the heads have E6SE on them, what are the specs? they came off of an 87 grand marquis(302) what's cr/cc, do they flow good?,

 

E6SE heads are swirl combustion chamber heads first introduced in 86 on the 5.0 HO's. The CC is 61cc. Depending on the pistons the CR should be about 9.4:1. E6 heads do not flow well. This is the reason they were dropped from the HO after only one year. They basically limit you to about 200 HP on a 302. The reason they flow so poorly, is because of valve shrouding. If you have them off, you will notice that the chamber is a closed chamber, with the valves recessed. The intake valve is almost surrounded, by the quench area. This forces the air to swirl in the desired direction-toward and past the spark plug. If the shrouding is decreased by machining the shrouding out, on this design, then you loose swirl. Swirl is desirable because it improves combustion efficiency. Swirl basically improves emmisions, improves gas milege, greatly reduces knock, and gives the exaust note a nice throaty sound. It also improves thermal efficiency, so it should improve power, but in this case the poor air flow more than offsets any potential power gains. The E7TE heads, using the same size valves, and no swirl, will make about 25 more hP on the same application.

The aluminum GT40 "Turbo Swirl" heads solved the problems associated with the original E6 heads by using much less valve shrouding, and placing a "notch" in the quench opposite the intake valve, to draw swirl in the desired direction. The aluminum Turbo Swirls like the GT40Y, GT40X and GT40Z heads are the descendants of your E6SE heads, and are not aluminum versions of the GT40 cast iron heads.

 

so they would be great for low rpm torque? and how much diff would it make if i shaved them .010?

 

I do think that they would be good for low RPM tourqe, especially if you can have the exaust bump ground out and possibly port matched. IIRC, the 86 HO, while down 25HP compared to E7's made about 10-15 ft-lb's more low RPM tourqe. Plus they have emissions, fuel economy, and anti knock advantages. So if high HP isn't your main concern, then don't over look the E6's. Decking them slightly, will probably take them down to about 57cc, and will give you a little more compression, and they are less likely to have spark plug knock than standard 289-302 heads.