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As is typical for an Alpha Male Engineer, I'm starting with the powerplant. Being a long-time Pantera enthusiast and Ford man, and having decided my hot rod theme will be "High Tech Road Racer", I chose to build a 351 Cleveland. I could've gone to one of the newer, higher tech motors, but frankly, they're a lot more money, its harder to get parts and information about them, and this a hot rod, so it owes something to roots and history.

The Cleveland should have been the alpha dog Ford small block, and for a short while, it reigned supreme. The canted valve heads almost flowed too much for street use, and were devasting in the hands of racers. Today's 5 liter Fords owe a great debt to the Cleveland. Their heads are largely based on Cleveland technology.

To fit the High Tech Road Racer theme, my engine needs a number of attributes:

- Road Racer Feel: Rev, rev, rev. Ferraris rev. NASCAR motors rev. Fortunately, Clevelands rev too, and a lot easier than most Detroit mills. I'll target a 7,000 rpm shift point with as broad a powerband as possible below 7 grand. It should sound glorious at those rpm's, as well as making a lot of horsepower. I'm thinking 500 HP is a good goal! Holding up to those kind of revs means a serious bottom end and valvetrain. We'll need a roller cam, and we'll have to rely on fuel injection to tame it a bit for the street.

- Road Racer Look: Road Racer motors generally have two distinguishing features: velocity stack injection intakes and curvaceous snake pit exhaust pipes. We gotta capture both on this here mill. Road Racers also can't look too production. Things get fabricated for them. Check out the sheet metal valve covers to capture that aspect. Racers have to be able to work on their motors fast. Oil fills and radiator fills have to be knurly caps that are machined and grip well so there is no fumbling.

- High Tech: Billet cosmetics. Cool fasteners like the Wiggins clamps. Fuel injected. Cold air intake system. 12 point stainless fasteners everywhere. Keep it clean--no clutter. Smooth all the rough edges and glossy paint the block parts. We prefer custom bent hard lines to flex lines because they look high tech and clean it up. You digging this yet?

Short Block
	The bottom end is the foundation of any high-horsepower motor, particularly one that is supposed to rev as well. If it won't hang together, the rest of the package just doesn't matter. In my case, I was lucky to find a smoking deal on eBay consisting of the following pieces: Block: A 351 SVO Yates-style shortblock just like what they use for NASCAR and other racing classes. Ford Motorsport part number M6010-R351, This is a siamese-bore block, so there the water passages do not run between the cylinders, which makes the block a lot stronger. It's also a block that could be bored out to as much as 4.125". It's got 4 bolts on all 5 main bearings, again, making it strong. The bore is 4.087 (bored relative to stock), and the deck is 9.2 inches. This thing has bene professionally prepared, including magnafluxing (checked for cracks), decked, line hone checked, pressure tested, bored and honed with deck plates, sonic tested for cylinder wall thickness, and so on. This block uses the stock 2.748" Cleveland main bearing journal size. In addition, the block is set up for dry sump oiling (another road racer feature) and doesn't even have a place to mount a stock internal pump. The block was prepared by R.D.I. Blocks like this sell for almost $4000 new with the machining, but I did a lot better on eBay, getting it for a little more than half this much together with crank, rods, pistons, and timing set. Ya gotta luv that eBay! Crank: A Sonny Bryant (great racing name) billet ultralight crankshaft. It has a 3.4" stroke, gundrilled mains (for lightness), 2.000 rod journals (to reduce friction when it spins = more HP), and weighs in at only 45 pounds. This crank has been magnafluxed and will take standard sized bearings. Did I mention its internally balanced? This expensive procedure leads to a much smoother running engine--essentially for high rpms and high horsepower durability. Pistons: J&E forged racing pistons, designed for Yates heads. These pistons have been lateral gas ported and have a very small 0.060 dish and a 0.927" pin. I'll be using a set of Precision Product wrist pins. Rods: The rods are Carrillo H-beam rods, absolutely the best rods around for racing applications. They're 6.2" long and 0.940" wide, and are equipped with Carr (super strong) 3/8" rod bolts. Rod weight is about 635 grams and the set is matched. I've seen guys pay $2000 for a set of these babies, and I paid just a bit more than this for the whole shortblock package. Dampner: I bought a Romac unit designed for internally balanced racing engines. The so-called "blue label". Bearings: I'll be using Clevite 77 "P-Series" bearings, which are designed for high performance engines.
	Heads
	Valvetrain Valves: Got a set of Titanium intakes and exhausts. Cam: Check my Cam Design Thoughts. It'll be a roller, but I want as much grunt as possible below 5000 rpm so it jumps of the line quickly, but I also want to make sure it doesn't just give up on me as you wind it up. Lifters: Comp Cams roller lifters. Rockers: Comp Cams roller rockers. Springs: Comp Cams.
Induction
	Road racers have individual injector stacks. It's a rule. So I need to do the same for my hot rod. Check here to monitor progress on my Kinsler-based EFI fuel injection system. *Whoa! Here's something I haven't seen in hot rod land. Makes me wonder...*
	Exhaust
	I want something really funky for the exhaust. I can't just do a set of block huggers, even though that would be much easier and cheaper. I crave something high tech and in your face for the out-duction, just as I want something really groving for the in-duction. I've always admired the curving pipes on custom chopper bikes, and wanted to create the equivalent of those graceful curves in a hot rod. The road racers I'm used to all have those curvaceous snake pit exhaust set ups. So let's string some of these concepts together, and do a little out-of-the-box thinking with photos. Think about the curves, those lovely voluptuous curves of polished tubing... *What is the car equivalent of these pipes?* *Road racer pipes!* *Formula 1 pipes!* *Nice custom stainless NASCAR Tri-Y headers...* *That's the spirit laddies! But almost too outrageous here...* *This one is nearly perfect...* I still don't quite have the concept fully mapped out, but I'm on the scent. I'm guessing I'll have to fabricate to get the pipes I want. That means buying the flange that mates to the head, and a bunch of raw stainless steel tubing, and then busting out the Tig welder to put it all together.
	Ignition I thought about a coil-per-cylinder crank-triggered system. They're certainly high tech, but having messed with one in my Pantera days (an Electromotive unit), I found it to be a lot of trouble to fabricate, painful to repair when it broke, and not particularly higher performance. I also briefly considered a magneto, but that's too old-school. Gotta go with the tried and true MSD billet distributor. That's the ticket!
	Cosmetics
	*Wiggins Clamps!* *Fabricated sheet metal valve covers...*
	Engine Assembly Once I had accumulated enough parts, it eventually became time to start assembling the engine. I can work the heads and shortblock independently for quite a while, so I will be skipping back and forth between the two. Prior to beginning the assembly, I created a checklist by basically going through every article I could find on the Cleveland, together with a couple of good books on engine assembly and blueprinting. I basically took everything anyone suggested and merged it into a master checklist. I'll be following that list to try to make sure everything is done right, in the correct order, with nothing left out.

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