C0AE Head Questions - Ford Muscle Forums : Ford Muscle Cars Tech Forum

drdano · 12-26-2009, 08:38 PM

I've got two questions about these heads.
First, are all FE head exhaust ports this....bad? Or was it just on these first few years of heads? The port is nice an large, but there is a big step up on the exit hole. Almost like the exit hole was an after thought.

Secondly, given these chambers are ~60cc, would it be possible to run these on a z-code 9:1 '62 390 engine? The cc would decrease by around 14cc, which I'm not sure would be too much or not.

Ausgal67 · 12-26-2009, 09:18 PM

Not that i have seen a set of 352 heads before, but they do look a bit rough design, as you say possibly due to the early date, no doubt someone here would have rebuilt a few early FE's.
I wonder if you could clean them up to look and flow a bit better.
I wouldny worry about the extra CR you are going to get, if it's only 9-1 now. you may have to run better gas and adjust timing, but i's not like you going 10.5 -1 (i think)
I have the formula written down how to calculate CR, but it would take me ages to write it out.
If you need it i may be able to scan it and post it.
David.

drdano · 12-26-2009, 10:14 PM

The only way I see to correct that step-up on the exit hole would be to fill in that step transition area with material and make a smoother transition, which would be an extremely large amount of work. I was curious if this awful design flaw was common to all heads, or just these early ones.

Would these heads be the ones that were used on the Q-code high performance and M-code super high performance motors in 1962? My 1962 ford shop manual lists both of those engines as 10.6:1 compression and I'm wondering if these two motors were just Z-code short blocks with these smaller chamber heads on them. Or, if it is the case that there were just higher compression pistons with the same C1AE heads that would have been used.

danv · 12-27-2009, 05:56 AM

According to my book of info, the COAE 6090C heads are 1960 352 with 72.8-75.8cc combustion chambers.

COAE 6090D are 1960 352HP, 1961-62 390HP and early 1962 390HP with dished pistons, and 59.7-62.1cc chambers.

drdano · 12-27-2009, 07:53 AM

Thanks for the info Danv. They are the 6090D heads. Your info clears up that these would have been the common heads to the Q and M code engines it sounds like. Does your book tell what cc the dishes were on the pistons by chance? Was there a different crank and/or rods on the HP motors?

one37tudor · 12-27-2009, 01:32 PM

If I may offer an opinion about FE heads. From the mid 70 through the 80s I raced several different types and classes of circle track stock cars. For many years I used FE engines as there was a 360 ci. in. size limit. I would typically use a 352 block and crank with 390 rods and 332 pistons. This combination would actually push the piston slightly out of the top of the bore requiring the use of a very thick head gasket.
I used many different FE heads as I broke a lot of valves (the real weak point on a high riving FE). What I found that made the most power were the very early 332 fully machined chamber heads. They were smaller CC than the 352 heads so that combined with the taller pistons gave a lot of compression. After those heads got to be very rare I started using 352/390 heads. What I began to notice about these heads was that the later the year model the better the casting. Same with the blocks, later blocks did not have as much issue with core shift.
Almost all the FE heads installed on 352 and 390 engines had the same size ports and valves no matter what the head number is but there is a difference in chamber shape and CC. You can flow several heads and find large flow differences between the heads and usually the later heads will flow more because they are a cleaner casting than the early heads.

I finally learned to just go with a later model head clean up the casting flash in the ports and if I needed more compression I would use a taller piston and/or mill the heads some. By the way, if you can find a really savvy machinist you can angle mill Fe heads and drastically improve the flow numbers but you will have to use a piston with a thick top so that large valve reliefs can be cut into them.

It is usually so much cheaper and easier to just pick up a set of Edelbrock Aluminum hears and just run them out of the box.

I am sure there will be a lot of differing opinions on this and that's OK. Like they say "opinions are just like butt holes, every ones got at least one"

Scott...

danv · 12-27-2009, 05:58 PM

My advice would to get hold of "How to build your Big Block Ford" by Steve Christ. It has most of the specs you would be looking for regarding head casting numbers and more. I'm sure a lot of this info is online, but at the moment I can't find it.