I've always loved those 6cyl Cleveland builds... Talk about some engineering... And 9's from a NA inline 6 is crazy but even more impressive it was done nearly 50 years ago! Great job Tim

Back in the mid 90s, Bruce came over to my home, and we looked through all of my old magazines from the 70s, and we found some great photos of his old car and I gave Bruce all the magazines because Bruce told his former wife had put everything of his in a dumpster. He was a genus, and what he did with that car made him a legend in drag racing. Dick Moroso and Bruce Sizemore were the two smartest guys I ever knew in drag racing when it came to building racing engines.

Good to see a Ford dedicated channel... From outside the USA it seems that all there its about GM and Mopar, specially in drag racing.. Congratulations.

Love the big Ford 6. Adding the Cleveland heads to that engine, the best of both worlds. Bore spacing on the 300 Ford Is 4.48 while the Cleveland is 4.38. That work's out to about 3/32"+. Had a 300 in a 66 Ford truck, added a Clifford intake and headers and a 390 CFM carb, really brought that engine to life.

I was on Bruces crew when we won Indy. Lots of fun Bruce was a great guy really under appreciated

Tim these videos with Bruce catching and passing Lee and the other Chevy drivers on the big end are simply fantastic ! They bring back great memories of seeing Bruce Sizemore in competition during the seventies at Gainesville Raceway in Florida. The Cleveland headed inline six cylinder in a Don Hardy chassis with Pinto bodywork was in a word just BADASS !! There’s another Cleveland creation that folks might be interested in seeing. There’s a interesting man named Jan Baker from my home state of Georgia that has hand fabricated a 552 cubic inch V-12 using Cleveland heads and Windsor blocks. He used two 302 Windsor blocks with the front two cylinders cut off block #1 and the rear two cylinders cut off of block #2. He aligned the blocks and used his precision welding skills to join them together. For ignition he used 2 distributors operating independently with one for each cylinder bank in odd fire configuration. Three 351 Cleveland 4-V, quench chamber heads were cut into sections and welded together for the V-12 setup. It uses a billet 120 degree, 3.500” stroke custom crank by Henry Velasco. The Howard’s connecting rods are 5.565” long with 12 custom 4.090” Arias pistons. The heads got a mild porting job and use 2.19” intake and 1.760” exhaust valves. Jan fabricated 3 different steel intake manifolds for it. The first shakedown dyno pulls in 2015 , he used TWO ultra rare Ford Autolite inline four barrel carbs that kept running way too rich on premium pump gas with a 10.5 compression ratio. Despite many problems his first pull managed 604 hp with 491 torque. By the end of the first session it made 697 hp with 576 torque. In the 2017 dyno pulls he used three Holley 4-V carbs and a better cam profile to ring up 872 hp @ 7200 rpms and 669 lb/ft of torque @ 6000 rpms. Much better for sure. Jan ran it up to 8000 rpms and it was still pulling strong with 811 horsepower. I heard that in the most recent dyno pulls it really made some impressive numbers but I don’t have the results. The whole story should still be here on KZfaq and is definitely worth checking out. There was some discussion about having the financial backing to do some design improvements, especially with the induction system and then possibly taking orders to build more engines for customers. Just imagine a Ford V-12 Clevor engine 😉. The possibilities are mind boggling !

I have the original article about Bruce Sizemore building the Cleveland headed 300 Ford. Had problems with crankshafts. If I remember correctly he got one from Moldex crankshaft back in the day. Two piece pushrod and a second lifter. Pretty trick and innovative. Glad your bring up these cool old stories! Great content thank you, EM.

The local strip had a 300 inch Ford powers T- pickup that ran in E/SR. It only appeared once but it shredded the field. I remember well the sound and the way it launched.

Always liked the 300 six. One tough engine. Bruce really made that engine run, both in the Maverick and Pinto. Would like to hear an interview with Bruce!

It never ceases to amaze me what length guys can go to. Thanks for blowing the cobwebs of this one for us Tim.

I was 25 in '78, & I was there at the US NATIONALS. I remember Bruce very well. Being a diehard Ford fan,it tickled the hell out of me to see him beat Lee! So many were only interested in watching the Pro classes,but for me it was the Stock thru P/S that I was excited to see!

great story, its amazing the idea that bruce had to go against the V8 and stay with the straght 6. just the work that went into making that head, and then getting 500 HP thats crazy . really cool story Tim

In the late sixties I worked at K&L Speed Shop in Detroit. Bruce would show up on Saturday afternoon and I would do what ever machine work he needed on his Ford 300 cylinder head, he had this engine in a "D" Dragster. This was long before the Cleveland Head. Bruce helped me with my racing efforts by some "Back Door" parts (GT-40 Heads)for my "Old" Thunder Bolt that I put a 314 cu. in. Injected Small Block and ran it in "E" Gas

Wow never seen that setup. That thing sounding great. Smart folks back in those days. Down here in the south we had a guy running a boss 429 head on a 2300 4 cylinder. Dragster. That thing was fast. Naturally aspirated reved to 12000 RPM. Thanks 😊🙏

Looking forward to hearing from both you and Reverand Cleveland, that was a genuine (and unanticipated) treat!

My father had a Ford dump truck from the 60s with a 300 inline 6. Great motor!

I've literally never heard of this even though I've been stanning on these 300s for a few decades now. My brother bought an early '80s F250 with one in it that had 300k miles on it for real cheap. It was run by a landscaping company he worked for for all those miles, so hard miles with a lot of stop and go and loaded most of the time. He resold it to my uncle, a farmer, who had his buddy help him put some valve seals on it and ran it for a bunch more years until the frame rusted in half. Not sure of exact mileage but it had to be around 400k and it was still a strong runner. My uncle is harder on vehicles than anyone I've ever met, and even he couldn't kill it with all those miles on it. Been a fan of them ever since and had the idea to try to build one up but you just can't get a good head for these, unless of course you make one lol. Great stories here. I love the interview you did with Sherman Sligh. That dude is super cool. Can't believe he made 620 hp NA with one of these.

That's awesome I can't wait till Sunday night Andy is a very smart knowledgeable man. This channel is awesome

Thanks Tim for sharing that Modified production stuff!! Incredible engineering on that 6 Cyl cleveland head

Mr. Sly had one of the greatest story of a roadster//altered story I’ve listened to …! Now I’m watching article on the pinto ( ford ) Sizemore helped build. Ausomness!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No gentlemen, you are late, I know of two engineers who did this with 289/302 heads in the middle sixties and ran an E altered car with one gear naturally aspirated. I saw this car run 8.40 in the quarter in 1967 their names; Vernon “Pete” Hall God rest his soul, and Sherman Sligh. I don’t think Sherman is still alive either. This was at Aquasco speedway in Aquasco Maryland.

Another great video them Cleveland engines are no joke.

Not a Cleveland 6cly. But I recall a 53 vette ?/MP on the cover of Super Stock running with 3 Holley 660's. That was just some all around cool shit! Love the channel!

The top end charge of that Pinto is impressive!

Reminds me of Hard Top racing in the early 1950's.. while most the guys were running a Merc flathead V8, there were a couple guys who modified and ran a Plymouth 6 cylinder, with a distinct torque advantage off the corners.

Powernation just finished a series about Fords 300 six. I think they got close to 500 HP using a turbo. What's impressive with Sizemore's 300 Ford is that he got all that power without using a turbo/supercharger. Also, as people have mentioned, Sizemore did this using 1970's technology.

I love it when someone jimmies up an old six banger. I have a 250 Chevy six in my ‘36 Plymouth hot rod with balanced crank, flat top pistons, and lump port modified head. Can’t wait to get it up and running.

I remember reading the article about the Cleveland head on a 6 in a drag magazine back when I was a teenager. Don't remember all the details, but seems like the main reason the V8 head mods were done, is because the intake and exhaust manifolds were on the same side of the engine on the 6. By having the intake manifold on one side of the engine and the exhaust on the other using a V8 head, the 6 could breath with better carburetion and porting making immense power. Not to mention the many performance parts available for the Cleve heads that weren't available for the 6.

We had a local Pinto, run by John Bugenski and Mark Fetiel[?]. It ran the same setup. The head was furnace-brazed by Batten. It was also an ex-Glidden pro-stock car. Probably the Gapp/Roush car. I remember it went mid 9's. That was in the same time period. When they raced, Joe Williamson and they would add or subtract weight to change classes. I found a couple old pictures, online. We were young, and hung out at their shop. They called it a "power hack-saw".

Amazing 6cyl Cleveland heads story, great engineering back in the day.

There is not many of us left that remember those times. I’m 74 now but I know a few still alive that can verify this story

You are killing it brother. Really enjoying what your doing.

Wow thanks for this, its awesome to see all the pioneers of he golden era and marvel at their ingenuity

Awesome build ! I bet if “they “ (someone) made a mold and casted it out of aluminum or better yet cnc that style of head out of billit aluminum , they could sell all they make ! And also experiment with turbo or blower the possibilities could be endless and smash Inline 6 records ( everything in its proper order of course) . I am not against the jeep crowd and there I-6 is getting a lot of power turbocharged but with that cleaveland style head on that ford 6 would make it the “Boss” for sure!

Good presentation. Very interesting.

Bruce Sizemore is a mechanical genius.

Hi Tim, have the Hot Rodding magazine with Bruce winning the Nationals. Also on computer the building of chassis & motor. Very clever work

Almost done building a 393W turbo and 5 speed Im excited but listening to your channel im gonna be building a 351C stroker and a turbo and really get after it!

I've heard of this 300 6 before .... Very impressive..... Wow just simply amazing

Hey mate. Thats amazing, iv seen a few pics and iv watch the edison engine shop video on a similar engine, its very kool and that fact that car is still around is fantastic! Well done on tracking down all the info about it, i really enjoyed it. Furnace brazing you say, im going to look into that, i always wondered how they welded them. Thanks Richard, aussie clevo fan.

With all the aftermarket companies making Cleveland heads these days, it’s too bad they don’t cast a Cleveland head for the 300 six. Absolutely bulletproof engine that was extremely reliable and made a good amount of low end power in factory configuration. I think there would be a market for it. The 300 still powers plenty of older vehicles on the road today and has plenty of fans that love that engine.

Bruce has bought the car back and is restoring it. I crewed on it at the world finals in 75 where we won it all.

Those things are a work of art especially getting the bolt holes to line up the 300 six bore spacing is .100 bigger than the cleveland

I remember reading about the building of the engine back in the 70s. Then they said that he band sawed 3 Boss 302 heads then furnace brazed them together. The bore spacing of the 300 and the 302 is the same making the head bolts line up. I remember Bruce saying that he had a major vibration problem with the engine and had to assemble it using red Locktite to keep it together and even then the flywheel would loosen up. I would love to duplicate his setup. We had several 6 cylinder cars back in the 60s and 70s that were nothing but fast. Guy I went to High School with had a 59 Plymouth with the slant six. It had a four barrel carb and headers and most V8 cars couldn’t touch him.

i remember seein a video a while back with a guy who was running a turbo 300 in a maverick.if i recall correctly he was getting into the high 10's.with a mostly stock bottom end & 5k rpm limit.the 300 was designed to run forever in a light duty pickup.will be millions of them still running 20 years from now.

I’m pretty sure Bruce’s Maverick had the sectioned Cleveland heads on it like the Pinto. It was earlier so there were likely some differences in the details, but I remember reading about it and thinking “How freaking cool!”

Once again, a great video Tim, thanks!👍

I can't believe no company ever offered an aftermarket crossflow head for the Ford 300. People Love these engines and I think if somebody like AFR or TrickFlow offered one that wasn't a million dollars people would without a doubt buy them.

That Cleveland 6 cylinder is an awesome build. I also saw a guy taking 2 LS heads and weld them together and fitting them on a 300

Man that’s BadAss 👍🏼🏁, great find & vid 👌🏼 Anything 4V headed....be sure it’s coming for ya on the top end 🏁🏁🏁

Tonight is a good night and I can not wait to get home and get together after the family reunion tomorrow morning. Have a great evening DragBoss!

I remember seeing in a old Hot Rod Mag years ago thinking thats Awesome. Thanks for showing

The only other 300 six I saw racing back in the day, ‘74’ or ‘75’ was at New England Dragway in Epping New Hampshire. The car was so different sounding than the other cars it was bracket racing and killing them too. So consistent also., a late 50’s early 60’s C1 Corvette convertible. Nothing flashy either, definitely a sleeper and home garage project. I went back to the pits and took a closer look. The owner told me it started life as a 300 six, mated it with a “welded up cross flow head and added a belt driven Paxton supercharger from a Studebaker! Can’t make this up! All I know he never lost a race that day, beat all comers, Dodge, Plymouth, Chevy and Fords. Than drove the car home after he closed off the header. I wish I had a picture and an audio of that sound. So cool👍

I remember Bruce Sizemore racing his 6 banger at Edgewater outside Cincinnati....modified production meets were a regular occurrence there and finals were often Preparation H and Granny Goose camaro

Joe Williamson ran an Altered roadster for many years with modified Cleveland heads on a 300 ci inline six. I’m pretty sure Joe had multiple national wins with this car.

Awesome dude I love this type of old ford stuff thank you for the content

Back when I was a kid "ha ha" there was a guy, that had 300 6 sprint car, that was really FAST. Forgot to mention we had a 1/4mile stock car track were I live, that CLEVELAND 300 6 was A V8 EATER !!!! THANK'S from NOR-CAL!!!!!!

Luv this video, extremely interesting.

Damn, that is really cool! Makes me want to put a Cleveland head on my dirt bike! Keep the cool videos coming! I would love to have seen him even take it a step further, building a V12 out of 2 inline 300's with the same Cleveland heads.

Super video on Mr. Sizemore, thanks Tim👍👍👍💯💯💯

Great to see all my old Facebook friends finding their way to your KZfaq channel, Tim. Getting nuked and losing my drag racing page was heartbreaking. Working on getting some more people in touch with you to talk about the early days of Pro Stock. This is the first time I've left a comment on KZfaq since November 4th and my enthusiasm for what you are doing is why I have broken my silence. I remember the Sizemore Pinto very clearly but the main thing I remember about it is not only how fast it was, but the sound it made! Keep doing what you're doing, this is awesome! I'm over on MeWe now and I've restarted Robert Hill's Drag Racing Page over there if anybody is trying to find me. But mostly I'm talking about 'other' stuff....

back in the late 70 me and a friend Daniel built a 300 six with a furnaced brazed cleveland head. we were running a 70 maverick with a 351c in super street then super gas 9.90 at 147 mph, the crank went bad , nodular iron cranks were hard to find then and expensive, Daniel had access to a brazing furnace, Chet Hebert ground us a cam.Chet was amazing he did all our cams in those days. We lightened up the car with fiberglass hood fenders doors trunk and bumpers and went back racing with the six. we had to change the flywheel bolts after every day of racing otherwise the bolts would shear off due to vibration. there were no billet cranks available to us back in those days, that long cast crank would flex and vibrate even though the balance was spot on.

That was a race heaven if you were a Ford fan. 😎 Before NHRA ran most of the Fords out of competition with there weight penalties on all Fords using Boss 302 and 351 C type cylinder heads. 😭 Buddy Ingersoll also had a awesome turbo Ford Pinto that NHRA hated.

If I remember right back in the late 80's early 90's there was a altered running an aluminum Clevland headed 300. Maybe D altered? Man long time ago.

Anything Cleveland, i absolutely love. Great video Tim . I would love to see someone do the same to 2V Cleveland heads, high port plate on exhaust, and filling in on intake , just to see what it can produce. Anyway great stuff Tim , we have a little covid 19 problem in Australia at the moment. 😊😷👍

There's something special about straight 6's. They have this storied place in automotive go-fast history. The Mercedes M06 is a personal favorite. The 7 Litre supercharged heart of the 720 SSK.

Ford Australia built what they called the crossflow 6 (250 cu. in.) in the late 70's as an iron head engine, then switching to alluminium in the early 80's. these engines borrowed heavily from cleveland head design, you could actually use rocker arms interchangeably between the 2 engines. btw these engines are the evolutionary grandfather of the Ford Australia Barra engine.

Awesome. Thanks for doing this vid. I must have the same magazine as I’ve been tempted ever since, having clevelands and 300s lying about. I would assume it is much easier with aluminum heads being common now. Did I see reference to one being built in the vid? The LS cleveland copy heads of course bolt up too and some guys have done this on 300s. There’s even a series of vids where a guy runs LS heads on a cleveland block!(shame). Now if we can just get Kaase or TFS to offer the Cleveland sick six head!

I remember a Hot Rod Magazine article back in the day that credited Bob Glidden with inventing the Cleveland exhaust port plate.

I guess you know and I was hoping I was sharing something new . Lol. Love your videos

Soooo good!

I had a chance to buy 3 of these heads bare for $1200!! And that was a bundle not a piece.. I lost the guys number from switching phones.. I kick myself in the ass for this all the time..

beautiful

Hello, like all the info but would like to correct some info. That was Lou Oleynik in the picture working on it. Also the pinto wasn't found in a barn....it was at Oleynik Body in Detroit. Same Oleynik body that built the kickass haulers. Mr. Oleynik owned it after Bruce.

There it is, Sizemore's "Cleveland" six - I've told so many about it and they just look stunned. Real racers build what they can't buy. It was three sets of Cleveland heads to build Bruces head (the final iteration), talk about innovation.

That was when you had to be creative to be able to run the time you want to run couldn't go to the aftermarket and buy a bunch of stuff back then like we can nowadays which it's easier on me I don't have the smarts this man had I thank you for sharing all this information on these clevelands that was my first car was a 70 torina GT Cleveland full barrel everything goes well for you I hope thank you

Very interested in knowing more about this engine please ! Any kind of follow-up would be greatly appreciated ! I am one of the twisted few who believe in the power of the FORD 300 "BIG" six, including turbo-charging the six !

You CANNOT talk about these Boss/Cleveland headed Ford inline 6 engines without talking about Sherman Sligh! Ask Ken Ellison!!!

I don't know how you do it but you got these guys and girls bouncing around the porch and I think it was 1974 listening to the crowd

Crowd is watching you now!

Again something I never knew.

Look up pro stock 75 from Miami-Hollywood speedway no sound but it has glidden,dyno don and ronnie Sox in a colt . That was my stomping ground when I was a kid . Closed in 92 now nothing but houses for miles

Was lucky to see cotton perry run his h modified nova at chattanooga , where gary isbull would bring his j gass mavrick with Cleveland six in it.they would really put on a good show. Perry later on would win a NHRA world championship with his six cylinder nova ,lotta hard working people back then

There was a guy near me, David Majors. His was made from 3 heads. This was near Nashville Tennessee.

Was watching about BOB GLIDDEN ALL THE WORK ON THE TUNNEL RAM AND EXTENSIVE HEAD WORK

Gave everyone of them Chevroleg's a head start too.

There is a wealth of knowledge on many of the Cleveland head and sandwich 300 heads at the FordSix forums. Even a few guys who ran them back in the day. There are still a few 500+ HP 300s being raced to this day. A little known fact is that Ford had pallets worth of crossflow heads cast for the 240 and 300 sixes. All but a few got melted down.

Thanks l couldn't remember the names mixed up with buddy Ingersoll and bruce sizemoore bruce had the 6 and buddy the 4 cyl turbo pinto cool Stuff. lm excited to build & looking for 351 c parts for my 63 fairlane pro street car found a pr of yates E3 nascar heads and rockers in the attic of an old circle track racers barn finding more info on these heads looking for parts $$$$ want to build a stroker was at a denver area swap today and crazy 351 c parts there still out there ! thanks for your u tube channel

Wow, so the Ambrose, Argenta, Huettman SVO engineers six-cylinder rail wasn't the first to be done by someone who worked for Ford ! Some more great digging into a lesser-known (albeit fairly successful), avenue of 70's Ford drag racing !!

I remember. It was amazing in it's time.

I still have some magazines featuring the Cleveland headed 300 six.

I hauled that car to Seattle for the Fallnationals in 1976 ,,which we won,,behind the D600 Dodge truck,,I was good friends with Dempsey Hardy,,,when that car was called the Hauler it belonged to Louie Oleniyk the guy that built the enclosed car hauling trucks out of Detroit,,,ha ha showin my age

Six in LINE 👏👍 Aqui no Brasil usamos o GM 250" e GM 292" 500hp aspirado e mais de 1500hp nos turbos.

They actually used the boss 302 cyl head back in tha day, them things sound like a buzz saw, and fast as hell💯💯💯

jerry from paramus n.j. runs that set up since 74.in an opel gt.

3rd generation Ford till death do us part.Amen

Great to see it racing

Amazing creativity. Being from AUSTRALIA - I have to mention the BARRA as an impressive 6-cylinder FORD engine - but that is somewhat 'cheating' with its new technology compared to this 50-year ago supa-dupa 6-cylinder with the furnace brazed CLEVELAND head. NEATO stuff indeed to hear about that from 50-years ago. Another 6-cylinder made here was the CHRYSLER 265 HEMI which in the hot E49 (and E38) version ran triple WEBBERS from the factory and if my memory serves me correctly - the E49 version was quicker than the nightly 351 CLEVELAND GTHO FALCONS (AUD1,000,000,oo cars here these days). Then there was the XU-1 TORANA - again a triple cab 6-cylinder HI-PO engine and in a very light car. I had a genuine BATHURST version (CK block casting) - HA - wish I still had it. And I often cringe at me being guilty of helping to strip the running gear out of a genuine but rusty E49 - sending the body to the rubbish tip and installing the E49 running gear into a not rusty 4-door VALIANT - HA - those were the days. Have a safe and nice day all. CHEERS from AUSTRALIA.

I remember that 6 cylinder pinto!

I am pretty sure weber carbs were used.