Dressed 351W any ideas/photos?

I have a 1969 351w under the kripple kart's hood,and I'm a great believer in keeping the hood down on a Kustom, so my engine bay and engine are clean and functional but that's about it. Have any of you guys out there tried to make a 351 more "retro"? It's one of those "hardly anybody is going to see it, but I know it's there!" Scenarios. This was all set in motion by finding Cal Kustom style valve covers with breathers which although they won't cover my roller rockers look like they can be made to fit using extra gaskets after doing a search here. I just want to make it look more early 60s in keeping with the theme of my truck, and I'm not dumb enough to think before I could fool anyone who knows their onions, but I live in England and not a lot of people (me included) do. I just wanted so that on the rare occasions that the hood does get popped it gives the illusion of Kustom instead of purely functional. I'm quite happy with the reliability of my Edelbrock 600 carb, so I'm not looking for any fancy carb setups.
Any tips or even better, photographs of how I can achieve this would be much appreciated. Or am I just jerking off?
Thanks in advance
Paul

 

Just about any small block Ford dress up items will fit,other than being taller and wider than a 289-302,it is the same basic engine.You can get valve cover spacers to use your Cal Custom covers and there are many air cleaners that match.I'm using the covers on my 302 and a finned oval air cleaner from Moon Eyes. ROY.

 

Not exactly traditional but as clean and nice looking as your gonna find. Those hoses are long gone now.

 

There are a couple of examples here on the HAMB of people using adaptors to put early FE valve covers (Thunderbird or Mercury Script) on a Windsor.

It is cheating, and some would argue blasphemous, but it will keep the folks across the pond guessing.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=549613&highlight=fe+valve+cover+adaptor

 

Now that's what I'm talking about
Paul

 

Your little buddy looks kool also..

 

bored and stroked 351 done with all Edlebrock .....retro roller, cast finned, dual quad, & march

 

Some "in-process" shots of building my '54. Forgive the body shop dust and rubbing compound.



You get the idea...

 

Yes I very much get the ideabut with old gold metalflake
Paul

 

I enjoy SBF pic threads since I'm looking for ideas for the 351W going in my 54 F100.


BTW the valve covers ain't stayin they're just temporary to cover the roller rockers.

 

HOW MUCH EXTRA HORSE POWER DID YOU GET BY INSTALLING A CAT ON YOUR MOTOR?? I'VE GOT A COUPLE THAT DON'T DO MUCH BUT LAY-A-ROUND IN THE WINDOWS!

 

Jay aren't you working on a cat-back system so the SBF will really purr?

 

On my 351 W (54 Merc) I used the plain valve covers (chromed) with the repo decals for Tunderbird Special and an early (57) Thunderbird style air cleaner...the covers did cover my roller rockers,,,,used stock dirtibuter with Pertronixs kit inside...

 

Reminds of this picture of my little guy taking a cat nap in the 1/6 scale Willys body..

 

I used 1" spacers to get mine to clear roller rockers and stud girdles.

SPark

 

Breather/oil fill arrangement

 

How about this?

 

It's an EFI intake from a truck with an adapter plate and three deuces! This one is a 302, but the same can be done with a 351 EFI intake.

 

Here's another angle. Find a 289/302 intake you like and put it on the 351W.

http://www.pricemotorsport.com/Intake_Adapters/intake_adapters.html

SPark

 

Moon also has those adaptors for mounting a 289/302 intake on a Windsor....

 

here's a set of big block mercs on my 87 302 . adaptors needed

 

added later...

 

Look at that firewall! Beautiful.

 

This is a pretty basic 351w I'm putting together for my o/t pickup. Nothing too fancy but the clean and bare bones approach could also work well in a rod.