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Ford 300 six cylinder custom head

96K views 19 replies 14 participants last post by  vinniekq2 
#1 ·
Years ago there was a six cylinder weight break for the late model classes at one of the local dirt tracks that I would frequent. Some of the guys were running ford 300 six cylinders with good success. After a couple of good seasons of running competitively with the big blocks a couple of guys showed up with a custom head that consisted of two V-8 Ford heads that had a combustion chamber removed from each end and were furnace bronzed together in the middle. The advantage was better flow because the intake was on one side and the exhaust was on the other. Needless to say they began to really spank everybody and by the end of the season the six cylinders were out ruled.

Now my question is does anyone here know of doing this and what heads have the same bolt holes/pattern as the 300 six? I am building an economy roadster and would like an unusual engine to put in it. This may sound expensive but if I knew of someone's experience to draw from I could do all of the work myself. It is not a high dollar car by no means. Years ago we would call it a skeeter. Today they are called Rat Rods.

Thanks, Chris
 
#2 ·
There was a guy named CJ Batten who would cut up 3 boss 302 heads and put them on a 300 IL6.The one I remember was on in a rail type dragster. I remember reading about it in some magazine and I saw it on another forum recently. They used the 3 center sections of the heads. I thought the bolt pattern was the same, that is what helped to make the swap work.
Hope this helps, mikey
 
#3 ·
Excerpt From -THIS THREAD-

I believe C.J. Batten cyl heads was instrumental in developing the high port exhaust for the Dyno Dons and Bob G's and Jack Roushes. Batten was at the top of their game then and were welding up and porting the best bow tie heads on the planet back then, besides all the othher stuff. Does anyone remember the six cylinder heads they made for Bruce Sizemore. They cut the center two chambers from three Boss 302 heads then welded them together to form an inline six head that bolted on a 300 block! Sizemore, formerly of Preperation H fame, did considerable valvetrain developement and terrorized the former checvvy stronghold of I and J/Gas.
This is one description but I also remember reading somewheres of cutting down 351C heads) same basic design as BOSS 302) for this conversion also.
 
#4 ·
I think it was Bruce Sizemore that ran an H/MP Maverick that held the class record for a while during the 70s. It ran a regular head that was tweaked (either before the slicing or class requirement). I think that a race head is available through someone that is all aluminum. It used to be listed in the FRRP catalog. It had a description amd Alan Johnson Cylinder Heads listed as the vendor and contact #805-922-1202. Don't know if it's still good. I think it was based on the Cleveland design. At the time the first heads were done, I think only cast iron were available so they were furnaced brazed.If you sliced them, any shop that repairs heads could do the work. Semi or Farm tractor repair shops would probably have the location of one near you.Now, with all the Aluminum small block head available, you could create a real bad 6. You might even be able to get some rejects since you'd be cutting them up and remaching anyway. I'd have to look through some old books, but I think it took 3 heads to get 1, although it may have been 2. The .10 difference in bore spacing( but the bolt pattern is the same square four as the smallblock) makes me think 3. But it should be noted that Ak Miller built a '67 Mustang at about the same year and created a 300 out of a 240 ( for the younger ones a 300 used to be a truck engine and the smaller 240 was used in the cars,LOL) with a set of Webers and bigger valves and cam, it turned in the twelves, that's in the late 60s. So it can already be made to haul.
 
#5 ·
http://fordsix.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=33048

Follow this link and you will see one of these heads for yourself,it was made from 351 cleveland heads,it would be a pretty expensive head to build.

There are also crossflow heads for the 300 that are made by ford in australia,you can buy one and have it shipped over.

Check out my photos as well,you can see my latest 300.(the green one)

The 300 is a great motor,mine is pushing 300 hp and gets great reviews at all the local shows just because it's different.
 
#6 ·
jim.. said:
http://fordsix.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=33048

Follow this link and you will see one of these heads for yourself,it was made from 351 cleveland heads,it would be a pretty expensive head to build.

There are also crossflow heads for the 300 that are made by ford in australia,you can buy one and have it shipped over.

Check out my photos as well,you can see my latest 300.(the green one)

The 300 is a great motor,mine is pushing 300 hp and gets great reviews at all the local shows just because it's different.
Yeah! That's what I'm talking about! :thumbup:
Thanks a lot guys.
 
#7 ·
The 240 and 300 are basically the same engine -- based on the same block design anyway. The 300 block may have a slightly taller deck height than the 240. The 170/200/25 are the same block design, with the 250 having a taller deck height (so you can't easily make a 250 from a 200).
 
#8 ·
The 300 and the 240 are identical blocks,the heads are different and the 240 is basically a destroked 300 so it will rev a little higher.

The 240 and 300 were truck engines,the 240 found its way into a few full size cars in the sixties,pretty rare tho,the 250 was the car engine.

One of the weak spots on the 300 is the ten inch long pusrods tend to bend under high spring pressures and high rpm.I had crane make me double walled hardened pushrods to remedy this.
The 300 head needs some serious porting to make it breath properly.
No one makes any good valve train parts, but big block chev roller rockers can be made to fit the ford head,guide plates have to be hand made.
The inline six is almost a perfectly balanced engine by design,compared to a v type engine,weight match all parts and balance rotating assembly and they will easily handle 7000 rpm,not bad for a six cylinder with a four inch stroke.
It's hard to find good pistons for them at a reasonable price,but if you bore it .050, 390 pistons will fit,they are easy to come by and cheap,the pin size and spacing is identical,so they are a drop in fit with no machining.

Most 300's came with forged rods and the crank is indestructable.
I could go on and on,but you get the point,I like the sixes. :thumbup:
 
#10 ·
ap72 said:
We had a grad student at UMR custom design his own crossflow head for that engine and the entire thing was CNC'd from one piece of aluminum. Needless to say the head kicked ***.
Do you know how he did the cooling jacket? With a solid billet piece it would appear to me to be hard to machine the water jacket. If you were only running it on the strip it would not need a cooling jacket but the street is a different story.
 
#11 ·
jim.. said:
The 300 and the 240 are identical blocks,the heads are different and the 240 is basically a destroked 300 so it will rev a little higher.

The 240 and 300 were truck engines,the 240 found its way into a few full size cars in the sixties,pretty rare tho,the 250 was the car engine.

One of the weak spots on the 300 is the ten inch long pusrods tend to bend under high spring pressures and high rpm.I had crane make me double walled hardened pushrods to remedy this.
The 300 head needs some serious porting to make it breath properly.
No one makes any good valve train parts, but big block chev roller rockers can be made to fit the ford head,guide plates have to be hand made.
The inline six is almost a perfectly balanced engine by design,compared to a v type engine,weight match all parts and balance rotating assembly and they will easily handle 7000 rpm,not bad for a six cylinder with a four inch stroke.
It's hard to find good pistons for them at a reasonable price,but if you bore it .050, 390 pistons will fit,they are easy to come by and cheap,the pin size and spacing is identical,so they are a drop in fit with no machining.

Most 300's came with forged rods and the crank is indestructable.
I could go on and on,but you get the point,I like the sixes. :thumbup:
Thanks for the info on the 390 parts and just like you, I have always liked this engine. Due to the fact that the cylinders fire father apart, when you drop a stiff cam in a six it sounds more awesome than any v-8 at idle.
 
#12 ·
Mel

Well, this may be old info, since the warning tells me that the last post for this discussion occurred >100 days ago. But, I just came across this website and happened to ask about B. Sizemor's 6. Well I have a 1977 copy of Pop. Hot Rodding's Engine Annual and it lays out an article on Bruce Sizemore's I-gas Pinto which reads "How to Build a 500 hp 6-cylinder Ford. And like the others mention, it was C.J. Batten of Romulus, Mich who did the furnance-blazed heads. It was 351C heads, 3 of them, cut up into 6 pieces, then furnanced blazed. As I recall from articles way back, this is an expensive process. THe new heads will have the same bolt-pattern as the original 6. The completed head is also wider so push-rod holes need to be cut-out on the block side, then sealed with "o" rings, etc. The push-rods needed to be extended using a 2-piece design w/a small aluminum sleeve (that slides in the block) to join the 2 pushrods. There is a lot he did to this engine, if you're interested but he kept the orig. crank, offset-grinding it to a smaller crankpin diam. which de-stroked it. Cloyes gears to replace the factory chain set-up and hand-built his own Accel BEI distributor by machining the housing ut of aluminum billet.
Im not an avid racer, but did my share of hot-rodding back in the 70's. I like to read/listen about old time Fords, so decided to join this website. 351 Clevelands and 6 cylinder Fords were my favorites. The stories about 6's like this article and Ak Miller's experiments w/the old Maverick six interested me a lot back then. Hence, I have kept some mags/articles on hopping-up old 6's. Well, hope this has been a little helpful to you...although this post has been up for awhile. good luck!


hopping up Ford six's.
 
#13 ·
I did hear somewhere that there was a fellow using the late model chev heads and cutting those up and making a crossflow head for a 300 six..That would not be too hard to check out if a fellow had a 300 six block and some access to some of the late chev heads I think the LS6 heads..It took three of the heads to make one and since they are aluminum that resolves some of the fabrication issues..Is it true well I dunno for sure but it may be worth a looksee to see if it may work..

Sam
 
#14 ·
500 HP Ford I-6

My guess is that he offset ground the crank to lengthen the stroke, not destroke it. Why would you destroke an engine if you are trying to make 500 horsepower from an engine designed to make 170 horsepower?

oldies6 said:
Well, this may be old info, since the warning tells me that the last post for this discussion occurred >100 days ago. But, I just came across this website and happened to ask about B. Sizemor's 6. Well I have a 1977 copy of Pop. Hot Rodding's Engine Annual and it lays out an article on Bruce Sizemore's I-gas Pinto which reads "How to Build a 500 hp 6-cylinder Ford. And like the others mention, it was C.J. Batten of Romulus, Mich who did the furnance-blazed heads. It was 351C heads, 3 of them, cut up into 6 pieces, then furnanced blazed. As I recall from articles way back, this is an expensive process. THe new heads will have the same bolt-pattern as the original 6. The completed head is also wider so push-rod holes need to be cut-out on the block side, then sealed with "o" rings, etc. The push-rods needed to be extended using a 2-piece design w/a small aluminum sleeve (that slides in the block) to join the 2 pushrods. There is a lot he did to this engine, if you're interested but he kept the orig. crank, offset-grinding it to a smaller crankpin diam. which de-stroked it. Cloyes gears to replace the factory chain set-up and hand-built his own Accel BEI distributor by machining the housing ut of aluminum billet.
Im not an avid racer, but did my share of hot-rodding back in the 70's. I like to read/listen about old time Fords, so decided to join this website. 351 Clevelands and 6 cylinder Fords were my favorites. The stories about 6's like this article and Ak Miller's experiments w/the old Maverick six interested me a lot back then. Hence, I have kept some mags/articles on hopping-up old 6's. Well, hope this has been a little helpful to you...although this post has been up for awhile. good luck!


hopping up Ford six's.
 
#16 ·
Drag Racing Classes

Classes? They still have classes? The drag strip in my area doesn't have any classes. It's all bracket racing. Whoever invented that crap ought to be shot. How can you call it racing if you're putting the brakes on before the finish line? :(

techinspector1 said:
If you're drag racing in a class where the weight of the car divided by the cubic inches determines what class you run in, it may be advantageous to drop the displacement a little if it will allow you to get into the faster side of a slower class.
 
#17 ·
65hemi said:
Classes? They still have classes? The drag strip in my area doesn't have any classes. It's all bracket racing. Whoever invented that crap ought to be shot. How can you call it racing if you're putting the brakes on before the finish line? :(
That's the way it is around here too. :(
________________________________________________

Back in the early 70's running at a local track there was a bad roadster called Troublemaker that had a Ford truck inline 6 in it. It was supposed to have had two Boss heads spliced together for it. That thing would flat out run.
 
#18 ·
65hemi said:
Classes? They still have classes? The drag strip in my area doesn't have any classes. It's all bracket racing. Whoever invented that crap ought to be shot. How can you call it racing if you're putting the brakes on before the finish line? :(
Classes determined by dividing cubic inches into car weight are still in use at the National events and some Division events. They are as follows:
Modified Stock
Modified Truck
Modified
Super Stock/MX
Gas Dragster
Econo Dragster
Nostalgia Dragster
Altered
Street Roadster
Altered Truck
Econo Altered
Super Modified
 
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