Hey. I've got an 89 F250 with the 351W. I recently came across a set of nice rebuilt heads for it and I got them the price was right. Now there is nothing wrong with the truck it doesn't need a head job but it is fairly gutless. I wanted to do some things to give it a little more power putting those different heads with the valve job done in and maybe a cam and maybe headers. I've search lots of forums and stuff but what cam would be best? edelbrock performer plus? I'm not looking for a street rod here just getting a little more torque would be great. I've also seen that GT40 heads are a good choice however making my purchase of those other heads futile. Now dealing with EFI here I don't know how wild you can get. Any input much appreciated.

 

Not very.. so forget using something like the Eddy Performer. The cam that is proven to work very well with this EFI system and deliver noticable power gains all by itself(with no other engine upgrades) is the Crane 444232, you will want the cam and lifter kit of course since this is a flat tappet motor. Those heads you have, how old are they(post the casting number)? If they are '70s heads they will need to have hardened valve seats installed or they won't last long. And IMO it's not worth the cost to do that you're better off with late model GT40s or even just the stock E7TE head. Exhaust mods are all good, the stock system is a cork so at the very least get the stock cats off there in exchange for an aftermarket cat or resonator(depending if you have smog tests ot not), long or short headers.. longs produce more TQ but may present fit issues, shorties fit easily but don't produce as much gain in the low end. Behind the headers and cat if so quipped it really doesn't matter.. use whatever you like.. single or dual. Duals aren't any better than a single when done right but they do sound slightly different. Use a 3" single or 2.5" duals, bigger than that is just overkill.

 

The casting number is E7TE. They were off an 88 F250. If I were to go with the GT40 heads where is a good place to find them? With installing headers what about the EGR? The truck doesn't have a cat its 2 1/2in dual all the way with glass packs. Anything that can be done on the intake side? Thank you very much for the reply.

 

GT40 heads are primarally found on the '96-97.5 Explorer/Mountaineer but also appeared on the Gen1 Lightning and the '93-95 Mustang Cobra. As for headers if you get some designed for an 5.8 EFI truck they will have the bungs for EGR and the O2 sensor, Pacesetter makes a really nice longtube. On the intake side there isn't much that needs to be done and there aren't a lot of stock intake choices.. the Lightning used a version of the GT40 intake but it's extremely rare and pricey when available. If you want an upgrade you have to buy something from the aftermarket and that gets expensive considering most of the options available will require a different throttlebody and EGR setup and also some wiring and vacuum hose mods. A cam change is easily the single best thing you can do to this motor, all the other parts combined won't have the effect a cam change will on an otherwise stock motor.. though if you upgrade the heads and exhaust along with the cam you'll see even bigger gains.

 

Conan, I am also doing a mild rebuild of a '94 roller ready F4TE AA. Suggestions on a cam and lifters? I am using the E7 heads.