302 head swap questions
 

Hey all,
I have a couple questions regarding head swapping and forgive me if there is already a thread started related to mine as I searched and couldnt find anything exactly. I have a 331 stroker motor and I feel I could create alot more power out of the build if I gave it some more air. I feel with my current heads I am suffacating it. I have a high lift cam (unknown specs, the previous owner included it in the buy) Keith Black pistons, ported and polished e7's (ported to the max but still iron heads) edelbrock rpm performer intake, and a 650 edelbrock carb. I feel like if I picked up a set of afr 185's, a victor jr, and a 750 carb I would be putting down alot more power. I guess my questions are; what all is involved in swapping out the heads? Im very handy with cars and repairing things in general but this will be my first time cracking open an engine block by myself. I currently have the carb and intake manifold pulled off but am waiting to recieve some new valve covers before I go any further. Is there anything with a head swap that I should be aware of and look out for? do's and dont's? maybe event a little step by step swap guide would be nice. Also, I heard the afr's are good to go out of the box and that I shouldnt port them do to the unique design from afr. Would I, or should I, port match the intake though? Thanks in advance.

My advise is get a set of 185s, AFRs are good, BUT get a custom grind cam from FTI. Give them the current bottom end setup and the heads you want and let them do the rest. As far as removing the heads, do what I do, start removing things until they come out, that's the beauty of foxes.

Head swap
 

I would consider either the afr's the trick flow turbo swirl, or if u want the next big thing from what I'm hearing go with a set of John kasse p38 heads!!! (NOT SURE IF THEY'RE AVAIL YET BUT EASILY CHECK HIS SIGHT AT JOHN KASSE.COM) these heads e supposed to rival all other heads to date? There is a piston or rocker requirement and u must use his valve covers which r very classy n polished aluminum or a bed liner type finish r the 2 options i know of. but well worth the ho etc. his sight has a whole write up, test results on a bone yard 302 with minimum header and cam requirements etc there test motor with his heads was somewhere around 500hp pretty sweet considering thats with middle of the rd headers, cam n carb. imagine all the extra bolt ons n the hp that would come with it :-) then maybe a supercharger? I have trick flows ported polished, a 12lb supercharger N the whole shebang n $ wise not realistic as I am already over 600hp and quite happy!!! Otherwise I'd jump all over a set of John kasse heads!!! Hope yer swap is a success in whatever u decide, please keep us posted especially if u end up with a set of kasse heads!!! Thanks,Frank-strokednfordged

Jus realized how old this post was lmfao!!! So how'd yer project work out?

There is no upper and lower intake on a carb set-up :D

I doubt he worked it out scince 6 pm this after noon lol .

May be you were looking at his join date.

If you already have the carb and intake manifold off you're halfway there. Pull your valve covers and remove the 7/16 bolts holding the heads to the block and you're done. If its gonna sit for awhile I'd cover it. I'd cover it as it sits now but that's just me, I'm a clean freak when it comes to me motor. As for your intake manifold I've always been partial to the edelbrock rpm air gap.

LOL what the hell are you talking about??

OP - swapping heads isnt TOO big of a deal. It does involve removal of a lot of parts as someone stated. I would definitely go with a 170-185 head pending what the car will be used for

Hahahahahahahahahaha

LOL my head completely bypassed the whole carb part. Ill correct my initial post.

185cc intake port is about the minimum size that I would want to use on a 331.
Is the car a 'street/strip' car or strictly a racer?


If it's a street/strip car that Vic Jr intake may not be what it likes.
You need to get the correct length pushrods and do a valve to piston clearance check also.
I would recommend new head bolts from ARP also. just tell them what heads you are using and they'll fix you up......

185cc intake port is about the minimum size that I would want to use on a 331.
Is the car a 'street/strip' car or strictly a racer?


If it's a street/strip car that Vic Jr intake may not be what it likes.
You need to get the correct length pushrods and do a valve to piston clearance check also.
I would recommend new head bolts from ARP also. just tell them what heads you are using and they'll fix you up......

I'm probably gonna take alot heat for this reply, but what kinda power are you at now? Has it ever been on the dyno? I'm kinda in the same boat as you with having ported E7's, and would like a set of aluminum heads but my car made decent power with the E7's and couldn't justify the price to gain a couple more hp and a nice weight lose. But you having more cubes, it will probably help your car more than mine.

If you do the swap, I'd love to know the before and after #'s. Might change my mind. Here it comes………I LIKE MY E7's !!!

Bet you guys never heard that before lol. OP, if your E7's have a good port job, and other engine components work well together, an "out of the box" set of heads won't gain you the 50-75hp you might be hoping for.

Thanks everyone for the replies, lots of good advice there. StrokednForged- I like the idea of the Kasse heads, I will do some more investigating and see if they are something I would consider. This is a street/strip car so as someone else mentioned maybe the vic jr. is a little to untame for driving on the street. With that said I will keep this thread updated as/when things progress. Unofrutnatly, since I dont drive this car very often I kind of drag a** when getting things done, sometimes I wonder if it was my daily driver it wouldnt motivate me to move a little faster on the projects haha. Thanks all, I picked up a set of new valve covers last night too, I will have to post a pic when I get a chance, there some nice aluminum SVE fabricated ones, crazy feeling the difference in weight comparing those to my old chrome edelbrock bricks.

Whats your full setup and what power do you make?

Fresh 306
BBK fender mount cai
75mm maf to a 65mm tb
Edlbrock performer intake
19's, soon to be 24's
Ported/polished E7's
Crane box and coil
Shortblock was done by po so was told Ford letter cam, don't know about pistons, rockers, etc. Never tore it down yet.
BBK equal length shorty's, h-pipe into Flowmaster's.

After my T5 swap (and switched to electric fan) it put down 300/316 to the wheels.
With the AOD it was 270/295

Thats not bad, I dont believe many have reached 300whp with a letter cam and E7s. I guess if you do decide to stick with E7s and pay for all the upgrades and machine work necessary to flow somewhat decent air then it wouldnt make much sense to buy better heads unless you were going with more cubes. I'd like to see a graph to see at what point power starts to drop with port work.

Yeah, thanks. I had nothing to do with the motor build but someone knew what they were doing. Its been a perfect, trouble-free car now for 6 yrs.

That graph would be great to see, I'd like to know the limits of these heads. Not that anybody sticks money into them anymore lol.