Stock Heads, Most HP?

DRock9 · Feb 24, 2007

My friend has me terrified of taking my stock heads off, saying that if I do I wont ever get as good of a seal again. He also told me to not even bother switching to any new heads because the deck could have warped so that it isn't straight. I don't think it is warped because my car was NEVER beat on, I am the second owner, but I am not going to take the chance.

I am trying to find out if it is possible to get 400+HP without taking the heads off, I was thinking Upper/Lower Intake, maybe a cam?, definately supercharger(will be running nitrous until I get the supercharger), but I don't know what else I can put on the engine to make it get to my target HP. I dont want to boost it too much for fear of blowing a headgasket, I am anxious to get some power under the hood now that I have the suspension to support it.

I will continue to search but so far I have only found threads asking what is the most HP with stock heads/intake, hopefully when I check back I will find good news!

Thanks a lot!

BlownFiveLiter · Feb 24, 2007

Your friend is an idiot. Maybe not when it comes to everything else, but when it comes to engines, he has no clue. If you did intake, cam, and supercharger, you could definitely eclipse 400HP, but you may not have a car as fun to drive as one with heads. If what he said were true, would the hundreds of members on this board alone recommend swapping heads in every thread that comes up regarding combinations? Now you probably wouldn't hit 400HP with just H/C/I, but 300 at the flywheel should be easy with any decent setup, and depending on which combo you go with, you can get pretty damn close to 300 at the wheels. Throwing a SC on top of that with moderately low boost can get you over 400 pretty easily, and upping the boost a little more will put you in block splitting territory in no time.

DRock9 · Feb 24, 2007

So you don't think that the deck would be warped enough so that I can't put heads on? I forgot to say that my engine has 120,000 miles on it, but it was never beat on so I think I should be fine...I just don't want this car to become a nightmare.

Mr. Rustypwnz · Feb 24, 2007

the deck isnt warped, if it was the car would run like crap and blow out gaskets every 5 miles!!! just take the heads off and clean the surfaces, and yer good, throw some heads cam and an intake and its a totally diff. animal!! Why are you so concerned that the whole engines warped? You warp heads not the block most of the time, you would have to get it to like 500deg to melt a head or warp the thing, or run 55deg of timing and 87 gas.

795.0pacecar · Feb 24, 2007

slow95gt said:
the deck isnt warped, if it was the car would run like crap and blow out gaskets every 5 miles!!! just take the heads off and clean the surfaces, and yer good, throw some heads cam and an intake and its a totally diff. animal!! Why are you so concerned that the whole engines warped? You warp heads not the block most of the time, you would have to get it to like 500deg to melt a head or warp the thing, or run 55deg of timing and 87 gas.

The heads could warp with the deck so the gaskets would not blow but its unlikely that either are warped at all. Iron tends to not warp as easily as aluminum when it gets hot.

BTW I swapped heads on an engine with 200,000 miles and so far after a year of daily driving everything has stayed sealed up.

DRock9 · Feb 24, 2007

795 is it highly unlikely that they are not warped? If so what is the reason, I would just like to have a foundation to my claims when I go to tell my friend he is wrong. Is it because the block is cast iron?

Thanks!

795.0pacecar · Feb 24, 2007

No I said its highly unlikely that both are warped together. The block generally wont warp unless you seriously overheat it, and even then you would have bigger problems to deal with. Both the stock block and heads tend not to be warped because they are cast iron, they are more resistant to heat, where as aluminum heads are much more sensitive to high heat.

There are 100s of people on this board including myself who have swapped heads without any problems on high mileage engines.

DRock9 · Feb 25, 2007

Thanks a lot! I think I will find a good HCI kit to get then, the Holley kit is 2,400 and doesn't come with everything the TF kit does which doesn't make ANY sense...

I get very nice deals on Holley and Edelbrock parts, possibly Ford too, but nothing Trickflow

Any reccomendations to put me at 400-450 HP?

Mr. Rustypwnz · Feb 25, 2007

get the tfs kit and a 125 shot of squeeze, it will scare the crap out of ya if you ever get traction.

DRock9 · Feb 25, 2007

I get a free nitrous kit from my work, and through them I can get a really good deal on Holley/Edel stuff but not Trickflow

I have all the suspension work done in my sig, and addition to that I will be running Welds with 275/50/15 MT ET Streets and possibly some front suspension but I HOPE I will hook good enough.

90mustangGT · Feb 25, 2007

A turbo will get you there on a stock engine, so will nitrous but only when your on the bottle. With a S/C, your going to need a lot of boost and probally an intercooler.

DRock9 · Feb 25, 2007

Could I do SC+Nitrous?

DRock9 · Feb 25, 2007

Also, what technically SHOULD I do when I am swapping HCI? Some people said I should machine the bottom end if it is worn but the engine is running like a champ now so why pull the motor and have it machined if it is running fine now?

There is no way I am pulling this motor to do anything, it stays in the car, the only time I will ever pull it is to put a new one in right away.

DRock9 · Feb 26, 2007

90mustangGT · Feb 26, 2007

Why use two power adders? Either one can make more HP than the engine can hold. Some say to do the bottom end because they have lots of money. I would make sure your not getting a lot of leakdown and you have good compression. If you do, go for whatever way the wind takes you. Have you looked at the Hellion turbo kit?

BK_CAULEY · Feb 26, 2007

215,000

here is a story for you. my dad bought my 1989 GT new and he passed it on to me it had (according to his trackings cause of the 5 digit odo) 215,000 unmolested miles on it when i got it. i rebult it put gt-40 heads on it a none intercooled procharger at 6psi and managed to put 354hp to the wheels. and thats with no tune. and never had any problems. swapping the heads is probably the best thing you could do for your motor.

DRock9 · Feb 26, 2007

Thanks for the replies, I will do a leakdown and compression test and if I get good results I will go for the HCI! If I don't then I assume it is best that I don't take the chance and I will just slap on a supercharger or keep my nitrous.

Thank you all for your help, you have settled my concerns on putting a new top end on my car!

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