[rescue] What a load of...

[Steven Ball]

On Sep 28, 2007, at 12:51 PM, Phil Stracchino wrote:

> 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.
>

Well, obviously, I have the low performer ;)  2V carb and 2.73 rear end.

>
>> 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.
>

Also, around about that time, emission control devices started coming  
in, and with everything on the engine being controlled via vacuum  
lines and etc, they were complicated and prone to being wildly out of  
tune.  EFI and other electronic controls have really made it easy for  
proper engine control and the ability for the engine to diagnose and  
tune itself.  Just imagine how clunky today's engines would be if we  
still had a mess of vacuum hoses and analog feedback systems  
controlling everything.  Old mechanics will complain about the new  
computers being a beast to work on, but, for myself, tune ups via  
laptops can't be beat.