, put together in one place, is useful for anyone looking for more details or thinking about swapping or building this small block Ford engine.

So what is a 351 Windsor? The 351 Windsor, or 351W for short, is the largest of the Ford small block engine family. Ford Motor Company built them between 1969 and 1996. It’s a 90-degree V8 with an overhead valve train. The 351 corresponds to the number of cubic inches displaced by the stroke of all eight cylinders during normal operation. It’s also commonly referred to as the 5.8 liter for the same reason. The name Windsor comes from where the engine was produced in Ford’s Windsor, Ontario casting plant. Similar in size and shape to the very common 302, the 351 is a taller block. This allows for more piston travel in the cylinder, increasing the cubic inches to accommodate the increased displacement and increased power. The 351 block castings are beefier in almost every respect.

The Windsor is one of three engines offered by Ford in the 351 displacement. There was also the 351 Cleveland and the 351M, often called the modified. The Windsor engine is by far the most common and had the highest production numbers. Ford produced about 8.6 million units at the Windsor plant. It also tends to be the easiest to find aftermarket parts for due to its sharing many parts with a 302 small block.

So let’s go over some stats and measurements. The 351 Windsor has a displacement of 351 cubic inches, or 5.8 liters. The stock stroke of the engine is 3.5 inches, and the stock cylinder bore is 4 inches. It has a distinct firing order from the other Ford small blocks: 1-3-7-2-6-5-4-8 versus 1-5-4-2-6-3-7-8. Cast out of iron, the bare block weighs in at between 150 and 200 pounds, depending on the year. Blocks older than 1974 are heftier by 25 to 30 pounds due to having more metal in the casting. Prior to 1971, the deck height reached 9.48 inches, and after ’71, it changed to 9.503 inches. Something to make note of if you’re rebuilding one of these engines, since the deck height will affect the compression ratio and the valve piston head clearance.

The stock engine uses two bolts to secure the main bearing cap to the saddle, known as two-bolt mains. Stock, the compression ratio was around 11 to 1 in 1969. Emissions restrictions caused the ratio to move as low as 8.8 to 1 in later years. Early 351W engines produced a maximum of 300 horsepower and found their way into Mustangs, Galaxies, Cougars, Country Squires, station wagons, Fairlanes, and Torinos. Later years were also installed into trucks, vans, and marine applications. Later engines had lower horsepower numbers and higher torque numbers as a result of vehicle requirements and emissions.

So the 351 Windsor’s got an interesting history. Ford began casting the Windsor in 1969 and produced them up until 1996. Prior to ’75, blocks were cast using green sand molds and pneumatic packers or vacuum pressure. These methods worked well but caused some issues with mold core shifting. This meant that Ford required more material in the block to meet minimum specifications. After ’74, Ford used better molding techniques, eliminating the need for the extra material. While it’s true that newer blocks are weaker than older blocks because of this material deficit, 351 blocks are still the strongest small block available and should be able to handle any streetable horsepower numbers. Still, for this reason, builders sometimes covet 351 Windsor blocks from ’69 to ’74 if they’re looking for very high horsepower torque members.

In 1971, Ford extended the deck height from 9.48 inches to 9.503 inches to lower the compression ratio. In ’74, they added a boss in the right front of the engine for an air injection pump. Also in ’74, the oil dipstick moved from the timing case to under the left cylinder bank. Until ’76, the block used 16 bolt holes for the intake manifold, but Ford changed it to 12 bolts from ’77 onward. It should be noted that the 351 has larger head bolt holes than the 302. This means that the same heads will fit, but a 302 head will need to be drilled out to accommodate this if it’s being used on 351. A popular example of this is the GT40 head used on higher performance 302 engines being swapped into a 351 for higher flow numbers.

In 1983, Ford modified the rear main seal from the old two-piece design to a more modern one-piece rear main seal. Very late in the engine’s production, in 1994, the design changed again to accommodate roller lifters and camshafts rather than flat tappet lifters and camshafts. This change, only available in the final two years of production, makes these blocks highly sought after. Often these are just called F4 blocks due to the casting number or simply referred to as roller blocks.

So here’s a quick chart that I put together so that I could see exactly what gears which blocks had which features. That way, when I’m looking to go pull a Windsor out of a junkyard or another vehicle, I know exactly what years to look for for the features that I want. The second chart is one that I made to reference which vehicles these blocks go in. That way, when I’m looking on Facebook or Craigslist or even at a junkyard, I know what kind of a block that I’m going to get out of which vehicle in which year.

Ultimately, the best way to identify a 351 Windsor block is by using the Ford casting number. We can break down the beginning of Ford’s casting numbers into decade, year, vehicle or vehicle type, and engineering division. A casting that starts with C90E was built in 1979 because the C signifies the ’70s, and the 9 is for the last year of that decade. The 0 signifies that it was built for a Torino, and the E stands for engine. Castings that start with D are built in the ’70s, E in the ’80s, and F in the ’90s. My block is an F4TE, which means it’s a 1994 truck engine block. As I said before, F4 blocks are known as the roller blocks. That casting identifies them as having been built after 1994 when Ford switched to roller cam capable blocks. Note that Ford didn’t install roller cams in all roller blocks from the factory; many still utilize the old style flat tappet cams even though they are roller capable.

Ford produced two or three, depending on who you ask, different 351 engines during the same time period: the 351 Windsor and the 351 Cleveland. Every now and then, you’ll also hear about the 351M, also called modified, or might even hear about the 351 HO, or high output. What gives with all these different motors with the same displacement? Well, the Cleveland and the modified are both based on the same engine, which is entirely different from the Windsor. They called it Cleveland because Ford cast them in their Cleveland, Ohio plant. The Cleveland is part of the 335 big block engine family and was designed for more performance with better flowing heads and a stronger crank. Physical differences include a recessed timing chain and 8-bolt valve covers versus the Windsor’s 6-bolt covers. The bolt covers are the easiest way to tell if you’re looking at a Windsor or a Cleveland.

The 351M is closer to the Cleveland than the Windsor but is basically a de-stroke version of the big block 400, a different block altogether with a taller deck height than either the Windsor or the Cleveland at 10.297. The M also shares a bell housing pattern with other members of the 335 big block engine family, while the Windsor and the Cleveland both use a small block bell housing pattern. The 351 HO is just a Windsor engine with higher performance parts. It came with a four-barrel carburetor and a larger cam. Ford put HO engines in some trucks in the mid-’80s.

The Ford 302, or 5.0 liter small block, is in the same family as the 351, and it can often be hard to distinguish the two. The 351 has a taller deck height and subsequently longer stroke, which accounts for the difference in displacement. The 351 is also a heavier casting with more material, making it a stronger block overall. The crank and rod journals are also larger in the 351, adding to crankshaft durability. Many of the parts for a 302 are interchangeable to the 351. This includes heads, cam, lifters, water pump, engine mounts, timing chain, timing cover, and many other parts. As stated before, it should be noted that 302 heads have smaller bolt holes, so they’ll only fit a 351 if the holes are drilled out. Earlier versions of the 351, until ’76, incorporated heads with more bolt holes and larger intake ports than the 302, though the exhaust ports always remain the same size. The bell housing bolts to both engines are also the same. This means that a transmission that pulls up to a 302 will also bolt up to a 351. The firing order between the two engines is different, as is the oil pan intake due to the deck height harmonic balancer, except pre-’81 302s which share the internal balance of 351W and distributor.

There are several ways to tell the difference between a 351 and a 302 by visual inspection. The easiest I found is to look at the distributor mount height. The mount will be near flush to the top of the block on a 302, while the 351 has the distributor mount sunk below the top of the block by around an inch.

So does the Windsor make a good high-performance engine? Well, 351 Windsor blocks upgrade easily. A huge number of aftermarket parts exist for both the 351 and the 302. Popular upgrades are the heads since the stock 351 heads are mediocre at best, and other standard upgrade parts like the intake, cam, headers, and fuel delivery system. While the latest generation of 351 Windsors typically generated about 180 to 220 horsepower from the factory, adding a new set of heads, a larger cam, and some other aftermarket parts can get a Windsor with a stock stroke to around 350 to 400 horsepower easily. Stroking the engine by changing the crank and piston rods can increase the displacement to 383, 393, 408, 418, or 427. Doing so makes horsepower numbers as high as 500 to 600 easily attainable. Even higher numbers are possible with the correct aftermarket parts or power adders. The maximum horsepower attainable through a stock 351 Windsor is a matter of debate. Most agree that 500 to 600 is easily and safely attainable without risking damage to even the later standard strength blocks. Earlier high-strength blocks regularly reach 800 to 1000 horsepower without damage. When it comes to cracking an engine block, though, often it’s not the horsepower numbers but the sturdiness and quality of the parts and build that’s most important.

So can a junkyard 351W make a good performance engine? Well, in my opinion, the junkyard OEM block is a fine base to use for a 351 Windsor build, provided you’re not planning on putting out more than 600 horsepower and redlining RPMs all the time. Much more than that wouldn’t be streetable anyway. If you really want to race the block and send massive amounts of power through it, then it might be worth your time to hunt down a pre-’74 block for the higher strength. But there’s always the option of purchasing an aftermarket block. Purchasing an aftermarket 351 block can help you attain higher numbers without the worry of block failure. 1200 plus horsepower is not uncommon for an aftermarket 351 Windsor. Several reputable companies make aftermarket 351 blocks.

So why did I choose the 351? Well, my ’85 Bullnose houses a 306 from the factory, but a small block engine option existed for my truck. Because of this, I know the small block form factor will fit without an issue, unlike a big one. I wanted an engine that would bolt right into my Bullnose just to keep things easier for my first swap. The 306 shares the same bell housing bolt pattern as the small block engines as well, so I have the option to keep my transmission. Engine mounting points between the 300 and small blocks are also similar, with only the need to pull the mounts and purchase from the donor and bolt them into the Bullnose. I chose the 351 over the 302 because there’s no replacement for displacement. I’ve also read that the 302 is far easier to crack when running high horsepower numbers. I’m not planning on getting numbers that high in my first build, but who knows where I’ll be down the road. It’s also easier to get more horsepower for less money out of a 351, all else being equal, simply due to the larger displacement to start with. Finally, the Ford small block platform in general has a vast array of parts and aftermarket support, meaning I can build the engine just about any way I want to, and I plan on it.

Why did I get this particular vehicle as a donor? Well, obviously, it’s got the 351, which is the engine that I was looking for, and it was a fantastic deal. I managed to get this chassis with the engine, transmission, and pretty much everything you see here for right around 500 bucks. Now, the people that had it before were going to use it for some kind of a hot rod project, but it turns out that the frame is bent right here. Now, I don’t care about the frame; I’m getting it for the engine, so that works out good for me. And the fact that it’s a ’94 means that it’s a roller block. Now, a roller block means that I don’t have to go out and get link bar lifters or some kind of retrofit kit if I want to get a roller cam. It’s not that big of a deal; it’s only a few hundred dollars, but it does save you that money.

This chassis has been pretty much sitting here ever since I bought it. I’ve done a couple of things to it. I pulled the gas tanks off and sold those. I fogged the engine, which I’ve got a video about how to do that, and I sold the steering column because when I bought it, I also got the steering column and a complete wiring harness with ECU and everything. So I’ll probably end up selling that too because I’m going to convert this from EFI to carbureted, so I don’t need that stuff. That’s just more money that I can put in my pocket to go out and buy cool stuff for the engine.

The best way to determine what the internals of an engine look like without actually tearing it apart is using something like this borescope camera. Now I’ve got it hooked up to my laptop up there, but you can use a tablet or usually even a cell phone to do this if you’re sort of out and about and don’t have access to a big old laptop like I do. So we’re just going to go ahead and stick this inside and take a look and see what the cylinders look like. Oh, I’ll sit down. Hello! All right, here we go. It’s actually really hard to see with the reflection in there. Let’s try a different cylinder here. So you can still see some of the cross hatching on the cylinder walls. Let’s take a look at another one. It’s kind of hard to get an idea of what you’re seeing here sometimes, but obviously that’s the top of the piston. Looks like it’s in pretty good shape there. There we go. Now it’s really hard to see out here in the daylight. I’ll take a better look at this once I get inside and look at it on the computer, but everything looks pretty good from this angle here. Well, there we go. Ah, there we go! Yeah, see, I’m not a mechanic, but to me that looks pretty good for a used engine, so I’m pretty happy with that.

One of the problems with using a borescope like this during the daytime is that it can be really hard to see on a screen like a laptop screen or your phone screen. I mean, unless you see some really egregious damage, which shows up right away, and then you know what you’re looking at, some of the stuff that you’re looking for can be kind of subtle. So just keep that in mind if you ever take a borescope out to the field.

Well, there you go. That’s the donor and the 351 Windsor insider. I hope you guys enjoyed this video as much as I enjoyed making it. I did a lot of research on these engines, and I just love digging into the history and all the information about them. I was super stoked when I managed to get a hold of this one. I just can’t wait to tear it apart, see how it looks on the inside, and get it rebuilt and into the old truck and see how it runs. Man, there’s just so much to look forward to with this, and I can’t wait to get my hands dirty on it. Hopefully, I can do a good job and not blow it up or have any major issues, but you know, that’s part of the adventure too, so we’ll see how that goes. Hopefully, you guys will be along for the ride, and I can’t wait to get out more videos about it and see where this takes me. As always, if you have any questions, comments, concerns, gripes, internet ramblings, stick them below. Thanks again so much for watching, guys. We’ll see you next time.

Howdy folks, Ed here. Welcome back to Bullnose Garage. If you’ve got an engine that you’re going to have stored for a long time, such as this 351 Windsor that I’ve got here behind me, then one of the things that you need to worry about is the top end getting moisture inside and causing rust, corrosion, or potentially even seizure of the engine.

One of the best ways to prevent that is called fogging the engine, and that’s what we’re going to talk about here today on this Bullnose Garage quick tip. Fogging your engine is a very simple procedure that simply involves taking some oil, typically it’s called fogging oil, and coating the top end components to make sure that water doesn’t get in there and touch those metal parts and cause rust, corrosion, and maybe even seizing of the engine.

If you have a carbureted engine that runs, fogging it is actually really simple. All you’ve got to do is start the engine up, take off the air cleaner, spray some of this down inside for 10 to 20 seconds, or until you see smoke start to come out the exhaust. That’s actually where the term fogging the engine came from, is the smoke that comes out of the exhaust when you do it this way, and that’s going to let you know that this stuff has gone through the entire engine, it’s starting to burn off, and you can shut the engine down at that point so you don’t burn all this off, and you’re pretty much done at that point.

You may want to go ahead and take out the spark plugs and spray some of this down into the spark plug holes for two or three seconds per cylinder, and then at that point you should be good to go.

If you’ve got an engine that’s not running or is fuel injected, then you can’t fog the engine this way. Of course, if it’s not running, you can’t do it that way because it’s not running. If it’s fuel injected, you shouldn’t fog it that way because this stuff can foul up the injectors or cause some sensor issues. So if you have an engine that’s in either one of those situations, the way you’ve got to do it is manually, and I’m going to show you how to do that.

The first thing you’re going to want to do is go and take out all of your spark plugs. So once all the spark plugs are out, then you can go cylinder by cylinder and spray a shot of fogging oil into each cylinder for about three or four seconds.

Now that we’ve taken all the spark plugs out and I’ve sprayed fogging oil down all the cylinders, if I had access to the intake, I’d probably go ahead and spray some down to the intake for two or three seconds to get that part good and coated, and I’d do the same thing for the exhaust if I had access to the exhaust ports. Now, I don’t have access to either one of those in this engine. I’m certainly not going to be taking off the exhaust manifolds or the intake out here, certainly not this evening anyway, so we’re not going to worry about that. The important point is to get this stuff down into the cylinders.

Once you’ve got everything fogged up, you’re going to want to go ahead and turn the engine over manually a few times with a ratchet or a breaker bar to get that stuff in there really circulated around into the pistons, piston rings, the cylinder walls, make sure it’s good and coated. Now, in a Windsor 351, it’s going to be a 15/16 socket, but it could be different depending on your engine. Now, I’m just using a regular ratchet because this engine turns over real easy.

So is fogging your engine really worth the time and trouble to do it? I’ve heard both sides. I’ve heard some folks say that unless the engine is going to sit for years and years and years, it’s really kind of a waste of time. They’ve never seen an engine be rusted out or seized just over a couple of seasons. And other folks say that it’s so easy and simple and cheap to do, why would you not do it? It’s just cheap insurance. Now, I gotta tell you, I’m all for cheap insurance.

Now down here in the southwest, it’s probably not that important because it doesn’t get that humid down here, although during the fall and the spring, there are some pretty big temperature gradients that can cause condensation. But it still wouldn’t be nearly as important as it would be in a more humid area like the coast or down in the south, southeast of the country. The bottom line is that fogging your engine is easy, quick, and cheap, and I am all for easy, quick, and cheap ways to sleep better at night.

As always, if you have any questions, comments, concerns, gripes, internet ramblings, stick them below. Thanks again for watching, and we’ll see you next time.

Howdy folks, Ed here. Welcome back to Bullnose Garage. What is a bullnose and why do I have one? A bullnose is a Ford truck built from the years 1980 to 1986, like the one behind me. This one here is a 1985 F-150. Bullnose trucks are F-150, F-250, F-350, or Bronco, anywhere from ’80 to ’86. And why are they called a bullnose? Well, because the front of the truck looks kinda like a bull’s nose, if you imagine.

So why do I own a bullnose? Well, it’s a project truck for me. I’ve always loved Ford trucks. In fact, my daily driver is a 2007 Ford F-150, so the F-150 platform is something I know and love very much. And I wanted something older that I could work on, something carbureted, something that was easy for me to sort of sink my teeth into and learn how to rebuild engines and do all the kind of mechanical stuff. See, my entire life I’ve been a computer guy. I write programs for a living, so I never really worked very much with my hands. And I thought, what better way to get my hands dirty than to do it on an old Ford truck? So, my project.

So why did I choose this particular truck? After all, I had to drive all the way to San Antonio, Texas, to pick it up. Well, I couldn’t find any trucks like what I was looking for around here. So what does that mean? Well, first of all, as you can see, it’s in pretty good shape. The paint’s a little faded, but there’s no rust, and the body is really straight. So that’s one thing. Another thing that’s pretty obvious is that it’s a short bed. Now, I was looking for a short bed because I want a truck that’s going to be a little bit sportier, because I’m planning on putting a few more horses under the hood and making like a little street truck out of it. Now, I’m not going to do any kind of racing or anything, but what I’m going for would be better with a short bed, so I wanted to make sure I got one of those.

It also runs really well. I basically could just drive it right out of the box, except for the fact that it’s a manual. So I knew I wanted a manual because I’d never driven a stick shift before in my life. And I figured, what better way to learn how to drive a stick than to buy a vehicle that I can’t drive unless I know how to drive a stick? So I had to teach myself, and that’s what I did. And I’m glad to say that it works. I can now drive a stick shift. At least I can drive this stick shift.

The last thing that I wanted to make sure that I had, no question, was air conditioning. I mean, because come on, I live in New Mexico, and it is hot as in New Mexico. Let me go ahead and start her up, and I’ll let you take a listen. The engine in this truck is an inline six, and it’s got an NP 435 manual transmission. That’s a four-speed, but it’s effectively a three-speed. The first speed is granny low. I mean, I could throw this thing into first gear, get out, and walk alongside it. So you basically never use first gear in a truck like this.

Even though I pretty much just started my channel last month, I’ve had the truck for a couple of years, so I’ve had some opportunity to do just a little bit of work to it. So let me just briefly go over some of the stuff that I’ve already done. I’ve changed all the fluids, including this stuff. I’ve replaced both side mirrors. I’ve replaced the door and window seals, and I replaced the door striker. I’ve repositioned the license plate so the tailgate doesn’t smack it when it comes down. I’ve changed the battery twice. I have replaced the alternator. I replaced my marker lights and updated the blinkers. I replaced my tail lights. I’ve wrapped the steering wheel, and I’ve replaced the rear view mirror. I added LED dash lights and LED interior lights. I let someone from Craigslist load something into the back of my truck with a forklift and bend the bed. So that’s my bullnose.

But I’m not done. I mean, I started this channel with the intent of making videos for people who may have a similar truck or similar interests, and mostly because I’ve never done this before. And this is all gonna be a learning experience for me. And so I’m kind of hoping that by going through this and having a learning experience that, uh, if I film it, maybe I can help some other folks. So let’s talk about what my plans are for the bullnose and for this channel, and I got a whole bunch of them.

So obviously the big deal is a new engine. The truck right now has a 306. It’s an inline six. These motors are bulletproof, and there’s going to be a lot of people, a whole lot, that are going to tell me that I shouldn’t swap the motor, that the 306 is one of the greatest engines that Ford ever made, and it’s ridiculous to pull a perfectly good running 306 out of a truck and put in something different. But a 306 is not the engine that I want for my application. What I want is something with a little more punch. So what I’m putting in there is a 351 small block, and I actually already have one, but that’s a future video. Eventually, I would like to stroke it, probably to 408, and get between 400 and 500 horsepower. But that’s a long ways down the road. I think to begin with, I’m just going to go ahead and do a regular engine rebuild, and I might put a couple of power adders on there, but I haven’t quite decided what I’m going to do with that just yet.

And of course, um, I’m going to do basically everything that I can to make the truck as nice as possible. So we’ll do some interior work. I’m going to work on the interior molding, make it look nice. I’m not sure exactly what I’m going to do, if I’m going to spray paint it or if I’m going to wrap it with some kind of fabric or, you know, what I’m going to do there. I do know I want to put some kind of sound deadening on the inside. I do want to add carpet. Right now it’s just that old rubber mat on the ground. I want to take care of that. I’m going to have to reupholster the seats or get real nice seat covers, but I think I’m probably going to end up reupholstering.

Um, so I’m also going to do a lot of electrical work. When I inherited the truck, well, when I purchased the truck, whoever I inherited it from did some questionable electrical work, so I need to go in and take care of some of that. I’m going to replace the headlights with probably LED headlights, and eventually I’ll be putting in a stereo system, probably putting speakers in the door panels and adding things wherever I can figure out how to add them. I might try to put a double din radio in there. I’m not quite sure yet. I’ve got an extra dash piece, um, bezel for the radio, so just, uh, I screw it up, I’ve got an extra, so we might try that for an episode.

Um, I gotta change the horn. The horn that’s in it right now is stupid. Maybe one of these times I’ll honk it for you and let you hear it. It’s wearing, it’s really terrible, so I want to upgrade the horn. Um, at some point I may paint the truck. I’m not sure if I have the ability to actually spray paint a vehicle, but I think I’d like to try. I’ve watched a lot of videos on it. I’ve seen a lot of instructional videos and read a lot of websites and forums and stuff. And, uh, we’ll get it sanded down and strip back probably to metal and put some primer on it and get sanded and do all the blocking and everything else and then pick a color and maybe paint it.

I’ve also thought about putting vinyl on it in terms of like a vinyl wrap, although I wouldn’t wrap the entire truck, but I might wrap parts of it rather than do a two-tone paint job because I’m not sure I could pull off a good two-tone paint job, especially since I’ve never painted a vehicle before. I’ve thought fleetingly about doing a crown vic swap. So for older Ford trucks, especially older ’79 or older, the generation before mine, a lot of guys put crown vic front ends in them from 2002 and forward Crown Victorias because they basically just bolt right in, and they’re more of a car suspension, so they handle power much easier and they ride much better. You can do a crown vic swap on a bullnose. It’s a lot more work than, um, it’s called a dent side from the earlier generation up to ’79, but it can be done. So I’m thinking about that.

Regardless of whether I do that or not, I’m going to have to upgrade the suspension on the truck just because it’s a little sloppy, and I’m putting a little bit heavier engine in there, and it’s going to have more power, so I want to make sure that I’m not falling down on my suspension. Um, I’ve thought about upgrading the transmission. A, uh, NP435 isn’t exactly a race transmission. Not that I’m gonna be racing it, but it’s a very solid truck transmission that drives like a truck, and it could probably handle four or five hundred horsepower as long as you’re not working it too hard. But what I’d really like to have is the ZF5. The F5 transmission is a heavy-duty, still a truck transmission, but it’s a five-speed with overdrive. And, uh, the fact that my truck doesn’t have overdrive right now is rough, um, especially on the interstate, you know, going 65, 70 miles an hour, it’s spinning pretty high. So I’d really like to have an overdrive transmission.

If I had all kinds of money, I’d go out and get a TKO transmission and, you know, put one of those in there, but they’re big bucks, so we’ll see what happens. And I’ve also thought about maybe changing the rear end, uh, getting a locking differential or changing the gears. Um, to be honest with you, I don’t remember exactly what the gears in there are right now. I’d have to look it up. I have it written down somewhere, but I’ve thought about changing the gears and doing a gear swap in the back and adding a locking differential. Obviously, I’ll be upgrading the tires and the rims. In fact, that’s probably coming in the next couple of weeks, and, uh, I’ll be doing things here and there to spruce the truck up and, uh, just make it better overall.

So I’ve got a lot of plans, and hopefully they pan out, and hopefully you guys get to see them because I’m really excited about doing all this stuff on camera and, uh, getting some of this stuff out there, especially when it comes to the engine. I’ve got some really interesting ideas as to what I might do in terms of, you know, pistons and heads and camshaft and that kind of stuff and how I’m going to get to the horsepower numbers that I eventually want to get to. Um, thinking about maybe using some cheap eBay parts just to see how they work. I mean, I’ve got a donor engine, so if I blow it up, then, well, I mean, I still got the original 306 I could drop back in if I had to, or, you know, 351 ones aren’t that hard to find in that junkyard somewhere. So yeah, I may have a little bit of leeway to screw up. I mean, it’s my first engine build ever. I’ve never even worked in a small engine before, so, um, I may be biting off more than I can chew, but hey, you know, that’s part of the channel. That’s, uh, that’s part of what we’re doing here.

All right guys, there you go. That’s a bullnose. That’s my bullnose. That’s what I’ve done, what I plan to do, my plans for the channel, all that stuff. So if you have any questions, comments, concerns, gripes, internet ramblings, stick them below. As always, thanks for watching guys. We’ll see you next time.