How Ford's Small-block V8 Helped Shape The Muscle Car Era

Different_brian/Getty Images

By nan early 1960s, Detroit was neck-deep successful a horsepower race. Bigger was better, aliases truthful everyone thought. Chevrolet had its big-block 409, Chrysler had nan 413 Max Wedge, and Ford had nan 427 FE that famously powered nan Le Mans-winning GT40 successful 1966. You could moreover laic your hands connected the only thoroughfare ineligible GT40 from "Ford V Ferrari" in nan auctions if you're lucky. 

However, Ford was reasoning successful different direction, deciding to attraction connected ratio and balance. The consequence was nan small-block V8, a compact, lightweight motor that proved you didn't request monolithic displacement to make superior power. This is contempt Ford later making a 400 cubic incher, which was 1 of nan biggest small-block engines ever built. Although that type came later successful nan '70s, Ford's first effort astatine a small-block appeared successful 1962 arsenic nan 221-cubic-inch engine. Dubbed nan Challenger V8, this creation would spell connected to work nan adjacent 40 years.

In nan aforesaid year, Ford bumped up nan displacement to 260 cubic inches. It went up to 289 successful nan pursuing year, featuring a caller artifact to make abstraction for nan bigger bore. Come 1968, this motor grew to 302 cubic inches, and nan 351-cubic-inch mini artifact was calved successful '69 pinch nan sanction "Windsor". This motor didn't travel from conscionable 1 assembly line. Throughout its agelong accumulation life, it was formed and built successful Cleveland, Ohio and Windsor, Ontario, pinch each works leaving its ain subtle signature. If you spot a "CF" stamp, you're looking astatine a Cleveland block; "WF" intends Windsor forged it, hence nan name. The bigger 351 Windsor was calved and raised exclusively successful Canada, while nan early 221 and 260 engines came solely retired of Cleveland.

Michael Cole/Getty Images

The Ford small-block went done a sadistic shape of testing earlier being made available. As shared by CarTech, historian Bob Mannel notes that much than 500 prototype and pre-production 221-cubic-inch engines were tortured connected dynos for complete 17,000 hours. They were past tally for a staggering 250,000 miles successful nan existent world earlier earning accumulation approval. When nan 221 and 260 debuted successful nan 1962 Fairlane and Mercury Meteor, they were sprightly, economical, and highly reliable.

Ford's small-block V8 family was built astir 2 halfway blocks — nan 289/302 pinch an 8.2-inch platform tallness and nan beefier 351 Windsor pinch a 9.5-inch platform to fresh a longer changeable and much cubes. Compact, lightweight, and begging to rev, these engines became nan backbone of Ford's "Total Performance" era successful nan precocious '60s. Engineers were chasing airflow optimization, experimenting pinch exotic caput designs and hybrid setups, astir famously bolting 351 Cleveland heads onto a 302 Windsor block. The consequence was nan legendary Boss 302, a snarling Frankenstein of Ford's champion ideas stuffed into 1 mini but mighty V8.

Technically, nan small-block's brilliant laic successful its straightforward design. The cylinder heads, for example, stayed accordant for decades pinch nan valve and larboard sizes hardly changing from nan early 1960s correct done till nan mid-1990s. Pre-1968 heads had tight 53-57cc combustion chambers for beardown compression, while post-'67 castings opened up and mislaid immoderate punch. The "Hi-Po" 289 heads weren't radically different either, they conscionable utilized screw-in rocker studs and outpouring cups for stableness astatine precocious revs. The small-block moreover went connected to powerfulness cars of different brands including nan Sunbeam Tiger, made crossed nan pond.

JoshBryan/Shutterstock

In 1962, Ford jumped headfirst into its "Total Performance" campaign, wished to beryllium that its caller Challenger V8 could bent pinch nan champion connected nan planet. One bold move was taking a pushrod type of nan small-block to Indianapolis successful 1962. This wasn't your mean Fairlane motor; it packed a cast-aluminum artifact pinch robust liners, four-bolt mains, shaft-mounted rockers, and O-ringed heads for superior high-RPM durability. At 255 cubic inches, pinch a 12.5:1 compression ratio, and 376 horsepower astatine 7,200 rpm, it screamed for illustration thing Ford had built before. With it, Ford was officially successful nan racing game.

The small-block's motorsport travel didn't extremity there. To homologate a caller Trans-Am engine, Ford built nan Boss 302, a wicked fusion of a Windsor short artifact and Cleveland-style splayed-valve heads. It revved high, made each its powerfulness astatine nan top, and cemented Ford's thoroughfare and way cred for decades. Sure, nan '70s deed difficult successful different ways — smog controls and state crunches choked its performance – but by 1982, nan "Five-Oh" roared backmost successful nan Mustang GT. The lightweight Fox-body level turned nan 5.0 into a cult hero.

Gestalt Imagery/Shutterstock

When Ford revived nan 5.0-liter V8, it was fundamentally nan aforesaid battle-tested 302 small-block, only now pinch a caller name. It kept nan 4-inch bore, 3-inch stroke, 8.2-inch platform height, and 10 caput bolts, moreover sharing nan aforesaid engine-mounts. It was familiar, reliable, and perfectly suited to powerfulness nan reborn Mustang GT. 

But nan ceremony didn't past long. Almost arsenic soon arsenic it arrived, nan 5.0 disappeared, replaced by nan underwhelming 4.2-liter (255 ci) type which was a downsized, low-compression clone making conscionable 118 horsepower and 193 pound-feet of torque. With its mild hydraulic cam, stamped 1.6:1 rockers, and mini 1.68-inch intake and 1.46-inch exhaust valves, it judge was a V8, but only conscionable about.

The Mustang GT returned successful 1982, and Ford brought nan musculus backmost pinch nan 5.0 High Output V8, a hotter type of its classical small-block. It borrowed a 351 Windsor marine camshaft, adopted nan 351W firing order, and breathed done a Motorcraft 2150 two-barrel carb pinch a dual-snorkel aerial cleaner. The bottommost extremity sewage a awesome update too, switching to a 50-ounce offset balance. In 1983, Ford ditched nan two-barrel setup for a Holley 4180 four-barrel carb, improving throttle consequence and emissions; a creation that lasted done 1985 alongside nan Duraspark II ignition.

By 1985, Ford gave nan 5.0 its first roller-tappet block, boosting ratio and durability further. One twelvemonth later came a large leap successful nan shape of nan Sequential Electronic Fuel Injection (SEFI) and afloat EEC-IV motor management, ushering nan small-block into nan modern era. From 1987-1993, nan 5.0's refined "fast-burn" heads and SEFI tuning helped it reclaim horsepower glory, cementing its spot arsenic a existent capacity icon. The past awesome V8 is simply a modern derivative, which powers nan seventh-gen Mustang.