 1 Here's our new short-block...  1 Here's our new short-block assembly from Smeding performance.It's a 351 Windsor bored 0.030 oversize for a total displacement of 357ci. It has the required early style block with provision for the clutchcross-shaft. The Ford crankshaft and rods are equipped with new Probeflat-top pistons. They are double fly-cut for valve clearance for bothstandard and twisted-wedge style cylinder heads. Made of forgedaluminum, they should produce a compression ratio of about 10.5:1 whencombined with our AFR heads. |
 2 Before we can proceed with...  2 Before we can proceed with our new short-block, there are manythings we'll need to take off the old block. Here we're removing thecylinder heads. |
 3 Now the old short-block...  3 Now the old short-block is pulled from the car. Much of whatwe'll need, such as motor mounts, will come off the bottom of the block. |
Today we're working on a '69 Mustang sports roof that's a good-looking and complete car. When work began, this car had a broken speedometer cable, so we had no idea how many miles were really on the engine. Using one quart every thousand miles, the oil consumption wasn't too bad, but we knew our OE Windsor wasn't getting any younger. When we last worked on it, we heard the beginnings of a knock in the lower end and decided it was time to replace our original short-block. For like-new performance and top quality, we decided to go with a standard displacement replacement from the experts at Smeding Performance of Rancho Cordova, California. We decided against a stroker for our car since the original engine was a 351 cubed 2V engine, and we wanted to keep our cost down somewhat. At 351 ci, the stock displacement is big enough to produce great performance, and yet small enough to get reasonably good mileage. A 393 or 408 might make more power, but you'll never see twenty mpg. We're going to save all the goodies from our other engine, including a set of AFR aluminum cylinder heads. Let's inspect our fresh short-block from Smeding, and then look at what it will take to get it into our car.
 4 Once the old block was...  4 Once the old block was hanging from the hoist, the oil pan wasdropped. We didn't find any metal shavings and were glad to have retiredthe engine before it let go completely. The pan was carefully cleanedand made ready for installation. |  5 Here, the oil pump is being...  5 Here, the oil pump is being taken off the old engine. We won'treuse the pump, but we want the pump drive rod and also thescreen-equipped oil pickup tube. |  6 To remove the harmonic...  6 To remove the harmonic balancer, the correct type of pullermust be used. Since our new short-block has a new timing cover, the oldcover will stay with the old engine. |