I'm looking at swaping a 351W into my galaxie and have a question. The shop has a core from the 80s. Just from research I've done, seems like these later heads have smaller valves, larger combustion chamber (69cc vs. 60cc) and non adjustable rocker arms, which I'm not too excited about. Would these heads be okay? Can I get the heads machined to use stud mount rockers? I've seen roller tip rockers for these heads, but they cost more than full rollers for stud mounts. I think I'm gonna hit up the wrecking yards this weekend to find a set of 75 or older heads. Any suggestions?
Good idea. In a perfect world, you'd be looking for C9OE or D0OE heads, but they're hard to find anymore & most junkyards know what they've got there. Any of them can be machined for screw-in studs & guideplates. Depending on the rest of the engine, a good clean-up port & polish focusing on the exhaust side will probably be fine. You can put 1.94 & 1.55 valves in w/o too much work too. Of course, you'd probably be money ahead to just buy some aftermarket heads at that point! I think the World cast iron heads are very reasonably priced & even a set of used aluminum heads from the 5.0 crowd could be had reasonably...
Agreed, there are so many aftermarket heads out there now that i think it would be foolish to screw around looking for the old 351's.....Plus, all of them are designed with better deck surfaces, port runners, screw in studs etc.
Check around old machine shops also, I found a set of high compression 1966 289 heads with stainless Chevy valves for $100.00 this week. The shop owner said that he had done them for a customer a long time ago but he never picked them up. He let me have them for the machining cost. Said that he didn't want that old Ford junk lying around the shop, who am I to argue with the man...
I did the 351 swap on my 302. the cores were 69. full port, 194/160 valves, studs, guide plates ect. From 78 on the heads have the same valve size. The old school deal was to install the 351 heads without any work because the valves were bigger. you purchase the 1/2 inch bolt kit from ford and bolt em on. today its harder to find a good set. The cost of the extra work to install larger valves, machine for studs ect, its actually cheaper to buy aftermarket aluminum. To get these heads to flow will cost as much as buying new. you could purchase aftermarket iron heads and save some cash but i don;t believe they flow as well as the aluminum. when I did mine, and your talking ten years or better, it cost approxmatley 1200 bucks, and thats 50 bucks for the cores.
Ask some of the roundy round guys. Rules change all the time, I bought my dart heads from a ford racer that was able to step up aluminum heads for his class. I bought mine fresh with new springs ready ta bolt on cheaper than I paid to have my stock heads rebuilt. Rebuilt stock heads $340.00 Fresh dart heads $300.00. Why mess with the stock heads
I ran into the old head vs new head problem a few months ago building a '79 351W from my mastercraft ski boat. The heads were cracked and all I had laying around was a '83 351W core with the screw in rocker arms. I actually prefer them vs the push in studs as I have had problems with the last couple of motors I built pushing out the rocker arm studs right from the heads with only a mild cam and stock springs. I was just happy as shit to not have to bother tapping out screw in studs and the heads work just fine.
Thanks for the input so far, anyone got anymore? I have a knock in the bottom end so I was just going to get a new 302 shortblock (car currently has 302 with 289 heads) as I had a set of 1964 289 heads done last summer set up with screw in studs and roller tips. A friend of mine is a mechanic and can get a better price on rebuilds than I can, so I was going though his shop. After getting the core to my buddys shop, he calls me saying the machine shop had this 351 long block core that they could build for similar price. I figured I'd at least look into it for a few more inches. I'm not looking at all out performance here, just if I'm going to get heads rebuilt, I figure I should get the best ones to put the money in. Aftermarket heads are gonna be more than I want to spend on this. Another question, what are the chances that headers will swap between the two?
351W is a good strong motor. If given the chance I would swap my 302 out for a 351. Just more potential to build it up in the future. As far as the headers swapping out, if you are talking about 302W to 351W than yes. They should swap over. As will your intake, dizzy, oil pan (if you where running a 303 HO) and other little stuff. But it's late and I'm drunk so I could be mistaken about some of that stuff
No 289/302 accessories bolt onto the 351W - that includes oil pan, intake, dizzy, etc. The 351W is about 1" taller & 1" wider than a 302 necessitating a wider intake. The dizzy uses a larger drive shaft. The block has larger mains, so the rear of the oil pan doesn't fit. The only things that bolt on externally are the timing cover & heads. Internally, the cam & timing gears/chain interchange - if swapping the cam, be sure to use the correct firing order - early 289/302 cams are 13754268 & 351W/302HO cams are 15426378. Seriously, if you're rebuilding the heads - check eBay or the Mustang crowd & see if you can come up with some aftermarket heads. You will be money ahead...
well, pick-n-pull didnt have a single 351w. A few 302's, and the rest were big blocks, either FE or 429/460 (not gonna happen, yet anyway). At this point it looks like I'll go with the stock heads for now, or just keep it a 302.
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