Ford's small-block V8 powered Mustangs and trucks for four decades
Ford began building its small-block V8 in July 1961 and did not stop until December 2000. The same basic block grew from 221 to 351 cubic inches along the way, and its best-known size, the 302, later badged as the 5.0, sat under the hoods of Mustangs, Torinos, Explorers and F-150 pickups.
The first version debuted in the 1962 Fairlane and Mercury Meteor. Engineers chased lightness with thin-wall casting and a short block skirt that stopped at the crankshaft centreline, so despite its cast iron it weighed just 470 pounds dry, the lightest and most compact V8 of its type at the time. A modest compression ratio let owners run it on regular petrol.
Boring and stroking came quickly. A 260 arrived in 1962, a 289 in 1963 and the 302 later, with the taller-decked 351 added in 1969. Carroll Shelby received about 100 hot 260s for early AC Cobras, and the Sunbeam Tiger used one too. When Chevrolet's Camaro was winning in Trans-Am racing, Ford combined improved heads with the 302 block to make the famous Boss 302. The worst chapter was a 255 of the early 1980s, a detuned 302 created to meet fuel economy rules; performance was so dismal it was dropped after 1982 and the 302 carried on.
Enthusiasts often call the whole family the Windsor, but Ford only used that label for the 351 built in Windsor, Ontario, to tell it apart from a different 351 made in Cleveland, Ohio. Around 3,500,000 of the 289 alone came out of Ford's first Cleveland engine plant in the 1960s.
The overhead-cam Modular V8 began replacing it in the 1991 Lincoln Town Car, and the Mustang switched in 1996. The last North American installation was the 2001 Explorer, and Ford Australia kept using it through 2002. Ford still sells versions as crate engines.
Source: Ford small block engine
