Let me run a radical idea past you. Make it a SOHC (single overhead cam) head. Why? You're trying to work around the existing pushrods and using valves that are not aligned to allow crossflow in the cylinder. Get rid of the pushrods, create bosses to support the camshaft above the head, and then you can make the valves align with the intake to exhaust. Plus you'll have more freedom to place the spark plugs. A big problem is the rocker arms . In my mind, you may not get the stock 1.5:1(?) ratio. Study Pontiac's SOHC inline six from the 1960's. I think that might be the biggest design challenge. The rocker arms. As far as the stock distributor is concerned, the exhaust will have to bend up and away from it. Either a tubular header or a large log manifold made from steel tubing. Protecting the distributor from heat will be another challenge. If you're using carburetors or TBI, you must heat the intake! The exhaust will have to wrap around and run under to heat it. Otherwise, it will always run like crap because the fuel isn't getting vaporized. Yet another challenge.
Here's some idea's for your intake runner/ pushrod issue, 1 make narrower ports(similar to cathedral style) and/or use offset rocker arms. Good luck on your project.
Nice Idea. The man that originally built the 300 Ford Pinto and used Cleveland heads. His name was Bruce Sizemore. He used a two piece pushrod with a secondary lifter to take care of the pushrod angle problem. On High Horsepower applications the crankshaft will be the next challenge as Bruce experienced in drag racing. The one factor you have not really explored yet is Overhead Cam. Anyways great concept. A 300 Ford has always been a favorite engine of mine for inline sixes. Have a great day.
You beat me to the comment about Bruce Sizemore, He used to come into a shop I worked at in Danbury, Conn. I got to work on those heads, they were an incredible amount of work to build, but made a ton of power!
@@adambergendorff2702 Thanks Adam, you sound like you have been around awhile. Probably like me. The Bruce Sizmore 300/Pinto was along time ago. People really got creative back in the Old Days. Incredible talent. Have a great day.
I don’t know if anybody has mentioned the Toyota 1FZ-FE. It was a 4.5L in-line six with nearly identical bore sizing(assuming a similar bore spacing) as the 240/300 Ford. I bring this up because my first thought is getting away from the cam-in-block/push-rod arrangement because that will always cause issues in the design. If you develop a head that could use 1FZ cam cores, you can do away with the pushrod problems, develop much better, more efficient and higher flowing ports. It would also allow you to angle the valves, which would improve the issue with a short(shallow) short-side radius on both the intake and exhaust ports. It would however force you to come up with a method to drive the cams. Just an idea…spending all this time and effort, I’d want to make the best performing head I could…looks like you might end up getting stuck with a cross-flow boat anchor. Another idea is canting the valves a few degrees, that’ll help with the shallow short-side radius issue in the ports-improving flow and it could help with your valvetrain geometry issues with the offset push-rods.
These engines were designed with "nested" intake and exhaust manifolds, because they were carbureted, and heating the intake vaporized the mixture better, and helped with cold starts, the implementation of fuel injection, with perfect fuel delivery, really pushed the performance side of I6 engines.
Chevy ls heads are extremely close to bolting on. I think the winsor head bolt pattern is the same to!?. There were several Cleveland heads cut, and welded together to run on the 300. From what people say that's the ticket to make a 300 spank V8's. Check out the 3V Cleveland heads.
@@jaredlancaster4137 They don't they're just close enough. LS is a 4.4 inch bore the ford is a 4.38 or so and they need to be machined with a couple holes egged out to fit, and your valves don't line up. Someone did it you can search up 351w with LS heads on youtube.
Cool project. Would be nice to see this happen. 3D scan the LS ports and Ford Cleveland 4V ports and see how different those ports are from each other. My guess is that the LS heads and chambers are more advanced. Lost foam is a great idea. There are plans out there to do your own flow bench. You might be able to find a custom foundry who could cast your molds. If you follow all of the rules and do all the work such that all they have to do is the pour, the costs might not be too bad.
In Australia we took the Ford thrift six power from 170 cubic inch up to 250 in.³ then from there we turned it into a cross flow engine. Then we put a on top and then we put another cam on it into the Barra. Then a turbo …all the basic architecture and it can make upwards 2200hp
@@JosephCowen-fz8vjyes you are correct, for the original US variety, the first version we had in Australia was The 170 though and, almost immediately was pushed to a 200 and a 250
@@xgford94 I don't mean to update you but the base Aussie Falcons in 1960 had 144 ci six, the upmodel Falcons had the 170 super pursuit , the 144 was offered one year only , you can tell as it had 4 wheel studs just like the first mustang . Then the 188 ci , 221 ci and much later in 1973 the 200 and 250 .
I was thinking the same. Given the cost of foundry and machining it may be worth importing a 250 crossflow. There may be some old performance alloy heads here in Aus
The 200/3.3 inline six found in Fox bodies was also crossflow from around the same time. It was replaced with a v6 in 82 I think. I like inline sixes, but I don't understand why so many american ones weren't crossflow, like the AMC/Jeep 4.0.
Awesome . . instantly subbed. I need to see how you figure this out. I am running into the exact same problems with my own "Cross-Flow Head" project for a Jeep 4.0L straight six. I have discovered that the bore spacing and lifter bore spacing of a Ford Windsor V8 is the exact same as the Jeep 4.0L. A cheap set of aluminum heads from Ebay are about $550 bucks w/shipping. The biggest problem I see is with the water jacket and oil drain back. The Ford 300 & Jeep 4.0L head gaskets don't actually allow coolant to flow from the block to the head anywhere but at the very back. Coolant flows into the block from the front, goes all the way to the back, up into the head then forward to the front of the head and t-stat. I don't have any video yet but I will watch your progress and when I do have video I'll let you know. Maybe we can help each other out.
I seen a 300six cross flow head in the 90's at milan dragway. The Ford engineer stold it from work to put on his altar dragcar. The cross flow head was a prototype made of cast iron.
@@andrewfraser8974 But the Aussie 250 has factory crossflow heads. Not to mention a factory turbo. Just use the whole bleeding mill, not just the heads! Embrace the fact that the 300 is a low-revving stump-puller. Lean into it. If you have to do anything to it, turbo it, and emulate a 6BT in torque, HP, and turbine whine out a straight pipe.
@bcubed72 they never did a factory turbo on crossflow, they were all 3rd party like AIT often mistakenly reffered to as Dick Johnson turbos, he was involved with the development but it was done by AIT.
I drove a john deere 3130 diesel tractor for many years, they are 329ci with crossflow head. also came in petrol variants. a great engine, for a swap, especially considering the bell housing is bolt on to the block.
If you make it taller so the intake port gets straighter you can have less area in the port since it will become much more efficient. This would help with the pushrods also since the distance between them increase the higher you go. Also you should research about how to shape the combustion chamber. This eill affect efficiency of the burn and the flow. Super important. Listen to Darin Morgan regarding design of the port. Theres also alot written on the speed talk forums regarding this. Also make sure the exhaust port is round at the exist. This will make it alot easier to match to the header pipe since you want a perfectly seamless transition from the head to the header. Calvin Elston is the man to listen to. Hes written alot on speed talk forums also. Goes by the name exhausted there.
I love projects like this. The short side radius of both the intake and exhaust ports might be my primary focus if I were undertaking a project like this.
@@TheOrangeManGood True .. but stroker kit is possible ... but cubic inches are less important when turbo'd I've seen some eye watering dyne numbers for a Bara...
i put a comment on his video to please find someone to do a 3D scan on that head so someone could get one casted for us! maybe if more people left a similar comment it may happen?
Yeah as stated in this post ! Ford Australia took the 144 through 250 ci Falcon Six and gave it Cross Flow Cleveland style cantered valve heads in 1979 , same valve angles and infact valves as Cleveland V8 . Later cast in Alloy and multi port injection in 1983/4 . The 200 ci and 250 ci six got this head . Alloy ones cast by Honda in Japan . These heads are a direct bolt on for any US 144, 170, 188, 200 and 250 six .
If you look on the Australian engine parts sites you will see head gaskets for them, and they look similar to what your 300 looks like. These crossflow heads came in cast iron and alloy and have heaps of aftermarket go-fast stuff for them. You may be better off just bringing in a whole OZ engine. The last of these engines had fuel injection and electronic ignition.
You might be interested in Greg Quirin's channel. He's documenting Pete Aardema and Kevin Braun's engine developments for land-speed records. They've made a number of 4-valve heads for engine's that didn't originally come with them. They're not on an enormous budget. "How to Design & Build Performance High Horsepower Cylinder Heads" may be especially useful
I think you need to go OHC to get crossflow with decent ports. Look at some more modern Fords in Australia, I bet something has the same bore spacing & bolt pattern.
Raise the intake and exhaust ports in the casting. The smoother the airflow, the higher the horsepower. A LS style valve cover would be great. You could try to get around the pushrod angle issue by offsetting the intake runners toward the front of the head.
Hi. If you make your head OHC or DOHC, you can easily solve your port problems. You can make your intake and exhaust manifolds work with the stock port configuration on a 2 valve head, and you can offer a 4 valve head as a performance upgrade. The 2 valve could even be a hemi! Pushrod location is a huge impediment to port size and location. Have fun.
Years ago this was done by using a Ford Cleveland 4V head that was welded together. It made 650hp NA and was a race engine though one thing to consider is that the Ford 300 and 302 share the same 4.000" bore and you are not limited to the stock pistons of the 300 straight 6. BOSS 302 high compression pistons were used in that engine without modification since they share the same bore size. Every straight six is pretty much crippled in terms of airflow. (Ford, chevy, GMC,Jeep,AMC) a cross flow head is much more efficient though i would love to see someone try making a HEMI style head for the 300 though the rocker arms would be tricky.
Look into the mid sixties Ford 302 and 427 Tunnel Port racing engines....they solved the pushrod problem by running them through tubes in the intake ports.
Copying the LS valve and chamber is a nice short cut. For a two valve engine they make great power. How about using the Ford 302 layout? For the push rod clearance make tall narrow ports, like the LS.
Overhead Cam, delete pushrods. Cathedral ports like LS, narrower and taller? The LS also used thin round channels for coolant to carry away heat, referred to as Steam ports. I worry about the angled push rods wear on the lifter. try to use roller lifters and rockers to minimize that side force. I wonder if you could test the valve geometry on a lawnmower engine? I just built a DIY CNC MIni Mill and tested with Pink foam, shapes came out extremely detailed. That should work well for a lost foam method. don't for get valve seats, they will press in machined space. And Valve guides could be turned brass pressed as well. Rocker arm bolts take a lot off pulling out forces, May need steel threaded inserts like we used to repair striped threads. Very interesting design project. I would never had tried it. But the CAD tools these days are pretty awesome, I use Fusion 360 for my Model Train work. and some off the Mini Mill Stepper mounts and Dremel tool holder. All the best, Dennis in Virginia
Like other said a taller port will help a lot and is one of the biggest improvements on aftermarket heads. You want it to flow at the small radius, too sharp and you lose effective area. For the intake clearance for pushrod, your way is fine. You could also angle the valve/rocker with the pushrod for canted valves and less shrouding and bigger valves if wanted. Other ways is using a pusrod tunnel as the pontaic tunnel port heads. Or you could simply put the intake on the other side as stock and get free cleance from valve train. For valve sizes. Intake valve you need at least 12% of the valve diameter between cylinder wall/valve for straight valves, less and you start to lose flow form shrouding. 5% is fine for exhaust and maybe even a bit less.
@@Patrick-xd8jv i mean i guess, but did we never think to restrict the coolant flow to the head and choke the crap out of it? Or run the coolant through the intake like we did on v8 engines? I mean jeep in the 60's built a crossflow ohc i6 that held a lot of potential, so obviously someone was thinking along these lines, but it was despised in the states (though having 2 valves share a cam lobe was... interesting...) Even pontiac's ohc that they made for a few years lacked crossflow...
Fun project, I dont know if you have seen Kelly Coffield's videos, He builds incredible reproduction parts with lost foam casting, hope that might help.
The 300 I6 block has a 4.480" bore spacing. The Godzilla 7.3L is 4.53, LS is 4.40, and the Ford 6.2L has 4.53 bore spacing. I wonder if the heads from a Ford 6.2L SOHC could be modified to work and a custom cam ground as well.
It's impossible! Hope this helps you keep it going! I've been thinking about the same project. I like the idea of the factory exhaust manifold, and relocating the spark plugs and intake ports. I was thinking about mimicking the LS intake ports (tall and skinny) this would require a custom intake though
If you figure it out you should make a head for the AMC/Jeep six. The heads are different between the early 199, 232, and 258 in respect to the later 4.0. What that difference is I don’t know, but they’re becoming popular. Guys a stroking the 4.0 out to 4.7 liters.
I know there are a few guys mentioning LS heads in the comments, but another option with even closer bore spacing is the modern Chrysler Hemi motor. The bore spacing is 4.46 compared to the Ford 300's 4.480. The 5.7 Chrysler has a little bit smaller bore diameter. Could be a lot easier option if the bolt pattern lines up or is close.
I had the idea to graft one and a half 7.3 IDI or 7.3 Powerstroke heads onto a 300. I wanted to experiment with making a diesel 300, and I realized that the 7.3 and the 300 both have 4 inch bores. I haven't gone anywhere with the idea, but I want to try it eventually. The tough part would be the head bolts since a 300 is 4 bolt, a 7.3 IDI is 5 bolt, and a 7.3 Powerstroke is 6 bolt. Either way, crossflow 300 is big mint. I love the 300, but I hate reverse flow heads.
Something you might want to take a look at are the Cleveland heads because they have canted valves that may solve your splayed geometry problem with the valves and pushrods not being in line with each other. Several people have built these 300s with those cobbled on there and apparently it's a pretty nasty combo (as in it makes absurd amounts of power). Another engine that has very similar head design is the new 7.3L Godzilla engine and I believe it has even more favorable bore spacing than either the Cleveland or the LS. Not necessarily that you're going to cobble one from those, but because they might give you some design ideas that you can glean and put into your final product.
I think reusing manifolds would be a great idea. Less initial cost. And if someone already has headers and performance intake they can reuse them as well.
I had a '94 F150 4.9 w/ M5OD for a few years. Loved that truck. I don't know how to use CAD, but I have a DOHC idea I can share with you. Will draw them up. Just need to know how to email them to you.
have you seen the australian 250 crossflow I6. I suspect it may be adaptable. i have a bunch of pre barra SOHC i6 motors The actual blocks look really similar in terms of Dizzy and oil filter location and general dimentions. It wouldnt surprise me if the bore spacing coolant passages and deck hight stayed constant right thru from pre crossflow 250/300 I6 right thru to barra. maybe do some googleing to check that and pushrod location?
There were rumors going around in the mid 2000's of a crossflow head designed by ford. They were experimental and tried for ups so the story goes. One surfaced on the forums for sale. There were less than 6 made total.
As many others have said, go get an Aussie 250 crossflow head You won't be able to use it because the bore spacing is 4.08" compared to the 4.48" spacing of the 300, but at least it will give you some ideas about a decent design Better still just throw the 300 in the bin and stick a DOHC Barra in your car !
Ford 300cu bore spacing = 4.480 inches Aussie Ford 250/250 crossflow & later bore spacing = 4.08inches Perhaps try to find an Aussie '74 to '87 crossflow head to scan OR stike lucky & find one online somewhere & re-scale it in CAD & feed the details into a CNC mill? If nothing else, it should give you some ideas for solving some of the problems you are or will face... Looking forward to see how you go with project, best of luck & thanks for sharing! ;)
I love what you are doing. but i have some ideas for you to think on. 1) why not an over head cam, that eliminates all of your pushrod and rocker arm re-engineering . any good HVAC guy should be able to hammer out a "tin" front timing chain cover. even if it is to light weight to be used, it would give you a pattern to cast an aluminum cover. chains are easy, but timing gears will likely be one off's, unless you can find a set (junk yard) of v-8 gears that will work. that would eliminate push rod, spark plug(s) concerns, and allows you to port the heads for maximum performance. it would also allow you to think about 4 valve designs. lifter bores are easily plugged. there are aftermarket crank trigger timing kits, so if you go that route, you could just plug all of the camshaft bearing ,lifter, and distributor holes. as long as you make certain that your not cutting the oil supply to something. a 10mm spark plug is every bit as effective as a 14mm one. so if where you want to put it is tight, that is an easy fix. and while you may have to leave the stock cam in place to drive the distributor (unless you want to make a different way to create and time the spark). the valve placement can be anywhere, the determining factors are going to be cooling passages, oiling passages ( if nothing else you can run an external oil line). also do not forget to think about combustion chamber swirl (port design) and quench zones. as far as port design, keep in mind that casting them with the engine rpm range in mind. there is no point in making them huge, because your never going to see 9,000 rpm. straight sixes make most of their touque below 4,000 rpm. velocity is important. as far as manifolds go, honestly, I would NOT use them. they were made to get fuel/air in and out with 90% of the concern being "how can we do this cheaply and easily, and 10% of the engines performance in mind. making manifolds is not that difficult. flat steel base, and round pipe for runners. if you do your research, you could even tune both manifolds for a specific RPM range. this is a difficult task. I am not capable of doing that kind of work. as far as casting, there are foundries (usually mom and pops type that will pour aluminum or i guess cast iron if that is what you want. another thing your going to have to find out exactly what alloy you need for any of the metal you use. if you use the wrong alloy, it could mean catastrophic failure on its first run. once you think you have your mold design correct, if I were you, I would spend $50.00 and buy enough wax to make the part. that is something you can do at home, and can save you all of the cost of casting a head with a major design flaw. I AM NOT trying to dissuade you from doing this. If you can pull this off I personally would consider it one of the few great lifetime achievements that anyone could accomplish !
I agree with using the stock manifold configurations if possible. Have you concidered the boss 302/351C head design instead of the LS? The canted valve arrangement might solve some of the issuses you are having wth the LS? Never know....
Since you're starting with a clean sheet, the design can be changed to get all that's possible out of the crossflow design preference. Things that have to be worked around (incorporated) are the pushrods, head bolts, block deck water jacket openings and T stat location (to a point). The ports are only locked to being centered between the head bolts and the pushrods, as the shape can be changed to allow good flow characteristics. The valves and combustion chambers also be rotated for a better design. Take a look at an old Toyota Corolla (1971) 2TC 1600 cc 4 cylinder Hemi design to get the perspective I speak of, and it doesn't need to be a hemi piston and combustion chamber. Intake (runners & plenum) induction and exhaust manifolds (headers) will be easy to construct for this engine. Best of luck with this endeavor you looking into.
It’s impossible, now get it done so I can get one as well lol. Honestly , I think you should reference the Cummins head, since they are both OHV , 12v design , injectors go on the driver side of the head , Maybe adding a little meat on both sides of the head would help centering those pushrods a little so you can initially make the intake and exhaust ports maybe cone in ? Maybe just an opinion
Look at the FE Ford head cyl spacing is very close to the 300 cyl spacing go the the salvage yard and get 4 of them cut them up and weld back together with the correct cyl spacing then cut the assembly in half and get your water passage mold. Then find someone (like Edelbrock) to cast it in Aluminum
Original style head gasket would be required and is a template, Australia had the falcon 4.1 litre 250 cube crossflow 6 from the 70's. Remember that a fail is learning which leads to experience 😊 good luck.
Intake, exhaust port, and chamber geometry is critical, and difficult to do without a lot of experience. Best/safest bet would be to scan/copy LS designs.
If your design is going to splay out the pushrods that much, design the head about 1/2-3/4 inch taller and raise the ports the same amount. Get your intake port in that wide area between the pushrods. High port, race only LS heads already exist.
the angled pushrods should not be a problem big block chevy push rods are angled quite a bit. its a shame that US auto makers abandoned the L6. my friend in high school had one in a ford F150 and he beat it like it owed him money. and it just ran every day. I had a 2005 4.0L in my Jeep wrangler that had close to 200k on it when i traded it in. never missed a beat. just regular maintenance and a replacement exhaust manifold that cracked.
I thought about that. I would like to use stock/aftermarket manifolds, but maybe a port adapter to go from the stock square port to a taller/thinner port could be designed.
I would offset the rocker arms instead of angling the push rods. I can imagine the wear would increase substantially. If you look at Harley Evo rockers, that might give you an idea.
This guy is a nut for doing all that work, re-inventing the wheel. Ford Australia made something like 160,000 of this engine, with a cross-flow head, in the late 1970's. Just buy a crossflow head from Australia, with or without the rest of the engine. Ford Australia cross-flow sixes were mostly made in 200 and 250 cubic inch versions, but smaller versions were supplied to fleet owners. These cross-flow sixes were very good smooth motors - caught GM-H, still stuck with their old "red motor" out, though rendered a bit low in power by the exhaust recirculation needed to pass 2nd stage emission rules.
The AU engines were based on the smaller bore spacing 200/250 engine (Falcon engine). He is working on the 300 (4.9l) which has a larger bore spacing. The heads will not fit.
@@npvg : I thought the only difference between the US 300 and US 240 was a longer stroke and different head machining? Cylinder bore was the same, so no need to increase bore spacing, which would mean an entirely different block. Note that the Australian 1970's engines with cross-flow (cast iron) heads are the heavy 7-main bearing engines, not the earlier little 4-bearing engines that came with early Falcons worldwide.
250Aus block has 4.08" bore spacing (center-to-center) 300US (Industrial motor here in Oz) is 4.48". 250Aus crossflow would need to be scaled up to fit.
A crossflow design flows identically to the looping flow design if valve placement is unchanged. Overlap efficiency is dictated by valve placement. If your crossflow design maintains the same inline valve, wedge chamber, there will be no change in mass flow.
@@cronedentside74 Copy the Aussie 'Barra' if your going to go OHC or DOHC- will need to be scaled up from 4.08" to 4.48" bored sizing though in CAD... I'd stick with copying the '74-'87 Ford Aus Alloy Cross-flow though- just having some decent ports & cooller intake would do wonders for an engine that can make 500-odd hp @ crank on a stock head with turbo, even if left in N/A form. ua-cam.com/video/SZoV6E5DDXI/v-deo.htmlsi=eE-yW6Md_QbjOlE-
Not sure what RPM range you're targeting, but the Ford 300 6 is known for being a low revving torque engine. It was used on UPS trucks for years and is a proven power plant. Cross flow really doesn't do a lot for performance other that having more room for the ports and keeping heat off the intake. If you want the 300 to really compete in the upper RPM range, I'd start with a 4 valve DOHC setup. Just take any one cylinder from any 4V DOHC engine and use that as the base. You'd have to run a chain up the front, but you won't need pushrods and 4V heads are pretty much the best setup. If you select an engine that has fully isolated runners for each intake valve, you can use VVT to make it run off of 1 valve at low RPM and both valves at mid/higher range. Each cylinder can have two full length intake runners and two injectors/throttle bodies that work like a progressive 2V carb for max torque down low. That would make the 300 a monster down low, yet still able to have torque up higher.
I like the idea of converting it to an OHC set up as well, the one thing he would have to account for is oiling those components. If he can tap into the oil galleries from the block, internally or externally, he'd be set.
Don't use paint to get a print of the block, just purchase a head gasket. Cant the valves towards their respective ports. Raise the ports in the heads over what your drawings show, flow will improve. Make the head taller if necessary. Use single shaft mounted rocker arms for each valve. Don't worry about push rod angles, Mopar guys do this all the time. Foundry sand can be printed with a 3D printer, to pour a casting. After doing all this work, don't use the factory manifolds they are not that good.
Nothing good ever happened in the performance cylinder head business till the NASCAR guys got over the idea of using anything in the way of stock manifolds ,,, !
WHAT is the attraction about hotrodding 300 Fords.Hardly ideal as a performance engine with a heavy crank and 4" stroke. Excellent torquey truck engine however. As it was designed to be. I have seen them used in 70s speedway Supermodifieds where they rasped around at moderate speed. The best had a one of constant flow injection. That car is still around though inactive. A few tried the 292 Chev 6 as well. To my mind a better engine BUT also obsolete. IF you want a good more modern straight 6 used a crossflow 250ci Falcon engine pushrod engine. Or better the same base engine with the twincam head, The Barra. Or modern Chevy 6 engines
Piston ranch channel did the LS heads on a a 300. Also if you're designing a head, just go overhead camshaft why would you stick to pushrod? You can use the pushrod as a through oiling system for the OHC by just having them end in the head and oil is pumped up from them to your cam or just plug it. I made one for a slant 6 i just stole the basic head design from a 2JZ 4 valves per cylinder using Toyota 4A valves and parts same bucket on valve design. Belt run from the crank externally. Look at the Toyota M series if you want 2 valves just go single overhead cam with a hemi head. If you want pushrod look at the GM iron duke design crossflow pushrod with 2 different style of rockers and valves arranged at an angle and cant
what are your goals for the engine? that sets the entire framework for what your cylinder head needs to do. building a crossflow head just because is a waste of time and energy, rule number 1 of any design work is design intent.
Thanks for all the comments yall! I’m reading all of them. Definitely some good ideas out there!
Hey, is there a way for me to email you? I've got a weird idea I'd like to run by you.
Let me run a radical idea past you. Make it a SOHC (single overhead cam) head.
Why? You're trying to work around the existing pushrods and using valves that are not aligned to allow crossflow in the cylinder. Get rid of the pushrods, create bosses to support the camshaft above the head, and then you can make the valves align with the intake to exhaust. Plus you'll have more freedom to place the spark plugs.
A big problem is the rocker arms . In my mind, you may not get the stock 1.5:1(?) ratio. Study Pontiac's SOHC inline six from the 1960's. I think that might be the biggest design challenge. The rocker arms.
As far as the stock distributor is concerned, the exhaust will have to bend up and away from it. Either a tubular header or a large log manifold made from steel tubing. Protecting the distributor from heat will be another challenge.
If you're using carburetors or TBI, you must heat the intake! The exhaust will have to wrap around and run under to heat it. Otherwise, it will always run like crap because the fuel isn't getting vaporized. Yet another challenge.
Here's some idea's for your intake runner/ pushrod issue, 1 make narrower ports(similar to cathedral style) and/or use offset rocker arms. Good luck on your project.
Nice Idea.
The man that originally built the 300 Ford Pinto and used Cleveland heads.
His name was Bruce Sizemore.
He used a two piece pushrod with a secondary lifter to take care of the pushrod angle problem.
On High Horsepower applications the crankshaft will be the next challenge as Bruce experienced in drag racing.
The one factor you have not really explored yet is Overhead Cam.
Anyways great concept.
A 300 Ford has always been a favorite engine of mine for inline sixes.
Have a great day.
You beat me to the comment about Bruce Sizemore, He used to come into a shop I worked at in Danbury, Conn. I got to work on those heads, they were an incredible amount of work to build, but made a ton of power!
@@adambergendorff2702 Thanks Adam, you sound like you have been around awhile.
Probably like me.
The Bruce Sizmore 300/Pinto was along time ago.
People really got creative back in the Old Days.
Incredible talent.
Have a great day.
There is actually a 300 Ford hd steel crank . They're kinda rare but out there just the same .
I don’t know if anybody has mentioned the Toyota 1FZ-FE. It was a 4.5L in-line six with nearly identical bore sizing(assuming a similar bore spacing) as the 240/300 Ford. I bring this up because my first thought is getting away from the cam-in-block/push-rod arrangement because that will always cause issues in the design. If you develop a head that could use 1FZ cam cores, you can do away with the pushrod problems, develop much better, more efficient and higher flowing ports. It would also allow you to angle the valves, which would improve the issue with a short(shallow) short-side radius on both the intake and exhaust ports. It would however force you to come up with a method to drive the cams. Just an idea…spending all this time and effort, I’d want to make the best performing head I could…looks like you might end up getting stuck with a cross-flow boat anchor.
Another idea is canting the valves a few degrees, that’ll help with the shallow short-side radius issue in the ports-improving flow and it could help with your valvetrain geometry issues with the offset push-rods.
Wonder how close the Nissan 4.8L I6 would be? But it's OHC?
These engines were designed with "nested" intake and exhaust manifolds, because they were carbureted, and heating the intake vaporized the mixture better, and helped with cold starts, the implementation of fuel injection, with perfect fuel delivery, really pushed the performance side of I6 engines.
Chevy ls heads are extremely close to bolting on. I think the winsor head bolt pattern is the same to!?. There were several Cleveland heads cut, and welded together to run on the 300. From what people say that's the ticket to make a 300 spank V8's. Check out the 3V Cleveland heads.
LS heads use the same bore spacing and bolt pattern as a Windsor or a 300. That's why people are able to modify Windsor and LS heads onto the 300.
@@jaredlancaster4137 They don't they're just close enough. LS is a 4.4 inch bore the ford is a 4.38 or so and they need to be machined with a couple holes egged out to fit, and your valves don't line up. Someone did it you can search up 351w with LS heads on youtube.
Cool project. Would be nice to see this happen. 3D scan the LS ports and Ford Cleveland 4V ports and see how different those ports are from each other. My guess is that the LS heads and chambers are more advanced. Lost foam is a great idea. There are plans out there to do your own flow bench. You might be able to find a custom foundry who could cast your molds. If you follow all of the rules and do all the work such that all they have to do is the pour, the costs might not be too bad.
Pour a few I say! Lol I'd take one of those baddies
In Australia we took the Ford thrift six power from 170 cubic inch up to 250 in.³ then from there we turned it into a cross flow engine. Then we put a on top and then we put another cam on it into the Barra. Then a turbo …all the basic architecture and it can make upwards 2200hp
That's 144 ci the 170 was the big motor !
@@JosephCowen-fz8vjyes you are correct, for the original US variety, the first version we had in Australia was The 170 though and, almost immediately was pushed to a 200 and a 250
@@xgford94 I don't mean to update you but the base Aussie Falcons in 1960 had 144 ci six, the upmodel Falcons had the 170 super pursuit , the 144 was offered one year only , you can tell as it had 4 wheel studs just like the first mustang . Then the 188 ci , 221 ci and much later in 1973 the 200 and 250 .
Ford Australia made a cross flow head for the 250 six cylinder (only sold in Oz) from 1977 to 1987. Might be useful for help in the layout?
Put a 250 Falcon motor into a 1986 Hiace to pull my racecar around back in the 90s . Went like stink even with a trailer on the back :)
only if you want to start with a 30 year old port design
They were really torquey engines. Be surprised if it didn't just bolt on.
I was thinking the same. Given the cost of foundry and machining it may be worth importing a 250 crossflow. There may be some old performance alloy heads here in Aus
The 200/3.3 inline six found in Fox bodies was also crossflow from around the same time. It was replaced with a v6 in 82 I think. I like inline sixes, but I don't understand why so many american ones weren't crossflow, like the AMC/Jeep 4.0.
Awesome . . instantly subbed. I need to see how you figure this out. I am running into the exact same problems with my own "Cross-Flow Head" project for a Jeep 4.0L straight six. I have discovered that the bore spacing and lifter bore spacing of a Ford Windsor V8 is the exact same as the Jeep 4.0L. A cheap set of aluminum heads from Ebay are about $550 bucks w/shipping. The biggest problem I see is with the water jacket and oil drain back. The Ford 300 & Jeep 4.0L head gaskets don't actually allow coolant to flow from the block to the head anywhere but at the very back. Coolant flows into the block from the front, goes all the way to the back, up into the head then forward to the front of the head and t-stat. I don't have any video yet but I will watch your progress and when I do have video I'll let you know. Maybe we can help each other out.
You’re right the coolant and oil passages will be challenging. Feel free to follow my instagram @cronedentside74 if you want to reach out.
@@cronedentside74 I wonder if it would be better to just drill and tap the passages and run external lines.
I seen a 300six cross flow head in the 90's at milan dragway. The Ford engineer stold it from work to put on his altar dragcar. The cross flow head was a prototype made of cast iron.
This is cool. Real engineering challenge here.
Australian 250 Falcon crossflow head ?! Alloy too ! Daoh ! Cheers from New Zealand
Unfortunately the bore spacing on the 250 isn't the same, you'd still have to cut up heads and weld
@@andrewfraser8974 But the Aussie 250 has factory crossflow heads. Not to mention a factory turbo. Just use the whole bleeding mill, not just the heads!
Embrace the fact that the 300 is a low-revving stump-puller. Lean into it. If you have to do anything to it, turbo it, and emulate a 6BT in torque, HP, and turbine whine out a straight pipe.
@bcubed72 they never did a factory turbo on crossflow, they were all 3rd party like AIT often mistakenly reffered to as Dick Johnson turbos, he was involved with the development but it was done by AIT.
I drove a john deere 3130 diesel tractor for many years, they are 329ci with crossflow head. also came in petrol variants. a great engine, for a swap, especially considering the bell housing is bolt on to the block.
If you make it taller so the intake port gets straighter you can have less area in the port since it will become much more efficient. This would help with the pushrods also since the distance between them increase the higher you go.
Also you should research about how to shape the combustion chamber. This eill affect efficiency of the burn and the flow. Super important.
Listen to Darin Morgan regarding design of the port. Theres also alot written on the speed talk forums regarding this.
Also make sure the exhaust port is round at the exist. This will make it alot easier to match to the header pipe since you want a perfectly seamless transition from the head to the header.
Calvin Elston is the man to listen to. Hes written alot on speed talk forums also. Goes by the name exhausted there.
Excellent idea and video. A lot of great thought processing. I'll be looking forward to seeing how this works out.
I love projects like this.
The short side radius of both the intake and exhaust ports might be my primary focus if I were undertaking a project like this.
This has been done with hacked up Cleveland and LS heads. I'd honestly like to see someone cook up a DOHC with 3 or 4 valves.
Or import a Bara ....
@@donaldshannon3764 5 liters > 4 liters
@@TheOrangeManGood True .. but stroker kit is possible ... but cubic inches are less important when turbo'd I've seen some eye watering dyne numbers for a Bara...
way too much work for no reward
@@TheOrangeManGoodThe 300, and technically the 302 aren't five liters. They're 4.9.
Tim Halstead, Drag Boss Garage, on UA-cam, has one of the pieced together 4v heads for FoMoCo 6. ‘Spect he’d share for reference with this project.
i put a comment on his video to please find someone to do a 3D scan on that head so someone could get one casted for us! maybe if more people left a similar comment it may happen?
Yeah as stated in this post ! Ford Australia took the 144 through 250 ci Falcon Six and gave it Cross Flow Cleveland style cantered valve heads in 1979 , same valve angles and infact valves as Cleveland V8 . Later cast in Alloy and multi port injection in 1983/4 . The 200 ci and 250 ci six got this head . Alloy ones cast by Honda in Japan . These heads are a direct bolt on for any US 144, 170, 188, 200 and 250 six .
If you look on the Australian engine parts sites you will see head gaskets for them, and they look similar to what your 300 looks like. These crossflow heads came in cast iron and alloy and have heaps of aftermarket go-fast stuff for them. You may be better off just bringing in a whole OZ engine. The last of these engines had fuel injection and electronic ignition.
You might be interested in Greg Quirin's channel. He's documenting Pete Aardema and Kevin Braun's engine developments for land-speed records. They've made a number of 4-valve heads for engine's that didn't originally come with them. They're not on an enormous budget. "How to Design & Build Performance High Horsepower Cylinder Heads" may be especially useful
I think you need to go OHC to get crossflow with decent ports.
Look at some more modern Fords in Australia, I bet something has the same bore spacing & bolt pattern.
It's the same as 144 to 250.ford six
Raise the intake and exhaust ports in the casting. The smoother the airflow, the higher the horsepower. A LS style valve cover would be great. You could try to get around the pushrod angle issue by offsetting the intake runners toward the front of the head.
Random, im working on one as well, figured id see whats online bored and cant sleep and fojnd this, awesome stuff man!
Hi. If you make your head OHC or DOHC, you can easily solve your port problems. You can make your intake and exhaust manifolds work with the stock port configuration on a 2 valve head, and you can offer a 4 valve head as a performance upgrade. The 2 valve could even be a hemi! Pushrod location is a huge impediment to port size and location. Have fun.
Years ago this was done by using a Ford Cleveland 4V head that was welded together. It made 650hp NA and was a race engine though one thing to consider is that the Ford 300 and 302 share the same 4.000" bore and you are not limited to the stock pistons of the 300 straight 6. BOSS 302 high compression pistons were used in that engine without modification since they share the same bore size. Every straight six is pretty much crippled in terms of airflow. (Ford, chevy, GMC,Jeep,AMC) a cross flow head is much more efficient though i would love to see someone try making a HEMI style head for the 300 though the rocker arms would be tricky.
Look into the mid sixties Ford 302 and 427 Tunnel Port racing engines....they solved the pushrod problem by running them through tubes in the intake ports.
Copying the LS valve and chamber is a nice short cut. For a two valve engine they make great power. How about using the Ford 302 layout? For the push rod clearance make tall narrow ports, like the LS.
Overhead Cam, delete pushrods. Cathedral ports like LS, narrower and taller? The LS also used thin round channels for coolant to carry away heat, referred to as Steam ports. I worry about the angled push rods wear on the lifter. try to use roller lifters and rockers to minimize that side force. I wonder if you could test the valve geometry on a lawnmower engine? I just built a DIY CNC MIni Mill and tested with Pink foam, shapes came out extremely detailed. That should work well for a lost foam method. don't for get valve seats, they will press in machined space. And Valve guides could be turned brass pressed as well. Rocker arm bolts take a lot off pulling out forces, May need steel threaded inserts like we used to repair striped threads. Very interesting design project. I would never had tried it. But the CAD tools these days are pretty awesome, I use Fusion 360 for my Model Train work. and some off the Mini Mill Stepper mounts and Dremel tool holder. All the best, Dennis in Virginia
valve guides and seats are all easily sourced.
Like other said a taller port will help a lot and is one of the biggest improvements on aftermarket heads.
You want it to flow at the small radius, too sharp and you lose effective area.
For the intake clearance for pushrod, your way is fine.
You could also angle the valve/rocker with the pushrod for canted valves and less shrouding and bigger valves if wanted.
Other ways is using a pusrod tunnel as the pontaic tunnel port heads.
Or you could simply put the intake on the other side as stock and get free cleance from valve train.
For valve sizes.
Intake valve you need at least 12% of the valve diameter between cylinder wall/valve for straight valves, less and you start to lose flow form shrouding.
5% is fine for exhaust and maybe even a bit less.
australia had a crossflow head on the ford 250cui six that preeceded the awsome barra,,,
These old american i6's desperately needed crossflow, i'll never understand why we resisted developing our i6's...
Cold weather. The carburetor/ intake needs heat when it is cold
@@Patrick-xd8jv i mean i guess, but did we never think to restrict the coolant flow to the head and choke the crap out of it? Or run the coolant through the intake like we did on v8 engines? I mean jeep in the 60's built a crossflow ohc i6 that held a lot of potential, so obviously someone was thinking along these lines, but it was despised in the states (though having 2 valves share a cam lobe was... interesting...)
Even pontiac's ohc that they made for a few years lacked crossflow...
really they dont, 250cfm+ can be had from a stock casting ported with appropriate sized valves
Body shapes changed for drag coefficient bringing us all the jellybean shaped cars. Long engines didn’t fit it with that.
Simple..........marketing! The marketing departments CLAIMED that a strong I6 would detract from the prestige and sales of a V8 equipped car.
Fun project, I dont know if you have seen Kelly Coffield's videos, He builds incredible reproduction parts with lost foam casting, hope that might help.
The 300 I6 block has a 4.480" bore spacing. The Godzilla 7.3L is 4.53, LS is 4.40, and the Ford 6.2L has 4.53 bore spacing. I wonder if the heads from a Ford 6.2L SOHC could be modified to work and a custom cam ground as well.
It's impossible!
Hope this helps you keep it going! I've been thinking about the same project.
I like the idea of the factory exhaust manifold, and relocating the spark plugs and intake ports. I was thinking about mimicking the LS intake ports (tall and skinny) this would require a custom intake though
You have a vision follow it through.
If you figure it out you should make a head for the AMC/Jeep six. The heads are different between the early 199, 232, and 258 in respect to the later 4.0. What that difference is I don’t know, but they’re becoming popular. Guys a stroking the 4.0 out to 4.7 liters.
I know there are a few guys mentioning LS heads in the comments, but another option with even closer bore spacing is the modern Chrysler Hemi motor. The bore spacing is 4.46 compared to the Ford 300's 4.480. The 5.7 Chrysler has a little bit smaller bore diameter. Could be a lot easier option if the bolt pattern lines up or is close.
Something similar done brilliantly in Australia in cast and alloy, good for half a million kilometres
Much more kms
@@Blanchy10 too right
Subscribed
Have you looked at the crossflow head from a Ford Falcon 250 i6 that were made in Australia?
I had the idea to graft one and a half 7.3 IDI or 7.3 Powerstroke heads onto a 300. I wanted to experiment with making a diesel 300, and I realized that the 7.3 and the 300 both have 4 inch bores. I haven't gone anywhere with the idea, but I want to try it eventually. The tough part would be the head bolts since a 300 is 4 bolt, a 7.3 IDI is 5 bolt, and a 7.3 Powerstroke is 6 bolt.
Either way, crossflow 300 is big mint. I love the 300, but I hate reverse flow heads.
Something you might want to take a look at are the Cleveland heads because they have canted valves that may solve your splayed geometry problem with the valves and pushrods not being in line with each other. Several people have built these 300s with those cobbled on there and apparently it's a pretty nasty combo (as in it makes absurd amounts of power). Another engine that has very similar head design is the new 7.3L Godzilla engine and I believe it has even more favorable bore spacing than either the Cleveland or the LS. Not necessarily that you're going to cobble one from those, but because they might give you some design ideas that you can glean and put into your final product.
You are a real Hotroder !
Maybe a Winsor head like trick flow will be😊 easier to cobble up.
I think reusing manifolds would be a great idea. Less initial cost. And if someone already has headers and performance intake they can reuse them as well.
also look into the doge gen3 hemi head very close to bore spacing for a hybrid system
I had a '94 F150 4.9 w/ M5OD for a few years. Loved that truck. I don't know how to use CAD, but I have a DOHC idea I can share with you. Will draw them up. Just need to know how to email them to you.
have you seen the australian 250 crossflow I6. I suspect it may be adaptable. i have a bunch of pre barra SOHC i6 motors The actual blocks look really similar in terms of Dizzy and oil filter location and general dimentions. It wouldnt surprise me if the bore spacing coolant passages and deck hight stayed constant right thru from pre crossflow 250/300 I6 right thru to barra. maybe do some googleing to check that and pushrod location?
There were rumors going around in the mid 2000's of a crossflow head designed by ford. They were experimental and tried for ups so the story goes. One surfaced on the forums for sale. There were less than 6 made total.
I think that's pretty amazing. Don't get why nobody has aftermarket 300 head stuff.. you just go make it.. amazing really..
As many others have said, go get an Aussie 250 crossflow head
You won't be able to use it because the bore spacing is 4.08" compared to the 4.48" spacing of the 300, but at least it will give you some ideas about a decent design
Better still just throw the 300 in the bin and stick a DOHC Barra in your car !
Ford 300cu bore spacing = 4.480 inches
Aussie Ford 250/250 crossflow & later bore spacing = 4.08inches
Perhaps try to find an Aussie '74 to '87 crossflow head to scan OR stike lucky & find one online somewhere & re-scale it in CAD & feed the details into a CNC mill?
If nothing else, it should give you some ideas for solving some of the problems you are or will face...
Looking forward to see how you go with project, best of luck & thanks for sharing! ;)
Barra head may be adaptable ?... Aussie sohc head. Alloy 250 crossflow head. Do your research bro😊 Cheers from New Zealand
I love what you are doing. but i have some ideas for you to think on. 1) why not an over head cam, that eliminates all of your pushrod and rocker arm re-engineering . any good HVAC guy should be able to hammer out a "tin" front timing chain cover. even if it is to light weight to be used, it would give you a pattern to cast an aluminum cover. chains are easy, but timing gears will likely be one off's, unless you can find a set (junk yard) of v-8 gears that will work. that would eliminate push rod, spark plug(s) concerns, and allows you to port the heads for maximum performance. it would also allow you to think about 4 valve designs. lifter bores are easily plugged. there are aftermarket crank trigger timing kits, so if you go that route, you could just plug all of the camshaft bearing ,lifter, and distributor holes. as long as you make certain that your not cutting the oil supply to something. a 10mm spark plug is every bit as effective as a 14mm one. so if where you want to put it is tight, that is an easy fix. and while you may have to leave the stock cam in place to drive the distributor (unless you want to make a different way to create and time the spark). the valve placement can be anywhere, the determining factors are going to be cooling passages, oiling passages ( if nothing else you can run an external oil line). also do not forget to think about combustion chamber swirl (port design) and quench zones. as far as port design, keep in mind that casting them with the engine rpm range in mind. there is no point in making them huge, because your never going to see 9,000 rpm. straight sixes make most of their touque below 4,000 rpm. velocity is important. as far as manifolds go, honestly, I would NOT use them. they were made to get fuel/air in and out with 90% of the concern being "how can we do this cheaply and easily, and 10% of the engines performance in mind. making manifolds is not that difficult. flat steel base, and round pipe for runners. if you do your research, you could even tune both manifolds for a specific RPM range. this is a difficult task. I am not capable of doing that kind of work. as far as casting, there are foundries (usually mom and pops type that will pour aluminum or i guess cast iron if that is what you want. another thing your going to have to find out exactly what alloy you need for any of the metal you use. if you use the wrong alloy, it could mean catastrophic failure on its first run. once you think you have your mold design correct, if I were you, I would spend $50.00 and buy enough wax to make the part. that is something you can do at home, and can save you all of the cost of casting a head with a major design flaw. I AM NOT trying to dissuade you from doing this. If you can pull this off I personally would consider it one of the few great lifetime achievements that anyone could accomplish !
I agree with using the stock manifold configurations if possible. Have you concidered the boss 302/351C head design instead of the LS? The canted valve arrangement might solve some of the issuses you are having wth the LS? Never know....
Awesome!
i wonder if you could just let the pushrod holes interfere with the intake, and then press in a tube?
Since you're starting with a clean sheet, the design can be changed to get all that's possible out of the crossflow design preference. Things that have to be worked around (incorporated) are the pushrods, head bolts, block deck water jacket openings and T stat location (to a point). The ports are only locked to being centered between the head bolts and the pushrods, as the shape can be changed to allow good flow characteristics. The valves and combustion chambers also be rotated for a better design. Take a look at an old Toyota Corolla (1971) 2TC 1600 cc 4 cylinder Hemi design to get the perspective I speak of, and it doesn't need to be a hemi piston and combustion chamber. Intake (runners & plenum) induction and exhaust manifolds (headers) will be easy to construct for this engine. Best of luck with this endeavor you looking into.
It’s impossible, now get it done so I can get one as well lol.
Honestly , I think you should reference the Cummins head, since they are both OHV , 12v design , injectors go on the driver side of the head ,
Maybe adding a little meat on both sides of the head would help centering those pushrods a little so you can initially make the intake and exhaust ports maybe cone in ? Maybe just an opinion
Look at the FE Ford head cyl spacing is very close to the 300 cyl spacing go the the salvage yard and get 4 of them cut them up and weld back together with the correct cyl spacing then cut the assembly in half and get your water passage mold. Then find someone (like Edelbrock) to cast it in Aluminum
its not impossible, just going to be $$$$. cool stuf!
Original style head gasket would be required and is a template, Australia had the falcon 4.1 litre 250 cube crossflow 6 from the 70's. Remember that a fail is learning which leads to experience 😊 good luck.
Intake, exhaust port, and chamber geometry is critical, and difficult to do without a lot of experience. Best/safest bet would be to scan/copy LS designs.
The rocker studs valve stems and push rods need to be in line. Off vertical push rods will probably bend
It's definitely possible. It's a lot of work, but I've seen people take 2 v8 heads and fabricate 1 inline-6 head out of them. I say to give it a try.
Ford Australia put cross flow heads on their 250 ci. 6 cylinder my guess one of these heads will bolt straight on a 300.
What about the new ford Godzila engine? They say it is basicly the same as the LS?
If your design is going to splay out the pushrods that much, design the head about 1/2-3/4 inch taller and raise the ports the same amount. Get your intake port in that wide area between the pushrods. High port, race only LS heads already exist.
the angled pushrods should not be a problem big block chevy push rods are angled quite a bit. its a shame that US auto makers abandoned the L6. my friend in high school had one in a ford F150 and he beat it like it owed him money. and it just ran every day. I had a 2005 4.0L in my Jeep wrangler that had close to 200k on it when i traded it in. never missed a beat. just regular maintenance and a replacement exhaust manifold that cracked.
Maybe you could make the port skinnier and taller so you have the same flow but the pushrods can be straight?
I thought about that. I would like to use stock/aftermarket manifolds, but maybe a port adapter to go from the stock square port to a taller/thinner port could be designed.
@@cronedentside74 if a guy is gonna get this wizbang head, the guy is gonna want to build or buy a manifold optimized for it..
Or, just cast the push rod guides into the intake. He would need to port the intake after it's cast.
@@MrWreeve like maybe that Offenhauser one. Or maybe I’ll design one of those down the road?
I would offset the rocker arms instead of angling the push rods. I can imagine the wear would increase substantially. If you look at Harley Evo rockers, that might give you an idea.
Thanks for tip. I’ll take a look at those
Id use a head gasket as my template for dimensions
Did u check to see if the Aussie later xflow Ford head would fit ?
300cu has 4.48" bores spacing versus 4.08" on the Aussie crossflow...
Too small- could be modeled & scaled up in CAD though
Raise the ports more, also ls3 intake rockers are offset. Ditch the stock manifolds and go for better port geometry
This guy is a nut for doing all that work, re-inventing the wheel. Ford Australia made something like 160,000 of this engine, with a cross-flow head, in the late 1970's. Just buy a crossflow head from Australia, with or without the rest of the engine. Ford Australia cross-flow sixes were mostly made in 200 and 250 cubic inch versions, but smaller versions were supplied to fleet owners.
These cross-flow sixes were very good smooth motors - caught GM-H, still stuck with their old "red motor" out, though rendered a bit low in power by the exhaust recirculation needed to pass 2nd stage emission rules.
😂
The AU engines were based on the smaller bore spacing 200/250 engine (Falcon engine). He is working on the 300 (4.9l) which has a larger bore spacing. The heads will not fit.
@@npvg : I thought the only difference between the US 300 and US 240 was a longer stroke and different head machining?
Cylinder bore was the same, so no need to increase bore spacing, which would mean an entirely different block. Note that the Australian 1970's engines with cross-flow (cast iron) heads are the heavy 7-main bearing engines, not the earlier little 4-bearing engines that came with early Falcons worldwide.
250Aus block has 4.08" bore spacing (center-to-center) 300US (Industrial motor here in Oz) is 4.48".
250Aus crossflow would need to be scaled up to fit.
I have been wondering if anyone had come out with one of those. I feel like it would run way batter!!!!
A crossflow design flows identically to the looping flow design if valve placement is unchanged. Overlap efficiency is dictated by valve placement. If your crossflow design maintains the same inline valve, wedge chamber, there will be no change in mass flow.
Couldn't you use a head gasket for the dimensions?
I remember years ago that Clifford had planned a crossflow head for the 300, and never did it. It's really the only thing I hate about the engine.
Make the chamber a hemispherical one, if it’s feasible, or maybe a modern swirl port design.
I think I’d like to do something like that. I’ll have to do some research to figure out the best chamber shape.
@@cronedentside74 Copy the Aussie 'Barra' if your going to go OHC or DOHC- will need to be scaled up from 4.08" to 4.48" bored sizing though in CAD...
I'd stick with copying the '74-'87 Ford Aus Alloy Cross-flow though- just having some decent ports & cooller intake would do wonders for an engine that can make 500-odd hp @ crank on a stock head with turbo, even if left in N/A form.
ua-cam.com/video/SZoV6E5DDXI/v-deo.htmlsi=eE-yW6Md_QbjOlE-
You would think edelbrock would take this up especially over the production run but they can't be bothered
Look at the 7.3 godzilla head it's very close to the bor3 spacing
Not sure what RPM range you're targeting, but the Ford 300 6 is known for being a low revving torque engine. It was used on UPS trucks for years and is a proven power plant. Cross flow really doesn't do a lot for performance other that having more room for the ports and keeping heat off the intake.
If you want the 300 to really compete in the upper RPM range, I'd start with a 4 valve DOHC setup. Just take any one cylinder from any 4V DOHC engine and use that as the base. You'd have to run a chain up the front, but you won't need pushrods and 4V heads are pretty much the best setup. If you select an engine that has fully isolated runners for each intake valve, you can use VVT to make it run off of 1 valve at low RPM and both valves at mid/higher range. Each cylinder can have two full length intake runners and two injectors/throttle bodies that work like a progressive 2V carb for max torque down low.
That would make the 300 a monster down low, yet still able to have torque up higher.
I like the idea of converting it to an OHC set up as well, the one thing he would have to account for is oiling those components. If he can tap into the oil galleries from the block, internally or externally, he'd be set.
TallGarage has an LS head on a 300 already.
Don't use paint to get a print of the block, just purchase a head gasket. Cant the valves towards their respective ports. Raise the ports in the heads over what your drawings show, flow will improve. Make the head taller if necessary. Use single shaft mounted rocker arms for each valve. Don't worry about push rod angles, Mopar guys do this all the time. Foundry sand can be printed with a 3D printer, to pour a casting. After doing all this work, don't use the factory manifolds they are not that good.
Why not a hemispheric head? Crossflow? Sparkplug in the middle? Pushrod room?
So much work anyway, why not go OHC?
Nothing good ever happened in the performance cylinder head business till the NASCAR guys got over the idea of using anything in the way of stock manifolds ,,, !
WHAT is the attraction about hotrodding 300 Fords.Hardly ideal as a performance engine with a heavy crank and 4" stroke. Excellent torquey truck engine however. As it was designed to be. I have seen them used in 70s speedway Supermodifieds where they rasped around at moderate speed. The best had a one of constant flow injection. That car is still around though inactive.
A few tried the 292 Chev 6 as well. To my mind a better engine BUT also obsolete.
IF you want a good more modern straight 6 used a crossflow 250ci Falcon engine pushrod engine. Or better the same base engine with the twincam head, The Barra. Or modern Chevy 6 engines
Piston ranch channel did the LS heads on a a 300. Also if you're designing a head, just go overhead camshaft why would you stick to pushrod? You can use the pushrod as a through oiling system for the OHC by just having them end in the head and oil is pumped up from them to your cam or just plug it. I made one for a slant 6 i just stole the basic head design from a 2JZ 4 valves per cylinder using Toyota 4A valves and parts same bucket on valve design. Belt run from the crank externally. Look at the Toyota M series if you want 2 valves just go single overhead cam with a hemi head.
If you want pushrod look at the GM iron duke design crossflow pushrod with 2 different style of rockers and valves arranged at an angle and cant
Maybe a hemi head would work
Nice project, i hope you don't drop this and come up with a kickass head. Good luck
Isn't fords pinto 4 cylinder a cross flow just add 2?.
It's been done, they used to LS heads
Looks like a bridge to a guitar
Why don’t you just get a cylinder head of a Australian ford barra engine it’s all ready to go overhead cam Or a duggan alloy head made in Australia
One way I see this working, is to use over head cam.
what are your goals for the engine? that sets the entire framework for what your cylinder head needs to do. building a crossflow head just because is a waste of time and energy, rule number 1 of any design work is design intent.
You and I have extremly similar projects, (mine is not a ford). Im a bit further along and can give you a few pointers. How can I contact you?
If you have instagram feel free to message me @cronedentside74
I dont have instagram
The V8 ford goes in at an angle.