Who could give me some good performance ideas for a 351M? I've heard all the had things about them but if I want mine to go fast what would I do? Thanks
Put a Windsor or a 385 in it. You can make power with an M, but it is expensive and parts aren't real available.
Well, depends how far you want to go. If you want to strip it down and start from scratch, you can covert the engine to a 400 pretty easily and rebuild it. If you want to keep it stock and just add some power, for starters try adding a decent weiand 4 barrel intake and carburetor.
I think Edelbrock also makes a decent Performer dual-plane, with provisions for the EGR valve, as well as a Performer 2.0 you'd wanna pop on with a bumpier cam and dual exhaust. At the very least, you'd need to blend, port and polish the heads and port match the intake to them, along with headers and dual exhaust. The upshot is that what you want the engine to do will ultimately drive what you do to the engine.
I guess it depends on how healthy the engine is...if you can make it run reliably and no rebuild is required....a cruiser with torque is not a bad thing...a little weight savings from a mild intake and carb change and a decent exhaust may be enough to satisfy you and not hit the pocket book so hard in one area...which means things like exterior and interior improvements will be quicker to come by.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but in order to convert to a 400 I would have to change the crank or is there more to it?
Everybody says "convert a 351M to a 400," but the outside physical dimensions of a 335 block are the same. Simply swapping engines is all you need to do. I did a 351 to 400 swap on a '79 F150 simply because I found a 20+K mile 400 rebuild at the U-Pull yard, thinking I'd have to make changes like I would've from a 302 to a 351W, but surprise! No I didn't!
I'm with GhostRyder. I converted my 79 351m to a 400. I got lucky when I knew I needed the 351 crankshaft turned and my buddy at the machine shop had a 400 crank he just gave me as an exchange. About the best, easiest, bang-for-the-buck changes you can do for that engine is to pick up an aftermarket timing chain replacement kit that allows you to advance the camshaft a couple degrees. Wakes them right up.
If you want to do that, the only option is complete rebuild (If your keeping the original engine of course) and converting to a 400. You can put some performance parts like heads, intake manifold, big carb, etc on it and gain some performance but its not going to be what your desiring without doing some serious modifications. Yes, @Robbtroy is doing that currently with his engine. Its not an easy task, but you will get the performance you need if you do that. Of course, you could also go find a 400 or another engine and then swap it.
Well after seeing the prices of the crank itself I'm not sure if that's an option. I was thinking a rebuild with a cam and 4bbl. I'm just not sure what kind of performance that would give me.
Do what I did. Go to an engine rebuilder shop and see if you can make a deal for a 400 crank for your 351. Your gonna need some machine work on a rebuild so have them do it as part of the deal for the 400 crank. All they can do is say no.
Unless that stang has a 6 in it, you will be hard pressed to outrun it with a 400M. A Windsor stroked out to 408 with the right build and gearing would keep you from looking bad, but you suffer a weight disadvantage and a weight distribution disadvantage that makes it so that it would likely smoke your Ranchero in the first 100 yards no matter what engine you had even if the stang has a 6.
You'll also need a set of 400 pistons to do the conversion to 400ci. Don't see that anybody has mentioned that yet. With just an appropriate cam and timing set the 351m should be very similar to a Cleveland 2V, which are respected motors.
Well not to be naggy but is there a timing set you would recommend and would that be do-able with an aftermarket cam?
Cloyes 9-1121 timing set from Summit is the set I used. 64$. I forgot about needing 400 pistons too. I used a premium master engine rebuild kit from Enginetech (you can get the same kit from Rock auto too) for a 400 engine. Sent the necessary parts to the machine shop to have the whole thing balanced. Used my Summit timing set to advance the cam. Result was one of the smoothest running engine I've put together. Been together for over a year now with no problems. You can get that timing set at Rock auto too 10$ cheaper.