porting H.O heads

[import convert]

i dont know if this would be a noob question but once i get some extra funds im gonna go to the junk yard and pull the heads and intake off a H.O. ill plan on cleanign up the heads and have them decked and stuff.

now ive read a few things where peopel have ported the heads and gotten decent gains on them. i guess im wondering if you guys think its worth doing if im on a buget and if i can get gains close to wha tid get wiht aftermarket heads for a fraction of the cost?

im on a rather tight budget and dont see having 1k+ anytime soon. the heads matched to a cobra replica intake manifold, with a lunati cam, roller rockers and flowteck headers should be nice, hopefully i can get 3.73 rear too

[mrltd]

you can get decent gains with mild porting. Nothing like an aftermarket (unless you spend a bunch of money and get them done right) You have to be careful though, as it's easy to take too much off and ruin the heads. It's pricey to get them done nicely, and some used GT40 irons are cheap used and will give good gains without any portwork over the E6's. However, on the flip side, without a ton of other work to the car, aftermarket heads will not be able to reach thier potential.

[import convert]

well this junkyard wants 200 for the heads, intake, fuel rail and injectors, tb, and computer out of an LSC so if i yank the stuff out and port match (at least mildly) the heads i think itll be worht the work to save some money. ill just need to watch how much i take off and make sure i do the ports evenly

[mrltd]

200 for the top end? Too much. Find some local mustang guys and get their stock parts.

It's not just doing the ports evenly, it's getting the port shape right.

[gadget73]

http://diyporting.com/ might be of some help. They have a section on the E7TE (HO) head.

[import convert]

now if i were to use gt40 heads i can use the H.O manifold or would i need a different one?

[Lincolnmania]

i'd just save the money for a pr of thumpers and be done with it......i helped a friend port a set of e7 heads a few yrs ago......gotta think about things like time, and messing up a head and the hrs and hrs that the big air compressor is running and you are grinding away on a set of heads.....took 2 of us with 2 die grinders quite a while
check out the thumpers www.thumperoforangepark.com

[turbo2256b]

Now I see were the thumpers fall short on exaust flow. Sorry you dot seem to like my heads Scott.

[Mr. Land Yacht]

here's what mine looked like after I got them ported by turbo2256b









dont be deceived by the pics, those heads are very clean..or, they were...they're on the car now.
my car is noticably faster...but my Carb isn't working right...only running on 2bbls....but once tuned, should be making some serious power.

[Lincolnmania]

specs looked about the same to me dave according to the flowchart.....little more exhaust flow at high lift with gerrys heads.....but who has the bucks for a tune to run a high lift cam.......also most of these guys dont have e7 cores thumper charges 100 bucks core charge.....cost almost that to ship gadgets e7's both ways, and his cores needed all new valves and valve springs at an additional cost......gerry needs to put some $599.00 packages together or he isnt gonna compete.......if you were doing the heads dave i'd send them to you, but you are in kentucky...and he's in mi...i had both heads here at one point and we compared them, both are decent quality, but we werent pleased with the debris in the thread holes that we didnt find till the heads were bolted on the engine......so step in my shoes, who would you reccomend for ported e7 heads?

[turbo2256b]

We get cores for around 100.00 to. I have 2 sets right now Gerry has a few. I also have 2 sets of 351W big valve heads at a bit more. You dont send heads to me but straight to Gerry. I get a bit of money out of the deal just a referal fee since I am not there to do any grinding or time on his bench and discount on work. Dont remember what springs you ended up with. Colin and I ended up with the dual springs and aftermarket retainers. Both your heads and mine used stock valves back cut. Your heads were very high mileage and did require guides if I remember correctly. In the end Gerry has sold a lot of heads over the last 20 years or so and you are the only one that has ever complained. Myself I will stick with Gerry he seems to achieve the best flow with the smallest port area. The threaded holes deal may have been just an oversite of some sort. Gery's stuff has on dyno's pulled more HP than other builds. Our bench also reads 10 CFM lower on competitors heads and competitors flowing our heads on there benches typicaly flow 10 cfm more than on our bench.

[1987cp]

Huh, neat information so far. The flow numbers Colin posted for his BHP heads really were very impressive. I wonder if I could get some flow numbers for a guy I know of in Thorntown, Indiana (north and west of Indy). Name of the place is Woody Automotive Machine; he does ported E7's for about $500 out the door (don't think that includes shipping), but on the phone he told me he can get them "pretty close" to a GT40 (I assume he meant the early GT40 iron like I've got), so at a glance that doesn't sound quite so impressive as Gerry's. But Woody is supposed to be a well-respected Ford race engine builder in the area, so it'd be interesting to see some hard numbers for comparison.

For those contemplating porting at home, I wonder if anyone has one of those articles from Car Craft about head porting laying around? I should still have at least one still around somewhere, but alas, I forgot to bring my magazines back with me when I was loading up the truck with my tools at my mom's house.

[Nathan in MI]

If he can get "close" to GT40 heads for 500 bucks, wouldn't it be cheaper and easier to just get a pair of GT40 heads?

[1987cp]

If he can get "close" to GT40 heads for 500 bucks, wouldn't it be cheaper and easier to just get a pair of GT40 heads?

Precisely, which is why I figured paying a bit over $400 on my present set of replacement F3ZE heads was actually halfway efficient. Which reminds me, I've got the buggered set with me now ... I'll have to get some pictures of that spark plug hole so we can all have a look at it. But that's for another thread.

[import convert]

hmm. at that point id just get a set of GT40 heads and have them ported a bit.