So I just picked up a early 302 short block. Some one told me that 351w heads are the way to go. My question is what intake do I uses? Any and all suggestions would help a ton. Thanks
You can use any intake that fits a 302. If you can find them, a set of later GT40 heads are great and aluminum. Used on most 5.0 equipped Explorers.
I believe you just use the same 302 manifold you would have used anyway. I have a pair of '69 351W 4bbl. heads that years ago I was told were the hot set up for a 289-302. Since then Ford has made lots of pretty good heads for 302/5.0 engines. Some better than my old 1969 parts I bet. To bad your in LA. I could make you a hell of a deal on some 351 heads.
Thanks guys, I found a guy local to me here. He said said he has a pair of 351w heads,,,,but he took one apart. Not sure how much it would cost me to have someone put it back together. I dont know, he said he sell them for 150.00 bucks. It just make me nerves that one has been taken apart.
Only the early 351W (76 and older) are any better than 302 heads. They had slightly bigger valves (1.84 vs 1.75 IIRC) The head bolts are a different size, 1/2" vs 7/16", ARP and Edelbrock make the proper bolts to keep everything lined up right. The 302 intake manifold will work. Some 351W heads have 8 intake bolts instead of 6 and it your manifold doesn't match up you need to block the extra holes to keep water from leaking. But honestly these days with good cylinder heads being available new for under $1,000 a set, it isn't worth rebuilding an old set of 351W's for the small performance gains
It could be a lot more than just putting them back to gether. Do they have hardened seats, are the valves good? Are the guides and seals good? Do they need surfacing etc. You can easily drop $500.00 or more on old heads.
I wouldn't worry about them being taken apart, because I would say they need to probably need to go to the machine shop anyway for at least new guides and seals. Not too expensive. $150 sounds like a good price. 1969 and 70 are good castings, the intake ports are bigger, the valves are a little bit bigger and the small combustion chambers yield good compression. The rest of the 351w heads are about the same performance as 302 heads. Any 289 or 302 intake fits, it depends on your budget. A factory intake will have ports that are a different size than 69-70 351w heads. You can "match" them a bit with a dremmel.
Hotroddon is correct. The 351W heads are no big deal, you gotta have the special head bolts and you have to know the chamber volume to tune in your compression. Power gains without port work is very minimal on the intake side and zero on the exhaust. Also, the front dress bolt size is larger than 302 which means you will have fun digging up the correct length accessory bolts and enlarging the bolt holes on the brackets. I did all of this for my 302 in my 68 Cougar with PS and AC. In the end it was not worth the trouble. Look to some nice used Edelbrocks or go with the high-velocity GT40P heads and the GT40P-specific headers to match.
Ok thanks hotroddon and 58custom. I have a guy here at my shop that says he can make me some sleeves for the head bolts. If it looks like its not worth the trouble I'll just look for GT40P heads or the Edelbrocks heads Suggested.
58Custom touched on it, but the Explorer heads can be GT40 (96-mid98) or GT40P (98-end), but neither are aluminum. Don't hang me on those years, but its pretty close to that. The Ps will have GTP cast into the flange below the spark plug holes. GT40s are available aluminum, but I think they get a Y or X at the end. I think the exploders were rated about 250hp, which is certainly better than the 225 of a 5.0 mustang, which uses E7TE heads (87-95 5.0; 93-95 cobra had GT40s). I'll get on board saying don't bother rebuilding the 351s; I sent a set of ported E7s in to have seals replaced and one seat recut and it was something like $250. I've seen E-brocks and TFS aluminum sets go under a grand and you'll be way happier with those.
If you have the $$ aftermarket heads are much better. I was looking at it from my cheap-bastard-point-of-view.
The 351W heads are not worth the bother on a 302 and having to mess with the bolt spacers.Check out www.sbftech.com and www.corral.com classifieds or www.kmjent.com for some deals on heads, new complete aluminum Ford Racing GT40's are available from Summit about $900 a pair,GT40P's don't play nice with the headers or manifolds used on other heads due to spark plug placement,this comes up on many internet forums.
Any aftermarket heads are so much better than any stock head, that the price difference isn't worth mentioning.
Sound like the GT-40 heads are the way to go. If I come across the $ I will be buying aftermarket. Thanks of all the information once again. Man with out the H.A.M.B I would most likely be starching my head wondering what to do to make the motor a little better. Now I just need to find something to put it in lol!!!
As mentioned the 351 heads used to be the hot ticket back in the day. Stock 302 and 351 heads from 1982-1995 are all the same. Today there's better alternatives to using old 351 heads.
Not true. GT40P's have relocated spark plugs. Some times this can foul a tube location but not normally. They also have a slightly raised lower head bolt boss that can interfere with some header flanges, and usually you can grind the flange a little to clear this. But the bolt pattern is the same as standard SBF heads. I build headers prototypes for a living and have a set of P heads sitting right here.
If you're going to put better heads on it, do a better cam and rocker arms while you're at it. You can easily get that up to 325-350 horse at the flywheel with some simple add-ons. Maybe start looking around at the crate engine places or look at some of the engine build-up articles in HotRod and mags like that for a good recipe of parts. The parts have to work together. Here's a good example of what you can get out of a 302. http://www.enginefactory.com/Ford_350_horsepower.htm If you want to do some more 'off-topic' reading, check out sites like FFcars.com or ClubCobra.com. Tons of those guys put 302's in their cobra replicas and a lot of them talk about what combination of parts they used to get to their dyno numbers. Go nuts an punch it out to a 331 or 347.
I really like Edelbrock Alum heads for everyday good street use. Big valves 194 or 202 and great ports. I run them on my roadster and my Falcon.
not traditional by any means but still a 302 build up i just did a 302 for my truck standard bore and stock piston. trick flow cam (nothing crazy) gt 40 intake and t body 32 lb injectors out of a 460 truck windsor sr heads long tubes and edis with all the 98 explorer front drive components megasquirt 376 hp at the wheels all junk yard stuff except the cam and heads $2500
69-70 351W heads have bigger combustion chambers,not smaller.By the time you put in hardened seats and valves-valve job,seals etc. you could buy a good set of heads.The problem with the GT40 or Explorer exhaust is some headers won't clear the relocated spark plugs.Stay away from the knock off heads made in China,was too many problems!I have used both types of heads on various projects over many years of small block Ford builds and in my opinion they are not worth the hassels.JMO,ROY.
Yall missed the boat. I wouldn't use a 351 head...the valve sizes are not much larger, but the chamber sure is, and you loose compression. Now you need pop-up pistons or start milling. If you want to build a higher compression 302, use early 289 heads...from '65. They have a 54cc chamber and work well with a mild lift cam and flat tops. A little bit of bowl work and gasket match...great heads! (Yes...they bolt right on) Whats more, for an average of $500-$700, you can get a fully built set of '65 small chamber 289 heads with 1.94"/1.60" valves, hardened seats with multi-angle valve job, port work, bowl work, bronze guides, guide plates, and screw in rocker studs. Not bad compared to $1,000 for bare aluminum castings...when on a budget that is. Heads from the '70's tend to have humps in the exhaust ports which hinders flow...they suck...'80's were not much better. Outside of the '65 heads, the only other stock Ford casting I would use is a GT-40P heads simply for much improved flow. The rest are only slightly better or worse than each other, not much to squabble over. Aluminum heads are a good investement unless you don't want to make it. Yeah...tons of people make aftermarket heads for 302's...but when pinching dimes and pennies, put your change in stock castings. They were good enough for B/FX cars in the 60's...I am pretty sure they will work ok for you. You could always put 351C heads on...make a Clevor. That takes a specific intake, but makes for a hell of a street engine!
69-70 351W heads have 60cc chambers. Standard 289 heads had 54.5, the rarest is the C3 GT head at 49.2 chambers, but good luck finding any. The truth is that a change from 54.5 to 60cc chambers will result in a net change of compression ratio of less than half a point, say from 9.5 to 9.0 (depending on pistons of course). But I wouldn't use any of the stock Ford stuff in this day and age, except maybe the GT40/GT40P. As for comparing costs, $700.00 for a set of small chamber heads with all the good parts freshly rebuilt is a bit on the low side, but might be able to be done. BUT Aluminum heads are available complete ready to run with much better ports and a better ability to stave off detonation with higher compression for as little as $929.00 a pair for Edelbrocks E Street or $935.00 for Patriot's. I'd save up and spend the extra two hundred clams any day.
go online to car parts .com and look for 93 Ford explorer heads, they run about $300 per pair. they will have 3 lines cast into the ends of the head for identification. This is the cheapest HP for a SBF.
The Explorer didn't get the 5.0 V8 until 1996. The 96 and early 97 have the GT40 heads (the ones with the 3 dash lines) and then mid 97 until 02 have the even better GT40P heads (which have 4 dashes cast in)
Yes you do. A dyno shop I deal with has done a lot of 302 work, according to their testing the best head, bang for the buck, today, is made by Air Flow Research. The date of manufacture has a lot to do with how stock 351W heads are going to perform. You really want to figure out exactly what your budget is. I spent 15 years trying to get power out of a 302, girdled, 141/2-1 Arias pistons, windage trays, chevy titanium push rods, 250 shot, the whole wild crazy mess. You really are going to hit a wall with a 302 that dollars just can not get past. Size. The heads are the best investment towards power that you can make on a small engine, it needs to breathe and the stock mini valve heads with the poor port size is not going to cut it. I will say, if I had a choice between spending 2 grand on a set of high flow high quality aluminum heads or a G on set of stock or poor quality aftermarket heads I would go for the built set of high quality heads. No other part is going to make or break the build like the heads. And you cant just swap out a part to correct it, well you can but its the whole set of heads. And poor flow ers have a terrible resale value.
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