As you all know, I have a good ole 300....

And yesterday, I checked at the local machine shop....The guy is a Chevy freak......

Here's the price list he gave me....Give or take...

-Magnafluxing/Hot tanking the head $50
-Shaving/Re-Surfacing the head $50-65
-Valve job (3 angle) $125

Said that he could cut everything out to accept larger valves, but needs the info of what sizes, etc they are...


Said overall, to clean the head, do a valve job, and recut the seat, etc for larger valves....And have it ready to put back on the engine....Roughly $250....And that's with me putting the valve springs, etc back in myself...

This is literally 15 miles from my house...The next nearest shop is about 40 miles away, at the least...


So now...What do you fellars think?

I want the head cleaned, and larger vlaves installed, and a mild resurfacing of the head's mating service....Maybe a .020" removal?

What sorta performance am I looking to gain from this?

I'm sorta iffy on porting everything out myself....And the machine ship said they didn't do that sort of work......

This needs to be a in/out sorta deal, to get it out, done, and back running ASAP....


P.S-Anyone know the size of the valves in a 1992 300 EFI?

 

The larger valves might upset the fast burn characteristics of the EFI head. Also, probably best to have the head milled only as much as needed to true and clean up.

 

Hmmm.....

Any ideas on what would give the EFI 300 a boost?

i'm getting a set of Steel Timing Gears.....And gonna advance the crank timing 4*....TO put it back to where it SHOULD have been....Till Ford retarded it to save NOx emissions...

 

Just my opinion, but I think putting larger valves into a fuel injected head is not worth it. Even with the stock valves, the chamber shrouds the valves on about 1/4 of their circumference. You would not see the gains nearly as much as you would with a carb head.

From what I have heard from people who have advanced their cam - you probably won't be able to tell the difference. You should definitely go with the metal gears. Just don't expect that 4 degrees to make any real difference.

To help the 300 breath, you can clean up the pockets behind the valves. You need to read up on the details of porting 300 heads. They are very thin wall castings, especially the FI heads. You have to be really careful how much metal you remove and where you remove it.

 

See about having your intake and exhaust valves de-shrouded.

They'll take away material at the edges of the combustion chambers to allow for fuel/air mixture to flow around all sides of the valve. This is beneficial to air flow.

Then, see about having that bottle neck taken out of the intake valve ports. It's usually just above the valve seat. I'm not sure if the EFI head has it, but you could still check.

Have them plane the bottom and the sides where the manifolds bolt up too.

Then go to heavier injectors with a better spray pattern, maybe bore the valves out if you want.

In my opinion, bigger valves and a port job will make the most difference. You shouldn't have to worry about the fast-burn characteristics of the EFI head too much because the TBI and MPI really help atomize the fuel. Also add a wide-band O2 sensor.

 

If it is from a good running motor I would not see the need in magnafluxing the head , hot tank yes . I would save that money for other stuff .

You won't notice any power from milling the head so just clean it up a few thousandths IF it doesn't pass the straight edge test . I would BET it is OK if you have personal knowledge of the past performance of this motor , again I would save my money .

You will get some power from a 3 angle valve job .

Larger valves may help but not much bang for the buck .

You can easily do some clean up porting to smooth out the flow .

Low compression is the real killer , good reason to build a spare short block with the money you have saved , wink wink .

Bigger injectors and headers will help a little too . Those are good weekend projects after you get it back on the road .

Just my opinions .

 

My goal, is 200+ hp here....Nothing more, than to help it get out of its' own danged way...lol

So yeah, I'd be happy with between 200-250hp....No more....That's a waste in a DD...

 

Just another opinion. I wouldn't trust any machine shop that I had to furnish the measurements for. But, thats just me.

 

Yeah, really.

Even though other machinists are further away, I can't emphasize enough how much better it will make you feel when you find somebody who knows what they're doing with *your* engine.

I was wanting to rebuild my 400, what many unlearned peeps consider a smog-laden boat anchor not worth messing with.

I talked to a handful of machinists, some seemingly knew only how to drill holes. ("What cam to use? I dunno, call up Comp Cams and use what they say.")

The guy I ultimately chose runs a shop he calls Blue Oval Performance Engineering. Like some other guys I'd spoken with, he's also been doing this for decades but specializes in Ford engines (and knows my 400, very important to me), he's got pictures & trophies & memorabilia from the racing engines he's built.

He's not the cheapest by any means, but having confidence in my build is worth it to me.

Ask for recommendations in your local FTE Chapter, the local drag strip, a local ice racing club, whatever. Maybe even at an auto parts store if you have any with *good* people there (not just snot-nosed teenagers who only know how to use a barcode scanner.)

When you finally settle on a guy you trust, don't try to tell him how to do his job, he's a professional and knows more of what he's doing than you do.

 

How else would a machine shop know how big to cut the valve pockets if they didn't ask which size valves you're planning to install?

 

Bingo....He wanted to know what size is in it, and what I'd like to have installed....

Basic math...A+B=C.....

 

Anyone care to elaborate on this, or direct me to a thread that will?? i'd like to do a little clean up and smoothing while my truck is getting the head gasket replaced, im just looking for pointers ...

 

Ditto.......

 

I'm not sure what he meant by behind the valves, so I'll take it he means "above" the valves, in the intake port itself.

Just above the intake valve, there's a pinch point where the port narrows noticeably, then opens up again right before the valve seat. It's just above the valve, and removing this pinch point really helps flow. That's on Carb'd heads. I don't know about EFI heads.