Trick Flow heads
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Trick Flow heads
I have a rebuilt 351W whith a mild build right now. In the future I plan to take out the edelbrock cam and swap it with a compcam with 224/224* of duration @ .050" and a lift of .531/.531" with 1.7:1 rockers. I will add a performer RPM airgap intake and a 750 cfm carb. Beside the point,The heads will be replaced with Trick Flow track heat heads and I have a question. In the instructions for the heads it says that you can have a valve lift up to .540" without flycutting the pistons. Has anybody used the heads before? Do you have to flycut the stock pistons? My pistons are stock style except for being for a .030" overbore. I planned to install the heads while the engine is still in the truck. Any response will be appreciated.
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What year 351w?Flattop,dish,or dome pistons?Do they have valve reliefs?The Trickflow recomendation is for an 87-93 Mustang 5.0,so you should deffinately check piston to valve clearances.
Last edited by Matt95L; Sep 15, 2005 at 05:03 PM.
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The engine is a 1982 model that came in the truck.The pistons are the stock style flat tops with the small dish in the middle. I was planning to check the clearance anyway, I just wanted to know if I was going to have to bring out the die grinder with a carbide bit. I was planning to use a thicker head gasket to drop the compression a little (69 cc's to 61cc's makes for about 10.5:1) this might also help a tad with valve clearance. Also, the block has not been decked so the pistons are in the hole about .030" or so. How thick is the top of a standard ford piston? I don't want to have them ground too much.
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From: Anderson, SC
Don't run a thicker head gasket, it will cause you to have to much quench area (distance between the top of the piston and heads) and can cause detination. You want to shoot for a quench area of .050", so if the pistions are about .030" in the hole I wouldn't run much more than a .020" head gasket. A lower compression motor with to much quench area will be more likely to detionate than a higher compression motor with the proper quench.
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thanks for the advice on the head gasket, I don't have much experience with aftermarket heads. As for the cam the lift with 1.6 rockers is .500/.500" and .531/.531" with the 1.7's. I don't know much about the Airflow Research heads if you could give me a little info I will look into it. Are they better than the trickflow twisted wedge?
I haven't purchased any heads yet, but I am saving my money to do so. I am still in High School and I don't have too much time when I can work, not to mention that there are not that many jobs where I live.
I haven't purchased any heads yet, but I am saving my money to do so. I am still in High School and I don't have too much time when I can work, not to mention that there are not that many jobs where I live.
Last edited by captainkirk; Sep 15, 2005 at 08:28 PM.
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From: Anderson, SC
For more info on the AFR's just google them you'll turn up alot of stuff. I do know that a 351 with AFR 185's will be a pretty mean motor.
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I looked back through some of my car craft issues and found an article on a fuel injected 302 with AFR heads. The article also includes a flow chart, it looks like the the trick flow heads flow better up to .500" lift, but after that the the AFR's take over. The flows numbers for the trick flows and the AFR's are 251/248 @.500" respectively, while the AFR's flow 265 cfm @.600"(the trick flows also flow 251 cfm @.600" lift) I think for my application the trick flows may be better just because they are cheaper. If I was going to build a high rpm engine with more cam I would go with professionally ported AFR's. By the way, the stock 302 bottom end with the AFR heads made 510 horsepower @7200(yikes!) The engine ran on pump gas, but it made the numbers with VP race gas. (10.2:1 CR)
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From: Bend,OR
remember to that aluminum heads allow for higher compression ratio compared to cast iron. so detonation would not be as bad.
also your running this in a truck so to much flow can hurt you as well and move the power range to hi in the rpms. you want a head that builds from idle to 5000 rpms max. anything else and you will lose all low end torque
also your running this in a truck so to much flow can hurt you as well and move the power range to hi in the rpms. you want a head that builds from idle to 5000 rpms max. anything else and you will lose all low end torque
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For this application, I was either going to put a ratchet shifter on the C6, or bolt in a five speed. From what I've seen, performer rpm intakes pull all the way to 6500 rpm while giving up nothing down low. If I do end up taking this truck to the strip I would probably shift it at 5800 with the new set up.
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From: Northern California
The AFR's maintain the valves in the normal postioning, where the Trick Flow has rotated the valves closer to the center, so they are further down, or closer to the pistons. The afr's will give you more piston to valve clearance because of this. I run the trick flows ported on my 393 and like them, but my pistons are made for these heads too. I have heard nothing but good about the afrs out there.
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From: iowa
Originally Posted by cjjeeper85
Don't run a thicker head gasket, it will cause you to have to much quench area (distance between the top of the piston and heads) and can cause detination. You want to shoot for a quench area of .050", so if the pistions are about .030" in the hole I wouldn't run much more than a .020" head gasket. A lower compression motor with to much quench area will be more likely to detionate than a higher compression motor with the proper quench.
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From: Anderson, SC
I am kind of suprised he hasn't had a problem to, but if he is running high octane gas and has some of the timing pulled out he might be alright. Quench isn't the only thing that has an effect on making a motor detonate. Compression, A/F ratio, timing, and even the air charge temp all have an effecton on detination. For a performance oriented motor with higher compression, more advanced timing, and higher combustion temps .070" is to much, Thats why I recomended the .020" head gaskets or the closest he can find to .020". The best solution for him would be to shave the block down ~.020" so the pistons would be only .010" in the hole, and with the .040" gasket it would be right at .050" quench. That would require a whole lot of work and I don't blame him if he doesn't want to do that.