got my new asp racing pulleys today

[brian88lx]

well i went to pick up my heads today and more bad news. all new valves, springs, and valve guides. it ended up being 800 bucks of machine work and materials. all for e7 heads ;)

now my heads should be done by next wednesday. he took me back to the shop and showed me what was going on. my springs were wasted and I had 8 to 10 thousands worth of play in the valve guides and they were severly worn and scuffed.

the springs he was going to give me were too weak so I had to get some comp cams double spring setup.

i also found out I have gt-40 valves in my e7's. they should be real nice when I get them back, brand new stainless valves.

Since my heads were apart today I finally got to get a good look at the porting job on them. Even greg (the cylinder head guy) said that someone had spent alot of time porting them and they looked real good. Coming from him, thats good news.

Talk to you all later, thanks for the advise as always.

[speedytang]

Wow, that is a lot of money to do E7 heads when a good set of better breathing heads cost that much. I like my ported E7 heads but only because I had $400 in porting a new factory set of heads but $800 way to much.

[brian88lx]

the 800 bucks includes a pressure check, new stronger valves, new stronger springs, a mill and two felpro 10111 head gaskets amongst other stuff like valve guides and valve stem seals..

it may seem expensive, but i got alot for what he did.

[fanglemeister]

this is how far i was able to tear it down last night.

Hey Brian, it's kind of hard to see it well in this picture, but it sort of looks like you have the headgaskets installed backwards with the gasket water passages at the front instead of the back where they belong. Apologies if they were installed correctly, hard to make out in this pic. Just make sure with the new gaskets the end marked "front" is installed at the front!

WRT re-torqueing the head gaskets, just to be clear on this: do not loosen all the bolts 1/4 turn and then retorque them! Loosen one bolt at a time and then retorque it to spec, then go on to the next bolt. :o

Regarding the valves not seating, it sounds like you might have the wrong length pushrod, or else the rockers might not have been adjusted properly (too much lifter preload, when the lifters pump up the valves hang open).

Hang in there, it should be worth the effort once you get it all sorted out. ;)

[brian88lx]

Hey Brian, it's kind of hard to see it well in this picture, but it sort of looks like you have the headgaskets installed backwards with the gasket water passages at the front instead of the back where they belong. Apologies if they were installed correctly, hard to make out in this pic. Just make sure with the new gaskets the end marked "front" is installed at the front!

WRT re-torqueing the head gaskets, just to be clear on this: do not loosen all the bolts 1/4 turn and then retorque them! Loosen one bolt at a time and then retorque it to spec, then go on to the next bolt. :o

Regarding the valves not seating, it sounds like you might have the wrong length pushrod, or else the rockers might not have been adjusted properly (too much lifter preload, when the lifters pump up the valves hang open).

Hang in there, it should be worth the effort once you get it all sorted out. ;)

I am pretty sure I had them in the proper way. I will look through my pictures and let you know. That could be a contributor to the problem although my temperatures were always good.

10-4 on the studs. thats what i meant, it just came out wrong ;)

The valves were not seating off the car. The springs were wasted, the valve guides were wasted, the seats were wasted and the valves were wasted. It just leaked like crazy. After my headgasket blew it was actually leaking the steam/coolant up into the intake.

I am running stock pushrods and 1.7 cobra rr's so i should be within spec.

[fanglemeister]

WRT the valvesprings, I was in just about the same boat as you -- had been running some pre-abused GT40 iron heads with the oem Lightning springs, guess they didn't like my Ultradyne roller cam, they had less than 80 pounds on the seat, so I took them off and replaced them with Crane's beehive roller springs (120-375). The motor repsonse picked up very nicely on the top end, was sorry I didn't do it sooner. The guides in the GT40s are about done though, so next change is to pull those iron heads and install a set of X303 heads I recently picked up for $800.

If your guy is decking your heads, you will probably need to set the Cobra rockers with some pedestal shims. I like to shoot for just 1/4 to 1/3 turn past zero preload, anything more in a hi-po app and the lifters can start to pump up too much.

Let us know how it all works out for you.

[brian88lx]

If you dont mind me asking, what is your procedure for setting the roller rockers? Ive read so many.

[Dirk Diggler]

Brian, Dang, 8 bills for a head rebuild! Wish I would have read this thread a while ago, I could point a place out for you...AFR heads cost around 1200. sorry...

[brian88lx]

Brian, Dang, 8 bills for a head rebuild! Wish I would have read this thread a while ago, I could point a place out for you...AFR heads cost around 1200. sorry...

I'll get some "nice" heads when I am done busting everyones *** with my e7's. ;)

The next thing to go in my mustang is a 351 so I will get new heads during the swapout.


The head rebuild was around 600. the other two hundred is new headgaskets and other parts.

[regattacoupe]

Yeah when the 351 bug bites it's for keeps. I doubt i could go back to a 302.....

[brian88lx]

It has been biting me for a while. I have been searching for old blocks that have not been bored out yet. I want to get it on the stand and build it up over the winter as I can find parts for it.

[regattacoupe]

Yeah thats what i started doing last january.... still on the engine stand.......

[brian88lx]

That sucks. Fortunately for me, I have my little 302 in the mean time ;)

[blueoval92]

Hey Brent everyone needs a backup 408 like Doug :D LOL

[brian88lx]

I got my heads back last night. They look real good.

I should be able to start reassembly tonight.

This time I am going to run it without the supercharger belt for a couple miles.