Hi, great site, i have a 302 fitted in a 1971 Tvr and would like help please, it has at the moment D20E Ba heads, Comp Cams 31-242-3 (Hydraulic), Sealed Power Domed Pistons, Mallory Duel Points, Edelbrock Rpm inlet manifold, Holley 600cfm carb, would fitting W/P Windsor Sr heads make a lot of difference! as i have a pair, and how much power would i gain, also is the only difference between Hyd, and Solid heads the valve spring! i am pleased with the performace now but you can never have to much! any help appreciated, regards Alan

 

Hi Alan, and Welcome to FTE! Please take a moment to check out the Guidelines, they contain important info you'll need when posting on the site:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/guidelines.html

A TVR...cool! As you can probably tell from my usename and avatar, I'm somewhat familiar with small British cars fitted with Ford V8s.

Okay, about those heads...the WP Windsor Sr. is one of the better out-of-the-box cast iron heads you can get. If you were shopping for heads I'd recommend aluminum, in part for the weight savings but since you already have them you might as well go with them. They have substantially larger valves (2.02/1.60 as opposed to 1.78/1.45) and runners (200cc intake) than those D2OE heads along with a redesigned combustion chamber and modified spark plug placement which all go to make them the equal of many aluminum heads. The biggest drawback I see is the drop in compression you would suffer, as the stock heads you have now have 58.2cc chambers and the WP heads have 64cc chambers. I would think about having them milled to give you back some compression. Milling .005" to .006" will reduce chamber volume approximately 1cc. Reducing chamber volume 9cc will increase the compression ratio by 1.


As for the difference between hydraulic and solid heads, not only is the valve spring generally different but the rocker arm studs must be changed to screw-in type when running solid lifters to eliminate the possibilty of the studs pulling out of the head, and the change also necessitates a change to pushrod guideplates in most cases. I don't see this being a problem for you since you're running hydraulic, but are you considering changing to solid lifters and cam? The WP heads do come with screw-in studs and guideplates (which in turn requires hardened pushrods) but they (WP) say that the heads are designed for use with hydraulic lifters. Perhaps that bears a bit more research.

Hope this is of some help to you. And since you're in the UK, please stop by our International chapter:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/f...play.php?f=141

We have other members over there as well.

 

Hi, i have the screw in pillars and the guideplates and hardened push rods, i fitted these heads after the first rebuild and started the engine up within a couple of seconds the engine was scrap, i rebuilt it again same thing, i found our that the heads had been used with solid lifters, so the springs were 348lbs, Comp Cams said they should be no more than 320lbs, thats why i fitted those D20e heads, with the recommended springs,i am using Hyd, not Solid, its heartbreaking rebuilding the same engine twice, plus the expense, it now runs 50lbs oil pressure, and pulls like a train, i would like to fit the W/P heads, any advice greatly received, regards Alan.

 

Perhaps you could swap the springs from the D2OE heads to the WP heads. I assume they're aftermarket springs matched to the Comp cam, which I find the recommended springs to be rated at 339lbs/in. interestingly enough. (This came from Summit's website, Comp Cam's website gave no spring recommendation.)

What sort of problems did you encounter with these heads as installed on your engine? You state that the engine was scrap a few seconds after starting it up but what specifically happened to it?

 

Hi, the problem was when i started the engine, it wiped three lobes of the cam which turned to paste, travelled round the engine wrecked the crank, bearings, oil pump, cam, travelled up two bores etc etc, painfull and expensive, i rebuilt the engine, it did the same again, it started first time i ran it at 2000 rpm, the only thing i didn't check was the valve springs, the heads came from a reliable source, i was told they were right for my engine, i think they were for a solid lifter cam shaft! i rebuilt it again! this time i fitted the the D20e heads with the recommended springs Comp Cams 942-16 no problems. I will take the springs of them and fit them to the W/P heads part no. 053040-1, do you think that will be ok, i would like to know what HP increase there should be with my set up! will it be worth it! also Tigerdan the heads are 58cc chambers, so compression should be the same! look farward to hearing from you, with spanners in hand. The car is going to be featured in a magazine shortly, here in the U.K. i would post pics if i knew how, regards Alan.

 

Hmm, are you sure those aren't the WP Windsor Jr. heads instead of the Sr.? The Jr. heads have the 58cc chambers, along with smaller (180cc) intake runners and 1.94 intake valves. Makes things a lot simpler in terms of keeping the compression where you want it.

Anyway, the springs you list are definitely a softer spring with an open pressure of 284 lbs. at 1.200 in. I would think they could be used on your WP heads. Be sure to check your piston-to-valve clearance as you want to make sure the the valve releifs in your pistons are large enough to handle the larger valves, and definitely check for coil bind.

As fas a posting pics, you can open a free account at an image hosting site like Webshots:

http://www.webshots.com/

and follow the instructions to upload pics from your computer. Then it's a pretty simple matter to link to them from here.

 

Hi, the heads have 2.020" inlets and 1.600" out, i will let you know how i get on, i hope the extra performace is worth the trouble! what plugs do you recommend! thanks for all your help, regards Alan.

 

For plugs, I generally recommend anything but Champion. Autolite or Motorcraft are good, but I don't know how available they are over there. Bosch or NGK might be easier to come by for you.

 

Thanks for all the help, regards Alan.