Smalblock Ford Head Porting Questions...

[Spooky]

Howza Bruthas,
Is there a way to port the heads on a 302 engine easily? I know that these heads had some breathing issues and would like to improve on the design. Being a cheap bastard and living paycheck to paycheck I like to try and do things myself without the aid of a head shop.
(Heh Heh...I said head...)
Any ideas?

[Steve Ray]

Throw them away and get the '96 and up Explorer heads, sometimes called GT40P heads. These are like the Chevy Vortec heads-good flowing cheap iron production heads.

[lakes modified]

The cheap way is to get some 351w heads. the early 69-70 had bigger intake and a little bigger exhaust. otherwise to hog them out will take more money than just buying some new after market cast iron or alum. heads. i have some 76 351w heads real cheap if interested. even have a spare 70 351w head that i don't need anymore. you need to get out of town anyway, so come on down.

[recycler]

I agree, get the GT40P heads. The 351W heads don't offer a noticeable advantage. The GT's do. If you go with the heads you have just grind the EGR bumps out of the exhaust ports and work a little on the top side of exhaust runners. This applies to the 351W heads also. Brad

[50 Ford]

The only problem with the GT40P heads is that they have pedestal mount rockers(non adjustable) so if you go with a bigger cam than stock you have to shim the rockers to get the right geometry to make them stop rattling. There are some companies that sell conversions to put adjustable rockers on there but like you said, paycheck to paycheck.
I agree with the 351W heads for a good upgrade for a little more flow. If you are looking for a little more power you could also go with the early 289 heads, I think around the same years (1969,70) they had smaller combustion chambers.
But if you need the extra flow the 351W heads with some at home porting should work good.

keven

[Spooky]

Hey Lakes, bring 'em to the swapmeet and we'll talk!
Anyways, id I had the dough the GT-40 units or some other unit I would buy and use. I have no dough, so I am looking for the cheapest way to improve what I have. If the porting is easily done, then I will attempt it. I just wanna know how to do it, what to clean up and what NOT to do.
If it is over my head, then I will just clean up everything and bolt it back together.

[lowsquire]

feel inside the exhaust port, theres a distinct bump in there, grind it off.
Clean up the bowls and blend in the flat land around the valves a little, then just smooth out the exhuast exits to the size of a gasket.
Dont go very far, A little clean up will help, but your better off saving up for those later heads.

[lakes modified]

Spooky: i kinda doubt i'll be going to the swap meet next month. have been going for the last 30 plus years, but my back can't take the long walks any longer, so i'll most likley sit it out. if you come to the corvallis meet later, i could drag them along then or stop at my house . then i don't have to move them at all. you can pack them out and not me. i only want $35 for the pair. cash and carry , like the grocery store.

[Spooky]

EXCELLENT!
Thanx LS and Lakes,
See ya in Corvalis in the fall... http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

[Flat Ernie]

[ QUOTE ]
The only problem with the GT40P heads is that they have pedestal mount rockers(non adjustable)

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That's not the only problem - the port is different height, so headers may not fit right. It's a big problem in late-model stangs w/shorty headers - your mileage may vary.

You can port the hell out of stock 302 heads & still be money ahead with stock early 351W heads...

As has already been mentioned, you can almost completely remove the thermactor bump in the exhaust & open them all the way up to the gasket, do a light cleanup and blending on the bottom, but feel free to opeen up the the topside a bit more - lot of work though.

World cast-iron heads flow better than ported stock heads & ain't all that expensive...

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

[av8]

If you decide to go with the 351W heads and want to port them, I'll share the pix and info on a set I did a while back, with the help of "pigiron," a HAMBer in Montana who has a lot of experience with Ford heads. I port flatheads on a regular basis, so just applied my tool experience to pigiron's instructions and had an improved set of heads with about 10 hours of work.

pigiron, real name Mike, said the intake side of the 351W is pretty decent to begin with, just open up the runners to the gasket and tidy up and blend the bowls. The big improvement, he said, is found on the exhaust side, by getting rid of the egr bump and opening the ports to the gasket, as others have said on this thread. At first it looks just a taste drastic because it enlarges the ports by about 40 percent! But I experienced no breakthroughs, and the customer was pleased with the results.

[Flat Ernie]

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the intake side of the 351W is pretty decent to begin with, just open up the runners to the gasket

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If you can find a FelPro 1262 (I think that's the number) gasket, they're a touch larger & are designed for the 69-70 351W, they're the ones to use as a template. The gaskets they sell now aren't quite the same and are a bit smaller (still shows room to open them up)

[ QUOTE ]
At first it looks just a taste drastic because it enlarges the ports by about 40 percent! But I experienced no breakthroughs,

[/ QUOTE ]

Looks good! That's about right for the Ford heads though - it makes a big difference. Imagine what that's doing for flow! Aftermarket is the next level...

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