[DAVID GAGNARD]

Here's the story:
My niece's husband has a mid 80's big Bronco, hunting/knock around truck, 351-W in it.I did a "standard" rebuild on it last year, basically rings/bearing. It was tired then and even more so now, had a fair amount of wear in the cylinders, but since he only puts a couple of thousand miles a year on it, he didn't want to spend a bunch of money on it.....

The engine is very "tired" now and he wants "us" to rebuild it. He's read a few articles about buiding a "long rod" 351-W using the 351M/400 rods.....I did some research and found some info, but not all I need.... We have 2 complete 351-W engines to work with and a couple of 351-M engines for parts.

According to what I've found, you use the 351-M/400 rods (they are the same) roughly 6.5 inch rods and what we're looking for is the piston type/number.... The rod journal are the same size, but I don't have the 351-M/400 rods with me yet, to measure the width...

Are the rod width's the same or do I have to do some work on the rod???? The plan is to bore the block .030 over and use the 351-W crank with the long rods and whatever piston is needed, mild camshaft in the 490 to 500 lift range with mild duration for a low rpm/high torque engine which is what he needs in the real heavy Bronco.....

Anyone done this or have any info??????

I see a few places have the "kit" for sale for about a thousand bucks, but he's got a baby on the way and fixin to build a new house and we have the 351-M/400 rods for free, all we'll need to do is bore the block and get the correct pistons, machine work if any is needed will be almost free, trading the machine shop some old blocks for the machine work...

Thanks for any help........

David