A little bit of Ford History as my next project

[Martin0660]

We made a trip up to Michigan this weekend to meet “an old Ford Racer” that offered me a piece I never thought I would get to own.

back in the day, Ford actually supported the 2.3 and it was used in SCCA racing and such with the SVO’s and the Merkurs. In a lot of that, they was allowed more displacement.

a Ford power train engineer in the day was also land speed racing a Merkur with semi factory support. He also realized they needed more displacement and led a program to build a bigger mousetrap. This resulted in what we all call the “tall deck” block.

The stock deck height on the 2.3 is under 8 1/2”. the blocks was made with a 9” deck height, but more important to me, a thicker deck and Siamese cylinders.

when they was made the intention was to run 100 blocks. They did, but had issues at the Brazil foundry with porosity and a number of them was scrapped.

these blocks was in the Ford SVO catalog (Ford Motorsport or Ford Racing) but a lot of them went to the racers. They still exist, but are really hard to actually get your hands on

[Martin0660]

So I have been looking forever without much luck. This guy knew of my deal and reached out asking if I was really interested in one. After some back and forth I managed to put a deal together and we made the road trip to get this one.

it is currently built as a 2.6 liter engine. The bores are only at .020 over which is nearly virgin for one of these. Also it never slung a rod or anything so the bottom is perfect. I’m still rather amazed I actually own one of these now.

[Martin0660]

The easy way to identify one of these is the space above the water pump…

[Martin0660]

These blocks had a Ford part number, but the unique Brazil tag cast in

[Martin0660]

I also brought home totes of other vintage parts.

This deal also included a head with a cam Ive been trying to source for some time. I now own one too, lol.

[THE BIG KOALA]

I see things worked out then.

[PaxtonShelby]

Very cool! So...what kind of PSI and power do you expect to make with this new setup compared to your current monster?

[Martin0660]

Very cool! So...what kind of PSI and power do you expect to make with this new setup compared to your current monster?

the upside POTENTIAL on this is hiuge, but that’s honestly not my intention.

this could easily be built with a 3.85 stroke crank for 2.85-2.9 liters

This currently has a 3.50 stroke crank and will be around 2.6 liters when done. That gives me a really nice rod ratio, keeps the bore reasonable, etc.

my mission for in of these is simply durability. The deck is substantially thicker on these, and the bores are Siamese versus the tubes on a production block.

it’s just a substantially more stable block to build on

[Martin0660]

These are pictures I have had saved forever…

one is a passenger car block cross sectioned, the other is one of the tall decks …

[Fast Gypsy]

Way to go Bob. Good things come to those who wait!

[Ares]

Oh very cool score

[07v6vistablue]

Great Find!

[Stangman701]

That thing looks stout! Can't wait to see what you can do with it

[Martin0660]

That thing looks stout!

The more I dig into it, the happier I am. One of my issues now is the deck moving around… between only 10 head bolts and a thin deck, it’s become an issue. Cant directly measure it, but the production car decks are around 1/4” thick … the deck on this block is something just over 1/2” thick. In addition,all the holes in the deck are the same, but about half scale of the production block. So exciting, lol

[somethingclever]

the upside POTENTIAL on this is hiuge, but that’s honestly not my intention.

I like when Bob always makes a change to his setup and state's: "it's just for reliability".....and then proceeds to run a new PB off the trailer or within a few hits and *then* he backs it off a bit.

classic

[Martin0660]

Lol, well the reality is that works, build more power than you need, then turn it back a touch. That adds reliability.

my issue with this bring “faster” will be head flow limited. Only so much you can do with these iron heads.

[excell]

I remember these blocks in the catalog - what a great find! The thickness of material between bores alone should be massively more stable. Are you going to fill this block like your other setup? Gotta be hard to decide what to do with it since they're so rare.

What head did you end up with?

[Martin0660]

The consensus amoung guys running them is no need to fill. What we are trying to do with fill is stabilize the cylinders and that mostly taken care of with the Siamese. One I can get it to the machine shop we will sonic check it to make the final decision.

yeah, the decision on how to build it is rather daunting. Been back and forth on what to do a lot.

the head that came with it was an old Esslinger ported iron head. In general that means it’s ported, but not near what we can get for crow nowadays. Thinking about sending it to my guy to see what we can get out of it. Also have found a couple of old SVO aluminum heads but those would need a new intake built. It never ends

[excell]

The consensus amoung guys running them is no need to fill. What we are trying to do with fill is stabilize the cylinders and that mostly taken care of with the Siamese. One I can get it to the machine shop we will sonic check it to make the final decision.

yeah, the decision on how to build it is rather daunting. Been back and forth on what to do a lot.

the head that came with it was an old Esslinger ported iron head. In general that means it’s ported, but not near what we can get for crow nowadays. Thinking about sending it to my guy to see what we can get out of it. Also have found a couple of old SVO aluminum heads but those would need a new intake built. It never ends

Yea, I figured you were filling for stability with the O.E. style block. Really hard to make that decision since once you fill that's it, no going back! Who knows if you'll ever come across another one of these, hell I wonder how many more are still even out there.

Figured it was an Esslinger head since you posted the other pics and cam specs. Would you use that instead of your current head/cam, or more for curiosity? I saw a new Boport iron head on one of the Facebook groups the other day, I was surprised enough about that!

[Martin0660]

I might not fill it until it gets to the point it needs sleeves. We will see what the sonic check shows.

I have a BoPort head here, actually 2 of them … one was my oval port I broke a cam tower on, the other is a D Port I borrowed whil I searched for a head. They are not ported that well compared to what a couple of the porters can do for us.

I can use my current head, vintage ideally would like to keep it with my passenger car stuff. I have talked to a buddy that does heads about having at this one since it’s set up for way more lift than mine. Need to tear it all down and inspect it too.