First off, you’re right. Ford never made a Cleveland V12 but brilliant hot rodder Jan Baker sure did and we have video that shows how the whole package came together and of the engine making a couple of dyno pulls. As you will see in the footage below, Baker used a pair of 302 blocks which he mated together, three Cleveland heads that he chopped up and welded, and a really awesome custom made crank. Baker appears in the video and tries to downplay the whole thing as if it is the same as rebuilding a bone stock 302 but let’s be honest here, this is absolutely freaking fantastic in every way. The engine has an amazing scream to it and it looks awesome with a pair of 4bbl carbs on top. You will actually see the engine being prepared with one of the rare inline four barrel carbs that Ford developed back in the “Total Performance” days as well.
We were tipped off to this video by Billy Moffitt who is a wheelstander driver and longtime racer that runs a machine with a unique set of rear wheels and tires that Jan Baker had a hand in developing as well. This is the kind of suspender wearing, down home hot rodding genius that we absolutely love and want to celebrate here on BangShift. The video does a great job talking about the engine and how it came together so we’re not going to double up on that. Just sit back, relax, press play and watch this 552ci Ford Cleveland V12 scream to life in living color right before your eyes.
If this doesn’t absolutely make your Monday, you need to find a new hobby.
That sounds awesome, I hope he puts the engine in a car next.
wow! possibly the most bangshifty thing ever… I love it! I’d love to put that in my Falcon coupe…..
Mad science at its absolute best!
I hope that this is destined for an equally bonkers car!
perfect for a gt40
thank god it made my Monday because the underwater basket weaving course is full!
I’d have to have it in something open (no) hood … maybe a t-bucket, so it could be ogled all the time. Man it sounds pretty.
I’m on my way to the garage to clearance the firewall on the ranchero , hmmm wait a second it would fit better in the bed yeah thats the ticket , wheel stander v12 . way cool.
How many rpm’s was it turning?
That is very impressive. The guy has to be even more modest than Bob Glidden with “Shucks ’tweren’t nothing” description.
Yeah, cast iron may be easy to weld but it’s not known for staying welded for long.
This guy is not your average shade tree wrench twister, that’s for certain.
But still…you couldn’t hold a gun to my head and make me reach over that header and crack the throttle.
As awesome as it is, he just built a big dyno grenade and it simply hasn’t gone off yet. Hahaha
Impressive tho, no doubt about it.
easy? Over think it? uhhu….
The sound is really unique…
Well so many questions. Why only 3 heads. It has 6 cylinders on each side, so again only 3 heads. I could understand 2 six cylinder heads, but what makes up the old heads? 2 V6 heads on one side. Please explain otherwise I call B.S. I am kind of saying B.S. all the way.
one head on each side and the third head was cut in half and the two parts welded onto the other two heads. Comeon man.
The heads started as three 4bbl Cleveland heads. By cutting the front two off of two heads and the back one of of another and mating them back together to make two complete heads with a few cylinders left over.
After talking with my grandfather again I was way off thanks to a long day of work and confusing myself by overthinking. Jan cut the front off of one head right at the outer bolt holes, one off the back in the same way then cut the third head in half. This gives you two inline six heads. With Cleveland heads not rare but getting harder to find this uses as little as possible to complete the set and also makes it so the welds of the heads are in a different place than those in the block. Hope that cleared it up.
you see he split the third head and married it to the rest of the 302 heads.
Pretty slick? Because straight 6 didn’t offer the same compression options?
Would it not be easier to use two Aussie built 24 valve turbo in line 6 cylinder engines with a shared crank all parts ready to go Eg heads cams ignitions manifolds etc.
You could make a flat 12 like that yes, But mating the two straight 6’s into a v12 would mean having to construct the webbing in between the two blocks and angling them perfectly. This was done by removing the front bank of one block and the rear of the other and though careful machining and engineering mating them into one block.
SWEEEETTTTT!!!
I was pretty sure that the 302 was a small block V.8 ???
Small block and big block are actually Chevrolet engine terminology, but Ford also used the terms.
Ford had more engine families, and called the 221, 260, 289, 289HP, 302, 302 Boss, and 351 Windsor the “90 Degree V” family*.
Some of the other Ford V8 families are MEL, Y, 335, FE, and 385
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*Ford “Muscle Parts Story” Supplement NO. 1, page 5