170cc intake runners, i really want to jump to 180 but afraid the stock intake/throttle body would reverse any benefit i might gain from the bigger ports. Chamber size and design with the stock pistons is biggest unknown, idk what my current chamber truly is so it's hard to say which way i should go up or down, what is chamber size for 1992 351W ?
The Ford X306 (64cc) and X307 (58cc) heads are affordable but i doubt the chamber shape is any more suited to stock pistons then any other aftermarket head, thoughts ?
Where would static compression fall with 58 and 64cc chambers ?

oops, the Ford heads are 178cc intake runners, never mind..

let's talk about the Trick Flow 170's..

 

that makes it easier, 58 or 61cc..

 

What made you decide on 170's? Compatibility with stock pistons?
If I can get my hands on a set I will be using TW 205's on my 347 but I wont be dealing with stock pistons they've been clearance for a TW or inline head.

On Edit: Never mind, been a long day, useless post on my part.

 

your motor likely has E7TE heads, which have a nominal 64cc chamber(plus or minus 2cc) 58 cc heads will give you a slight compression bump

 

Many thanks, have already decided against aftermarket heads (for now) but thank-you for the excellent info..

 

Find yourself a set of GT-40 heads for ~$200, get an electric die grinder and speed control, a 4" carbide burr and cartridge roll kit, an do a little home porting. You'll never match what aftermarket heads will do but you can easily pick up 30-40 hp.

You'll want to get the heads rebuilt with new springs, retainers, etc. anyway with a new cam. Take a little time to clean up the ports while they're off (or find some GT-40s and start there). Finish with a three-angle valve job and 30° backcut on the valves. A few hours cleaning up the ports is your best bang for the buck on a stockish rebuild.

Home Porting Cylinder Heads - Ford Muscle Forums : Ford Muscle Cars Tech Forum

 

That's easily affordable, checked out bare castings and they are $350 apiece at the low end, my current plans include the Crane 444232, 1.72 full rollers and full length hedders, am thinking adding the GT40's would help to make maybe 285hp ?
No other changes to fuel or ignition, for the moment..

 

If it was me I'd skip the rockers and spend the money on ceramic coating the headers and extra insulation for the dog house. A decently ported GT-40 head will flow more at .300 lift than your stock head would at .700" lift. Either way a little more valve lift won't make a real difference. Anything you can do to minimize engine heat in a van will.

Of course, here in Texas extra heat would only be comfortable a couple months out of the year.

 

Valid point, wasn't thinking about the improved flow with the GT40's, that makes the head swap even more affordable but so far am finding GT40's for about $375/pr and up, finding an unmolested pair with plenty of deck intact may be even more difficult..

 

I did a GT40 head swap on my 96 E150(roller 351 with Mass-air), along with a set of Cobra roller rockers and shortys. No other changes to the engine. Fuel mileage went up a mile per gallon, zero to 60 is now 9.09 seconds with the E4OD transmission and 3.55 rear with 275/60/15 tires. This is also with the stock F4TE roller cam (.445/.473 lift with the 1.7 rockers, 256/266 advertised duration, 116.5 LSA)

 

Patience and craigslist are your friends when you're looking for heads. I see used pairs for $200-250 all the time here in Dallas. No worries if they're going in for a valve job, etc. anyway.

 

I'd sell you my P heads but that wouldn't quite give me enough to swing purchasing the heads i want.

 

Somewhat related, I've got a 300 inline at the machine shop now. Unlike a SBF there are no bolt-on head options. If you want it to go the stock head has to be ported.

A 300 has bigger cylinders than a 351W and the heads flow less than your stock E7s. A lot less. Being able to rev past 5,000 rpm requires porting the head to the limits of the casting material, bigger valves, studs and guideplates, the works. Even then maybe the same flow as a pair of 170cc port SBF heads.

I had a head cut for 1.94/1.60" valves and ported the snot out of them. If they flow a little better than a pair of GT-40 heads I'll be pretty happy.

I talked to the head porting guy at the shop about looking over what I did and cleaning it up. He said a big cast iron head like that starting from scratch he'd charge ~$1,500. About the same as off the rack SBF heads but less flow. And before any machine work, valve, etc. All in it'd be enough for a pair of high end SBF heads and an EFI intake. Egad.

To clean up the short turns and bowls he quoted me $250-300. With parts and machine work on top of that the head will end up ~$650. So about he same as a CNC ported SBF head and if I'm lucky around the same air flow.

But on an engine with 50 cubic inch cylinders. A 400 stroker with a pair of Powerheads would be a torque monster, but like my 300 would give out past ~5,500.

If they made an aftermarket aluminum 300 head it just wouldn't be as much fun. And I'd buy one as soon as I could justify the cost. Take about an hour, I figure.

 

Didn't even check Craigslist, just ebay, oops..
My biggest concern with deck thickness and how much milling has been done, if too much material is gone i have problems sealing the top of the intake ports, it has been long time since i fooled with all these calculations but don't they angle mill the heads to prevent such problems ?

Edit: Right off the bat found an unmolested pair for $350 still installed on the engine, email sent

 

It's not very common(in my experience) for these ford heads to be milled down, with a plethora of aftermarket heads available guys generally don't waste much time or effort with the stock castings and quickly move on to something better. You will also discover that these Ford castings are far far superior to the late model SBC castings in terms of overall casting thickness and quality of the factory machine work so cracked or warped heads are not at all common. Some versions of the GT40p head were milled down at the factory to achieve higher compression ratio but those heads also have the revised spark plug angle so you want to avoid them. Casting numbers for the standard GT40 head are F1ZE, F3ZE and F4ZE.