MILD ENGINE BUILD-UP

My car came with a stocker 351 windsor, 2 barrel and FMX tranny, with 2.73 gears, a pretty standard drivetrain, and more than capable of hauling a 4000 pound car around with relative ease and fair economy, not to mention reliability.

But, in a quest for a little more power I've decided to do a mild build-up:

1) replacing the stock intake with a Edelbrock Performer Intake,

2) Topping that will be a Carter 9637 Carburetor (very similar to Edelbrock
but has all the Ford linkages already installed, AFB Performer 625 CFM

3) A set of shorty headers which, with some cutting, welding and cursing, will
bolt up to my dual exhaust system already in place.

SUCCESS! FEBRUARY 27, 2005
After pulling everything off, a real nasty carb and manifold, I was wondering about the EGR system - which this  performer manifold does not support. I was reassured that the EGR was not necessary.
Now, I had some nice clean head surfaces to work with, so I installed new Felpro OEM type gaskets with some gasket shellac to hold them in place, ran 2 beads of orange RTV silicone on the manifold short ends, and torqued the manifold in place using all new hardware. So far so good.  Next came the carb. I invested in the Carter Carb. Tuning book, still in print, and this gave me a good starting point. I installed a see-thru fuel filter from Mr. Gasket so I can see what's happening.  I plumbed all new lines and vacuum hoses, replaced the thermostat, sealed that up with the RTV as well, checked all my vacuum lines, and made sure the manual choke cable was working well (this was tricky).  After a dry run and making sure my gas pedal was free, and would not bind, I cranked the engine over, to get fuel to the filter.  Then I cracked the throttle just enough to be able to close the choke and engage the fast idle cam.  It took 3 short cranks but then it fired up real nice and ran strong - no stumbling and NO LEAKS!   After a 10 minute warm up, i was able to easily adjust the mixture, idle speed was fine, no black smoke, I floored it a couple of times, and the engine didn't bog down. It seemed much smoother than with the stock intake and carb. I topped the whole thing off with an Edelbrock air cleaner cover and 14 inch K&N filter.   Of course it hasn't been driven yet but at least I know it will start easy and be able to be moved out of storage in 5 or 6 weeks.  I was very unsure of my work, but doing it right, and taking time, the job was done correctly the first time.