i got my shock towers cut and welded back up last nite waiting on my headers and stall converter from summit now should be here today cant wait to get the motor in is there any thing more i should do to be preped before i set the 351w in thanks for talking me in to notching the towers
Only thing I could see would be the layout, cut, and fit-up would be much more difficult at 45° vs 90°...
Man, I've only got a 302 but every time I see pics like these, I want to cut my shock towers... Looks nice, I am clearly jealous of your talent.
Looks like you did a great job, nice and clean! When I still had my 74 Comet, since it was a factory 302 car, the shock towers had a extra reinforce plate which wrapped right around the towers, it was about 4" high, so one would have to cut this out too. I believe this reinforce plate was on all 302 from 73 and up, I have seen them on some 250's but I don't know if 72 and earlier had them. What I was going to say for those of you that have 302's, I had mine stoked out to 347, so did not have to worry about header clearance issues as with 351. I used Eagle Gold Label 14 gauge headers at the time and had to modify one tube on the drivers side to clear the manual pitman arm, but other than that everything was fine. The stoked 347 with aftermarket aluminum heads was dyno'd at 380HP with .500" hydraulic cam, this was way back in 1990.......with todays technology, that same stoked 302/347 can make close to 500 and still be streetable. So for those of you who rather not cut up their shock towers, this is just another option to think about. For header fitment, Hooker's Competition are still the best, you pay more, but for a good reason. I have their 6901-2HKR which are Stainless Steel 16 ga. they will last almost forever and are even polished! Anyways, just thought I would pass on some info that might help......Cheers! the 73 Comet which I now have, is a factory 302 and has this same reinforce plate around the shock towers too.
