[rescue] What a load of...

[Phil Stracchino]

Steven Ball wrote:
> I have a '73 Mustang Mach 1 fastback, with a 351 cubic inch (5.8  
> liter) 'Cleveland' canted valve V8.  It runs pretty well, and I get  
> about 16-18 miles to the gallon.  It probably puts out something like  
> 160-180 HP.

Most versions of the 351C put out quite a bit more than 180HP even in
stock trim.  How much exactly depends on which 351C version it was (H,
M, R or Q).  The H-code engine was the low-performer of the range, with
2 valves per cylinder, low-compression heads and a 2-barrel carburetor.
 The top-end R-code engine had 4-valve high-compression (11.1:1) heads
with massive exhaust ports and a 4-barrel carburetor, put out around
330HP at 4500rpm stock, and was capable of well over 400HP with the
exhaust ports opened out a bit.


> What I'm getting at is that stock engines these days are about as  
> powerful, just... way smaller and more efficient.

Yup.  Everyone sat up and took notice when Honda's S2000 developed
120HP/liter from a 2-liter naturally-aspirated engine.  Back When, the
performance target for "high-output" big, slow-revving American V8s was
1HP per cubic inch (about 60HP/liter), while smaller, higher-revving
European-built engines strove for 100HP/liter and relatively seldom
attained it without supercharging.




-- 
        Phil Stracchino                CDK#2
 Renaissance Man, Unix ronin, Perl hacker, Free Stater
 phil.stracchino at speakeasy.net   alaric at caerllewys.net
 Landline: 603-429-0220           Mobile: 603-320-5438
        It's not the years, it's the mileage.