Been tinkering with this for a few months now. Started work in earnest this weekend. Step 1 was score a 69 cobra jet intake off a freind in the area for 200 bucks. If you think 200 is way too much go try to buy one off ebay for less than 400. Step 2 was buy a standard bore mirror 105 off of another friend for 200 bucks. I now have said motor exploded. Today will be cycling the block, heads, intakes, and tins through the parts washer at work so they arnt sutch a sandy mess. Its all sandy because it was in Daves "jumping truck". At any rate my only quandrys at the moment are what cam? And whitch heads? I got a set of C6AE-R heads from the local junkyard a few months back. But now looking at these D2TE-AA heads I wonder if they might be a better starting point for a port job? If I stick with hydraulic flat tappet I will probably get one of the Cobra Jet copies available. If I really want to go bigger I will probably go roller. But man does it cost more.

 

If you're getting the stroker kit from some place highly experienced in FE's then might have them spec you a custom cam. In the scheme of things it won't add much to the cost but will add a lot to the enjoyment. They should be able to look at all of your parameters (static compression, heads, displacement, desired power band, etc) and be able to get you a nice cam right off the bat.

BTW, only downside to a hydraulic roller cam is the initial cost. Their benefits include not having to worry about wiping the cam and you can also go a little bigger and still get a nice idle versus a flat tappet cam.

 

Subscribed. The D2TE-AA heads are a good starting point, but do the ports match that intake?

 

How much are you going to have tied up in a set of heads by the time you have them ported and rebuilt? I bet it won't be too much less than a set of Edelbrocks.

Also, if you are going for peak performance, ditch your $200 CJ intake for an Edelbrock Performer RPM.

Actually, I see you are in ND. If you want to stick with cast iron heads, if interested, I would sell you my C4AE's that were rebuilt about 15K ago for much less than getting yours rebuilt so I could go to a set of Edelbrocks...

 

Agreed ^^
If you keep a weather eye out and are willing to wait a bit than you can usually find a set of assembled Edelbrocks between 900-1200 or so. Granted that is still probably a bit more than youd spend on your iron (ymmv $$), but even after all the port work they'll be equal or maybe slightly better (depending on the skill and FE knowledge of your machinist) than out of the box Eds. Much more room to grow with the Eds, plus you can run a bit more compression with aluminum.
If you decide to stay iron, flow wise the C6>D2 and are often referred to as the poor man's CJ. However, the biggest perk of the D2 heads in a truck application is that headers are going to match your port location. If you go either C6 or Eds you'll need to ream out the mounting holes in the flange to allow them slide about 1/4-3/8" to match. Not a big deal but something to be aware of.

 

The D2TE-AA heads look like they are a pretty good match to the intake. Might take a little massaging here and there to get the transitions clean.

A performer RPM absolutely makes more power. I live in North Dakota and I drive the 75 any time there is no salt on the road. Whitch in a dry year could be as late as January. This makes the performer RPM intakes lack of heat riser undesireable. Also I am not cool with Edlebrocks monopoly of the FE market. I REALY want a Blue Thunder 4V but the 5 or so they seem to make a year are 700-800 each. If you read Jay Browns book the CJ intake is on par with an Edlebrock performer but with a flater torqe curve and more HP up top. Its going in a F250 supercab. So I am not too terribly concerned with the negative impact the weight will have on my E.T. . Its going to be "slow" no matter what. Just as long as I can blow the doors off of the Vorteck loving high school doushbags in the area I will be more than satisfied. Besides I am saving 170 bucks! More cam cash!

As to cost V hosepower of Edlbrock V iron heads. Read the above statement about not liking Edlebrock. Also I have never done porting before. If I aint winning in the quarter I may as well learn the skills needed to be winning next time. My goal is 425 horsepower with all iron. If I can get that done.... Man thats way more of an accomplishment than 470 with all bought bolted on stuff.

Besides fellas. When I am done it will be all iron with a stock air cleaner with a 360 sticker on the lid. White truck with green doors. Its going to be fun watching them scratch their heads.

 

Whatever head you go with, just be aware of what Sleepy is talking about with the exhaust port location.

My offer stands with the C4AE heads - identical to the C6AE's but without the bosses for 16 bolt exhaust flange.

From what I have been able to find, the C4 and C6 heads flow better than the C8's and D2's stock for stock. IDK if there is much difference when ported.

 

Some progress from today. Despite the engines tour of duty with "dangerous Dave" everything seems to be in excellent shape. Too bad I am planning on going to CJ valves. These heads probably would run fine with new guide seals.

Got the intake internaly ported approximatly to the example shown in Jays book. Will take it by the rebuilder some time this week to see if they think it needs a little more done. The book show that this treatment is only really good for maybe 8HP but more importantly it gives me the option of running a 2V carb in a pinch. Not a bad plan seeing as I have a nearly new Holley 500CFM 2V streetmaster in the stash. Might wind up freeing up cam and exaughst cash up front. It also gives me the option of going to a GM 2 barrel throttle body injection setup.

 

So I went to the shop friday to get a headucation. What than conversation boiled down to was a revision back to plan A. From what he was saying the C6AE-R heads have a much better bowl shape out of the box than the D2TE-AA heads. He also said that the intake to exaughst imbablance is not as pronounced as it would apper at first glance due to something I had not considerd. Fuel. On the intake side of a carburated gasoline engine you have a cold dense fuel and air mixture. The decending piston creates a void the atmosphere will rush in to fill. To fill that void the atmoshere must pass through the carburator. There it picks up fuel. Fuel is matter with mass. When you burn the fuel it becomes energy, much of witch is expended pushing the piston down. Light and heat raidiation each have a mass... but not one that matters to an exaughst port. What all that means is that there is not as much "stuff" going out as went in by a weight scale. The uncompressed volume is higher by viture of the expanded gasses. But it is lighter.

Therefore a really big exaughst port dosent nessisarily gain much. whereas a really big intake port offers much more gain. Thus I am sticking with the C6AE-R heads. Still need to do some port and chamber work however.

 

Ok so now we get to more pictures. First picture is the heads bottom to bottom. Next two are the C6AE-R followed by the D2TE-AA looking in the intake ports.

 

Next up we will look in the bowl from the chamber side. C6 followed by D2.

 

Next up exaughst side. C6 followed by D2 as seen from the port face. They are very close asside from overall height. Being the exaughst side there is much more room to expand the passage without worrying about hitting the water jaket.

 

Finnaly the exaughst bowls viewed from the valve side. C6 followed by D2.

 

Now we have issues. I broke through the rocker stand bolt hole that has the oil passage. I did the one to the right of it first as a hole there wouldnt be much of an issue. That one I got to totally flat with no evidence of getting close. This one goes alittle deeper apparently. Hmm what to do.... I am planning on going with a roller rocker set that comes with studs. So if I can come up with an appropriate sealer it shouldent be an issue.

 

Light and heat do no have mass.

The hotter gases do not want to be compressed, and to get them out as fast as possible, you need more port cross-section (with minimal bends) and a bigger valve.

I'll let someone else chime in on this, that whole explanation sounds cheesy. - It could be right, but still, the physics involved are a bit different.

Side note: that bolt hole you hit, my machinist did the same thing. He knew about it before he did it. What he did was to put the rocker arm assembly on, torque it down, and check that the bolt didn't protrude into the port. I don't remember if it did or didn't, it's been 25 years. If it does, grind down the bolt to meet the port, and put that bolt back into that hole and keep the torque value the same.