I know they can 'fix' such things, but I'd rather not.

Having a hard time finding a head for a decent price. To the point I wonder if it's just better to replace the whole engine…

Can't seem to find much around where I am (western colorado)…

Any ideas what is a good price on a head or where to get them or engine? Experience with remanufactured ones?

 

I see there is a rebuildable 300 head on ebay, located in Puebla, CO. The price is $125. Good luck. The 300 head will bolt to a 240 block, but will lower the compression half a number. For example, from 9.0:1 to 8.5:1. Or, you can have it milled to compensate for the difference. k

 

I had a cracked head on my 300 and bought a rebuilt one off Ebay for $300 including shipping. Came from Cylinder Heads International or something. No cost to return the core (they didn't care if it was cracked) and they didn't charge a core charge up front. As long as you returned the core within 30 days you were good to go.

Haven't installed the unit yet, but it all looked good.

Tracy

 

I have a few feelers out locally, maybe I'll get lucky. If not I'll have to consider the used on ebay and rebuild, or already done. Seems reviews of 'other peoples work' leads me to believe a lot of the remanufactured stuff is done pretty poorly.

 

If you purchase a used head, take it to a machine shop and have them magnaflux it to determine if there are any cracks. It is better to spend the cost of having it checked than to spend all the time and cost of redoing it only to have problems when you run it. k

 

A head from a fuel injected 300 ('87-'96) has about the same size chamber as a 240. It uses bolt-down rockers vs stud mounted but you should be able to snag everything from a wrecking yard on the cheap.

Check this site for yards near you: Car-Part.com--Used Auto Parts Market

 

That site is AWESOME. Thanks.

BTW, my old (cracked) head is cast number c8ae-c … which the ford books show was used on some 300's. So I'd imagine if I get lucky enough to find one of those, no planing needed.

 

The yards around here are loaded with Ford 6 cylinder trucks and vans...I love mine, but the rest of the crowd generally eschews the "flatlander special" in favor of the V8. ~Bill

 

One of the heads Ford put on the 300 has higher compression than the others. I have one. It is from '82, and has ridges on the plug side of the valves, where the other heads don't. I believe Ford called this the swirl affect. The ridges take up space in the c.chamber, thereby raising the c.r. a bit. There is one such head on ebay now. It is the shiny one.

Be careful with your c.r. If you want to stay on the least costly fuel you need to be not higher than 9.5:1, max. And the closer you keep it to 9.0 the better.

 

I saw pictures of that type, and wondered about that.

Oh, while on the topic of heads, does anyone know, do these NEED the newer brass valve guides? I have been in two shops and both said it HAS to be done. Considering that adds over 160 bucks to the cost, I'd like to find out for sure. Seems most of these old trucks have been running on new 'dry' gas for many decades and for the most part it hasn't been an issue, so not sure about the 'need'.

 

Found this story and explanation…

Bronze Guides in Cast Iron Cylinder Heads. - Michael's Blog

 

Guides only HAVE to be replaced if they are worn. Which is reasonable to expect on an old engine with hundreds of thousands of miles.

 

Just to add to what the others have told you.

If you go with a carbed 300 head it will lower your compression on the 240.

If the casting/engineering # has an "A" for the 3rd digit it's a 240 head. The 300 heads will have a "T"

You can run a 300 EFI head, they have the same size combustion chambers as the 240 heads. But the EFI 300 has fast burn chambers which means you will most likely need to recurve the distributor to remove some of your total timing advance. And also the efi heads were very prone to cracking if they were overheated.

Only worry about the valve guides if they are worn or damaged. Usually the machine shops will try and push you to install hardened seats in older heads because of unleaded gas. But the 240 & 300's came stock with flame hardened seats.

If it was me I would just try to find another 240 head and have it rebuilt as needed. And like F-250 restorer mentioned if you buy a used head have it cleaned & magnafluxed before you have any work done on it. After that have them check the guides. Also have them check the deck surface to see if it's warped. If it is it will need to be milled. The have them do a valve job and replace the valve seals.

 

I wonder about this. My cracked head is a C8AE-C … I can find no reference of such a head being on 240's, but I know I saw in a book at one of the machine shops that it was use don some 300's. I found one in a different stat that I am calling to buy tomorrow, it is a C8AE-D, which I find a few more references, but mostly that it's a 300 head. Guess I will find out when I get it and can sit them next to each other.

 

That's funny I've got a C8AE 240 head sitting on a shelf in my storage unit right now. If the third digit is an "A" it's a 240 head, plain and simple. The "A" refers to the vehicles they were designed to be used in. The "A" refers to full size Ford cars. The 300 was never offered in a car from the factory. The 240 was. The 240 was also used in trucks but all 240 heads have the A.

The last digit in the # is just the engineering version of that part. If they made a minor engineering change to a part it would get a different letter. So let's say they decided to make a slight design change to the C8AE-C head. The ones with the change would then be C8AE-D.