So I've decided I'm buying a nice new set of nice new Simmons FR 1 piece wheels, deciding on wheels has been completely doing my head in to be honest but at least I've settled on the design.
But i cant for the life of me choose between Gold or Silver.
I've always like gold Simmons fr's, and I think they give the car a cool sorta retro look.
On the other hand the silver gives a nice clean fresh look and a bit more classy I guess
but can't decide whether they look too plain or the gold is too look at me
Has anyone had any experience with a 351 in any of the XF series cars, with the different firewall?
I have fitted an ZL Fairlane Firewall into my XE, which has also had a 351 fitted, as the firewall protrudes further into the Engine bay, there is very little space between the rear of the 351 and the firewall, this causes the problem of the heater hoses bending at an extreme angle and/or coming in contact with the engine.
Im trying to find a work around, maybe 90 degree elbows flush up against the firewall, and the hoses running out from there.
The CHI 3Vs have the advantage of 30 years of experience in port design, with the bonus of having been designed with computer modelling. Looking at a cross-section of 2v, 3v or 4v ports, the difference is profound. The original 3v opening sits higher, straightening out the flow, and the short-turn is nice and smooth and the pocket is nice and round too, giving the mixture a straighter shot into the cylinder. There are versions with the lower standard ports, able to be used with any 2v manifold.
By comparison, the factory iron heads, while excellent in their day, have lots of compromises. The opening is tall but low, forcing the mixture to squeeze tightly up the ramp in the floor, then turn around about 110 degrees to get round the short turn. The pocket is deep and looks to be a bit of a dead spot, causing loss of velocity and turbulence. 2v and 4v suffer the same problems, but much exaggerated in the 4v. They discovered that filling the port floor in a 4v with epoxy filler straightened out the flow and actually picked up horsepower, despite the port being smaller. This is the principle behind 3vs.
Again, factory clevo heads flow much better than most other smallblock heads around at the time, particularly Chevs. They were as good as factory iron heads could be in the late 60's.
The secret to 3vs flowing more despite being smaller is in the velocity, having higher speed through the port keeps momentum up and fills the cylinder more efficiently.
Being made of Aluminium alloy allows them to carry away much more heat from the combustion chamber, enabling higher compression before detonation is a problem, generally around 1 point more. They enable the engine to warm up more quickly. They're also much lighter, about half the weight of iron.
