Kids' Science Theories

The beguiling ideas about science quoted here were gleaned from essays, exams, and classroom discussions. Most were from 5th and 6th graders. They illustrate Mark Twain's contention that the "most interesting information comes from children, for they tell all they know and then stop."
Q: What is one horsepower? A: One horsepower is the amount of energy it takes to drag a horse 500 feet in one second.
You can listen to thunder after lightening and tell how close you came.
Rainbows are just to look at, not to really understand.
South America has cold summers and hot winters, but somehow they still manage.
Most books now say our sun is a star. But it still knows how to change back into a sun in the daytime.
Lime is a green-tasting rock.
Some oxygen molecules help fires burn while others help make water, so sometimes it's brother against brother.
We say the cause of perfume disappearing is evaporation.
Evaporation gets blamed for a lot of things people forget to put the top on.
In looking at a drop of water under a microscope, we find there are twice as many H's as O's.
I am not sure how clouds get formed. But the clouds know how to do it, and that is the important thing.
Water vapour gets together in a cloud. When it is big enough to be called a drop, it does.
Thunder is a rich source of loudness.
Isotherms and isobars are even more important than their names sound.
It is so hot in some places that the people there have to live in other places.

Heaven and Hell

Heaven is a place where the police are English; the chefs are Italian; the car mechanics are German; the lovers are French and it's all organized by the Swiss.

Hell is a place where the police are German; the chefs are English; the car mechanics are French; the lovers are Swiss and it's all organized by the Italians.

Roker covers 4

However, it seems that the ‘second’ Cleveland type, the chamfered corner rocker cover also came with the larger, rounded corner edge to the raised box around the ‘Powered by Ford’ stamping.

This is the 351CJ version. Note the ‘4 dot’ heads.



Later Australian covers, fitted to later XB’s manual trans equipped cars, most automatic equipped XB’s and all XC’s dispensed with the ‘Power by Ford’ and only had the ‘Ford’ logo.

IF I HAD MY LIFE TO LIVE OVER

by Belinda Emmet
(written after she found out she was dying from cancer)

I would have gone to bed when I was sick instead of pretending the earth would go into a holding pattern if I weren't there for the day.
I would have burned the pink candle sculpted like a rose before it melted in storage.
I would have talked less and listened more.
I would have invited friends over to dinner even if the carpet was stained, or the sofa faded.
I would have eaten the popcorn in the 'good' living room and worried much less about the dirt when someone wanted to light a fire in the fireplace.
I would have taken the time to listen to my grandfather ramble about his youth.
I would have shared more of the responsibility carried by my husband.
I would never have insisted the car windows be rolled up on a summer day because my hair had just been teased and sprayed.
I would have sat on the lawn with my grass stains.
I would have cried and laughed less while watching television and more while watching life.
I would never have bought anything just because it was practical, wouldn't show soil, or was guaranteed to last a lifetime.

Check the seal

When the mother returned from the grocery store, her small son pulled out the box of animal crackers he had begged for. Then he spread the animal-shaped crackers all over the kitchen counter.
"What are you doing?" his mother asked.
"The box says you can't eat them if the seal is broken," the boy explained."I'm looking for the seal."

Rocker covers 3

There is another subtle external difference to the rocker covers as fitted to ‘D’ blocks, and U.S. and Australian ‘square’ blocks.





The ‘first’ type, dimpled cover has the ‘Power by Ford’ logo enclosed in a ribbed box which has larger rounded corners as shown above.

Whereas the ‘second’, chamfered cover has a much tighter, almost square corner to the surrounding ribbed box.

Friday

by Ivan Kershner

Weekends start at three o'clock
About nine months of the year,
But soon comes Monday morning
And an end to weekend cheer.
You see, I am a student
At the school right down the street,
And teachers expect to see me
Every morning in my seat.
And almost every morning
('Less I'm sick and like to die)
I show up with books and pencils
And I listen… and I try.
But even though I work all week
To do what makes me smart,
I mostly like my Fridays.
They're my favourite part!
Of all the times and all the days,
My favourite comes at three
On each and every Friday…
'Cuz that's when THEY SET ME FREE!

Optional Forces

One reason the Military Services have trouble operating jointly is that they don't speak the same language. For example, if you told Navy personnel to "secure a building," they would turn off the lights and lock the doors. The Army would occupy the building so no one could enter. Marines would assault the building, capture it, and defend it with suppressive fire and close combat. The Air Force, on the other hand, would take out a three-year lease with an option to buy.

Rocker Covers 2

The ‘second’ style rocker cover was introduced with the ‘square’ block and it has a much more pronounced chamfer to the front corner.





While it is generally accepted as a rule of thumb that it was only the ‘square blocks that had this cover, there is some evidence to show that a few ‘D’ blocks also were fitted with these ‘second’ type rocker covers.

When Australian manufacture of the 351C started, this was the rocker cover that they initially produced.

Take a break!

"A good rest is half the work." -- Yugoslav Proverb

Strong work ethic? You can still justify taking a break. In fact, we NEED to take breaks -- regularly and frequently. Why? WE WORK MORE EFFECTIVELY WHEN WE DON'T WORK SO MUCH.
Rest periods and vacations break our work routines. They help SHIFT OUR THINKING from its habitual, stuck patterns. They create the SPACE FOR ENERGY AND CREATIVITY to flow. They give us TIME FOR REFLECTION, so we can step back and look at what's happening in our lives with greater detachment. We become more sensitive and aware.
And finally, we are stronger when we BALANCE DOING with BEING. All work and no play throws our life out of balance and endangers our health. Our bodies and minds need sufficient rest for recuperation. This is critically important with the level of stress in our lives these days.

"The time to relax is when you don't have time for it." -- Sidney J. Harris

"I still need more healthy rest in order to work at my best. My health is the main capital I have and I want to administer it intelligently." -- Ernest Hemingway

Thanks God

Mr. Marlow was strolling through the country when he saw a stable with the most beautiful horse he ever laid eyes on. It was seventeen hands high and white, with rippling muscles and a fine, flowing mane. Mr. Marlow struck a deal to buy it from the owner who did, however, pass on one key piece of information.
"We are a religious family, Mr.Marlow, and we've instilled those values in our horse. To get him to gallop you must say 'Thanks God' to get him to stop you must say 'Our Father Who Art in Heaven,"
Settling into the saddle, Marlow said " Thanks God," and the animal took off.
They rode for miles; suddenly they were coming up to a cliff. Unfortunately, Marlow couldn't remember the phrase to make the animal stop and tried every Biblical passage he could think of until, just a few feet from the edge of the cliff, he shouted, " Our Father Who Art in Heaven!" T
he animal stopped instantly. Shaking and perspiring, Marlow reached into his pocket and pulled out a handkerchief.
"Thanks God," he said as he mopped his brow...

Rocker Covers

This is an original XY GT with a ‘D’ block and the ‘first’ style rocker covers with the small dimple in the closest corner of the cover. These rocker covers were supplied on all of the imported ‘D’ block 351C’s, whether they were 4V or 2V.





A 351C 2V from the ZD fairlane brochure.

Sloppiness and carelessness destroy our happiness

by Julian Kalmar.

By performing actions crudely, with little regard for the quality of the outcome, we have no chance of receiving satisfaction from our tasks. We also lose peace of mind. However, when we work carefully, something extraordinary happens. By dedicating ourselves to the task at hand -- attempting to do things as well as possible -- our minds become peaceful.

The task actually becomes enjoyable as a sense of productivity sneaks up on us. When it's over, we feel satisfied in a job well done. Conscientiousness, in our every movement, puts us in harmony with our tasks. This effect is magnified when we work in the spirit of goodness, in the spirit of kindness, or find the higher purpose in our work.

In sharp contrast, when we hate every moment of what we're doing, we could care less. We think, "Who cares... I don't." We fill ourselves with dislike, wishing it was over. We want to be any place but here, doing anything but this. The end result is that we are miserable. We waste part of our lives to bad feelings. A task takes the same amount of time whether we enjoy the process, or not. But... the passage of time is also subjective. By hating our tasks, time slows to a crawl and we sentence ourselves to prolonged suffering.

However, by putting our whole being into a task, time flies by. Before we realize it, it's over, time for lunch, or time to go home. We actually get paid for working fewer hours! Something else happens, too. By attending to every detail, our awareness improves. We become more sensitive to the signals we used to ignore. We aren't just pushing a broom. We feel how our body reacts to the push of the broom. We find ways in which we become less tired while sweeping.

We hear the way the broom sounds when it's a good sweep versus a sweep that misses dirt. We learn better how to hold the broom; the angle; the position relative to our body; the swing of our arm. We become aware of the subtle details, and we become more alive.

Aliveness is the sensation that we are fully in the now moment. We sense the world more vividly. We begin appreciating the colours, sounds, pressures, tastes, and smells to a high degree. We become more grateful and appreciative of everything around us. The result is a strong sense of well being. It's like the feelings we get from the glory of a Spring day when new life is bursting forth; the birds singing; green buds emerging... we feel great. Although it requires some initial effort, the conscientious way of working, it's worth the effort. We actually gain pleasure from the part of our lives we used to call "work."

Choices

About 3:30 in the morning, a wife wakes up to find she is alone in the bed and she can hear her husband crying uncontrollably. She gets up and starts to look for him. He's not in the bathroom, living room, or in the kitchen. As she passes the laundry room, she hears his faint sniffels coming from the basement. She turns on the light and goes downstairs to find him.
Finally, she finds him huddled in the corner, rolled up into a ball, and crying hysterically. She runs over to him and asks why he is crying. H
e says, "Do you remember when we got married twenty (20) years ago?"
She looks at him and says, "yes".
He says, "well, a couple of months before, your dad said that I could marry you or go to jail."
She says, "I already know that. I don't see what the problem is."
He says, " don't you see!!! I would have gotten out today!"

Cleveland engines part 15

This 351C in a September, 1973 LTD Landau also has the Australian style open chamber heads with nothing cast in the corner.



By way of comparison, and as an aside, here is a U.S. 351C 2V engine in a 1973 Mercury Cougar convertible.

Debate erupts over whether kids get too much praise or not enough

ET April 2, 2007

Debate erupts over whether kids get too much praise or not enough

Stephen Scheck never liked the way some parents lavish praise on their kids in public, so he didn't do it with his two children, now freshmen in high school and college. “My wife and I pretty early on started to notice this whole thing happening at Brownies, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, 4-H meetings or wherever that many parents seemed very invested in their children always being the star, always having a great time, always feeling successful,” says Scheck, a college dean in Monmouth, Ore. Yet he wanted the children to have high self-esteem, so the youngsters got their share of ego boosts at home. They also were steered toward sports such as swimming where they had a chance to not only compete with other kids but also achieve “personal bests.” Both children were urged to play musical instruments, which gave them a sense of accomplishment. He wanted them to feel good and successful, and he certainly told them they were capable and special.
But even though Scheck wasn't screaming from the stands, his parenting style might still come under fire from some psychologists who believe we're raising a nation of "special" egomaniacs. This notion was fueled recently by Jean Twenge, a San Diego State University psychologist, and colleagues who released the study that concluded college kids today are 30 percent more narcissistic than they were in 1982. Many psychologists and other child-health specialists, though, aren't buying the assertion that some coddling turns kids into little monsters.

You're not so special

Twenge primarily attributes the increase in narcissism to the obsession of parents and educators, beginning in the early 1990s, with self-esteem, praise and making sure children feel good. Although Twenge’s research has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal, she discusses her study of 16,475 college kids in her book "Generation Me." “In the American Academy of Pediatrics guide to caring for your young child, self-esteem is mentioned seven times in 10 pages,” says Twenge. “From the beginning, there is so much focus on children feeling good about themselves now that other things appear to be falling by the wayside.”
If her recommendations is for parents and educators to ditch the self-esteem movement and aphorisms such as “you can be anything you want to be” or “you have to love yourself first,” which she says have become ubiquitous in child-rearing and have contributed to today’s onslaught of unreal, narcissistic kids. Her study asserts that narcissists are more likely to have short-lived romantic relationships, lack emotional warmth and be dishonest, overcontrolling and violent. Moreover, a narcissistic child is more likely to become an angry failure of an adult, says Twenge. When you're raised to think you're great at everything, it can be a devastating blow when success turns elusive. But Dr. Joshua D. Sparrow, assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School in Boston, is skeptical of Twenge’s conclusions.
Sparrow says one of the big problems is that Twenge makes a claim that kids are more narcissistic these days but she doesn’t account for the possibility that our culture as a whole may be more self-centered than it was 20 years ago. “Look at all the people driving gas-guzzling SUVs. They are not all 35 and under,” he says. Furthermore, asserting a causal link between focusing on a child’s self-esteem and producing narcissistic young adults is specious, says Sparrow, who is also co-author of “Touchpoints: Three to Six.”

Self-esteem a bad word?

"I don’t think false praise or overpraising a child is helpful," Sparrow says, "but if you’re using the correct definition for self-esteem, which doesn’t include boosting a child’s ego by overpraising or praising falsely, I don’t see how it can be viewed negatively.” The National Association for Self-Esteem defines self-esteem simply as the experience of being capable of meeting life's challenges and being worthy of happiness.
Jacquelyne Joens, a Des Moines, Iowa, mental health counsellor and mother of two, agrees with Sparrow that the concept often is misunderstood. “Self-esteem anymore has negative connotations because it hasn’t been treated right," she says. "It is not about positive affirmations and undeserved praise. Self-esteem is merely knowing, understanding and feeling good about who you are. And that’s something you can’t have too much of.” While Joens’ sons, who are now 18 and 21, were growing up she acknowledges that she sometimes felt educators and parents mishandled situations in the name of self-esteem.
“A teacher once informed me that she didn’t want to push kids too far because if they had trouble with the work they wouldn’t feel good about themselves,” explains Joens. Her sons also went to schools that did away with reading and math levels for fear that ranking children would make those in the lesser accomplished groups “feel bad.” She acknowledges that these types of actions can come off as ridiculous and may even give children a false feeling of success. However, she does not buy into the notion that self-esteem produces narcissistic kids.
“We have a pretty mentally unhealthy society right now," she says. "It’s not because we focused on self-esteem too much. In fact, I think we should pay more attention to it ... we need to do it right. We need to give kids accurate feedback, teach them to know themselves, their families and what they think and feel about different issues. You don’t tell a child who is a C student in math that he is a wonderful mathematician. He knows doggoned well that the kid sitting next to him — the A student — if far better.” Instead, she says, you tell him that with work he may be able to bring his grade up or master more of the needed skills.
Scheck agrees, noting that his kids were usually pretty good at knowing what was real and what wasn’t. Throughout their childhood both of his kids were showered with feel-good ribbons and awards for merely participating in sports, music and science events. Whatever they did, they seemed to come home with a certificate or a ribbon.

But have his kids grown into self-important egomaniacs because of the praise and ribbons? Maybe sometimes. Scheck recalls his son coming home from volunteering in the emergency room and complaining that the doctors and nurses didn’t include him in any of their discussions about patients. His son was in high school at the time.
“Times like these have made it clear that our kids have much higher opinions of themselves than my wife and I ever did at their age,” he says. After the Schecks stopped laughing, however, they used it as a teachable moment. “We talked to him not only about patient confidentiality but also about how he has to earn the respect of people he admires. It’s not just automatic,” says Scheck. “He got it. And you know what? Eventually the doctors did include him in some of their discussions.”

An 'A' for effort

According to Charlotte Reznick, an associate clinical professor of psychology at UCLA, this is a good example of a kid with decent self-esteem going after what he wanted. “If you don’t think you can, you won’t even try,” says Reznick. The best thing about self-esteem is that it gives kids courage to explore and learn. So if Scheck’s son never thought he was worthy of contributing to an ER department or, as he’s currently doing, studying science at a well-respected university, he never would have gone for these goals. “I don’t want parents to think they should stop telling kids they’re important. They need that. This is simply a great time to re-evaluate what self-esteem means. Kids need self-esteem so they have enough courage to explore the areas that interest them,” Reznick says.

Prayer

Three men wanted to cross a river. They had no idea how to cross it, so one man knelt down on his knees and prayed, "Lord give me the power and strength the cross the river."
Suddenly the man became very strong and swam across the river. The next man thought, "If it worked for him, it'll work for me."
So, he knelt down and prayed, "Lord give the skills and the strength to cross the river." The man built a canoe and rowed himself across the river.
The last man thought, "If it worked for both of them, I know it'll work for me."
So, he also knelt down and prayed, "Lord give me the wisdom and knowledge to cross the river."
He turned into a woman and walked across the bridge.

Cleveland engines part 14

Later Australian 351C’s, like this 1974 XB GT, had Australian ‘square’ blocks and Australian cylinder heads with no casting mark.







Note this June, 1974 XB GT has the the third type, or Australian, rockers covers, as described later, and the location of the engine/VIN stamping on the block - on the vertical face of the timing chain block extension.

South Africa Focuses on Leadership Standards for Principals

Making Science Matter April 2007 | Volume 49 | Number 4
Message from the Executive Director / South Africa Focuses on Leadership Standards for Principals Gene R. Carter
Against a backdrop of optimism, rapid change, and profound unresolved challenges, South African society continues to struggle against the dark cloud of apartheid. While education is seen as the key to both economic and social progress, South Africa's principals face staggering responsibilities with scarce resources, fragile support systems, and a pressing need for leadership development.
Disadvantaged students—often concentrated in particular communities—low educational outcomes, sexual violence, and health issues further complicate the work of South Africa's principals, who face daunting statistics. Among 139 schools in 2006, fewer than 20 percent of the learners passed grade 12. At this critical juncture in its development, school management is considered by many to be the basic weakness in South African education. The absence of standards for principals and the means to forge standards has long been a missing element in the professionalization of the principalship.
In an attempt to address these challenges, the South African department of education has acknowledged the need to reform how principals are prepared and supported. Building on its 2004 Education Leadership and Management Policy Framework, the department approved as policy the 2006 South African Standards for Principalship. This policy framework affirmed the importance of leadership in the process of school improvement and established the qualities and expertise required of principals.
Research confirms that effective principals are the lynchpins of school improvement. They directly affect the implementation and sustainability of reforms focused on improving learning and teaching. They lead change; inspire teachers, staff, students, and parents; leverage resources to make improvements happen; and bring community members into the process of change. The new South African policy framework is at the core of a broad effort to help retool principals and to find ways to improve student performance in many schools. This framework focuses on coordinated and sustainable training, technical assistance, and support systems for South African principals. It includes the Advanced Certificate of Education and National Curriculum Statement; incorporates new research and theory about how higher education can best support school leadership; and makes strategic use of the experience and expertise to be shared among peers.
This requires dedicated partnerships between government, the higher education community, and others. It requires commitment to effectively equip and offer incentives to school leaders to deliver on the government's mandates. Furthermore, it is clear that decisive and bold action is needed to transform dysfunctional schools into successful and effective institutions focused on learning and teaching.
Recently, a team comprising representatives from the Harvard University School of Health, the Harvard University Graduate School of Education, and the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development held preliminary conversations in South Africa with colleagues from the National Department of Education, the Eastern Cape Department of Education, the University of Witwatersrand School of Education, and the University of Fort Hare School of Education. Participants explored a collaboration between South Africa and the United States to develop new models for the preparation and support of school leaders and managers.
This collaboration provides an opportunity for South African and U.S. researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to develop sustainable strategies to prepare school leaders for current and future educational challenges in both countries. Robert Quinn, author of Deep Change: Discovering the Leader Within (1996), focuses on the story of the hero's journey that involves individual transformation and change of identity. Through this transformation, Quinn says, paradigms change and the individual aligns with the surrounding environment.
This new journey, which principals in South Africa are preparing to take, is not unique to their part of the globe. It is a journey that principals in every country—including the United States—must make as they face their own rapid changes and unresolved challenges.

Revenge

Martin had just received his brand new driver's license. The family troops out to the driveway, and climbs in the car, where he is going to take them for a ride for the first time. Dad immediately heads for the back seat, directly behind the newly minted driver.

"I'll bet you're back there to get a change of scenery after all those months of sitting in the front passenger seat teaching me how to drive," says the beaming boy to his father.

"Nope," comes dad's reply, "I'm gonna sit here and kick the back of your seat as you drive, just like you've been doing to me all these years."

Cleveland engines part 13

There are, of course, some strange anomalies.




This is a July,1972 XA GT.


It has a ‘D’ block and ‘4’ heads. A leftover from the XY perhaps.
Here is another, showing an original factory rocker cover sticker in place.

Water police

Washing face or hands: 2 litres
Taking a shower (standard shower head) 10 minutes: 100 litres
Taking a shower (low-flow shower head) 10 minutes : 50 litres
Taking a bath: 80 litres
Brushing teeth (water running): 4 litres
Brushing teeth (water turned off): 1 litre
Flushing the toilet (standard-flow toilet): 10 litres
Flushing the toilet (dual flush toilet): 3 litres
Getting a drink: half a litre
Washing dishes by hand: 20 litres
Running a dishwasher: 30 litres
Doing a load of laundry: 60 litres
Watering lawn: 600 litres
Washing car: 100 litres

Bad news

The Captain called the Sergeant in. "Sarge, I just got a telegram. Private Jones' mother died yesterday. Better go tell him and send him in to see me."
So the Sergeant calls for his morning formation and lines up all the troops. "Listen up, men," says the Sergeant. "Johnson, report to the mess hall for KP. Smith, report to Personnel to sign some papers. The rest of you men report to the Motor Pool for maintenance. Oh by the way, Jones, your mother died, report to the commander."
Later that day the Captain called the Sergeant into his office. "Hey, Sarge, that was a pretty cold way to inform Jones his mother died. Couldn't you be a bit more tactful, next time?"
"Yes, sir," answered the Sarge. A few months later, the Captain called the Sergeant in again with, "Sarge, I just got a telegram. Private McGrath's mother died. You'd better go tell him and send him in to see me. This time be more tactful."
So the Sergeant calls for his morning formation. "Ok, men, fall in and listen up. Everybody with a mother, take two steps forward -- NOT SO FAST, McGRATH!"

Cleveland engines part 12

And here are the features we have discused so far:- CK608, ‘D’ block and ‘4’ cylinder heads.




Here is an XA GT.



CK617, ‘square’ block and ‘4dot’.

Call for better homework-home life balance

HOMEWORK should be scrapped in the early years of primary school and its place in high schools reviewed amid concerns it is a practice without any academic benefits.

The national umbrella organisation of parents and citizens groups, the Australian Council of State School Organisations, has called for a review of the setting of homework, arguing there is no evidence that students benefit from the practice and that it has become an overbearing invasion of family life.
"In primary schools, certainly we have grave doubts about the need for homework in most years," said council executive officer Terry Aulich. "There's nothing to prove homework gives kids an advantage in terms of literacy and numeracy." Mr Aulich said homework was not addressed in teacher education courses, and when the council first raised it as a topic for its national conference, some teachers considered it a low-level issue. "They thought it wasn't worthy of intellectual study ... as if it were a minor issue, like the tuck shop," he said.
A discussion paper by the council says a review of the international research into homework reveals the evidence "is at best ambivalent" about the benefits. Even in high school, the correlation between homework and performance is negligible. The paper says some US and British studies link homework to improved grades, school performance, attitude towards learning and time-management skills, with one arguing that "the more homework students complete, especially from grades 6 to 12, the better they do in school".
But a review of British research found the positive relationship was only true for high school. Other studies found homework contributed to physical and emotional exhaustion and allowed little or no time for leisure and family activities. An analysis of the International Trends in Mathematics and Science Study, which compares students in 50 countries, stated: "The overall correlations between national average student achievement and national averages in amount of homework assigned are all negative."
Mr Aulich called for research on homework's effect on families and how children develop socially and intellectually. Reuben Fromant, 8, is in Year 3 at a public school in Sydney's inner west and has been doing weekly homework since Year 1, involving spelling lists, English comprehension and maths. His father, Bradley, said part of thepressure on teachers to set homework came from parents, who held the mistaken belief that their child would be disadvantaged without it.
Mr Fromant said the greatest value of homework was in the practice of doing it, but he was unconvinced of its necessity and supported a review. "I support it inasmuch as at least it's good practice, but whether or not there's any scholastic advantage ... I don't think so," he said.

Insurance Company

A Charlotte, North Carolina man, having purchased a case of rare, very expensive cigars, insured them against .... get this .... fire.
Within a month, having smoked his entire stockpile of fabulous cigars, and having yet to make a single premium payment on the policy, the man filed a claim against the insurance company. In his claim, the man stated that he had lost the cigars in "a series of small fires." The insurance company refused to pay, citing the obvious reason that the man had consumed the cigars in a normal fashion. The man sued ... and won!!
In delivering his ruling, the judge stated that since the man held a policy from the company in which it had warranted that the cigars were insurable, and also guaranteed that it would insure the cigars against fire, without defining what it considered to be "unacceptable fire," it was obligated to compensate the insured for his loss. Rather than endure a lengthy and costly appeal process, the insurance company accepted the judge's ruling and paid the man $15,000 for the rare cigars he lost in "the fires."
After the man cashed his check, however, the insurance company had him arrested... on 24 counts of arson! With his own insurance claim and testimony from the previous case being used as evidence against him, the man was convicted of intentionally burning the rare cigars and sentenced to 24 consecutive one year terms.

Cleveland cylinder heads 2

And so to put some of this in context.



Here is an XY GTHO.

Motivate me

Lyrics from song Motivation Proclamation by Good Charlotte.

We can all sympathise as we return to work this morning as it gets a little cooler and that doona is very warm.

Chorus:
Motivate me,
I wanna get myself out of this bed.
Captivate me,
I want good thoughts inside of my head.
If I fall down,
would you come around,
and pick me right up off the ground?
If I fall down,
would you come around,
and pick me right up off the ground?

A nag and a mule

This farmer had a wife who nagged him all the time. One day while he was outside plowing the field, she came out and started nagging him. While she was doing this, the mule kicked her and she died. At the funeral, the ladies came up and talked to the farmer. The farmer nodded his head, "Yes". The men came up and talked to him and the farmer nodded his head, "No”. Well this other man wondered why he nodded his head, "Yes," to the ladies and, "No," to the men. Then, he went up to the farmer and asked him why. The farmer replied,” Well, when the ladies came up, they told me how pretty my wife's dress was and how pretty she looked. When the men came up, they asked, ’That mule for sale?'

So where are the cast marks ?

If they are present, they are in the top corners of the cylinder heads, visible because the rocker cover has its corner angled. In the photos above and below, you can see the ‘4’. These are XW GT’s.



And the ‘4 dot’ ?







As fitted to XA’s.

Don't avoid the void

"When we feel stuck, going nowhere -- even starting to slip backward -- we may actually be backing up to get a running start." -- Dan Millman

To change, we must go through a transition zone. It's not easy being in transition. Thoughts, beliefs and habits are all in flux. It can create a sense of groundlessness, of being in a void that can be quite uncomfortable.
When we’re in the void, our first impulse will be to revert to old habits because they feel comfortable. Our goal is to hang in there until the change is complete. Knowing that TRANSITIONS ARE PART OF THE CHANGE PROCESS helps us muster the courage to put up with the discomfort, the uneasiness, the void.
Change requires a letting go of what we’ve always known and done to allow in something new. We need to trust ourselves and higher forces to unfold a new reality for us.

"Every positive change - every jump to a higher level of energy and awareness - involves a rite of passage. Each time to ascend to a higher rung on the ladder of personal evolution, we must go through a period of discomfort, of initiation. I have never found an exception." -- Dan Millman

Help

A lady walks into the drugstore and asks the pharmacist for some arsenic.
"Ma'am, what do you want with arsenic?"
"To kill my husband."
"I can't sell you arsenic to kill a person!"
The lady lays down a photo of a man and a woman in a compromising position.
The man is her husband and the woman is the pharmacist's wife.
He takes the photo, and nods.
"I didn't realize you had a prescription!"

Cleveland cylinder heads

To fit 351C engines, it is generally accepted that there are seven types of production Cleveland heads that you may come across, five U.S. and two Australian.

They are:-
U.S. 4V Closed chamber with a ‘4’ cast in the corner
U.S. 4V Open chamber with a ‘4’ cast in the corner
U.S. 4V Closed chamber with a ‘4’ and a ‘dot’ cast in the corner
U.S. 2V Open chamber with a ‘2’ cast in the corner
U.S. 2V Open chamber with a ‘2’ and a ‘dot’ cast in the corner
Aus 2V Open chamber with nothing cast in the corner as fitted to Aus 351C
Aus 2V Closed chamber with nothing cast in the corner as fitted to Aus 302C

To take them in turn.

The U.S. 4V closed chamber head with the ‘4’ casting is the head fitted to the CK608 and CK609 engines installed in XW and XY GT’s. These heads were fitted to imported ‘D’ block engines.

The U.S. 4V open chamber head was not fitted to any Australian Ford.

The U.S. 4V closed chamber head with the ‘4’ and ‘dot’ casting is the head fitted to the CK617 engines installed from mid 1972 XA through to end of 1973 XB manual transmission equipped GT’s. It has a slightly larger chamber than the ‘4’ only casting with a resultant half a point compression drop in C.R. These engines were imported ‘square’ block engines.

The U.S. 2V open chamber head with the ‘2’ casting is the head used on the CK601 and CK604 engines in XY’s and ZD’s. These were imported ‘D’ block engines.

The U.S. 2V open chamber heads with the ‘2’ and ‘dot’ casting in the head were used on the CK614 engines fitted to late XY’s and ZD’s. These engines were imported ‘square’ block engines.

The Aus 2V open chamber head with no casting mark is the head fitted to Australian built 351C’s fitted to XA’s through to XE’s with both four barrel and two barrel carbs.

The Aus 2V closed chamber head with no casting mark is the head fitted to Australian built 302C’s fitted to XA’s to XE’s with two barrel and four barrel carbs. It has the smallest chamber size of any of the production Cleveland heads.

A willingness to try something new

“It is so easy to waste our lives: our days, our hours, our minutes. ... It is so easy to exist instead of live. Unless you know there is a clock ticking. So many of us changed our lives when we heard a biological clock and decided to have kids. But that sound is a murmur compared to the tolling of mortality.” - Anna Quindlen

Time off

An employee comes into her manager’s office to take a day off from work. The manager replies, "So you want a day off? Let's take a look at what you are asking for. There are 365 days per year available for work. There are 52 weeks per year in which you already have 2 days off per week, leaving 261 days available for work. Since you spend 16 hours each day away from work, you have used up 170 days, leaving only 91 days available. You spend 30 minutes each day on coffee break, which counts for 23 days each year, leaving only 68 days available. With a 1-hour lunch each day, you used up another 46 days, leaving only 22 days available for work. You normally spend 2 days per year on sick leave. This leaves you only 20 days per year available for work. We are off 5 holidays per year, so your available working time is down to 15 days. We generously give 14 days vacation per year which leaves only 1 day available for work and I'll be darned if you are going to take that day off!"

Cleveland engines part 10

For XA GT’s, the switch to square blocks appears to have taken place in May or June, 1972 for automatic trans equipped cars, and in August or September, 1972 for manual trans cars.
As mentioned earlier, the square block seems to have appeared in the U.S. in 1971, as the engine fitted to 1971 Boss351 Mustangs were square blocks, as below.



It is worth noting also that Boss351 blocks were also four bolt main blocks.
Australian manufactured blocks have the letters ‘GF’ cast into them at the rear, upper surface beside the oil pressure gauge adaptor. ‘GF’ stands for Geelong Foundry.



US blocks had ‘CF’ for Cleveland Foundary cast here, and some early Australian cast blocks were ‘CF’ as well as they used the US casting moulds initially.The change from ‘C’ to ‘G’ would have been relatively easy to carry out.

‘D’ block or the ‘square’ block

The terms ‘D’ block and ‘square’ block apply to differences in the casting of the engine block. The ‘D’ block is the earlier casting, in fact the initial casting of the 351C block and the ‘square’ block is the later one. How much later is open to conjecture. ‘Square’ blocks would appear to have been available in the U.S. in 1971, and there is some evidence to show that the ‘square’ block appeared in automatic XY 351C 2V’s as early as May, 1971, and in manual XY 351C 2V’s in December, 1971. It does appear that XY 351C 4V engines continued with ‘D’ blocks. What can be said though is that no XW or XY GT came with a square block, and that all Australian built engines are patterned after the ‘square’ blocks.

The ‘D’


The ‘D’ can be seen on the cast extension on the front of the block, adjacent to the petrol pipe.





Compare with the later square block.

Fake it

"Fake it till you make it." Mary Kay Ash, founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics

Please explain

"Do you believe in life after death?" the boss asked one of his employees.
"Yes, sir," the clerk replied.
"That's good," the boss said. "After you left early yesterday to go to your grandmother's funeral, she stopped in to see you."

Quotable quotes

"Use your health, even to the point of wearing it out. That is what it’s for. Spend all you have before you die; and do not outlive yourself." George Bernard Shaw

Doctor?

An acquaintance of mine who is a physician told this story about her then-four-year-old daughter. On the way to preschool, the doctor had left her stethoscope on the car seat, and her little girl picked it up and began playing with it. Be still, my heart, thought my friend, gee, my daughter wants to follow in my footsteps and be a doctor! Then the child spoke into the instrument: "Welcome to McDonald's. May I take your order?"

Cleveland engines part 8

Some of what the descriptions mean will be explained below.
Regarding coil tags, and by way of comparison to the previous one, here is the tag for an early XY GT.



This shows that it is a:- ‘351C’, engine; ‘70’, model year; ‘1’, first version; ‘A18’, 18th of January engine build; and ‘CK609A1’ engine code. This is a ‘D’ block code.



As a check, here is the block from that engine showing the casting numbers:- ‘DOAE-J’, is the ‘D’ block casting and - not too well reproduced - under it is the casting date, ‘9M13’, 13th of December, 1969.
t was mentioned above that in the US they changed to engine code stickers in February, 1973. This is what they looked like, and note they were on the drivers side - in Australian terms - front face of the rocker coverand not the pax side.

Create happiness right now

"It is our basic right to be a happy person, happy family, and eventually a happy world. That should be our goal." - Dalai Lama

Little adjustments to our attitude and approach each day can create a major difference in our appreciation of life. On the surface, nothing changes. At the same time, absolutely everything does. Use your awareness or your imagination to bring happiness to this moment. Find something to appreciate. Do this as often as you remember to do so, and your world will transform.

" ... we can no longer afford to throw away even one ‘unimportant’ day by not noticing the wonder of it all. We have to be willing to discover and then appreciate the authentic moments of happiness available to all of us every day." - Sarah Ban Breathnach

Be careful what you wish for...

Married couples, both 60 years old, were celebrating their 35th anniversary. During their party, a fairy appeared to congratulate them and grant them each one a wish. The wife wanted to travel around the world. The fairy waved her wand and poof - the wife had tickets in her hand for a world cruise.
Next, the fairy asked the husband what he wanted. He said, "I wish I had a wife 30 years younger than me."
So the fairy picked up her wand and poof - the husband was 90.

Cleveland engines part 7

Originally in the U.S. this number was on a metal tag that was attached to an ancilliary bracket or more usually sandwiched under the coil mounting bracket, but later in life they were reduced to a white paper sticker on the front of the right hand valve cover. For some reason, which is still a bit of a mystery, the 351C’s built in the U.S. and shipped for export acquired the letter ‘C’ in front of the ‘K’ and became CK601, CK604, CK608, CK609, CK614, CK616 and CK617, and this is what appeared on the paper tag on engines fitted in Australia. There is a some credence to the thought that the ‘C’ stood for ‘Canada’ as they initially received non-emission export engines, and for simplicity, the ‘CK’ then applied to all export engines. It is also worth mentioning that in the US the switch from using a metal tag to a paper decal took place in February, 1973, yet the paper decals were appearing on Australian engines before that.
Here is an example of a coil tag that was fitted to an XA GT RPO83.


What is interesting about this tag is that XA GT RPO’s were built in August, 1973. The tag decodes as - ‘351C’, the engine; ‘72’, the model year; ‘5’, the change level or version; ‘G26’, 26th of July assembly date; and ‘CK617J1’, the engine code. On U.S. tags there is usually a digit in front of the ‘G26’ which signifies the year of production. The year is missing on this Australian or export tag which may have been a a deliberate policy to allow Ford to stockpile export engines, either in the U.S. or at their destination.
It is also worth mentioning that the equivalent paper tag for this engine reads ‘CK617J1-W’ and it signifies a special order, manual transmission only square block import engine with big port heads. Some more of what this means is explained below.
Here is an example of the paper tag for a ‘CK608’ engine, showing its location.

As these paper tags appear in several of the pictures I'll use over the next few days, here is a breakdown of their significance:
CK608 A1 70-1 - manual D block 4 heads (XW-XA)
CK609 A1 70-1 - auto D block 4 heads (XW-XA)
CK616 J1 71-3 - auto D block 4 dot heads
CK616 J3 72-5 - auto D block 4 dot heads (1971 casting
CK616 J3 72-5 - auto square block 4 dot heads (1972 casting)
CK617 J1 71-1 - manual D block 4 dot heads
CK617 J1 72-5 - manual square block 4 dot heads
CK617 J1W 72-5 - manual square block 4 dot heads

The Innovation Leader

by Bob Rosenfeld: Making the Invisible Visible
Thirty-five years ago, Bob Rosenfeld was a young, energetic, impatient chemist — brimming with ideas and working at Eastman Kodak. Today, he is a leading authority on innovation, founder of Idea Connection Systems and Innovator in Residence at the Center for Creative Leadership. Along the way, he founded the first Office of Innovation for Eastman Kodak and worked with numerous organizations to foster the ideas and enthusiasm needed for sustaining innovation. The key to innovation, according to Rosenfeld, is to "make the invisible visible."
Rosenfeld's first foray into intentionally grooming organizational innovation came while working at Eastman Kodak. He writes in his book, Making the Invisible Visible: The Human Principles for Sustaining Innovation, "I noticed that people at all levels within the company had ideas that could benefit both themselves and the company ... a few of these ideas found a supportive ear, but most of them did not ... I was convinced that if there were some way to infuse these ideas into the organization, they would be of value to the company."
Rosenfeld saw that his company wanted ideas, and employees had ideas they wanted to share, but that there were no effective mechanisms to connect individuals' ideas to the larger organization. The barriers to innovation at Eastman Kodak at that time are still common in organizations today:
• Lack of language. Organizations don't have effective ways to talk about the innovation process.
• Limited scope. Existing innovation processes often encourage small, incremental changes rather than new products, breakthrough ideas or unusual concepts.
• Isolation. Departments and groups may be isolated, creating subcultures that are different from the rest of the organization and limiting exchange of ideas and information.
• Comfort with the status quo. People are often dependent on the familiar, leaving little room or tolerance for anyone with wildly different ideas and behaviors.
• A deficit of trust. Innovation requires structures that are supported by bonds of trust, confidence and respect for those involved.
To address these problems Rosenfeld, along with others at Eastman Kodak, set up the first Office of Innovation. Later, Rosenfeld was asked to help other companies establish similar systems for innovation. Over time, he began to see that the measure of success was tied less to the mechanics of innovation and more to the human dynamic.
"All new products and services come from ideas, and all ideas come from people," says Rosenfeld. "That sounds simple, but it requires innovation leaders to stimulate, motivate and encourage people in specific ways."
Another crucial element for innovation is the need for sustained commitment at a high level within the company. "A high-ranking officer needs to understand the difficulties involved and be committed to the ongoing and long-term success of the program," Rosenfeld explains. "Lacking that, it will fail no matter how much compelling evidence is produced to show its value." Finally, leaders must look beyond the mechanics, techniques and even results of innovation to the underlying — and usually unseen — principles of sustained innovation. "The most important aspects of innovation are not readily apparent," says Rosenfeld. "To become successful, the invisible must be made visible."

8 Principles of Innovation

Bob Rosenfeld describes eight principles that underlie the human aspect of innovation:
1. Innovation starts when people convert problems into ideas.
2. Innovation needs a system.
3. Passion is the fuel, and pain is the hidden ingredient.
4. Co-locating drives effective exchange.
5. Differences should be leveraged.
6. The elements of destruction are present at creation.
7. Soft values drive the organization.
8. Trust is the means and love the unspoken word.

Perspective

A man in a hot air balloon realized he was lost. He reduced altitude and spotted a woman below. He descended a bit more and shouted,” Excuse me, can you help? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am."
The woman below replied, "You are in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You are between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude."
"You must be an engineer," said the balloonist.
"I am," replied the woman. "How did you know?"
"Well," answered the balloonist, "Everything you told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to make of you, and the fact is I am still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help so far."
The woman below responded, "You must be in management."
"I am," replied the balloonist, "But how did you know?"
"Well," said the woman, "you don't know where you are or where you are going. You have risen to where you are, due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise which you have no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problems. The fact is you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it's my fault!"

The Cleveland story continues

We will start not quite at the beginning because I do not have a photo of a XW GTHO Phase 1.5, but with a Phase2.



Pretty impressive, but what do we look for?
The first 351C’s were all imported from the U.S. and as such conform to how the Americans were building and tooling for their engines. So, firstly, Ford had a policy of giving their engines an engine code number. This should not be confused with the practice of assigning an engine code letter to the vehicle’s data plate or VIN. For example, 351C’s with four barrel carb’s fitted to GT’s used the letter ‘T’ on the compliance plate. The engine code number was a number assigned to a production batch of engines and is used to describe the engine in some detail, especially if it is used to identify the engine to a parts counter.
U.S. 351C’s used a code system that started with the letter ‘K’, and followed it with a sequential set of numbers running from 600 to 632. For example, ‘K625’ was the Boss351, and ‘K610’ was a ‘M’ letter code, 351 2V engine. I will not run through the whole list of U.S. engines, but instead concentrate on those that reached Australia. These were:-
K601, K604 and K614 which were 2V, two barrel carb engines as fitted to XY Falcons and ZD Fairlanes.
K608 and K609 which were 4V, four barrel carb engines fitted to XW and XYs.
K616 and K617 which were 4V, four barrel carb engines fitted to XA and early XBs.

Lessons of Leadership

General Honoré: Leaders Needed
During a recent speech at the Centre for Creative Leadership's Greensboro, N.C., headquarters, Lieut. Gen. Russel Honoré spoke. Lieut. Gen. Honoré has learned his lessons in leadership over a 35-year career in the U.S. Army. But his insights are relevant to leaders in every sector.
See first, understand first, act first. The First Army's motto used to be "Leave it better than you found it." Today, Gen. Honoré's command motto is "to see first, understand first, act first." "9/11 happened and our nation changed," said Honoré. "Would 9/11 have happened if we saw first, understood first, and acted first?"
Invest yourself in your subordinates' success. A commander must be personally invested in even the newest, youngest people. "We need their youth. We take the most junior officer in our formation-Second Lieutenant-and put him in charge of our most precious assets," General Honoré said. "Right out of school, he will follow the order of the President and will do it at minimum wage. Regardless of how good you are at the top, you need leaders at the bottom."
Listen. It takes discipline to listen, especially to listen to bad news. "As we get older, we have a tendency to answer our own questions," Honoré said. Instead of asking a soldier how the food is, for example, it's easier to merely say to them, "Chow good, huh?" Or when greeting your kids after school, it's tempting to say: "Had a good day, huh?" But by pre-empting the answers, you risk missing out on critical feedback.

Take responsibility for the good, the bad and the ugly. Whether it's a story on national news, or a less visible problem, a leader is responsible. Don't place the blame on "them." A leader has to be able to say, "I don't know, but I'll find out" and "We screwed this up ... I failed to monitor this."
Have the courage to change. "Do you have the courage to change?" Honoré asked. "Success is reliant on change. When you stop learning, you stop growing."
Save a little bit of good leadership for home. "The toughest challenges of leadership will be at home." You can be seen as a great leader at work, but what kind of leadership do you show with your spouse? "We have the ability to command at work ... in your house you don't command nothing! At home, you don't boss things, you collaborate," Honoré said. How do you interact with a teenager, child or grandchild? "You learn a lot about leadership from youth. How do you respond to that young person? That budding teenager who refuses to talk? Or talks in one-word replies. Your behavior at home sets the tone; what messages get left around your dinner table?"
Invest in the youth of your community. "If you want to know how good you are as a leader, take it out of your comfort zone. Go work with youth—go where you have the least expectation of making a difference."
Honoré's Leadership Lessons
Take it from the General. Here are a few of his guiding truths of leadership:
In crisis, the first report is usually wrong.
Have the ability to listen to bad news.
The real art of leadership is getting people to willingly follow you.
Think about who else needs to know? Collaborate, communicate.
What you say and what you do have to match.
Leaders can't just be observers; they must be players.
Your people are #1.
Be a lifetime learner.
Be wary of quicker, faster, cheaper—it isn't always better.

Little Johnny

Little Johnny's class were on an outing to their local police station where they saw pictures, of the ten most wanted people, tacked to a bulletin board. On the way out of the police station Little Johnny said to the officer, "It was so nice of you to put my daddy's picture up there."

Cleveland engines part 5

While the home grown four barrel, 2V 351C was introduced on automatic XA GTs towards the end of its life, the last of the imported, high compression, big port, 4V U.S. engines lasted only through to the first few months of XB GT production, again mostly, but not exclusively, in manual transmission cars, and by January, 1974, they were gone and all 351C engines that followed were Australian made.
The 351C ran through till the middle of the XE Falcon’s life before, to howls of protest, Ford killed off their V8 in 1982. In its later life it suffered compression ratio cuts, emissions equipment additions and a swap to Carter carbs to keep it clean and healthy, but, it started out as a romper stomper, so from tomorrow let’s look at its glory days, and hopefully explain some of the mysteries and anomalies.

Quotable quotes

"You don't have to be a fantastic hero to do certain things - to compete. You can be just an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated to reach challenging goals." - Sir Edmund Hillary, Mountaineer and Explorer

COMPUTER TERMS - TEXAS TRANSLATION:

LOG ON: Making a wood stove hotter.
LOG OFF: Don't add no more wood.
MONITOR: Keeping an eye on the wood stove.
DOWNLOAD: Gettin' the farwood off the truck
MEGA HERTZ: When yer not keerful gettin' the farwood
FLOPPY DISC: Whatcha git from tryin to carry too much farwood
RAM: That thing tha splits the farwood
HARD DRIVE: Gettin' home in the winter time
PROMPT: What the mail ain't in the winter time
WINDOWS: What to shut when it's cold outside
SCREEN: What to shut when it's black fly season
BYTE: What them dang flies do
CHIP: Munchies fer the TV
MICRO CHIP: What's in the bottom of the munchie bag
MODEM: Whatcha did to the hay fields
DOT MATRIX: Old Dan Matrix's wife
LAP TOP: Where the kitty sleeps
KEYBOARD: Where ya hang the dang truck keys
SOFTWARE: Them dang plastic forks and knives
MOUSE: What eats the grain in the barn
MOUSE PAD: That's hippie talk fer the mouse hole
MAIN FRAME: Holds up the barn roof
ENTER: Northerner talk fer "c'mon in, y'all"
RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY: When ya can't 'member what ya paid fer the rifle

Cleveland engines continued

In the U.S. for the very brief period that the musclecar/horsepower craze continued during the 351C’s early life, the 4V spawned a small clutch of developments:- the 1971 Boss 351; the 351CobraJets, or CJs; and four bolt mains caps. These were U.S. only developments and never made it to the Australian chapter of the 351C story to which we now turn.
The first 351C engines to appear in an Australian Ford were those fitted to the XW GT Phase 1.5s built in February, 1970. The U.S. 351C was announced for the 1970 model year and introduced in September, 1969, so it took less than six months for the Cleveland to appear in Australia. The Phase 1.5 - one and a half - was to all intents and purposes an XW GTHO with all the running gear from the 351 Windsor powered Phase1 but with an imported 351C 4V engines fitted. They were cars to tide the market over until the full production Cleveland powered XW GTs were released in April, 1970. The regular production XWGT, powered by the 351C, then ran out the XW model to October, 1970. Later, introduced in June, 1970, was the XW GTHO Phase2 fitted with the U.S. imported 351C engine which had a solid lifter camshaft, and a 750cfm Holley carburettor. You can see that the 351C was regarded first and foremost as its flagship engine.
With the October, 1970 introduction of the XY Falcon and ZD Fairmont range of cars, the Cleveland progressed beyond its performance image and 250hp, two barrel carburetored, 2V versions were offered as the top option on both models. The 300hp, four barrelled, 4V version of the engine was only offered on the XY GT and GTHO. Both these engines were still imported, but Ford Australia was keen to build its own and had tooled up to provide locally manfactured 351C and 302C engines. Why tool for a 302C engine when they had been using the 302W ? Well, it provided economies of scale, being able to use all of the ancilliary parts from one engine on another, and all for the sake of a different crank and rods.
And so the March, 1972 introduction of the Australian designed XA Falcon range also saw the debut of Australian built 351C and 302C in two barrel carbed, 2V form. There have been some reports that 302C’s were fitted to Brisbane built, December, 1971 XY Falcons. Brisbane cars have the letter ‘H’ as the second leter of their VIN. For the moment, the four barrel, 4V engines were imported, but by the early/middle of 1973 Ford Australia had developed their own four barrel fed 351C but used their own 2V style heads on the engine.
This is where the 2V and 4V descriptive terms become somewhat entwined. The distinct separation that applied in the U.S. between 2V and 4V ensured that a 2V Cleveland had a two barrel carb and inlet manifold, small inlet and exhaust ports and an enlarged chamber volume, while the 4V Cleveland had a four barrel carb, large inlet and exhaust ports and reduced size chamber volume which created a higher compression ratio. Now the Australians introduced a 2V head that took either a two or a four barrel carb inlet manifold, and had a large, but not as large as the U.S. 2V, open chamber size, plus, for further confusion, they introduced a 302C engine that had 2V heads which had a two barrel carb but a chamber volume smaller than anything the U.S. had offered, even on their highest performance Clevelands.

Quotable quotes

"Identify your personal limits and then push past them. Then set new barriers, and repeat the process, again and again and again." Nicole Haislett, swimmer, Olympic gold medalist

Celebration of perspective

Two drunks were in a bar partying like fools. They were drinking boiler makers, buying rounds like there was no tomorrow. They were dancing, calling each other "professor," and generally causing quite a stir. When asked why such a celebration, they boasted that they just finished a jigsaw puzzle & it only took them 2 months! "TWO MONTHS?!" cried the bartender. "That's ridiculous. It shouldn't take that long!!"
"Oh yeah?" says one drunk. "The box said 2-4 YEARS!"

Cleveland Story Part 3

Okay, that was the easy part. Now we can look at different versions of the 351C. It is best to start out by describing how the Cleveland was designed for the Americans, before moving on to the Australians. Ford U.S. came up with two basic versions of their 351C, the 2V and the 4V. The 2V stands for, as it does most usually, 2 venturis, and describes a two barrelled carburettor. American 2V 351Clevelands came equipped with two barrelled carbs and as such the engine was designed to be the common version of the engine fitted to non performance cars. To this end, Ford U.S. designed a set of heads for the 2V that had smaller inlet and exhaust ports to promote better low down torque. These small port 2V heads required their own inlet and exhaust manifolds to mate up with the heads and they also had smaller valves. Initial rating of the 2V engine was 250hp.
The 4V was the performance version of the 351C, and was so named because it was designed to have a 4 venturi or four barrelled carburettor. To feed the extra fuel through the cylinders, the 4V heads had much larger ports than the 2V, and as result required their own matching inlet and exhaust manifolds, and larger valves. The combination of bigger, more effective 4 barrel carburettor, bigger valves and bigger ports ensured that the fuel mixture could get into and the exhaust gasses get out of the combustion chamber more effectively than in the 2V heads, hence the 4V engine would rev better and as a consequence, produce more power. The 351C 4V was rated, in 1970, at 300hp.
Engineering is often a compromise, and such was the case with the 4V. The valves, and especially the ports were so big that the inlet mixture could slow down in its passage into the combustion chamber. This decrease in velocity, most noticable at low revs, left the 4V versions of the 351C feeling kind of sluggish as the cylinders struggled to fill. The 2V, with its smaller ports and valves, could keep the mixture velocity up which promoted better cylinder filling, and gave the 2V its impression of greater low down power, torque and flexibility. Of course, this is what Ford U.S. wanted, promoting the 2V as the torquey grocery getter engine, and the 4V as the “let it rev and feel the power” engine.

Lessons

As we grow up, we learn that even the one person that wasn't supposed to ever let you down probably will.

You will have your heart broken probably more than once and it's harder every time. You'll break hearts too, so remember how it felt when yours was broken.

You'll fight with your best friend.

You'll blame a new love for things an old one did.

You'll cry because time is passing too fast, and you'll eventually lose someone you love.

So take too many pictures, laugh too much, and love like you've never been hurt because every sixty seconds you spend upset is a minute of happiness you'll never get back.

Last words

Three buddies die in a car crash, and they find themselves at the pearly gates.

They are all asked, "When you are in your casket and friends and
family are mourning upon you, what would you like to hear them say
about you?"

The first guy says, "I would like to hear them say that I was the
greates doctor of my time, and a great family man."

The second guy says, "I would like to hear that I was a wonderful
husband and school teacher who made a huge difference in our
children of tomorrow."

The last guy replies, "I would like to hear them say... LOOK!!! HE'S MOVING!!!!!"

351 Cleveland

Let’s start with a general overview, specifically an aid in identifying the Cleveland engine. Before the 351C, there was the 351W which was a 351ci capacity version of the original Windsor engine family - so-called because that is where the original engine factory was, Windsor, Ontario - which started life as a 221ci in 1962, but grew to encompass the famous 289 and 302ci versions through the sixties.
In these small capacity displacements, the 289/302 was a great little engine - and it went on to become even greater in the eighties and nineties - but as car size increased in the U.S. Ford decided that they needed larger capacity from the small block to generate more torque to move the heavier cars. Hence they developed the 351W, but even from its inception, Ford appreciated that while the 351W gave the capacity required, it was a marginal engine from the point of view of developing more and more horsepower as the performance wars of the late sixties escalated. So Ford designed the 351C.
The 351C was designed from the top down with the major ammount of effort put into designing the best and most efficient cylinder heads that they could to allow the engine to breathe, and so to rev.
The 351C has a canted valve cylinder head, with splayed valves set at slight angles to one another, unlike the 351W which has parallel valve stems. This canted valve arrangement makes the 351C cylinder heads bigger - wider - than those of the 351W, and as a result it has wider rocker covers. As an aid to identification, the 351W exhaust manifold to cylinder head surface is almost vertical as viewed from the ends of the engine, whereas the 351C has an exhaust manifold to cylinder head surface which sits at 45 degrees and is as near parallel to the side of the block. This can be difficult to see if an engine is in place.
So, the other easy means of 351W to 351C differentiation is to know that the 351C has a dry inlet manifold wherein cooling water does not pass from head to head through a passage in the manifold, but instead passes across the engine in a cast extension to the front of the block. This extension also provides a ‘recess’ for the timing chain and contains the thermostat housing. Simply put, the top radiator hose for a 351C goes vertically into the thermostat on top of this extension, and the 351W top radiator hose goes in horizontally to its thermostat as fitted to the front of the inlet manifold.

Homework

Oh, Brother!

A man goes on a 2-month business trip to Europe and leaves his cat with his brother. Three days before his return he calls his brother.
Brother 1: So how is my cat doing?
Brother 2: He's Dead
Brother 1: He's Dead! What do you mean He's Dead! I loved that cat. Couldn't you think of a nicer way to tell me! I'm leaving in 3 days. You could of broke me to the news easier. You could of told me today that she got out of the house or something. Then when I called before I left you could of told me, Well, we found her but she is up on the roof and we're having trouble getting her down. Then when I call you from the airport you could of told me, The Fire Department was there and scared her off the roof and the cat died when it hit the ground.
Brother 2: I'm sorry...you're right...that was insensitive I won't let it happen again.
Brother 1: Alright, alright, forget about it. Anyway, how is Mom doing?
Brother 2: She's up on the roof and we're having trouble getting her down.

Globes

So, what happens if you fit an early cap to a later wheel ?



You are left with a gap around the cap caused by difference in screw ‘tab’ size.

Genius

David Ogilvy summed it up perfectly when he said, "Genius is the art of taking pains." And it all starts in your grey matter. You first have to make the mental commitment to do whatever it takes to achieve excellence at any given endeavour. If your commitment is unconditional, the second step is to materialize your thoughts (by taking action).

It goes without saying that this isn't an easy process. If it were, everyone would do it. Which is why your mental commitment must be unconditional.

Whenever I'm tempted to avoid the extra steps that could make the difference between mediocre and superb, I find it enormously helpful to remind myself how much more value the world places on just one extra hit per week.

There is, indeed, a fine line between success and failure - a much finer line than most people suspect. If you're going to err, my suggestion is that you err on the side of excellence. The trade off of investing more time and energy in everything I do always seems like a bargain to me.

Help!

A young executive was leaving the office late one evening when he found the CEO standing in front of a shredder with a piece of paper in his hand.
"Listen," said the CEO, "this is a very sensitive and important document here, and my secretary has gone for the night. Can you make this thing work for me?"
"Certainly," said the young executive. He turned the machine on, inserted the paper, and pressed the start button.
"Excellent, excellent!" said the CEO, as his paper disappeared inside the machine. "I just need one copy..."

Start your engines.

I am now about to delve into the ‘murky’ world of Australian Ford engines. I am going to say up front that the information here has been gleaned from some years of following the Falcon GT scene through the Falcon GT Club of Australia to whose members I gratefully acknowledge their assistance and wisdom. Mistakes that appear here are most probably the result of me misinterpreting what I have been told or read. If there is anything glaringly wrong, please get in touch and point out my mistakes and I will correct it.
With the above in mind, I make no apology with starting off with the 351 ci Cleveland engine, as fitted most effectively to the Falcon GTs, but which also survived until 1982, Australian built and powering Australian Fords of many types. While the U.S. version of the 351C existed in factory vehicle production for only 5 years - 1970 to 1974 - the Australian ‘version’ ran from 1972 to 1982, nearly three times as long, and as such the Cleveland could be regarded as more Australian than American. Its popularity down under has spawned a thriving industry of tuners, machinists and performance parts suppliers providing many services at reasonable cost in comparison with those in the U.S. where the 351C is regarded as ‘rare’ and ‘exotic’ and the willingness of suppliers to provide support and parts is thus restricted by the engine’s perceived rarity, especially when compared with its Windsor equivalent, an engine that has a long history in the U.S. bringing availability, ubiquity and cheapness to the forefront.
More details tomorrow.

Hard work

“Work should be in order to live. We don’t live in order to work. That shift in awareness is necessary.” -- Matthew Fox
What are your beliefs around work? Do you believe it’s necessary to work hard to earn a living? No pain, no gain? Do you believe women’s work is never done? That play is a waste of time?
While there are merits to the work ethic, over-work takes a serious toll on the quality of our lives. Our ability to contribute to life requires us to have a sense of balance, joy, playfulness, time to stop and smell the flowers.
“Learning to let go of the ways we inadvertently and unconsciously contribute to our own pain is the key to finding radiant physical and emotional health.” -- Ingrid Bacci
“To do great work a man must be very idle as well as very industrious.” -– Samuel Butler
“The true object of all human life is play.” -- G.K. Chesterton

Respect

Two men were out golfing. As one was ready to take his shot, a funeral procession drove by the golf course. The man stopped what he was doing, put down his club, and took off his hat and placed it over his heart. His partner was moved by this and said, "That's the nicest thing I've even seen you do!" The man looked back at him and said, "Well, that's the least I could do after 20 years of marriage..."