P Zero

1, swappin heads out is WAY more involved than just changing a cam. Theres not much more that you would really have to do. Simply remove some of the accessories from the front of the motor, pull the crank pulley and timing cover, youre there. Its maybe an additional hour worth of work. And you really wont notice that much of a difference without a cam. Granted there will be some gains but theyd definitly be more substantial with a cam.
As for the heads themselves. From what I gather, theyre just ported E7's. True porting will make them better, but why not buy some GT-40's or '69/'70 351W heads? Your net HP gain will much more than the E7's and they'll still appear to be factory heads.
-P.

Twisted

Thanks for the info, fellas. Alright, I guess I'll do the cam when I do the heads then...if it's not that much more work. I was looking at Thumpers because the price is right, and it sounds like the heads perform well. If I were to get GT40s or others used heads, I'd have to shell out to have them freshened/ported. Don't get me wrong though, I'm open to suggestionsin the price range of the Thumpers.

94ford5liter

Twisted if you compression is 165 in all the cylinders or around there, that is really good. That means your motor is almost new. When I installed my heads my compression was 143 lowest and 150 highest. Had them on a little over a month, checked the compression the other day and it hasnt went down at all.

PJB

Dont you have to pull off the front bumper assembly and radiator and condensor to get the cam out or is that just me overthinking something?
Im thinking you need to do that to slide the cam out due to the length but I could be wrong.

94ford5liter

Yes you have to take out the radiator and the AC condensor. Taking out the cam is definitely more than an hour more.

Twisted

Thanks fellas. Well now, let me qualify my statement about 165 psi. One day, I lazily tested one hole--I had the plug out, and figured why not. That particular cylinder read 165. But since my spark plugs all look identical, there's some reason to think that they will all check out ok, barring any valve issues. I just through that number out there hypothetically. Either way, thanks for the info.

immr.mustang

I did not remove the bumper, but you MUST remove the radiator and condenser.

BlackLX

Do you have any plans for the intake? Since you're going with thumper I would look into having tmoss port your stock intake.

Twisted

No, I hadn't really thought about the intake yet. Ideally, I'd like to have some aftermarket headers and intake to put on, but I'm on a real budget these days. I'll probably pick up an explorer intake from the breakers, and call it a day.

LOUDexhaust

You can always recycle the heads if your motor pukes. go for it.