Is it better to have the stock heads custom ported and polished or to just buy a new set of performance heads? There is only about $200-300 difference in the price and I am trying to weigh my options. Will a performance set allow the engine to run higher R's? Could the stock ones be rebuilt to do the same? Thanks for the help.

 

im not really sure which one is better, but what im gonna do is buy aluminum GT-40 heads and not install them until i have the money to get them ported and everything. i saw the heads in steeda's website in the trucks catalog, theyre about 1300 a pair. they also have edelbrock aluminum heads for 1100 a pair. good luck!

 

HI!... FADEX : I would advise you to get the aftermarket heads instead of trying to re-work the factory ones. There is only so much you can do to the factory cast iron heads. From experienceI have seen fully race ported factory heads that equal bone stock aftermarket performace heads right out of the box. If I were you I would try to go with a set of TRICK FLOW "TWISTED WEDGE" heads or a set of EDELBROCK's. The GT-40's are a good set of heads but a lot of others flow way better. Plus the aftermarket heads are usually aluminum and will save you considerable weight over the factory ones. Heads alone will not extend your RPM range. You will also have to have a camshaft that will work with the heads and intake system selected. You MUST MATCH your induction system to work with eachother for the rpm range you desire. Also port/polishing too much from your heads can also cost you H.P/TORQUE. It's best to get the port/polish job done for your specific application. I'm in the process od building a 347 stroker engine for a buddy right now with TRICK FLOW heads and it will be making around 425-450H.P (flywheel) with a 2 barrel carb on it and a small cam. So as you can see it matters how you set the engine up to make it's power and where it's going to make it's power. This 347 will be maxed out at 6000RPM. Hope this helps you out.

 

hey neal,
so the edelbrocks and trick flows flow better than the gt-40's? good to know. i wonder why the gt-40's are so much more money then? prolly since theyre ford racing parts.

 

From experience I have to agree with Neal. It is hard to beat edelbrock and you must match all components. I had a friend who built his 72 big block vette and he did not match his upgrades, my small block 66 vette 327 smoked his and mine was the stock 300hp. Hope this helps,
Terry

 

Everyone,

Thanks for the valuable information. Its nice to have such a wealth of information at my fingertips. I am mainly wanting to build a street rod. Neals kill list has inspired me, along woth the quantity of ricers around here. Do you guys think that the factory intake is adequate? Some people say yes, some say no. It looks larger than the stock mustang intake but a mustang is several thousand pounds lighter than my truck. How do you match these components? I'm full of questions tonight, had an Intrepid blow my doors off tonite and it pissed me off. Thanks in advance for the info.

 

ttt

 

Try edelbrocks web site. Have not been there in awhile, but they have alot of good info on what I think you are looking for. I sure that there are others. They give specs and hp ratings.
good luck,Terry

 

Fadex,

You might want to check out www.airflowresearch.com. They have some good combos also, as do many of the companies listed above. Check out the Ford dyno combos - you will like the results. In particular check out the numbers with the stock cammed 'Stang. The reason I mentio this is that a stock Mustang cam isn't wild enough to kill your low end and would be "civil" in a truck. Of course if you aren't concerned with a crappy idle and less manners, check out the big cam breakdowns.

As for the GT-40s, I think some of the confusion is due to the fact that there is more than one. There are both cast iron and aluminum GT-40s and also an aluminum version labeled GT-40X. From what I've seen people prefer the X heads.

As far as intakes, I haven't seen many options for the truck unless you want to convert to the single TB. The truck lower intake is supposed to flow very well, I would consider porting the upper before switching to the single TB.

 

as far as intakes go, edelbrock makes one for the 5.0 f-150's. supposedly it increases the truck's redline from 5k rpm's to 5500.