351c good combo for towing? - Ford Forums - Mustang Forum, Ford Trucks, Ford Focus and Ford Cars

Bronco84 · 03-16-2006, 02:58

I am new here, so this is my first post. I have an 84 Bronco 351 4 speed manual. I mainly use for towing and it doesn’t perform as well as I would like. I have had if for just under a year and the previous owner had the engine rebuilt but doesn’t know any of the specs. The engine sounds really good and seems to have a cam in it.

I am just after some ideas on what I could do to improve the performance of it when towing, It really needs some more torque as it doesn’t like hills on the freeway. One thought I had was to reco a set of closed chamber heads and put a smaller tourqey cam in and see if that helps. Before I get to involved I thought that I would see if anyone else has set up a 351 for towing and see if they wanted to share their combo?

BTW use it to tow a car that weighs 1300kg and the trailer is around 860kg so it is a fair but of weight for it to lug around.

Thanks in advance Jason

xcgxl · 03-16-2006, 03:27

An auto would be better for towing due to the torque multiplication.

russxr67 · 03-16-2006, 04:34

Get your hands on one of those torquepower intakes.They are worth some 40 hp over standard ones.

4vxc · 03-16-2006, 22:24

Jason, my tow car runs a 351 open chamber 9:1 2v cleveland. I'm using straight LPG with a COME hyd cam www.comeracing.com.au partno. CSBH 300. I'm using the standard 4bbl intake with extractors. It has a FMX and 2.75 diff gears,this pulls my car 1550kg and trailer easily even up long steep climbs. Any sort of cam that lets it rev higher than stock won't be ideal for what you need.

gsr9395 · 03-17-2006, 01:09

hi mate in 1984 my father brought a brand new 351 bronco. he always had 351 in every ford he had owned. his bronco's proformance was so terrible he took it back to ford who said that those 351 were industerial engines. he took it to mick webb in melb who put a holly, 3" exahust and a new cam. did not make any difference. he sold the bronco after a trip to rockhampton towing a caravan. sorry mate hopes this helps.

Bronco84 · 03-17-2006, 01:22

Thanks all for the imput, all I know at the moment is that there is major problem with it torque wise when towing, in all honesty I would expect better performance from a 302 when towing than what I am getting at the moment. For those that are familiar with the F3 when heading towards Sydney it is struggling to maintain 50 to 60K by the top of Mooney Mooney.

4vxc · 03-17-2006, 14:46

thats one of the hills I'm talking about heading to WSID, do a compression check. gsr9395 what is a industerial engine?

paull · 03-17-2006, 23:31

A friend of mine has a Bronco, of which he tows a 24 foot shark cat and 6 wheel trailer. All up weight is about 8 tonne. Of course, he has a 460 in it and yes, it does struggle at times.