DOING HEAD SWAP AND HG REPLACEMENT, NEED SOME WISE INSIGHT

[kpack5982]

As the title states:

My head gasket went kaput, so I figured I'd replace my heads at the same time. I was going to go with a thumper package ( I know, should go aluminum heads, etc, but this fits my wallet and some other plans well), but came upon a very nice set of ported and polished heads, very comparibly done to thumpers for half the price. So im getting these. They have trickflow valvesprings, a 3 angle valve job, and 1.7 cobra rr. They were flow tested at 203/154. Now there are a few things I was wondering:

1) The guy's cam I'm getting them from had 206/212° I/E @ 0.050", but I'm not sure what my cam is on my 93, is there anyway to identify to figure out what kind of duration I have?

2) Based on that, should I go for a more aggressive cam, like say a b cam? That's what thumper recommends for manuals it appears.

3) If I did go with a different cam, would I have to worry about piston/valve clearance? or any other issues? Is there a certain cam I would have to worry less about that anyone could recommend?

4) I was thinking about ARP studs, which i would need? are 1/2" correct?

5) Does anybody have a writeup for head swap and cam install? I have a chilton, but was wondering if someone's step by step was available?

6) Any tools that are dire to have aside from sockets, ratchet, torque wrench?

7) I just got some headers with a copper gasket, should I reuse that or get new?

Those are the only questions I could think of right now, anyone could answer or attempt to tackle any, I am open to your world of insight

 

[jtfairlane]

As the title states:

My head gasket went kaput, so I figured I'd replace my heads at the same time. I was going to go with a thumper package ( I know, should go aluminum heads, etc, but this fits my wallet and some other plans well), but came upon a very nice set of ported and polished heads, very comparibly done to thumpers for half the price. So im getting these. They have trickflow valvesprings, a 3 angle valve job, and 1.7 cobra rr. They were flow tested at 203/154. Now there are a few things I was wondering:

1) The guy's cam I'm getting them from had 206/212° I/E @ 0.050", but I'm not sure what my cam is on my 93, is there anyway to identify to figure out what kind of duration I have?

2) Based on that, should I go for a more aggressive cam, like say a b cam? That's what thumper recommends for manuals it appears.

3) If I did go with a different cam, would I have to worry about piston/valve clearance? or any other issues? Is there a certain cam I would have to worry less about that anyone could recommend?

4) I was thinking about ARP studs, which i would need? are 1/2" correct?

5) Does anybody have a writeup for head swap and cam install? I have a chilton, but was wondering if someone's step by step was available?

6) Any tools that are dire to have aside from sockets, ratchet, torque wrench?

7) I just got some headers with a copper gasket, should I reuse that or get new?

Those are the only questions I could think of right now, anyone could answer or attempt to tackle any, I am open to your world of insight

In response to #3, you ALWAYS need to worry about piston to valve clearance. If you don't clay the pistons to check and measure piston to valve clearance, than you are just playing the lottery when you turn the key after all your hard work.

In response to #4, the bigger 1/2" head bolts and studs are used on 351W blocks. Standard 289/302/5.0 blocks use 7/16" head bolts. Many aftermarket cylinder heads are drilled for 1/2" head bolts so you can use them on 351W without drilling out the bolt holes. It's no problem to use them on a 289/302/5.0 block because you can just used a stepped bushing in the 1/2" bolt hole with 7/16" bolts or studs. These stepped bushings are typically included in small block Ford head bolt stud or bolt kits.

In response to #6, you will need a harmonic balancer puller to remove the harmonic balancer before removing the timing chain cover.

In response to #7, the copper gasket should be fine. However, even if they're reusable, if it's a used copper gasket, for my own peace of mind I would toss it. Fel-Pro #1415 work well for many small block ford buildups.

 

[kpack5982]

what exactly is claying the pistons? How do I go about doing that? and with what?

 

[tording]

claying the pistons is laying modeling clay on one of the pistons. Assemble the head and turn the motor over by hand. Remove the head and measure the clay and see how much clearance you have between the piston and the valve. Its pretty simple and works well.

 

[jrichker]

Cylinder head removal & replacement

Plan on 3 days to do the job if you haven't done it before.

Day one gets the heads off in 4-6 hours. Remove the A/C compressor mount bolts and move the compressor out of the way. The A/C compressor swings out of the way without disconnecting any of the lines or losing any refrigerant. Mark all the electrical, smog and vacuum lines with tags to help you remember where to re-connect them.

Day two gets all the gasket surfaces scraped off extra clean and the heads dropped off at the machine shop if you are going to have them reconditioned. Time here is another 4-6 hours. Whatever you do, don't skimp on cleaning the gasket surfaces. New gaskets need to seat against bare metal and not the residue left from the old gaskets in order to seal leak free. This is the most time consuming and tiresome part of the job. Look for little things that need to be replaced like the short hose from the thermostat hosing to the water pump, damaged vacuum lines and hose clamps that are rusted or broken.

Day three starts when you get the heads back from the machine shop. This is the time to pick up all the little odd pieces you found needing replacement on your day two inspection/cleanup. Plan on 6-8 hours to reinstall the heads and reconnect everything. Plan on an additional 2 hours to troubleshoot/adjust everything.

Now for some practical tips:

Plan on cutting the thermostat to water pump hose, or removing the thermostat housing. Also plan on removing the distributor to get clearance to remove the intake manifold. Remove #1 spark plug, stick your finger in the spark plug hole and crank. When your finger gets air moving past it, stop cranking. Turn the engine until the timing marks line up with the pointer. Make a scribe mark on the distributor base and engine block. Now you can pull the distributor out. When you re-install the distributor back in the engine, make sure you are still on TDC compression for #1 and then line up the scribe mark on the distributor and engine. You will be very close to where the engine was timed when you took out the distributor.

You'll need new head bolts - get ARP bolts ($40) or studs ($93, maybe more). The ARP bolts have a radius under the heads. The washers that come with the bolts have a chamfer cut in them. The radius under the bolt head mates up with the chamfer on the washer. Fail to do this and the bolts will never torque down properly. All the bolts get antiseize under the bolt heads, and everything but the short head bolts get it on the threads. You need Teflon pipe dope or ARP sealant to coat the threads of the short head bolts. The short bolts go into the water jacket and will seep coolant if you don't use the sealant.

My favorite trick that saves time and effort is the stay in place gasket. Be sure that you scrape (don't use a wire brush) all the old gasket material off, then clean all the surfaces with acetone or MEK.

When the surfaces are clean, use weather strip adhesive on the head to manifold surface, and on the side of the gasket that mates to the head. Follow the instructions on the tube or can and when it gets tacky, press the gasket down on the head.

Clean the area where the rubber rails mount to the block in front and in the rear with more acetone or MEK and do the same trick with the weather strip adhesive that you did to the heads.

Coat the rubber seals and the gasket area around the water passages with lots of Blue Silicone gasket sealer and put it together. Walla! No leaks and no gaskets that shifted out of place.

If you reuse the injectors from your old setup, a repair kit is available from most auto parts stores if needed. Coat the injector body "O" rings with oil before you use them and everything will slide back together.

For iron heads, clean the combustion chambers with a wire brush in an air or electric drill. I used a scraper for the pistons. I don't like to use the wire brush on pistons because it will remove metal very easily.

Change the oil once you get everything back together. Once the engine is up & running, run it for 1-2 hours and change the oil.

Tools: a good torque wrench is a must have item. A razor blade scraper that holds a single edge razor blade from Home Depot or Ace hardware is another handy thing. Get a Chilton or Haynes shop manual - you'll need it for the bolt torques and patterns. The intake manifold has an especially odd pattern. You'll need access to a timing light to set the timing after you re-stab the distributor.

Consumable parts:
Fuel injector seal kits with 2 O rings and a pintle cap (Borg-Warner P/N 274081) are available at Pep Boys auto parts. Cost is about $2.74 per kit. The pintle caps fit either injectors with a pin sticking out the injector end or 4 with more tiny holes in the injector end. The following are listed at the Borg-Warner site ( http://www.borg-warner.com ) as being resellers of Borg-Warner parts:

http://www.partsplus.com/ or http://www.autovalue.com/ or http://www.pepboys.com/ or http://www.federatedautoparts.com/

Most of the links above have store locators for find a store in your area.

Head gaskets
upper manifold gasket
lower manifold gasket set.
Exhaust manifold gasket set
Rocker cover gaskets - look for the rubber ones with the steel bushings - Summit has them
Short formed hose between thermostat hosing and intake manifold
6 ft 7/64" or 1/8" vacuum hose
2 ft 1/2" heater hose
1 1/2 ft 5/8" heater hose
Blue Silicone sealer
ARP antiseize or equal for the bolts
ARP thread sealer or Teflon pipe dope for the short bolts.
4 each 3/4" hose clamps (spare item in case the old ones are bad)
4 each 1/2" hose clamps (spare item)

Machine shop charges will vary - figure $275-$350 to have heads checked for cracks, cleaned, surfaced, valves ground, valve guides reconditioned, valve springs checked and bad springs replaced.

 

[kpack5982]

I've done intake swap a number of times, so I can easily take the intake off and put it back on in a couple of hours, so I'm not too worried about the time.

Would arp studs or bolts be better in everyone's opinion?

As far as a different cam, would anyone suggest anything? The springs are said to be replacements up to .542 lift I think.

Oh and if I'm not doing the cam, no worries about the a/c condeser and the radiator right?

 

[Dean85GT]

Well I know the Trickflow stage 1 cam is very popular on this site. I have it and I like it for my combo. I only have stock E5 heads with slight porting on the exhaust side and it works great for me. Very streetable.

 

[TheBocSez]

http://www.allfordmustangs.com//techarticles/headcamintakeswap.pdf

 

[Sicarius428]

Studs are stronger than bolts and help guide the head down especially with cast iron heads. I am not sure if its really worth double the price of bolts for a street car but I went with studs so I am not one to talk. A good off the shelf street cam is the TFS stage 1 IMO. I had one but to stay CARB legal here in CA I swapped it for an E303. I wish I still had it in.
Kevin

 

[kpack5982]

So should I go with a cam or not, I'm happy with a lot of low end torque like I have and I am eventually going turbo and heard the stock cam is a good turbo cam?

 

[thumper460]

Keeping the stock head bolt size if fine and will work great!! ARP bolts or Studs!
Head gasket.. Felpro 1011, Intake Felpro 1250, exhaust. Felpro 1415 ( put some Copper RTV on the exhaust gasket.. it will never leak!!)

B cam and 1.7's will be fine .510 Lift!! the TFS1 will be marginal.. with .528/ .540 and the Clay the piston is a killer idea seeing as how you are making a head change anyway!!

Hey, dont be bummed cause you had to "Budget" the heads.. there are a LOT of 13 sec cars out there with the high dollar aftermarket heads, those ported E7s will put you in the 12s and with a little spray... 11's!! And after you just blow the doors off some one.. imagine, opening the hood and saying "....... Stock!!" LOL
Have fun..
Just me.......................................

Thumper