Hey y'all, Here's my setup: 79 302 block from a Granada, bored .030 over, installed in a 77 Unsure what pistons or rods Comp 268h cam Stock heads (as far as I know) Weiand Stealth intake Holley 650 vac secondary 4bbl I've been wavering back and forth about 347 stroker or going nuclear and doing a 351. Leaning toward the 347 path due to money. If I were to take some baby steps and upgrade my heads first, are there any good, relatively inexpensive heads that I could look at that would work well with my current 306 but also be able to support a 347 when/if that time comes? If I stroke my current setup, is my existing .030 over bore a problem (i.e. new pistons not fitting exactly right) or am I saving a step (and $$$)? What are the downsides of building my existing motor into a stroker? It isn't a roller or anything so I imagine that's a negative. Thanks!
If your pockets are deep enough, a good set of aluminum heads are king. Otherwise you could port a set of junk yard GT-40s. I can vouch for the base 170 cc Trick Flow heads as producing killer power on a 5.0 & are large enough to easily support a 347. If you win the lottery, AFR 165 are even better.. Engine Masters produced 471 Hp & 515 Ft Lb torque on a 410 Windsor with a cam similar to yours. The 195 cc version only gave another 13 Hp & 5.5 Ft Lb torque. A 220 CC head lost power and gave numbers similar to the 165 head.
If you buy heads, choose only from those with 58 cc chambers. With 64's you run the risk of having your compression in your current combo to low. Check your block's casting numbers and post them here. If you have a D8VE-A3A block, then you've got a winner with the large Hi-po main caps to build a stroker on. I had one that would easily take a 60 overbore with nice thick walls and no core shift.
Thanks for that input! I had seen the mustang guys refer to the 185 heads pretty often so at least we're talking the same language. I don't know a lot about heads, admittedly, so I need to educate myself on what 11R means, for example. I think you got my point though: whatever heads I buy now for the 306 I want to be able to support a 347 when I get those funds together. Do these heads you're talking about require a different intake than the Stealth I have?
1985 engineering number, the actual casting date is on a pad above the starter. The D8 blocks had a raised deck to lower compression for emissions, some .023" IIRC.
That's not a D8 block. It may be an early roller block. The 86-up blocks had 4 more pounds of iron added to the decks and the bore bottoms to stiffen them for performance use.
Well it's not a 79 Granada block. It's an 85 block, possibly a roller casting. That would be a plus, but the 86-up roller blocks had more iron added to stiffen the decks and bore cores.
So I’ve learned! There was definitely a miscommunication somewhere down the line when I got this maverick. Fun learning about it!
I meant the block he thought he had (79) would have been a D8 block and not a great candidate for a build. I ran a 347 in a D8 block, had the block decked .020", so it can be done. (Had over $800 in machine work in that block and ended up breaking it, LOL) I believe you are mistaken about the later roller blocks having more material in the decks. They were infamous for warping decks from torqueing standard head bolts, say hello to torque-to-yield bolts. The decks were so thin they stopped putting blind head bolt holes and went to through-holes. I also know that my current 1989 roller cam block has thinner main bearing webbing than my earlier blocks, that's why so many split from the cam tunnel down to the mains. They move around a lot when stressed. Not sure where they hid the extra 4 pounds of iron you mentioned...
Your Stealth intake will fit most aftermarket heads including the two examples Krazy Comet suggested. As for me, I'm running the 165 Competition Package AFRs with a Stealth on my 302.
I'm not mistaken about the iron content. I got this straight from Ford Racing's 5.0 manual. The 68-79 blocks all weighed 135 lbs., this includes the Mex blocks. (actually they weigh 1 pound more with the thicker main caps) The D8VE-A3A block is identical to the Mex, with the exception of the bolt bosses on the front of the Mex. The D8VE-3A had the smaller main caps like the rest. The 1980-84 blocks weighed 120 lbs. The E5AE weighs 122 lbs (the taller roller lifter bores account for the 2 lbs). The 86-up blocks had another 4 lbs added to stiffen the decks and bore cores in the bottom (which is what I stated before) In addition to reading Ford's book, I also had the opportunity to weigh 4 blocks several years ago that were stripped down, one C8 block, one D2 block and both a D8VE-A3A and a D8VE-3A, all four tipped the scales at 134-136 pounds. The through bolt holes in the decks of the roller blocks are the lower holes, the uppers are blind. My 331 is built around an 88 roller block, been together now for 15 years with no problems, but I do not abuse it. It's been spun to 7 grand a few times ( by my son) and been to 6500 hundreds of times by myself. Comp ratio is 10.4 to 1 and makes about 425 hp with the Canfield equivalent of the AFR165 heads.
