Ford 300 LS1-6

OK I know this isn't a big block Ford and it does involve some parts from a brand-x vehicle but I think some of you will appreciate the back yard engineering involved. Dad is adding a LS1 Chebbie head to his 300 Ford six. He cut one cyliinder off each head and epoxied the two heads together. He is building his own steel sheet metal manifold for 3 Holley two barrels along with some 1 3/4 to 1 7/8 step headers. He has about $300.00 bucks in his aluminum head so far.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/512fairlane/sets/72157628557600461/

Ive seen that done with Boss 302 heads back in late 60s early 70s

Cool project, true hot rod spirit there. Not to be too nit picky, but it doesn't look like the valve cover fits quite right.

schmitty wrote:Cool project, true hot rod spirit there. Not to be too nit picky, but it doesn't look like the valve cover fits quite right.

I'm with Rob on this! My engine builders would have a fit if the oil got dirty!

schmitty wrote:Cool project, true hot rod spirit there. Not to be too nit picky, but it doesn't look like the valve cover fits quite right.

Yeah he's still trying to find the best way to stretch those covers. They have to be the ugliest valve covers ever made.

pure hotrod ingenuity !!! I wish your dad was my dad!

Sweet. Pure hot ridding there. Will he weld the heads together?

jbozzelle wrote:Sweet. Pure hot ridding there. Will he weld the heads together?

No he had the heads machined after they were cut. Then he epoxied in some aluminum plates to seal the water jackets off between the heads. He drilled a couple of holes in the plate on each head for water to travel between the two halves. This left a large surface area to epoxy together. They are stuck together very well. The epoxy is a high temp. type so I guess it will work. We'll find out.

Interesting read.
http://www.maverick.to/mmb/showthread.php?t=31791&highlight=preperation&page=4

Made it out to the old man's today to check progress. It's coming along. Here are some pics of the headers and start of the intake.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/512fairlane/sets/72157629294140249/

Way cool project.

Definitely cool !

I realized I never finished this post. Dad did get the hybrid 300 6 with ls1 head running and it made it down the track. He battled some issues at first that turned out to be totally unrelated to the swap. He couldn't get it to pull over 5000 RPM. We thought we had something wrong with the combo but it turned out the MSD 2 step had quit working. Also had some water sealing problems with the seal between the two heads. He had a few valvetrain issues but we think we have all of that worked out. Currently the head is back off to address the sealing problems. The Ford head is back on it now but we hope to get this head back on. If nothing else it looks freakin' awesome.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/512fairlane/sets/72157640375802193/

Very cool project!!! Can't say I've ever seen that done before. Hopefully he'll get the sealing problem fixed. I like it man!!!  

  

I must commend your Dad's efforts and his work ethic. That's an interesting project. I like the idea, I think the older style A3, B3 or C3 heads would have been my choice. I say that because I simply could not perform the fabrication required your Dad has. Great job!

Dave.

Dave I agree that it would be cool to have one of the Ford style heads on there but there are actually some advantages to using the Chevy head. The valves on the 300-6 are reversed from a sbf. The Chevy head has the same valve orientation as the 300 so it does not require a special cam. The bore spacing was close enough that he only had to cut one cylinder off of each head and center the middle cylinder on the block. Plus these heads are dirt cheap and we don't feel bad about cutting up a good Ford head  .

That is so cool! I bet it sounds pissed off!

TJ

Its amazing how much different it sounds with the better flowing head. It used to sound like a tractor at idle. Now it sounds like a small block Ford. Still sounds like a swam of bumble bees at 5000 RPM though. He ran about the same as the Ford head but it was nosing over at 5000 on the rev limiter. Can't wait till he can let it rev.

Now that's thinking outside the box, A cool project and a lot of fun engineering it and putting it together. Can't wait to see it run    

80 Fairmont wagon with a 528? Any pics of that? I love the Fairmonts.

I'll have to have one of my kids help me post some

This made the Bangshift blog!

http://bangshift.com/blog/mad-science-a-drag-racer-sliced-and-diced-a-pair-of-ls-heads-stuck-them-together-and-mounted-them-on-a-ford-inline-six.html

That's a pretty cool article. I'll have to let Dad know.