Famed variants powered 289 Shelby Cobras to Trans-Am racing championships and the Ford GT-40 to wins at LeMans and 1-2-3 sweeps in its iconic 5L form.

For the 1991 model year, Ford began phasing in their new Modular V8 engine to replace the small-block, beginning with the Lincoln Town Car and continuing through the 1990s.

Displacing 221 cu in (3.6 L), it was designed to save weight, using thin-wall casting for a short-skirt block that does not extend below the centerline of the crankshaft.

The 351W (so identified to distinguish from the 335-series Cleveland-produced 351C) uses a taller block than the other engines in the series to avoid excessively short connecting rods.

And for a brief time in the early 1980s, a version with a smaller bore diameter that displaced 255 cubic inches (4.2 L) was produced as Ford struggled with emissions and fuel economy.

The first attempt mated a tunnel-port head to a 289 cu in block, but the displacement proved to be too small to deliver the desired power.

The Modular 4.6 L OHC V8 debuted in the 1991 Lincoln Town Car, signaling the eventual demise of the OHV Ford small-block.

All three block variants from this point on featured the straight wall method of construction, three core plugs, and an engine mount hole pitch distance of seven inches.

The corrugated wall method of block construction had caused cleaning difficulties in the foundry from day one and a change was phased in.

It weighed only 470 lb (210 kg) dry despite its cast iron construction, making it the lightest and most compact V8 engine of its type of the era.

In the late 1970s, an urgent need to meet EPA CAFE standards led to the creation of the 255 cu in (4.2 L) version for the 1980 model year, essentially a 302 with the cylinder bores reduced to 3.68 in (93.5 mm).

Cylinder heads, which were specific to this engine, used smaller combustion chambers and valves, and the intake ports were oval whereas the others were all rectangular.

The only externally visible clue was the use of an open-runner intake manifold with a stamped-steel lifter valley cover attached to its underside, reminiscent of previous-generation V8 engines, such as the Y-block and the MEL.

It was optional in Fox-chassis cars including the Mustang (and corporate cousin Mercury Capri), Thunderbird, and Fairmont, and standard equipment in the Ford LTD.

A high-performance version of the Challenger 289 engine[3] was introduced late in the 1963 model year as a special order for Ford Fairlanes.

It had solid valve lifters with more aggressive cam timing; 10.5:1 compression; a dual point centrifugal advance distributor; smaller combustion chamber heads with cast spring cups and screw-in studs; low-restriction exhaust manifolds; and a bigger, manual-choke 595 CFM carburetor (105 CFM more than the standard 289-4V).

Emission regulations caused a progressive reduction in compression ratio for the 302 two-barrel, to 9.0:1 in 1972, reducing SAE gross horsepower to 210 hp (157 kW).

For the 1986 model year, Ford replaced the throttle-body system with sequential multi-port fuel injection, identifiable by the large intake with an "EFI 5.0" badge on top.

It was fitted on all 302 engines through 1988, after which year it was phased out for a mass airflow sensor (MAF) system in most applications (non–California compliant Panther platform cars retained the speed-density system until the Lincoln Town Car received the 4.6 L OHC Modular V8 for model year 1991, and the Crown Victoria and Grand Marquis for 1992).

It featured heavy-duty four-bolt main bearing caps and pressed in core plugs, and was topped with Gurney-Weslake aluminum heads.

[citation needed] Ford's new 302 "Tunnel-Port" engine was originally envisioned as the secret weapon for the 1968 Trans-Am racing season, which would bring them a third Championship win.

Shelby dyno sheets showed this engine was capable of producing horsepower in the 440 to 450 range, and operated through a very high rpm band (8000+).

", the Boss 302 was a performance variant of the small block designed to allow Ford to wrest back the 5 L (305 cu in) Trans-Am racing championship from the Camaro Z/28.

A strong 4-bolt main bottom end, thicker cylinder walls, steel screw-in core plugs, aggressive forged-steel crank, special HD connecting rods, and Cleveland-style forged pistons were geared to racing.

[citation needed] The 351W (Windsor) made its debut in 1969; it is often confused with the Ford 351 Cleveland, a different engine of near identical displacement that also began production in 1969.

The 351W had larger main bearing caps, thicker and longer connecting rods, and a distinct firing order (1-3-7-2-6-5-4-8 versus the usual 1-5-4-2-6-3-7-8, a means to move the unacceptable "noise" of the consecutively-firing adjacent front cylinders to the sturdier rear part of the engine block all while reducing excessive main bearing load), adding some 25 lb (11 kg) to the engine's dry weight.

In 1971 block deck height was extended from 9.480 to 9.503 in (240.8 to 241.4 mm) (casting D1AE-6015-DA) to lower the compression ratio to reduce NOx emissions without the need to change piston or cylinder-head design.

In 1974, the oil dipstick tube moved from the timing case to the skirt under the left cylinder bank near the rear of the casting.

The marine industry's relationship with the 351W platform ended when Ford was unable or unwilling to compete with GM's production of TBI- and MPI-equipped engines in mass quantity.

During that time, the recreational marine community's small-block V8 platform of choice shifted to the 350 cu in (5.7 L) Chevrolet L31 (Vortec 5700) engine series.