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A friend of mine has bought a 1963 Fairlane, with plans of a big block T-Bolt clone ( I know, its not a '64 ) question is, is the 221 in the car worth anything, or is it only worth junk iron price?
221 V8
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I guess a 221 would be worth it to someone who wanted an original V8 in their car. But as anything else, they aren't worth much except for the fact that they are pretty cool being such small V8s. Who knows, maybe they are worth something because you really don't see them that much anymore. You jnow what, I really don't know. -Mike
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I wouldn't get excited over that 221. Other than a hardcore '62-'63 Fairlane restorer who wants a matching numbers mill, it has the early SBF bellhousing bolt pattern and has little value to anyone else. I'D keep it just for grins and giggles but I keep everything!...
Jan
Jan
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The reasons stated before are definetly ones to consider and i wouldn't build it for power if being realistic.
However just wondering do these have block strength problems? or is it just the fact that the small bore limits the choice of heads so getting any real breathing is kinda impossible and you'd have to spin em to make power anyways. Just wondering because it would be cool if someone had like a 62 comet (i believe thats when the 221 was offered first) with a hot 221 but yeah who knows *shrug*.
However just wondering do these have block strength problems? or is it just the fact that the small bore limits the choice of heads so getting any real breathing is kinda impossible and you'd have to spin em to make power anyways. Just wondering because it would be cool if someone had like a 62 comet (i believe thats when the 221 was offered first) with a hot 221 but yeah who knows *shrug*.
Stock 289-302 heads will bolt on the 221. 315W heads will too if you, but it will require valve train modification, pop up pistons and other parts. And before you ask, the 260 has the same restrictions as far as heads go. The 221 was the first of the 90 degree family that went all the way up to 351W. Ford did some serious rodding on the 260 with a stock block Indy motor developing 376 HP on 103 octane gas. Put in DOHC and you get 475 HP on alky.
So as stated above, the only value of the 221 is in stock configuration in a concours vehicle.
Later!
Mr. Ed
So as stated above, the only value of the 221 is in stock configuration in a concours vehicle.
Later!
Mr. Ed
That is correct. They also had small valve 45cc chambers in the heads. Put them on a 289 with an RV cam and you have a high compression E85 fuel vehicle. The future of hot rods....oh yea my small block gets better mileage than yours.
Not to mention that the 221 has a 3.5 inch bore as opposed to the 4.0 inch bore that the 289, 302 and 351W share. The larger chamber would way overlap the 221 bore. Likewise, you cannot use 289/302 intake manifolds. They will bolt on, but the cross sectional area of the 286/302 intake manifold runners are about twice the cross sectional area of the 221 head ports. Bad flow problems would result. As far as I know, the only four barrel intake manifold ever built that will work on 221 heads was the Holley 221 - 260 - 289 Street Contender. You will have to solve a crank case ventilation problem because 221's used a draught tube attached to the back of the factory intake manifold. The Holley Street Contender has no provision for such. Everything else that fits the 289/302 will work on a 221, like headers, camshafts, rocker arms, timing components and hardware. a 221 would be great in a light weight, vintage style street rod.
My first Fairlane i bought was a 62 S.C. 289, or so the owner told me, i knew very little about Fords at the time, (1985) & installed cast iron Ford 4 barrel intake/550Holley & dual exhaust. Other than sounding great, & cutting fuel mileage in 1/2, there wasn't much of a performance change. In doing some research discovered my 289 was the early 221. Great running little motor, had in for sale for a couple of years before i gave it to a guy who installed in a dune buggy!
I just bought my Great Grandfather’s 63 Fairlane from my uncle. He’s not a car guy and was gonna sell it to just anyone because he didn’t have a place to keep it. He had dropped it off at a shop to get it running 2 years ago and they swapped the factory intake and carb for a weiand intake and a Holley 4160 4brl carb and kept the factory stuff. He let it sit with ethanol gas in it last winter and it wouldn’t start in the spring. Does the weiand intake have the PCV problem mentioned in this thread? I’d like to either return it to stock if I can find parts or maybe get a factory intake and go with a 2brl FI set up that will be hidden under the air cleaner. I’d love some pointers and suggestions. Thanks.
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question do 221, 260 and 289 pistons weigh the same with a 1/2 " bore difference from 221 to 289 with the same crank and balance for all of them?
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No the piston weights are different. The 221ci piston only, weighed a nominal 466gms, gudgeon pin 143gms and the rings 43-44gms. Any 221ci engine must maintain the use of the original external balance mass adapter/flywheel/flexplate. New over-size pistons are still available so any 221ci engine can be re-built. The 260ci pistons weighed a nominal 532gms and the 289ci 603gms. Each engine must use the correct crankshaft damper/flexplate/flywheel to maintain original factory external balance mass. The 221, 260 and all 289ci crankshafts are identical/inter-changeable as factory machined - no need to rebalance.
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Also the 221 had the 5 bolt bell housing pattern.
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The 221 and early 260 conrods weighed between 524-533 grams without the bearing shells. Each bolt weighs 11 grams and each shell 6 grams. The bolts are only safe to 5000rpm. The bolts don't break as such, they stretch and bolt loses its clamp holding the conrod and cap together under tension and a catastrophic engine failure is the result. This is what happened in the early days and how the engine got a reputation for being a bit fragile. At any rebuild, new high-strength aftermarket bolts should always be fitted (ARP for example). Is just not worth buy and fitting new stock bolts. The conrods are then safe to 6500rpm for a reasonable amount of time. The 221 specific flywheel/flexplate and adapter must be used if engine balance is to be maintained. Ford balanced all V8 engines to within one ounce-inch of imbalance 1961-1980. From 1981 through 2000 this was reduced to half an ounce-inch. No V8 engine left the factory out of balance and most were well within the listed limits.
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Correction - two bearing shells weigh in at 37 grams and one bolt weighs 27 grams and one nut weighs 7 grams. 1963 289ci pistons weighed in at 595 grams but from 1964 on were 603 grams. The later 260 and 289ci-2V and 289ci-4V conrods weighed between 557-569 grams (no bearing shells). The Ford chart listed is very helpful for identifying the correct matching crankshaft dampers, flywheels/flexplates. The connecting rod to stroke ratio of all 221, 260 and 289 engines is 1.79:1 and can be considered slightly above the ideal 1.72:1.
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Zombie thread! Love 'em. 100% support for adding new or updated info even after time passes. It surely beats searching many threads to get all the info.
My first thought is that it's a familiar small-cube V8 engine, and if in good condition would be child's play to boost or juice these days, providing better mileage with K-code (or higher) performance for pennies on the dollar. Some nostalgia for using an original stock engine to outrun most things on the street, or at least a load of cheap fun.
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The 221 block strength is similar to the 260 and 289 but the bore wall thickness is more than the 289 which caused problems with porosity. So, the 221 block is very good all round as is the 260. I first bought a 221 in 1975 for $5 and never regretted it. I personally only ever used cast Repco replacement pistons and never bored a block more than 0.060" but I do know of people who bored a 221 to plus 0.125" using alternative pistons - they never failed a bore. I limited the rpm to 6500rpm at all times although I did see the rev counter at 6750rpm quite a few times. I always kept the camshaft timing down to 280 degrees of duration seat to seat timing and not more than 0.500" of valve lift so the engine was making power from about 2000rpm which resulted in a very useful 4500rpm power band. I used an Edelbrock Torker 289, 360 degree inlet manifold with a 500 CFM Holley two barrel on top. Ignition was a Mallory twin point in conjunction with a Volt Master coil and ballast resistor. The crankshaft damper was off a 289 and I reduced the amount of external mass from 28.2 down to 23.1. This was of course when all of the weights were not really known.
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Interesting info. I'm thinking of building a 221 for a Model A hotrod. Looking for an early 60
s type build, so the 221 would be cool. Maybe get it up to 240 ci ??
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