In Part 1 of our Ford postwar engines series, we covered the first of Ford’s overhead-valve V8s—the Y-block—and well as the famous FE and MEL series engines. In this story, we’ll take a look at the most successful Ford V8s ever made—the fabulous ‘Windsor’ family of small blocks.
In the early 1960s, American automakers introduced compact cars designed to take on the imports coming from Germany, France, and the UK. Ford’s models were the Falcon and Comet. These were lightweight unibody cars with small inline six-cylinder engines and a three-speed column shift manual or an optional two-speed automatic transmission. They provided good basic transportation and became fixtures in driveways across America.
But Ford knew Americans would want to step up to a larger car as their needs (and pocketbooks) grew, so it introduced the all-new Ford Fairlane and Mercury Meteor intermediates in 1962. They were available with the same inline sixes the Falcon and Comet used, but Ford also offered an all-new V8. Displacing 221 cubic inches, the little engine was the first of an engine family that would grow to 351 cubic inches and stay in production for the next 40 years.
The Windsor engines featured thin-wall block castings with extra iron in the main webbing. That allowed Ford to eliminate the block skirts used in the Y-block and FE V8 engines. This helped reduce overall engine weight without comprising strength.
The Windsors have an “oversquare” design, meaning bore size was larger than the crank stroke. They also had cylinder heads with large valves (for the time) along with reduced reciprocation speed and shorter connecting rods. That meant the engines liked to rev, a feature that would be put to good use in high-performance street and racing versions as the 1960s progressed.
Let’s take a look at each member of the Windsor family.
221 and 260
The 221 was the first Windsor small block. It had a 3.500-inch bore and a short 2.870-inch stroke. Making a modest 145 horsepower and 216 lbs.-ft. of torque, it was more of a fuel economy engine than a powerhouse and was only offered in 1962. Today, the only reason to have a 221 is for a restoration. The engine has no performance potential as the cylinder bores are too small to take advantage of cylinder heads and intakes designed for the 221’s bigger brothers.
Well aware of the 221’s limitations, Ford introduced a 260 cubic inch version of the engine as an option in mid-1962. Named the Challenger V8, it used the same 2.870-inch stroke crankshaft but had larger 3.800-inch bores. Output climbed to 164 horsepower and 258 lbs.-ft. of torque. The 260 became the base V8 engine in the 1963 full-size Fords and the 1964.5 Mustangs. It was an option for the 1964 Falcon and Comet.
The 260 does have a performance heritage. A special run of 75 engines were built for Carroll Shelby’s 1962-63 AC Cobra. It had a solid lifter camshaft (essentially the 289 Hi-Po cam), higher compression (10:1 vs. 8.7:1), and a four-barrel aluminum intake manifold with a Holley carburetor. Sometimes called the HP260, the engine made 260 horsepower at a lofty 5,800 RPM. There was an even hotter competition version with 11:1 compression and four Weber carburetors which made 335 horsepower at 8,500 RPM.
289
Ford created the 289 in 1963 by enlarging the bores to 4.000 inches and using the same 2.870-inch stroke crank found in the 221 and 260. It was initially available in two versions—the 289-2V with a two-barrel carburetor and the 289 High Performance with a four-barrel carburetor, a hot mechanical cam, upgraded heads, cast iron headers, and dual-point distributor. Rated at 271 horsepower, the 289 Hi-Po got plenty of positive attention, especially when found under the hood of the new Mustang.
Contrary to popular lore, the Hi-Po’s cylinder heads had the same ports, combustion chambers, and valve sizing as the garden variety 289s. They did have screw-in rocker studs and cast-in valve spring seats to help stabilize the valvetrain at high RPM. Ford also used valve springs with fewer coils to prevent coil bind at high valve lift.
In 1964, Ford boss Lee Iacocca reached out to Carroll Shelby to help promote the Mustang’s performance image. Shelby’s people got to work and created the 1965-66 Shelby GT350 Mustang fastbacks. Under the hood was a 289 Hi-Po engine upgraded with a 715 CFM Holley four-barrel carburetor on a high-rise aluminum intake manifold, Tri-Y tube headers, and a cast aluminum oil pan. These parts upped the engine’s output to 306 horsepower and 329 lbs.-ft. of torque.
The race-only Shelby GT350R got a 350-horsepower version of the 289. It had ported and polished heads, a port matched intake, an oil cooler, and a bigger radiator. This engine helped make the GT350 the car to beat in SCCA B-Production competition. Famed SCCA racer Jerry Titus won the 1965 B-Production National Championship in a GT350R.
302
Ford introduced the 302 in the fall of 1967 for the 1968 model year. It had the 4.000-inch bores of the 289 but a longer 3.000-inch stroke. The block got extended cylinder skirts to handle the modest 0.13-inch stroke increase. Shorter 5.090-inch connecting rods contributed to the displacement increase.
The 302 found its way into thousands of Ford passenger cars and light-duty trucks over its 23-year production run. Most were pedestrian engines with two-barrel carburetors, though a 302 with a four-barrel carburetor was available through 1970.
The real performance version was the famous Boss 302. Developed by Ford engineer Bill Barr for SCCA Trans-Am competition, the Boss had a modified four-bolt block, a steel crank, forged connecting rods, and 10:1 compression forged pistons. It was topped with cylinder heads based on those from Ford’s upcoming 351 Cleveland 4V engine. The heads had huge intake ports, a canted valve arrangement, and wedge-style combustion chambers. That allowed them to flow tons of air at high RPM. Other upgrades included a solid lifter camshaft and a 780 CFM Holley carburetor on an aluminum intake.
The street version of the Boss 302 was rated by Ford at 290 horsepower at 5,800 RPM—the same horsepower rating as the 302 in Chevy’s Z28 Camaro. The Trans-Am racing engines were heavily modified for competition use. They made 470-plus horsepower at 9,000 RPM and powered Ford to Trans-Am championships in 1969 and 1970.
5.0L
In the mid-1970s the United States seriously considered converting to the metric system. Ford changed the 302’s displacement designation to five liters in an effort to comply. The metric conversion never happened, but Ford stuck with the designation.
The 5.0L got its first real performance upgrade in 1982 when Ford stuck a hotter 351W marine camshaft in it to create the 5.0L High Output engine for the Mustang GT. With a two-barrel carburetor, the engine was rated at 157 horsepower and 240 lbs.-ft. of torque. It doesn’t sound like much, but in 1982 it was enough to make the Mustang the fastest production car in the US, beating out arch-rival Camaro.
In 1984 Ford added a four-barrel Holley 4180-C carburetor to the 5.0L. In 1985 Ford blessed the 5.0L with an all-new block, a hydraulic roller camshaft, and 225 horsepower. In 1986, Ford introduced Sequential Port Fuel Injection (SEFI) and electronic engine management via the EEC-IV system. Once enthusiasts got over the shock, they embraced the 5.0L’s tunability—and the aftermarket responded with tons of performance parts for the engine.
351W
As the 1969 model year approached, Ford was in a panic. They had no mid-sized V8 to compete with the 350 cubic inch V8s offered by Chevy, Pontiac, Buick, and Oldsmobile. The quickest solution was to take the 289/302 block and make the deck height one inch taller to accommodate a 3.500-inch stroke crankshaft, creating the 351 Windsor. The extra 50 cubic inches over the 302 gave the 351 a nice bump up in torque, making it ideal for the increasingly heavier passenger cars and trucks in production and on the drawing boards.
Ford didn’t intend to keep the 351W around very long—the 351C, 351M, and 400M engines were intended to be Ford’s mid-range V8s into the 1970s. But the Windsor outlived them, with production ending in 1997.
Most 351Ws came with a two-barrel carburetor until Ford switched to EFI in 1987. A 351W with the Autolite 4300 four-barrel carburetor and 10.7:1 compression flat top pistons was offered in 1969 and 1970 but disappeared when the 351C came online in 1970.
The 351W’s performance swan song was the 5.8L EFI engine found in the F150 Lightning and the 1995 Mustang SVT Cobra R. The Lightning version made 240 horsepower and 340 lbs.-ft. of torque. In the Cobra R, the engine got a compression boost to 9.1:1 plus a more aggressive cam and a larger-diameter throttle body. The result was 300 horsepower and 365 lbs.-ft of torque. Intended for track use, Ford made just 250 1995 Cobra Rs, most of which never saw a race track.
The Windsor V8 Today
Small block Ford performance is alive and well today thanks in large part to the Fox-Body Mustang. Whether you build your own or go the crate route, the choices are mind-boggling.
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