Time to make the cleveland breathe

 More air

The next step to free up the big 351 cleveland is to convert it from the factory 2 barrel motorcraft 2100 2 barrel carburettor to a 4 barrel 4300 series carburettor.

Here is the standard H code 2 barrel 2100 series carb.

Here is the standard 4 barrel 4300 series carb.

The factory small port 2 dot heads are more then good enough for what I need and tests prove that for street performance the small ports heads flow more then enough. The large port 4 dot heads were more for high performance race situations.

In order to complete the conversion, I had 3 options in terms of inlet manifold to match the small port heads. Option 1 was to source an Australian cast (in 1973) 4 barrel small port square bore inlet manifold, option 2 was the similar small port spread more manifold cast in Australia in 1976, and then finally option 3 to source an after market manifold.

As I wanted to maintain a stock look, I managed to source a small port 1973 aussie cast manifold from late XA / early XB GT falcons. Most were going for more than $700 on ebay and facebook. While the spread bore units are easy to obtain and cheap. I managed to find the 1973 square more version locally for $100.. A real bargain.

The first step was to sand blast the manifold to clean up all the old paint.

Once I sand blasted the manifold, I cleaned it up and the sourced high temp engine paint to closely match the original engine paint colour. While Autobarn and Supercheap have a number of different ford engine blue colours, I went to GT Ford Performance in Nidrie to source the right colour. There was a choice if 2 colours. Dark blue like XW / XY and a lighter blue to suite late XA and XB GT's. I chose the lighter blue as it is much closer to the factory colour.

The next step will probably be to remove the rocker covers and air cleaner and sand blast them and repaint as they are looking a bit dagy.

I have ordered a 4300 Motor craft carb from a specialist in Echuca that will come rebuilt and like new with all the right linkages etc installed.

To complete the factory install look, the fuel line from the fuel pump to the carb needs to be replaced and the inlet port on the 4300 carb is in a different side.

Fortunately this was a simple purchase from Griffs in Ballarat.

Now to wait for the carb to be supplied in the new year and complete the replacement of the inlet manifold.

Stay tuned.