In the Torino there is no good reason to go with a 347 over a 351w. You have plenty of room, it was a stock engine so aftermarket supports headers and the rest of the accesories you might want. .030 overbore to clean the cylinders up and a good set of heads, a mild cam to match, and flat top pistons will net you an easy 350 - 400 HP with an engine that only turns 5500 to get there. The big plus is that you will have way more torque than you need.
Torque is exactly what I'm after. The 351 block is an 83 model block already .030 over with flat tops. crank is .010/.010, rod main and cam bearings installed, brass freeze plugs and a comp cam 268HE. So pretty much already built minus heads and intake. The 302 blocks are both 71 models, cleaned and .030 over with cut cranks. And I think I have another 268HE laying around and a used set of AFR 165s(they need a little work) It's looking like the best route is the 351. Being simple and all. Thanks for all your responses. It definitely helps to talk to people BEFORE you dump a bunch a money on a project. And considering this is for a friend, I need to make the right choice the first time.
Those 165s may be good for the 351 up to about 5500 so they might be a usable item on the engine if you can bore the bolt holes for the 1/2" bolts. Sounds to me like you are going to have an engine!
I was looking at the AFR 185s with a little bigger chamber, plus a little bigger cam. But, I'm not sure how crazy I'm gonna get. If it were my Torino, It'd end up almost unstreetable. I tend to get carried away.
If you're going to use the 268H cam, then you want heads with at least 64 cc chambers (for the 351)to keep the compression ratio down. The 268H is meant to be used with ratios in the 8 to 9 to 1 range. Anything higher and you'll be looking at a motor that may require more octane to run.
351W, flat tops with a zero deck, 58 cc chambers yeilds 11 to 1 comp ratio. Go with 64 cc chambers and it only drops to 10.3 to 1. The 268H ain't gonna want anything less than 93 octane fuel.
Baddad, I have a 351W +.030 with 61 CC chambers and get 10.09:1 ratio. It does need 93 octain but more because of the fast timing curve than the compression.
Octane demand does respond to timing changes, but sometimes if you get to the point where you retard the timing far enough to allow less octane, then you're defeating the purpose.
I was planning on a bigger chamber but the block is not zero decked, the slugs are in the hole a couple of thousandths(haven't checked exact measurement). 91 octane is the highest octane I can buy in West Texas, so, I have to work with that.
