I have been contemplating using the early 69-73 big valve 351w heads on a 94 5.8 roller cam motor. One issue I was having was pushrod length. The old 351W heads use rail rockers and the 5.8 roller use pedestal rockers. I don't want to have to take a daily driver down any longer than possible, so checking needed pushrod length and then waiting on expensive custom pushrods is undesired. My solution is finding a length by math, using numbers from the ford racing catalog.
Ford Racing Performance Parts [M-6565-C347*]

351W flat tappet cam, rail rockers needs pushrods 8.152"
351W flat tappet cam, pedestal rockers needs pushrods 8.182"

Rail rockers use .030 shorter pushrods than pedestal rockers.

5.8 hyd roller cam, pedestal rockers needs pushrods 7.567"

Therefore a 5.8 roller with rail rockers needs pushrods 7.537"

Since the rail rocker pushrods are shorter (only .030), I think that using I should be able to get away using the factory 7.567" pushrods. These in a perfect engine would push the plunger on the lifter an additional .030 . Thoughts?

 

If 0.030" is all you need maybe you could shim the rockers enough to use the stock pushrods. I don't have a picture of a rail type rocker setup at the moment so I can't say for sure this is even possible but it would be something to investigate. Of course you would eliminate that problem if you used a late GT40 head.

 

I am not too worried about the .030. Valve set heights vary that much. Usually the 351W heads are cheaper than GT40s. They both will probably need to be gone thru, and don't tell anyone but back when I ported heads for a living, I could get the windsor heads to flow the same as ported GT40s. The advantage of the GT40s is the air injection holes in the back for emissions and the smaller spark plugs.

 

Oh I don't doubt it, there's lots of meat in those old castings to work with. The reason I suggested those was because they have pedistal rockers with the exact same geometry as the other late model heads, so no guessing required, just bolt them on.

 

If I can get a set of GT40s for the right price it would be easier and then have the possibility of bolt-down 1.72s. Or since this is a dd truck maybe I will just port a set of E7s. It does not have to be fast (I have my buick for that) but I would like it to be able to keep up with the newer chevys and dodges from a stoplight, and get decent mileage.

 

The 5.8 I had in my '90 for the last few years had a cam and lightly worked heads, longtubes and high flow single exhaust. It was much stronger than stock(close to 300hp) and got 17+mpg on the highway, the truck also has a MAF conversion kit.

 

That is exactly what I am looking for. Any cam recommendations? Of course it has the factory roller and I also have a roller out of an early 90's mustang.

 

Stock 5.0/5.8 roller cam: 0.422/0.448" lift and 256/266 duration. Good for a stock 5.0 but needlessly restrictive in the 5.8.

The HO roller cam with 1.7 rockers is an upgrade but still leaves potential on the table.

Crane 444232: 0.448/0.464" lift and 268/276 duration. This is what I have in the 5.8, it's a flat tappet so it only has 206/214 duration at 0.050" and makes great TQ as a result.

What I'd suggest in a roller. The Lunati 61010, Crane 444215, Comp 32-320-8. All are similar to the flat tappet I have but with more lift, and that's good espectially with ported heads, airflow keeps increasing all the way to 1/2" or so. The Crane is called the "Truck Power" cam and the short 0.050" duration would certainly indicate that. The other 2 are similar but will push the limits of P-V clearance and valve spring coil bind on the exhaust side in particular, you should check this anyway just to be sure.

 

I was looking at the crane 444211 which seems to have the same specs as the 444215 cam you mentioned. The lunati 61010 and the comp (I think you meant 35-320-8) look like they would be close to borderline for SD use. I'll have to give it some thought. Thanks for your input.

 

Rats... for some reason I thought you were working on a '96. Yes you have to be carefull with LSA and duration with SD, it wants more LSA and less intake duration to maintain a steady vacuum signal. The Crane 444211 is the exact same cam... I wonder why they have two part numbers for the same grind. The 444215 is more expensive as well.. is this a marketing trick we're seeing here?

 

The 444215 is a "retrofit" cam, so I assume it must be for converting the flat-tappet cam blocks. Possibly smaller base circle?

 

I checked Rock Auto to see when they did the pushrod length change, and they gave 8.142" for 1969-77, and 8.182" for 1978-88 (the latest I checked).

I was curious to see if they listed a different pushrod for the 1969-73(?) engines, as these have a deck height of 9.48 vs. 9.50 for later engines. Well they list the same part. Apparently that .02" difference doesn't matter.

Since you will be using the taller block, which requires in theory longer pushrods, this works in your favour.

 

i know this is an old post, but i hv been messin around w e7 heads and just wondered y the air injection holes are an advantage after the big ol' mole hill is eliminated. plus trying to plug the huge holes in the end of the heads w/o trying to find the threaded ford plugs
-saga

 

They aren't.

5/8" x 1 to 1.5" coarse thread bolts with copper washers to seal.

 

I just left all the air injection stuff intact and installed a threaded allen plug into the upper intake. If I need to remove it, it'll be a simple operation.