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I have a pair of E5AE heads, I pulled them off a 351W that I am rebuilding. My question is can you put chevy valves in these head like people do to the E7 heads? And is this worth it? I know these heads offer very little performance stock, is there anything I can do to make them a little better?'
Bigger valves won't buy you anything unless the ports are blended into them and opened up quite a bit... which takes a lot of grinding and some know-how. Also these are low compression heads with 69cc chambers that puts static CR down around 8.3:1 on a stock bottom end.
For what you're going to invest in time and money you'll be further ahead paying $400-500 for a set of late model GT40s or some lightly used aftermarket heads.
P.S. Given how easy it is simply swapping to late model E7 heads would boost power output from the increased compression(about 8.8:1), both of these castings flow about the same which believe it or not is up close to the 300hp level, it just takes a bit more cam and a free flowing exhaust to unleash the potential. The exhaust ports are the most restrictive area on these heads too, you pretty much can't do anything wrong if you go at them with porting tools, remove the air injection hump, smooth the bowl and open up the port to the gasket flange as much as you dare.
Alright I found a guy selling a pair of E7 heads in my area for 60$. They are cleaned, and magnifluxed, so I am going to head that way and pick them up tonight. Thanks for all the help conanski. This is by far the cheapest route to make a little more power.
The heads I bought say E7TE. What kind of intake am I going to need with this. I assume that the stock intake is not good enough to feed these new heads. Should I get a standard dual plane aftermarket intake like the Weiand stealth? Or is there a good cheap OEM intake I could find? I am not trying to build high rpm power, I just want a decent amount of low end torque.
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The stock 2V or 4V intake manifold is fine, and free or cheap.
I have the 4v intake.
Cool man, do I just plug up all the emission vacuum hose ports on the original head. It is an 1983 block, and has all that air recirculating crap on it.