Looking around online at 5am i was reading about how you can put 351w heads on your 302 and get some performance. Is this and has anyone done it before? Also dont you have to change the upper and lower intake manifolds also? just seem to make more sense. Some dude was claiming he got a lot more hp's and torque from doing this. If so it would be cool to do but i dont wanna ghetto rig my truck if i dont have too. Just wanna know if its a straight bolt on and will run well.

Mark K. 88xlt lil 302!

 

I do not think you can put the heads from a 351 onto the 302. The exhaust manifolds may be a little defferent. And the intake ports, also, may be a little defferent. I'm assuming that you may have the fuel injection. One thing you might want do to get better perfor-mance, is to order the upper & lower intake manifold and throttle body from edelbrock. That will definately help with the performance. Also, mabe a set of headers will help.
I currently have a 90' EB Bronco with the 351W(5.8L). Recently just rebuilt the engine. Still waiting for a few parts. I used to have an 89' bronco with the 302(5.0L)engine. Between the two engines the 351W is the way to go. But it's a gas hog.
Hope the helps
Kimball

 

Yes, you can put 351W heads on a 302. You won't gain anything though unless you went to an older casting...like early 70's. Early castings were already cut for slightly larger valves. Starting in I believe 73 they had the same size valves as the 302, but still had larger ports. Late in the 70's they had the same ports and valves as a 302 but with larger combustion chambers to drop compression for emissions reasons. Starting in 87 they are the same heads, both use the E7TE castings. One thing that is different between all years, is the head bolt size, the 302 uses a 7/16" head bold, while the 351 head uses a 1/2" head bolt. This doesn't really matter though since you can get head bolts that have a washer face on them for this application. Almost all aftermarket heads have 1/2" head bolt holes in them. You can get these bolts from Ford or Edelbrock, probably ARP also.

-Darren

 

I am not sure I agree I beleive that the 351 heads are a stronger better quality part then the 302 head. I have been told you can get more performance by using a 351 head on a 302. I am going to look around to see if I can find out for sure.

 

I looked it up in my shop manuel and the heads appear to be the same. I think darren 66 is correct I dont see how you would get more performance if the late model heads are the same. Maybe the ports are larger but the valves are the same size.

 

Yah I found a good deal on a pair of Trick Flow Twisted Wedge heads, my friend had a 5.0 stang non HO bought the heads but the car was stolen and wrecked so i'm buying them for 500 bucks and slap those suckers on and see what happens.