Not sure if this has been answered before, but im curious and want to know how you go about finding the correct intake or cylinder heads that will work with an engine. I am not going to do this for a while, but eventually I would love some more HP and will be getting a new aluminum intake and aluminum heads after I fix all my other issues of course.
Thank's for the link! Isnt there more to it than that? like the push rods and lifter matching the head and being the correct length?
I thought you were just asking for port matching, for whole engine building you might want to pick up a book: [ame="http://www.amazon.com/How-Rebuild-Small-Block-Ford-Engines/dp/0912656891"]Amazon.com: How to Rebuild Small-Block Ford Engines (9780912656892): Tom Monroe: Books[/ame] http://www.mre-books.com/smallblockfrd/index.html
Nice explanation, but with a .010 decking (or taking .010 off the heads) no intake milling is required. You have to mill more than .040 off both decks (or heads) before intake fitment becomes and issue. Even then, you should remove NOTHING from the intake until you've milled the heads, bolted them down with the gasket you intend to use (looking for compressed thickness here to work with) then test fitting the intake to see if anything needs to be milled off it to fit. I milled my Canfields .060 to get the chambers down from 64 ccs to 57 ccs and on the first engine I had em on, I had to mill the Vic Jr intake I used(don;t recall how much though) and enlarge the bolt holes to get it to fit. When I went to use them on my 331 with the repop 3x2 intake, no milling was needed, only enlarging the bolt holes was needed to fit. I also built a 400M that I decked the block .010 and the heads .030 and it needed no intake milling to fit the Weiand intake to fit. Never mill anything before test fitting first.
That can come into play, but it's not going to be something you need to worry about in choosing what heads you want to use. Lifters have no bearing on it, pushrod lengths can be tailored to your needs once the rocker geometry has been checked after the heads are bolted down. Your budget is going to likely be the thing that determines what heads you go with. Chamber size is an important factor too. You generally do not want bigger chambers running with a dished piston(unless you're going to turbo or supercharge it). Smaller chambers and flat tops generally (I say generally because not all SBF flat tops are the same pin or compression height) go well together. Domed pistons and small chambers aren't something you'd want either unless you're going for the max compression ratio. A good compression ratio to shoot for in a daily driver car is 9-9.5 to 1. If you can afford higher octane fuel (90-93), then 10-10.5 to 1 is what you'll want As for intake choice, my personal preference is a high rise dual plane, these give you the best all around performance, both good bottomend and topend for most engines. A single plane will give you better topend, but you'll pay a penalty for it on the bottomend power. Carb size also comes into play here too. Just remember that "bigger" isn't always "better" on a street driven car. A carb needs vacuum under it (pressure differential) to draw the fuel from the bowls, the higher the vacuum is (velocity thru the bores), the better the fuel atomization, distribution and throttle response will be.
I just ment keeping my block the way it is and adding aluminum heads and a better intake to get a little more HP. I didnt know if there was anything special and you could just slap it on and go. Right now its just bored 30 over and everything is stock besides the extras I added in my signature which isnt much. Thank you for your help!
I would want to keep the 2v carb I have since I spent $300 on it last month. I would be going with a 2v intake like an edlebrock or something similar and some cheap but decent aluminum heads I dont care if I get them used as long as they work. I think right now I have flat toppet or whatever its called. With aluminum heads are they all roller rockers? Forgive me for all the questions im just trying to get high off information that will help me later on.
For a cheap 2 bbl aluminum intake, look for one off an early to mid 80's 302 with a TBI injection system, that setup has the same carb pad as your 2 bbl carb. Aftermarket aluminum heads come in both rocker styles: pedestal (like the 78-up Ford heads) or stud mount. Stud size can vary though, some of the stock studs were 5/16 or 3/8, aftermarkets are either 3/8 or 7/16. And don't sweat asking questions, there are no dumb questions, there are however some dumb answers out there. You never learn anything by not asking if you're not sure of what you want to know. Ask away.
You might want to keep your eyes open for a cheap 4 bbl aluminum high rise dual plane though. You can always bolt it on and use a 4 bbl to 2 bbl adapter and keep the 2 bbl until such time as you can afford a 4 bbl carb. You don't have to "do it all at once" and worry about "getting all matching parts", the engine will still run, the power it makes (or doesn't) will depend on the combination of parts you're uisng at the time.
Don't take this the wrong way but you need to do some serious research before you pull the trigger on anything. Based on this post you don't even know what camshaft you have. Once you know what you have then you can get good information on which parts will benefit your combination. I'm still at a loss about keeping that two barrel carburetor.
I plan on it that's why I wanted to ask some questions before I dive in and buy parts. As far as the cam goes I would need to pull the oil pan and look and see what I got. The two barrel is brand new and i spent a lot on it that's why I want to keep it and save on some gas. I live in McKinney and work in dallas so a 4v will suck my tank dry with my heavy foot.
Pull the pan? Hell...pull the intake and check. Simple. I'd still swap the two barrel for a 570-ish cfm four barrel. You'll end up with better mileage by having more velocity through the primaries on a four barrel than you would through a Motorcraft two barrel. Air/fuel velocity is what gives you throttle response. Better throttle response with less throttle blade angle equals better mileage.
