Does anyone have a link on steps to cut out some of the shock towers? I have a 67 hi-po 289 and dad just gave me his 70 351 Cleveland 4v heads so I'm gonna make a real boss. But I needa make some room lol help would be much appreciated
There are many many threads on the forum dealing with cutting back the stock shock towers. It is best that you make use of the "Search" feature and maybe use the words "shock tower" and you should come up with a lot of threads with photos - I orignally had my 351 Cleveland installed without any tower mods and it was a bear to get to anything
The shock tower notching is a popular, almost necessary, modification for a 351W. You could try using "351" in your search. I believe Bryant did this mod to his Comrick. He did a nice job by using the curved pieces of the tower. http://mmb.maverick.to/showthread.php?t=83544&page=11
Running those heads on a 302, there will be more room than running the 351c. Cutting the shock towers will definately help but are not going to be necessary. Tubular Automotive makes headers for this application.
I would go ahead and cut the towers with a regular 302. It just gives you a lot more working room. Plug changes become a breeze. My towers were cut and flat plate was welded in..... functional, but ugly. If doing it again, I would opt for cutting a section out of each side of the tower and putting the factory-contoured piece back in, just moved further outboard. Some folks here have done this type of tower cut and it looks great! Do a search here and I am sure you will find some good examples of this.
