Yes, You Can Put Ls Heads On A Ford 300 Inline-6, But It's Not Gonna Be Easy

Having gotten to analyse Allen Millyard's welded-together Kawasaki V8 up adjacent astatine nan Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum, a bucket-list point for judge (sadly, his Kawasaki V12 was successful retention astatine nan time), it seems that if a brilliant builder is sufficiently motivated, nary motor task is impossible. Weld together motorcycle engines to make a V8 that not only works, but useful for illustration it came from nan mill that way? Just springiness him time. 

Having besides explored nan stupendous similarities betwixt Ford's Windsor and GM's LS V8s, and uncovering that location are group actively moving to make LS heads connected Windsor V8 blocks into viable engines, it's clip for an LS-headed Ford task that's not only been done to completion pinch existent moving results, but has been done aggregate times: GM LS heads welded together and bolted to Ford 300 inline-sixes. It's really been done truthful overmuch that a forum personification called InlineDave87 complete astatine FordSix.com says he grabbed immoderate no-name aluminum mini artifact Chevy heads to graft together because "I was conscionable wanting to spell extracurricular nan norm of everyone piecing together LS heads."

Now, don't spell reasoning that because this switch is comparatively communal it's besides easy. The only logic it useful astatine each is because nan Chevrolet LS's 4.4-inch bore halfway spacing and nan Ford 300's 4.48-inch spacing are adjacent enough, though only 2 cylinders will extremity up perfectly centered. The caput and artifact bolt holes besides statement up almost exactly, pinch nan largest quality being 0.05-inches.

Pushrods travel darn adjacent fitting, though nan artifact does request notching truthful they'll mate up pinch nan lifters and not scrape. Everything else? Get fresh for superior fabrication, from custom-length pushrods to a bespoke pushrod side-cover.

One of nan much salient LS-300 projects belongs to Ken Hutchison, who runs nan Tall Garage YouTube channel. His motor is successful nan "running" list, pinch nan first startup happening successful September. Hot Rod, which had been pursuing nan build, connected Hutchison pinch Holley Performance Brands, which gave him a group of Hooker exhaust manifolds. Hutchison promptly sliced them up and welded connected a T4 flange for a turbocharger. The motor sounds for illustration an angry carnivore being woken from hibernation:

This is nan culmination of complete 3 years of work. Hutchison's inspiration came from Ken Ellison of Ellison's Machine Shop, who built a Ford 300 featuring a caput made from 3 Boss 302 heads that were trim into six segments and welded backmost together. Since Boss 302 heads are costly and rare, and LS heads are decidedly not, Hutchison went pinch nan LS heads. 

The travel rates aren't ace acold off, either: Boss 302 heads, which are dang adjacent to Ford's 351 Cleveland heads successful design, travel 279.5 cubic feet per infinitesimal (cfm) connected nan intake side and 186.5 cfm connected nan exhuast side with 0.6-inches of lift, while nan 317 6.0-liter LS heads Hutchison utilized travel 243.3 cfm intake and 193.7 exhaust pinch nan aforesaid lift. Granted, nan Boss head's intake travel is superior by complete 30 cfm, but that's thing a bully porting wouldn't return attraction of. 

Plus, Hutchison didn't person to conception nan heads for illustration he was cutting up carrots for a stew. He simply sliced disconnected 1 enclosure each, making 2 three-combustion-chambered sections to weld together. Well, "simply" isn't fair. Hutchison ended up pinch a boomerang-shaped head he had to instrumentality flat.

Then there's Jaron Nelson's LS-head-shod Ford 300. It's besides turbocharged, and he's shooting for 500 hp astatine nan wheels, but location hasn't been a dyno tally yet. Recently, Nelson posted a video of nan motor moving successful his '35 Chevy rat rod connected his YouTube channel, Piston Ranch:

Nelson went pinch a four-two approach, fundamentally grafting an other brace of chambers onto a complete head. His big-brained attack includes a coil-on-plug ignition for illustration a Ford Taurus SHO V8 and a civilization harness he made retired of scavenged bits from a bunch of Chevy Suburbans.

Back successful 2014, personification 512Fairlane connected nan 429-460.com forums shared photos of his dad's vanished LS-six successful nan motor bay of a 1962 Ford Falcon, which was done pinch epoxy holding nan caput pieces together. It looks gorgeously gnarly pinch triple Holley two-barrels, and this build would make Allen Millyard proud. As 512Fairlane explained regarding his father's process successful a remark connected BangShift, "the only machining he subbed retired was nan machining of nan adjoining caput surfaces and past he had nan caput surfaced aft epoxying them together. Everything other was done pinch a dice grinder, a drill press, and his 40 twelvemonth aged hack saw."

Finally, possibly nan astir utmost build yet is this "Crown Hick," aliases an aged Ford F-100 assemblage plopped connected a Panther Platform Crown Victoria:

Yes, that's an LS-headed Ford 300 pinch an 8-71 blower! Unfortunately nan proprietor wasn't astir to commencement it up for nan feline filming. Even much unfortunately, there's a dearth of info astir nan build online. If you built this aliases cognize much astir it, please spill nan beans.