Reading some other posts, one mentioned the ford 351 clevelands, I had a Torino GT with the 351 winsdor the engine had a number of features which allowed it to breathe better at top end than any old stock 351 or 302. If I remember right it's a pair of headers to glasspack pipes backed by a pair of eldebrock aluminum heads and a high rise manifold supported and fed by a Holley 650 double pump carb. On stock points it had a flaw at about 5200 where it jumped around too much with insufficient voltage and spark to get to 5600 redline. I had to dispose of the car after a brutal winter road salt destroyed all of the wiring inside that thing. I was in no mood to get out a spool of wire and a pair of cutters to start tracking back front to back on the entire car.
I will tell you in certain temperature situations that engine was bulletproof. It might have leaked a tiny bit at the rear main and the transmission had a habit of boiling off fluid at certain situations. 140 or so was about all you got out of it in spite of the 5200 limitation imposed by the inadequate stock points ignition coil. You could drop in a digital MSD and boost the juice to keep up all the way to 6 grand but I did not get around to that. Thankfully.
That car was a joy on one hand and on the other a very expensive mistress. Im not going to be indulging in that kind of hobby again in my lifetime. Ive already had all the speed I wanted years ago. Thats quite enough for this old cooter. Once in a blue moon I'll come across a old original 351 running properly on a dyno online video. Its a joy when you hear it run all the way up stay at redline and then come back down to idle off load without coughing, snorting or wheezing etc. There are people out there who knows how those old things should be run. (And not abused.)
Against a dozen or so other old cars in our area at that time in those days, that 351 was a LITTLE bitty thing. There were some big blocks out there that could and did put it away. A friend of mine who will remain nameless worked on his car. When he was finished with it the thing required both feet and full application of power braking inside it's own parking spot just to shift into reverse. It had a huge cam lobe timing that did not kick in until about 140. I don't know what the top speed of that devil car was, estimated at about 200. When you are at those speeds you are looking about a mile ahead as it is. Fortunately I lost touch with him in my work in trucking. I would have gotten into so much trouble with that monster. Just as well the local law was always asking him about the rating of his engine in there. Oh it's a v8. yes but how much power? Dunno. Go fast anytime you want. How fast? erm we don't know. (And aint likely to ask for a radar confirmation either...) =)
