Hi, I'm in the process of building a 351 Windsor for my car. The heads I have for it are E7's and I'm told that they are restrictive especially through the exhaust. I don't have a pile of money to spend on aluminum heads and I am looking for suggestions as to what else would work better for me . I am going to use a mild cam and a Edelbrock performer intake with a 650 single pumper Edelbrock carb and a set of shorty mustang headers. if there are any other Ford heads that would be more suitable, I would appreciate the help . I am not going to be racing or rodding the crap out of it, I just want a motor that sounds nice and has enough power to throw me back in the seat a bit ...Thanks
I have seen posts here on the HAMB that say the 5.0 heads out of an explorer are iron GT-40 heads. Maybe someone will chime in to confirm this.
96-97 1/2 Explorer with the F3ZE casting number (same as 03 Cobra), some may be marked F1ZE as well. All will have GT and three slash marks on the end GT40P heads are on late 97 -98 Explorer and flow more but take different headers due to spark plug relocation. these will have GT and FOUR slash marks New GT aluminum are available at about $1060.00 a set.
Not to hijack this thread but will these heads fit Any 351w, I was under the impression that the 5.0 stuff was not interchangeable with 351w
from Ford: Designed for Ford 289-351W engines, the complete assemblies have 60cc combustion chambers, 1.84 in. intake/1.46 in. exhaust valves, and work with stock or aftermarket intakes, rockers, and valve covers.
E7's aren't bad for a stock head on a basically stock 302 or 351w. They can handle some bolt ons like a mild cam, dual plane intake, headers, but if you're getting a more radical cam, single plane intake, and internal goodies, you'd be better off with a less restrictive head. E7's are from 87-93 Mustang 5.0 HO engines. Late 90's Explorer 5.0's had GT40P Iron Heads...basically an iron version of Fords GT40 Heads. To put any 5.0 heads on a 351w, you have to drill out the head bolt holes in the heads or get stepped head bolts because the 351w has larger head bolts than the 302. Easy to do. Other than that, they bolt right on the 351w. Certain headers will clear the GT40P spark plug locations, depends on the application really. GT40P heads are the best stock heads for the money. Either that or find some older 351w D0OE heads and have them updated with hardened seats. The next step up over GT40P, GT40, or D0OE heads is aftermarket aluminum like Trick Flow, Air Flow Research, Canfield, etc. If you're shopping for aluminum heads, just don't go with the "Pro Form" heads...heard lots of bad things about them.
The difference is 289-302 & 5.0's use 7/16" head bolts ,351W use 1/2" head bolts if you use 351W heads on the 289-5.0's there are spacers available.Aftermarket heads will almost always require the spacers on a 289-5.0.'69-70 351W heads with a mild valve job would be better than the E7's.
Early 1969 4v 351w had small cc chambers. Something like 61 cc. 290 HP with flat tops. 1970 small chamber heads where slightly larger but still good. I have a set of 70. All the rest are open chamber. Getting hard to find thou.
Those E7's should work fine for your application. I've ported a few of them myself. I would use a 351w exhaust gasket and then scribe it and port out to the line. follow the porting back into the valve pocket area. Remember you don't have to go crazy, just clean it up. On the cam you could increase the lift and duration of the exhaust, to compensate for the small exhaust valves/ports. Remember from 87-93, these heads were used on stock 5.0 H.O. engines in the mustangs of which I've owned several over the years. In stock form they would smoke most factory street cars.
OK, you don't really need special headbolts for this swap since those heads are located by dowels at each end of the cyl heads. To use 5.0/302 heads on a 351W (like the GT40, GT40P heads) you simply need to drill them for 1/2" head bolts. No machine shop needed just a good hand drill.
Can somebody tell me what I have here? I picked these up at a swapmeet, and hopefully I can make them work on my 351W. Valves are 1.94 and 1.60. And they have had some work done to the ports. ( specially the exhausts look a lot better than stock) I'm mostly concerned about the compression ratio.. ( I know that can be measured, but maybe the specs are in a list somewhere...) Thanks.
Those are a set of old 289 heads. You should have hrdened exaust seats installed if it has'nt been done allready. Those heads are an excellent choice for a 351. The small chambers have great quench and the ports flow as well or better (with porting and bigger valves)than gt-40's. I would stick with the factory dished pistons or your combustion will be too high ( 10.5 to 11 to 1)
Sorry,no cigar! look at the 3rd pic down notice the casting code E7 and in other pics the 302 stamping.The 289 heads from the 60's are stamped 289 and have the codes also,click on this www.mre-books.com/interchange/interchange5.html see a big difference in the shape of the combustion chamber? what He has are E7 heads with 1.94 & 1.6 Chevy valves and the screw in studs and guideplates that have been added,this was common practice until the aftermarket started cranking out Ford heads that flow for prices comparable to the SBC's.
If i decide to use the E7 heads, they have huge humps in the exhaust ports, how far down can I grind them and is it worth the effort to do this ? Thanks
When I took my '71 Torino motor into the machine shop, the guy that did the work, instead of changing the seat, he changed the angle and used 2.02 valves insead. So far it has worked out very well.
1996 Explorer 5.0 had the regular GT40`s. Late 1996 and 1997-up had the GT40P`s. 1st-gen Lightning and 1993-1995 Cobra had GT40`s,the Lightning heads already have the correct size holes for a 351w.
Hate to burst your bubble,but that E and 7 are not the casting numbers that mean what you think they mean. Look at the next picture and you can clearly see what looks like C6OE or C8OE. If C8OE they would be 4-barrel 1968 302 heads. The E7 your thinking of is the E7TE heads used on the 1987-1993 Mustang.
Look to see if the casting # is C6OE or C8OE. It looks more like C8OE to me,which I believe means that they are 1968 4-barrel 302 heads.
After 1974, the only difference between most 302's and 351W's was the headbolt size. The early (69 and 70) 351W had larger ports and valves as has already been stated. These or a set of Explorer GT40's would be a nice, relatively low cost option for a SBF. Just watch out for the GT40P heads, the spark plug angle is slightly different and can put plug wires really close to header tubes unless 'P' specific headers are used.
My opinions range more to the pragmatic than to traditional when it comes to stuff that works better for the same or only a little more money, especially when a coat of paint hides your transgreesion to most observers. The point being you can buy aluminum heads with far better port design, and optimum budget friendly valve size, for the cost of the used iron heads and the parts and quality machine work to meet your needs. Me, I was proud of owning a set of aluminum heads, and although I didn't polish them, I did use chemicals used to brighten the aluminum bodies on 18 wheelers to insure the aluminum was bright.They had one season of once in awhile drag racing on them and I couldn't have bought a "good number" used heads and had the work done and come out much cheaper. Probably about the same cost and effort as to paint Ford Blue or on occasion with me, Chevy Orange! Dave
hate being anal but i don't want to screw this up so just for clarification, I can grind the hump out of the exhaust port FoMoCoPower ? I don't want to grind a hole in them, and secondly, if I do gring this hump out, is it going to make much difference ? I'm not planning on racing this but i do want it to have some ppower to show off ocassionally..Thanks
I just spent some time on my D0OE ports and all I did was clean up a bit of rough casting and shined 'em up a bit with a few rolls on the die grinder. If you're talking about the hump where the valve runs through, I was always told not to cut that down. I'll add.. There is a great thread in the tech archives covering port and polish job on SBF heads but no pics. I contacted the OP and it was an old thread so no luck on getting those pics back, but its one of the better reads I found online concerning these heads.
Thanks Nick, I think that's what I'll do, just shine them up a bit and make sure they match up to the exhaust gaskets and headers and call it good enough, What's your band all about, what genre do you play?
Does anyone have flow numbers for non ported garden variety heads? How much do you really gain by going with a set of GT-40 iron heads over a basic set of 302's or 351's?
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