Mark Vii Trickflow Report

[Rapalyea]

What a lot of successful hard work but everything fit, often by 1/8 inch margin including cutting down most of the stock valve cover interior bosses [re-enforcing ribs]. There is less then 1/8 inch outside top clearance in a number of places as well. Here are the results:

Although there is no noticeable off-the line improvement the difference can be noticed by 2,750 rpm. At 3,250 it begins to make a larger and large difference and moving on up to 5,000 the power continues to built very rapidly, almost as if it had a mild street cam. There is a firm automatic shift at 5,000 and mph and then a continued race back to 5,000 for another firm shift into third at 75 mph. Very sporty!

I have the timing at 14 btdc with 93 octane and am wondering if there are any advantages to exploring more advance, and how much would be too much. These heads have the smaller cc chambers and increases the compression from about 9.2 or some such to about 9.7. Runs like a good factory build as is. But timing beyond 14 degrees is outside my experience.

The rest of this 1988 Lincoln Mark VII drive train is showroom stock. The suspension has much heftier stabilizer stabilizer bars front and back as well as drilled and slotted cryo-dipped rotors and custom friction specifications for the rear pads (more aggressive). The brakes are much improved.

 

[BKM48198]

I am about to do about the same thing to my Mustang, I have a set of TFS 170's - 58cc heads, wondering if you had to remove all of the ribs in the valve covers or just some, I have an extra set that I could start on before having a problem. I also have a TFS stage 1 cam to install, did you change cam also or just heads? 1.6 rockers or 1.7's?

 

[stykthyn]

If you use the trickflow covers you shouldn't have to modify anything. If using the stock covers you need to take the baffles out. V8 explorer covers are also the same as 93-5 cobra and don't need any modification to run roller rockers.

 

[Rapalyea]

I am about to do about the same thing to my Mustang, I have a set of TFS 170's - 58cc heads, wondering if you had to remove all of the ribs in the valve covers or just some, I have an extra set that I could start on before having a problem. I also have a TFS stage 1 cam to install, did you change cam also or just heads? 1.6 rockers or 1.7's?

We needed to cut down most of them in addition to removing the PCV baffle. STY is probably correct that Trick Flow covers do not need this work but it looked to us as if they needed to have an oil filler hole drilled. Anyway, we were in a hurry and had an electric drill 'burr' bit that dug the offending bosses out of the stock covers. And of course we were not sure exactly how tall the TFs were. In the end we only had 1/8 inch clearance for either side with the stock covers.

There is a method to cutting down these re-reinforcements. Do not force them. Just lay the bur up against the boss and let it work away bit by bit. It could take hours but do it like you are doing sculpture. It all worked out perfectly. And you do not need to do them all. Just those that are adjacent to the exhaust springs which are closer to the edges.

The final test is to place each cover on the head and line up two of the bolt holes. Then push and walk the cover up and around each holes and see how much clearance you have. You should do this several times as you manhandle the crank pully 1/4 turn to the next cam lobe.

It was tedious but not all that difficult.

PS: We used long wood screws to secure the cover to our wooden work bench.

 

[BKM48198]

If you use the trickflow covers you shouldn't have to modify anything. If using the stock covers you need to take the baffles out. V8 explorer covers are also the same as 93-5 cobra and don't need any modification to run roller rockers.

I took the baffle out when I installed the gt40 heads with 1.7 rockers, just wasn't sure about the bosses/ribs.

 

[BKM48198]

We needed to cut down most of them in addition to removing the PCV baffle. STY is probably correct that Trick Flow covers do not need this work but it looked to us as if they needed to have an oil filler hole drilled. Anyway, we were in a hurry and had an electric drill 'burr' bit that dug the offending bosses out of the stock covers. And of course we were not sure exactly how tall the TFs were. In the end we only had 1/8 inch clearance for either side with the stock covers.

There is a method to cutting down these re-reinforcements. Do not force them. Just lay the bur up against the boss and let it work away bit by bit. It could take hours but do it like you are doing sculpture. It all worked out perfectly. And you do not need to do them all. Just those that are adjacent to the exhaust springs which are closer to the edges.

The final test is to place each cover on the head and line up two of the bolt holes. Then push and walk the cover up and around each holes and see how much clearance you have. You should do this several times as you manhandle the crank pully 1/4 turn to the next cam lobe.

It was tedious but not all that difficult.

PS: We used long wood screws to secure the cover to our wooden work bench.

I have a Dremel rotory tool with some bits that cut thru aluminum pretty good when I installed the 3G alternator, I'll go out and see how they do on the valve covers.