cam

[stock74]

The after market heads will flow very well. As far as factory ford heads go, the best flowing heads I know of are gt-40 heads. The next step down in factory heads, someone correct me if I am wrong are E7TE heads. Do you know what the compression ratio of your engine is? If it is a low compression motor then you will either want to stick with a smaller head or some how raise the compression ratio. Again, if I am not mistaken you will sacrifice some engine compression by putting bigger heads on and in the case of an engine with an existing low compression ratio loosing more compression is going to be counter productive when trying to make more power.

 

[cams 76]

i dont know what the compression is. it is the stock 76 engine

 

[broncnaz]

Stock compression on a 76 is about 8.3-1 not real good and most late model have larger combustion chambers which is even worse for running a 268 dur cam. The GT40 heads are a decent choice and can usually be picked up fairly cheap but still if they need to be reworked they may endup to be about the same price as aftermarket heads which are leaps and bounds better than any factory offerings. If you can I would go with aftermarket heads otherwise save the money and stay with what you have. Stock heads are not alll that bad and with a RV type cam your not really going to see the full gains of aftermarket heads as the RPM range is limited by the cam.

 

[cams 76]

what would be a good choice for aftermarket heads? do i need to go aluminum?

 

[broncnaz]

You can go with either iron or aluminum. Many people perfer Iron heads for 4x4's but they are all pretty good nowadays. Try to stay with 1.90/1.60 valves and keep the combustion chambers 64CC or below. The rest is up to you as far as rocker type ect. keep in mind that most aftermarket heads are set up for adjustable valve train so you will need hardened pushrods and some require langer than stock pushrods. You may want to do a lot of research before settling on heads. Edelbrock seems to have very good prices on there stuff. I'm running TFS heads on my 302 but they have bigger valves than the Edelbrocks I could probalby make a bit more power with smaller valves but it runs great and I may go to a 351W one day so these heads will be perfect when that time comes.

 

[cams 76]

is there a kit that comes with almost everything that is a good choice? i dont know enough about it to match things together
my buddie just put a holly kit with heads and everything on a 350 do they make a good one for the 302?

 

[cams 76]

im thinking more of just doing a cam but if i can just get some heads off like an explorer or something cheap and simple i might do that.i would like to keep it running off 87 octane if possible. decsent power but im also going to do a gear swap i think that will make it a little snappier