will stock explorer gt-40 heads clear 89 flat top stock forged pistons

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The heads should fit fine, the type of cam is the main thing to question with clearances.

When I compared my Explorer and forged Mustang short block, the Explorer pistons were flat and the Mustang pistons had a slight dish to them.

I believe the 64cc Explorer heads plus the Mustang forged pistions will give you lower compression than a stock 5.0 Mustang (9:1).
 
Three things:

1.0 Use clear, thorough thought patterns in your typing, along with coherent grammar. We can answer your questions better if we better know what you are asking.

2.0 The only year Mustangs used flattop pistons was 1986. All other years have valve relief notches in the piston surface. If your block has flattop pistons, it is NOT from a 1989 Mustang. If it does have relief notches, the Explorer heads will bolt on.

3.0 I believe Explorer GT-40s have a 64-66 cc chamber while GT-40Ps have a 59-60 cc chamber.
 
just because a piston has valve reliefs doesn't mean it isn't a flat top piston. The 87-93 pistons I think have a small dish in the center as well as the valve reliefs. My 85 pistons were flat tops with valve reliefs and no dish.
 
blk8950 said:
i believe the cam is 208/216 .530int .530exh

I'm more than willing to bet that cam won't clear with .530 lift. Yes there are other factors involved in whether a cam will clear, or not, but that's an awful lot of lift to put in a stock shortblock.
 
I got in this debate over on 4eyedpride about the flat top vs. dish thing, and i actually just looked at my buddy's '87 short block in his garage and there actually is a very very slight dish in the middle, maybe only 1/32 deep. I too thought they were ALL flat top, with the '86 being without valve reliefs but i was wrong. Even still, i highly doubt that little dish has any effect whatsoever on PTV clearance.
 
well to answer the original q' yes they will work with that cam and heads, i had around a .520 lift cam in my other car and it worked fine, good heads for the money, and when ported they really wake up, im about to fire my ported p head combo up tomorrow, so it should be fun!!