i got my new heads in and i'll be starting on the swap this week, i got edelbrock performer rpm's since i spend most time over 1500 rpm's anyway and rev like crazy - but besides that.

they talk about drilling a 1/8" steam hole on each side of the block. alright. i understand the concept but their sketchy on the instructions. "place headgasket on block and drill where the steamhole is" uh.. ok.. how far down do i drill? do i HAVE to drill? when i swapped my P's on i never drilled steamholes but perhaps thats one of my problems. anyone have knowledge of this or? i really don't wanna ruin over 1,000.00 worth of stuff because of the wrong location or because i didnt drill em.

 

The new boss 302 blocks have steam holes, and ive drilled them for some circle track motors when the heads required. I just went down a 1/4 inch. Check on fordracingparts.com for the N" heads with the instruction sheet attachment i believe m-6049-n452 i believe that instruction sheet goes over steam holes...

 

Drill until the bit goes through. You will know when it does. It is easy to do.

 

Why on earth do you think you need steam holes in your (as I understand it) street motor?

 

personally it's not a 'street motor' - secondly everyone i've talked to said to - considering the 289 and early 302 blocks never had em yet these heads call for em. excuse me for asking a simple question about something i'm curious on so i don't screw up my parts by not doing it.

 

my C8 302 block had them but they *may* have been drilled by my dad 20 years ago. my E7 roller block did NOT have them and i ended up yanking the heads just to go back and get em drilled.



like mentioned above, you'll definately know when you've gone deep enough.
you drill until it the bit "breaks thru" the deck surface into the cooling passage.

and just for reference here's my old 302 block

 

hmm.. the eddy instructions say only drill 1 hole on each side, i see you have all 4. i might just go ahead and do that, what's it gonna hurt? i just heard they might warp the head or something if i didn't have em, but thanks for the pic at least now i can see what i'm gonna have to do.

 

no problem man[8D]

 

I didn't drill my block, but its a 72. I beleive it already had them if I remember correctly.

 

Well, no, it didn't. I justlooked at some pictures of when I was assembling it, and it doesn't have them. However, unlike the pics above, the coolant holes in my block are to the left of the bolt holes instead of directly below them. Dont know why. Maybe just because it is a different year?