NONSENSE!!! Just have your heads freshened at a machine shop for $600-800 and slap them back in. All you need is a better valve guide and some nice valves. You only need to replace the valves that are out of specs, but if it were me, I would replace them all. The new heads that have "the fix" are none other than identical heads with improved guides! I wouldn't pay Ford if I had too. Why give them your money to fic their problem. Also, why pay their price for what's not needed!

 

I'm not sure how to tell by looking at the head itself. My understanding is that all 03 Cobra's had these heads.

I just bought the 05 revised heads two days ago along with Ford GT (GT40) cams (from StevePowell at Tousley Ford) and crower springs. These heads fix the valve guides, like 97targa said, but they also revised the coolant passages so they will get the proper coolant flow through the head which was a contributor to the rapid deterioration of the valve guide (overheating in that area).

The 05 revised heads with a $300.00 core charge are $1683, Cams were $420, springs/retainers $500. They are gettingswapped next month. I'm going to slap some long tube BBK's anda SPEC 3 2+ on since the motor has to be pulled anyway.

 

so does any body know how to tell when your engine was made?? is it the vin number

 

i know that somewhere under the shifter in that area there is a sticker that has a number on it that translates to a date.

 

97 - i'll take your word for it. I had a couple of guys in local club say they tried it and everyone from Ford, to normal mechanics said they really need to replace the entire thing. So, i'll take your word for it.

There were NO 2003/2004 Cobra's that were produced with the fix. I will say it again, there were NO 2003/2004 Cobra's that were produced with the fix. The reason there is no recall, is that while the head tick is annoying, it doesn't necessarily have any harmful effects other then annoyance, so it's not mandatory that you replace the heads; Just most people do. There will be people that tell you if you have the blue stripe on the head then you have the head fix - which again is a myth. The only way to really tell that you do not have the fix is by looking at the head. As 97 pointed out, they're almost identical with one major exception. I believe the stock ones have 4 guides, and the fix has 7 or 8.

If I had the head tick - i'd just replace them, just because it's annoyance. Unless you can get better flowing heads for the same or cheaper, i'd just honestly go with the Ford ones. Steve from Tousley can get you them for 10% over cost, which isn't a bad deal at all.