For everyone asking, if you're trying to compare ROI on doing this work against buying a new pair of TFS or AFR heads, then you're not seeing the point of the project. No, it's not beneficial for the average guy to do something like this, unless you have a machine shop and head porter on your payroll, but I will tell you that you learn more from doing things this way than what you learn from just bolting on a set of heads out of the box. Engine builders learn by pushing envelopes and testing new procedures, not just buying parts, pulling them out of the box, and slapping them together. So, for all the naysayers, you can go ahead and say nay, but doing a lot with an underdog is super cool in my book.
I understand what others are saying about price BUT, to me this is right up my alley. I love having an engine that looks like stock cast iron heads and the surprise when you race someone and the want you to pop the hood. I would paint the entire engine dark ford blue except for a aftermarket intake and headers. To me the hidden tricks are the art of racing.
Trust me, I'm 50yrs old and come from a time when there was ZERO aftermarket parts like it is now. I did a 320ci 302 in 1990 with home ported C5 289 small chamber heads. Obviously, it's cool what doing but the cost of doing it now is not really justifiable for the average person unless they really want to bad enough.
The first thing people worry about is flow numbers you hit the nail on the head when you talk about velocity, the e7 heads and the gt 40s are underrated when it comes to performance many people say I waste my time porting this factory junk meanwhile my completely stock bottom end 302 with an Anderson cam duel plane intake and my ported E7s that I did go 10s on motor in the quarter mile and 9s on a 150 shot of nitrous the cars on UA-cam the green gangster with Adam grover for any doubters, thank you for sharing the gt40 p head results
Terry I had no idea the Green Gangster was your son. I've seen the videos on it many times. It runs HARD. I've seen your videos as well, great job from a stranger!
Fantastic Update I had read that a change in the seat angle would help the exhaust but never seen it laid out like that - thank you Those heads look phenomenal So great to see builds like this just dripping with quality work 👍👍
Whoo! Those exhaust flow numbers look great for an OEM Ford cast iron head. OEM SBF exhaust ports look like soda straws.... Those ported GT40P head's exhaust ports look beautiful. Can't wait to see this lil' 302's HP numbers!
It would be nice to have a ballpark idea of pricing for the valves, machine, and port work on these. Just to give a little perspective. They look really nice.
I can't answer for Brent, but for myself, I recently built 3 pair of iron Y Block heads for my 2018 EMC engine with milling the heads, cutting down the guide bosses, installing 5/16" bronze guides, cut seats for larger valves and multi-angle valve job, reaming guides, cc'n the combustion chambers, porting the heads myself, beehive springs, titanium retainer, radial locks, seat cups, vp seals, 16 bronze guides, 8 manley intake valves, 8 manley exhaust valves and without any rocker asembly costs, I was into each pair of heads ~$2200.00 including porting. For 2019 EMC, I was building a 289 for the challenge, and performed the same work on 2 sets of 289 heads, but sent one set to Connecticut for CNC porting to see if they could do a better port. That cost alone was $800.00 plus shipping two ways. When I got the heads back, they flowed 218 cfm, whereas my hand ported 289 heads flowed 234 cfm. The cost of valves, springs, retainers, keepers, seals, machine work is very similar on any iron head no matter the brand. I have ~$2100.00 in the 289 heads. Now you know why CNC'd aluminum heads are so popular.
More than what they are worth!! The labor for the port work alone isn't cheap, especially iron heads. Rough estimate $600-800 porting labor $200-300 stainless valves $200-300 3-5 angle valve job $300-400 valvetrain And you still got the price of machining for screw in studs, installing bronze guides, and the cost of the guides themselves and the rocker studs, guide plates. Still haven't included the price of cleaning them or assembly. Your looking at $1500-2000 easy.
A rough guess would be $1500 in just the port work labor and the cost of the valves. You still have a valve job to pay for, machine work for screw in studs,installing bronze guides,screw in studs, and guide plates to buy plus the cost of assembling them.
I have ported heads most of my life and those heads look great and you will be happy with the performance especially with some good compression and the throttle response will be great good job
I took a port mold of a stock gt40 and a TFS 170 intake port and the shape differences are very interesting. The slanted bowl and the curve of the port on the gt40 head is very different from the mold I took of a TFS 170 that is more straight on the valve. The most beneficial thing I see in the mold to porting on the gt40 is the removal of the guide boss, and opening the pinch a little where it is barely an inch wide on the straight wall side. You can only go so big on a factory casting, so I would focus on how the heads "flick" the air around the valve and into the center of the cylinder. That's how those heads were designed. I think on a TFS head, they use the chamber more to fill the cylinder appropriately because the port over the valve is "straight". On the TFS heads, I would raise the roof, maybe widen the top of the bowl to pull air into that space and off the floor. I'm super amateur though, only porting a set of iron Dart 180 sbf heads so far. They were 192cc after porting with a 1.94 valve, eesh. lol. That's when I learned bigger is not always better.
I wonder how much a gain or loss it would be to put 1.60 valves instead of the 1.57? I understand the larger intake will require cutting into the spark plug boss and more blending which kills the swirl some.
More than what they are worth!! The labor for the port work alone isn't cheap, especially iron heads. Rough estimate $600-800 porting labor $200-300 stainless valves $200-300 3-5 angle valve job $300-400 valvetrain And you still got the price of machining for screw in studs, installing bronze guides, and the cost of the guides themselves and the rocker studs, guide plates. Still haven't included the price of cleaning them or assembly. Your looking at $1500-2000 easy.
For everyone asking, if you're trying to compare ROI on doing this work against buying a new pair of TFS or AFR heads, then you're not seeing the point of the project. No, it's not beneficial for the average guy to do something like this, unless you have a machine shop and head porter on your payroll, but I will tell you that you learn more from doing things this way than what you learn from just bolting on a set of heads out of the box. Engine builders learn by pushing envelopes and testing new procedures, not just buying parts, pulling them out of the box, and slapping them together. So, for all the naysayers, you can go ahead and say nay, but doing a lot with an underdog is super cool in my book.
I understand what others are saying about price BUT, to me this is right up my alley. I love having an engine that looks like stock cast iron heads and the surprise when you race someone and the want you to pop the hood. I would paint the entire engine dark ford blue except for a aftermarket intake and headers. To me the hidden tricks are the art of racing.
Trust me, I'm 50yrs old and come from a time when there was ZERO aftermarket parts like it is now. I did a 320ci 302 in 1990 with home ported C5 289 small chamber heads. Obviously, it's cool what doing but the cost of doing it now is not really justifiable for the average person unless they really want to bad enough.
The first thing people worry about is flow numbers you hit the nail on the head when you talk about velocity, the e7 heads and the gt 40s are underrated when it comes to performance many people say I waste my time porting this factory junk meanwhile my completely stock bottom end 302 with an Anderson cam duel plane intake and my ported E7s that I did go 10s on motor in the quarter mile and 9s on a 150 shot of nitrous the cars on UA-cam the green gangster with Adam grover for any doubters, thank you for sharing the gt40 p head results
Porting and chamber work makes a ton difference on these heads. It was time well spent on my 5.0 project.
Terry I had no idea the Green Gangster was your son. I've seen the videos on it many times. It runs HARD. I've seen your videos as well, great job from a stranger!
Those small Windsors love exhaust port work. Thanks Brent!
Fantastic Update
I had read that a change in the seat angle would help the exhaust but never seen it laid out like that - thank you
Those heads look phenomenal
So great to see builds like this just dripping with quality work 👍👍
Looks great Brent.
Flow numbers picked up.
Thanks for sharing. 👍
Whoo!
Those exhaust flow numbers look great for an OEM Ford cast iron head.
OEM SBF exhaust ports look like soda straws....
Those ported GT40P head's exhaust ports look beautiful.
Can't wait to see this lil' 302's HP numbers!
Awesome!!! Can’t wait to see the results! 🇺🇸💪🏼 awesome video Brent!
It would be nice to have a ballpark idea of pricing for the valves, machine, and port work on these. Just to give a little perspective. They look really nice.
That's what I'm wanting to know, where does it stack up to afrs. That way we can see price point to power and flow.
I can't answer for Brent, but for myself, I recently built 3 pair of iron Y Block heads for my 2018 EMC engine with milling the heads, cutting down the guide bosses, installing 5/16" bronze guides, cut seats for larger valves and multi-angle valve job, reaming guides, cc'n the combustion chambers, porting the heads myself, beehive springs, titanium retainer, radial locks, seat cups, vp seals, 16 bronze guides, 8 manley intake valves, 8 manley exhaust valves and without any rocker asembly costs, I was into each pair of heads ~$2200.00 including porting. For 2019 EMC, I was building a 289 for the challenge, and performed the same work on 2 sets of 289 heads, but sent one set to Connecticut for CNC porting to see if they could do a better port. That cost alone was $800.00 plus shipping two ways. When I got the heads back, they flowed 218 cfm, whereas my hand ported 289 heads flowed 234 cfm. The cost of valves, springs, retainers, keepers, seals, machine work is very similar on any iron head no matter the brand. I have ~$2100.00 in the 289 heads. Now you know why CNC'd aluminum heads are so popular.
I guarantee you it was WAY over $1000, probably close to $1500.
More than what they are worth!! The labor for the port work alone isn't cheap, especially iron heads. Rough estimate
$600-800 porting labor
$200-300 stainless valves
$200-300 3-5 angle valve job
$300-400 valvetrain
And you still got the price of machining for screw in studs, installing bronze guides, and the cost of the guides themselves and the rocker studs, guide plates. Still haven't included the price of cleaning them or assembly. Your looking at $1500-2000 easy.
A rough guess would be $1500 in just the port work labor and the cost of the valves. You still have a valve job to pay for, machine work for screw in studs,installing bronze guides,screw in studs, and guide plates to buy plus the cost of assembling them.
Those heads should make great power. Can't wait.
I have ported heads most of my life and those heads look great and you will be happy with the performance especially with some good compression and the throttle response will be great good job
I took a port mold of a stock gt40 and a TFS 170 intake port and the shape differences are very interesting. The slanted bowl and the curve of the port on the gt40 head is very different from the mold I took of a TFS 170 that is more straight on the valve. The most beneficial thing I see in the mold to porting on the gt40 is the removal of the guide boss, and opening the pinch a little where it is barely an inch wide on the straight wall side. You can only go so big on a factory casting, so I would focus on how the heads "flick" the air around the valve and into the center of the cylinder. That's how those heads were designed. I think on a TFS head, they use the chamber more to fill the cylinder appropriately because the port over the valve is "straight". On the TFS heads, I would raise the roof, maybe widen the top of the bowl to pull air into that space and off the floor. I'm super amateur though, only porting a set of iron Dart 180 sbf heads so far. They were 192cc after porting with a 1.94 valve, eesh. lol. That's when I learned bigger is not always better.
Looking forward to the next videos in this series!
anazing how well your heads and blocks clean up after baking process
Awesome video with great information.😁👍👍
Brent how much were the upgrades on the heads if Joe Blow wanted that done?
He really opened up the exhaust outlets. What exhaust gaskets will you use?
Great Explaining, On your work. I wish I could say I Understand it All.
New sub here,thanx for your time great stufffff
I’m doing similar with a set of e7’s and. Some custom 5/16 stemmed valves from another project laying around.
Way off topic. Do you use CMD extreme pressure lube for stock 289 rocker arm balls? 1967 vintage
I'd love to see a follow up on those custom dome pistons.
Awesome been looking forward to this. Any thoughts on the heads gasket thickness and bore size effect on power? Been looking at this on my e7 combo.
I wonder how much a gain or loss it would be to put 1.60 valves instead of the 1.57? I understand the larger intake will require cutting into the spark plug boss and more blending which kills the swirl some.
Balanced and port velocity.
Those exhaust cfm numbers are after some work on the ports.
how good is the GT40 head are they better than a p head
"The little motor that could"
Anyone ever flow the old Crane heads they use to do to thr small block ford head. I remember they made to exhaust port round
What does something like that cost?
I guarantee you it was between $1000-1500.
More than what they are worth!! The labor for the port work alone isn't cheap, especially iron heads. Rough estimate
$600-800 porting labor
$200-300 stainless valves
$200-300 3-5 angle valve job
$300-400 valvetrain
And you still got the price of machining for screw in studs, installing bronze guides, and the cost of the guides themselves and the rocker studs, guide plates. Still haven't included the price of cleaning them or assembly. Your looking at $1500-2000 easy.
Put it this way, you could buy a set of AFR Enforcers and have money left over for what's been spent on these heads.
just thinking not a ford knowledgeable i though they had gt40 and gt40p heads and the gt40 where the better?
The P heads have the spark plug in a challenging location.
The P heads are Fords version of Chevys Vortec heads.