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HELP setup early 289 heads for solid camshaft!!

9530 Views 27 Replies 11 Participants Last post by  67Coug
I got these heads from a buddy, I traded for them. I want more info on them, I know that I can use a soild cam using these heads which is what I wanted. Please some info on how to set up for solid cam, & cc size! Could I use these two cam choices with the press in studs & some new springs??
Choice A)228/228 .477/.477 260/260, 108/LSA 289 Spec. #32834-22146
Choice B)224/224 .499/.499 270-270, 110/LSA #313334

http://www.thatmetalbox.com/Item/1966_Ford_289_heads




http://www.thatmetalbox.com/Item/1966_Ford_289_heads



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This is what I traded for the above heads:
http://www.thatmetalbox.com/Ford_289_1968/
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<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: 67fastback on 3/19/06 3:58am ]</font>
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These must be California emission style heads that have the thermactor pump pipes on them. Stu
Yep, Thats what they are. Sell them to a restoration person and buy a set of Winsor JR's
my 1967 fastback is a CA car, but it had holes drilled internally, additionally it had round pushrod holes=no good for solid cam, correct? I wonder what is the comutstion chamber CC in these here heads.... is it 54? 56? 58?
Hey there! Sorry to say that to run a solid cam in those heads, you will need to have the studs pulled out and some screw in studs put in. The spring pressures that are usually associated with a solid cam can be enough to pull the studs out slowly but surely over time. (read While your driving!)
Usally around $65 for the labor. Then around 40 for the ARP studs.
You can get away from the guide plates because of the slots but that is not a requirement to have the slots for a solid cam.
You just use a set of guide plates that fit under the studs when you dont have the slots.

SOOO having gone through getting my '68 302 iron heads done I have some experiance to share.
I bought my heads with over size valves and 'redone' for around 365 on ebay. Then I realized that I wanted better valves, $135. Then i wanted to port them. $25 cheap grinder and $65 worth of carbide cutters. Oh and another $10 for sanding rolls. I spent near 5 weeks and another 5 weeks finishing the intakes at my buddies head shop (weekends) porting just the exhaust. $Time$. Oh and the head rotating stands that i bought for $40. ARP .100 longer rocker studs $35 . Isky adjustable guide plates $50. I bought I set of cheap retainers for $30 then didnt like them and then bought a crane set for $35. Then I bought a set of crane beehive springs for the hydraulic roller Im running, $125(which also came with retainers-SIGH!!), then i realized that the rebuilt heads i was working with had 4 bad guides!! arrggg!!! So i then went and put in bronze sleeves in the guides. Cost free, but if i had to pay? $65 .Then after all's said and done theres the performance valve job Free BUT if i had to pay? $125
It took almost 6 months to piece together and pay for the "CHEAPER way to go"
So I spent near $915 on the heads trying to save money. Not including the cost of GAS driving to hell and gone every weekend to my buddies house for 5 weeks and then another 4 at my other buddies Head shop. (I dont want to think about that)
So the moral of this long and drawn out explanation??
BUY SOME AFTERMARKET HEADS.
I could have bought some ford motorsport heads (M-6049-Y303) for 800+tx
What a dope.
If you do get some pay attention to the combustion chamber as most aluminums have bigger chambers for the forced induction crowd. You can run slightly higher comp with aluminum heads.
Anyways hope youve benifited from my experiance
Good luck






_________________
71 Pinto
5.0 Roller block
B303 , 1.7 roller rockers, Crane beehive springs.
'68 302 Iron port polished heads.
Mod Must II headers.
Edelb Rpm Airgap
Holley 570
Msd dist ,Crane HI6 igntion
Bla Bla Bla
The money pit, "So... when will it be done?"

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: 71hotrodpinto on 3/15/06 10:45am ]</font>
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Well Said
WELL I hear you, 71hotrodpinto
However, your advice is calibrated for the Wrong Dude....

I am not really looking for power; just a bit of a bump up...
I Do Not want much power on my 67fastback, its stock, I don’t want to rip it apart, nor do I want to weld her up!

I am thinking TINY solid cam, just to avoid power loss associated with a similar TINY hydraulic FT cam... What better car to use a solid cam on anyway? So easy to get in there and adjust... Also the associated small boost of power associated with the smaller Combustion Chamber.... if it is smaller, the heads I have now are bone stock '70 heads... I guess around 58cc??? I am guessing that the '66 heads we are talking about should be a bit smaller, do you know if they are? 54-56cc is what I think I read somewhere...??

*HOWEVER* I am building an engine for my '91 notch which will be a bit more heated... just a bit. I am interested in the beehive springs, I have searched around trying to find someone using them on a SFB but could only find for Chevy Applications... could you give me detail on spring part#
cam spec and
spring cost??
Sure would appreciate it!!
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What he's trying to say is by the time you do a proper and complete rebuild on your 289 heads you will have close to what a much better set of aftermarket heads cost and have a new set of modern heads with SS Valves, Hardened seats Etc. Sell the 289 heads to a collector ($100-200) and put the money you would have used to rebuild them (Valve Job $125, Guides $80, Valves $120, Springs and Retainers $100, Hardened Seats $160) $150+$585=$735 add and $100 and you have an additional 40-50hp and new heads. Makes much more sence to me.
The pictures show a C6OE head which had 52.5-55.5 cc chambers. They also have a non-adjustable valve train with rail type rockers and the large pushrod holes.

As stated above, it will be costly to convert these heads over to run a solid cam to say nothing of the cost of having them freshened.

The Comp Cams website should have the spring info you're looking for.
hmm, one thing I noticed about theses heads is that they have small oval shaped push rod holes. I don't know if they are considered 'large' but they are much smaller than the holes on my '67 heads, the '68 heads I traded away, and the gt40p heads I got from an explorer.......
I thought that these heads were ok to use solid cam with, I am wrong...
On 2006-03-15 20:07, 67fastback wrote:
hmm, one thing I noticed about theses heads is that they have small oval shaped push rod holes.............
This is the pic I was talking about.....large round holes.

http://www.thatmetalbox.com/Item/1966%5FFord%5F289%5Fheads/1966_Ford_289_heads08.jpg
Good luck finding a "small" solid cam. Not worth the effort IMHO. Just get a decent hydro and drive it. If you're not looking for a lot of power, just run a 204/214 with the existing heads you have and it should run pretty well. If you're going to spend money on it, take the time to deck the block to maximize quench - you'll get more HP from that than switching from a hydro to a small solid.
No you shouldnt try to run those heads as is with a solid cam.

If you wanted to freshen those heads and get them ready for a solid cam youd need at least 400 in rebuilding them to stock, decent valves, valve job, machine for studs and studs (You NEED to do this for adjustability if anything even for a small solid cam) hot tank cleaning , magnuflux,valve job,valve seals etc. And to properly set up your springs that youll get in the cam kit the machinist MUST shim to get the proper Installed spring height on all the springs.
After all is said and done youll still have stock style 66 heads with no more horspower advantage than stock. You might get 10 horse with a good valve job but youll still be killing the performance of the Solid cam with the choked off exhaust. Course you could have them ported for around $400 more and then here we go again!! lol
Hey just want to let you know that i started just where you are now trying to just get by cheap for the moment and Iv'e regreted it ever since. I came across some AFR 185s once after my heads were done and id spent over 900 on mine. They went for 1100 on ebay. I was soo pissed at myself . If id just had saved my pennies instead id have had more HP , more bling factor , 50lbs LESS weight on my nose heavy PINTO and better resale value later if i took care of them.
Just my opinon.
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The heads i the pictures DO have smaller holes that guide the pushrod and vill be ok with a solid cam, the rockers int the pictures DO NOT have railrockers. I have run the same setup wth a solid that was close to the 289hp cam, I had pressed in studs rather soft (stock I think) springs and I ran that one for some years with no problems 6000 rpm sometimes and missed shifts sometimes (manual) and it worked fine and didn´t pull out the studs....
http://www.thatmetalbox.com/Item/1966%5FFord%5F289%5Fheads/1966_Ford_289_heads12.html
Thath picture cclearly shows the sloted pushrodholes and rockers that are not railrockers
The picture you reference Matte does indeed have the slotted pushrod hole. I stand corrected. Those heads apparently are the L10 vs L11 change level.
<DO NOT have railrockers. I have run the same setup wth a solid that was close to the 289hp cam, I had pressed in studs rather soft (stock I think) springs and I ran that one for some years>

Matte
that sounds sweet, thats about what I was desiring... could you please give me info on cam # & manufacturer & cost
also specifics on your springs?
I would like to emulate your success...

-=-=-=-=-=-

Do NOT want "Bling Factor" as
71hotrodpinto was talking about, even though I know very well that AFR heads are BADDASS, and BEAUTIFUL...
well, I just want stock-type stuff for my 67 fastback (except for my 91 AOD) and while I object to the word "Bling" and what It usually means, the AFR are my top choice if I wanted max performance.
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On 2006-03-14 19:20, 71hotrodpinto wrote:
Hey there! Sorry to say that to run a solid cam in those heads, you will need to have the studs pulled out and some screw in studs put in. The spring pressures that are usually associated with a solid cam can be enough to pull the studs out slowly but surely over time. (read While your driving!)
Usally around $65 for the labor. Then around 40 for the ARP studs.
You can get away from the guide plates because of the slots but that is not a requirement to have the slots for a solid cam.
You just use a set of guide plates that fit under the studs when you dont have the slots.

SOOO having gone through getting my '68 302 iron heads done I have some experiance to share.
I bought my heads with over size valves and 'redone' for around 365 on ebay. Then I realized that I wanted better valves, $135. Then i wanted to port them. $25 cheap grinder and $65 worth of carbide cutters. Oh and another $10 for sanding rolls. I spent near 5 weeks and another 5 weeks finishing the intakes at my buddies head shop (weekends) porting just the exhaust. $Time$. Oh and the head rotating stands that i bought for $40. ARP .100 longer rocker studs $35 . Isky adjustable guide plates $50. I bought I set of cheap retainers for $30 then didnt like them and then bought a crane set for $35. Then I bought a set of crane beehive springs for the hydraulic roller Im running, $125(which also came with retainers-SIGH!!), then i realized that the rebuilt heads i was working with had 4 bad guides!! arrggg!!! So i then went and put in bronze sleeves in the guides. Cost free, but if i had to pay? $65 .Then after all's said and done theres the performance valve job Free BUT if i had to pay? $125
It took almost 6 months to piece together and pay for the "CHEAPER way to go"
So I spent near $915 on the heads trying to save money. Not including the cost of GAS driving to hell and gone every weekend to my buddies house for 5 weeks and then another 4 at my other buddies Head shop. (I dont want to think about that)
So the moral of this long and drawn out explanation??
BUY SOME AFTERMARKET HEADS.
I could have bought some ford motorsport heads (M-6049-Y303) for 800+tx
What a dope.
If you do get some pay attention to the combustion chamber as most aluminums have bigger chambers for the forced induction crowd. You can run slightly higher comp with aluminum heads.
Anyways hope youve benifited from my experiance
Good luck
Geez man!...were you using a hand driven grinder or something? 5 weekends to port heads? Sorry for the rant, but I hoped they worked really good after that much time invested.

An air driven die grinder and two bits and 10 hours of my time on a Saturday and I was done with two DOOE heads. I hadn't ported heads for over 20 years prior to that. Another couple of hours on Sunday to port match the intake and that was that.

Back to the question at hand. The heads will work with a solid lifter cam. There isn't anything inherent in the heads that will preclude the use of a solid cam. I would "upgrade" a few things like screw in studs, etc. Porting and getting rid of the thermactor humps would be high on my list. You could leave the thermactor hole there and plug the hole on the other end. Just smooth over the hole nicely so the air flow isn't going to catch an edge.
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On 2006-03-16 16:33, blkfrd wrote:
Geez man!...were you using a hand driven grinder or something? 5 weekends to port heads? Sorry for the rant, but I hoped they worked really good after that much time invested.
An air driven die grinder and two bits and 10 hours of my time on a Saturday and I was done with two DOOE heads. I hadn't ported heads for over 20 years prior to that. Another couple of hours on Sunday to port match the intake and that was that.




Yah took me a long time. I had 400 invested by the time i started and ive NEVER done it before. SO i took my time. Plus im sure that when you go over to your friends house to work on a project you end up talking and bench racing more than working. Then beer doesnt help either.
That was on the exhaust.
For the intakes I didnt want to screw them up after all they make or brake your horsepower . SO I went to my other buddys shop in Reseda, calif he said that hed show me the ropes and let me use his porting equipment.
Well hes got a buisness to run so i coulnt just interruppt any time I felt like to get him to show me what to do. Most of the time I spent hangin out and waiting around. Also helped surface heads and cut manifolds, grind valves etc. Just the grunt work. so there went the other amount of time.

Wow i didnt think opening up my experiances would bring critisisim on time issues.



_________________
71 Pinto
5.0 Roller block
B303 , 1.7 roller rockers, Crane beehive springs.
'68 302 Iron port polished heads.
Mod Must II headers.
Edelb Rpm Airgap
Holley 570
Msd dist ,Crane HI6 igntion
Bla Bla Bla
The money pit, "So... when will it be done?"

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: 71hotrodpinto on 3/17/06 10:09am ]</font>

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: 71hotrodpinto on 3/17/06 10:11am ]</font>

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: 71hotrodpinto on 3/17/06 10:12am ]</font>
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4
Ive seen some solid cams for SBF in PAW catalouge... "stock replacement cams" I think for ~$70, will try to find more info...

****************************
<DO NOT have railrockers. I have run the same setup wth a solid that was close to the 289hp cam, I had pressed in studs rather soft (stock I think) springs and I ran that one for some years>

Matte
that sounds sweet, thats about what I was desiring... could you please give me info on cam # & manufacturer & cost
also specifics on your springs?
I would like to emulate your success...

-=-=-=-=-=-

Do NOT want "Bling Factor" as
71hotrodpinto was talking about, even though I know very well that AFR heads are BADDASS, and BEAUTIFUL...
well, I just want stock-type stuff for my 67 fastback (except for my 91 AOD) and while I object to the word "Bling" and what It usually means, the AFR are my top choice if I wanted max performance.
See less See more
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