Fordnatics List Archive

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Mail From: (email redacted) (Dave Williams)


I've been poking about in my parts pile and my reference books, and
have discovered that Ford has done quite a few variations in the head
and block cooling passages. The 289s had steam holes along the top edge
of the block. These were deleted in the 302. The 351W got a steam hole
at each end, and the triangular core holes were shifted up and over from
between the bores to alongside the top head bolts. I don't have all the
head water patterns sorted out yet.

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Mail From: (email redacted) (Dave Williams)


-> and block cooling passages. The 289s had steam holes along the top
-> edge of the block. These were deleted in the 302.

... and now I've seen a 302 with the steam holes. Blah.

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Mail From: (email redacted) (Scott Griffith, Sun Microsystems Lumpyware)

On Jul 17, Dave Williams wrote:

> -> and block cooling passages. The 289s had steam holes along the top
> -> edge of the block. These were deleted in the 302.
>
> ... and now I've seen a 302 with the steam holes. Blah.

Right. This is why the new Edelbrock aluminum heads have that nifty
semicircular arc milled into the deck surface that sweeps out from the
top edge steam hole down to the "normal" 302 steam hole location. They
didn't cast in any water passage close enough to just drill into, so
they use the deck instead.

Seems to me that that pretty much _guarantees_ steam bubble entrapment
in the old 289s and whatever 302s have the holes there, but it'll be
pretty small bubbles, and they'll percolate down, into the heads, and
out quickly enough. Still, I can't help but think that that is your
basic non-optimal solution.

Oh, well. The wonders of CNC mills...

-skod

- --
Scott Griffith, Sun Microsystems Lumpyware
expatriate SCCA New England Region Flagging/Communications worker
(and driver, of anything that turns both right and left,
and can pass tech...) Return Path : (email redacted)

This read-only message was archived from a public mail list.
Mail From: (email redacted) (Dave Williams)


-> Seems to me that that pretty much _guarantees_ steam bubble
-> entrapment in the old 289s and whatever 302s have the holes there,

That's why Baud invented the twist drill shortly after the Holy Hand
Grenade. I've seen photos of the Edelbrock heads and I'm not entirely
happy with their semicircular water passage either. Of course, a little
Devcon would take care of it if required.

I should be able to get by the local machine shop tomorrow and pick up
that freebie 5.0 head. Then I'll have lots of fun gnawing on it with
the milling machine.


BTW, do you have an extra 5.0 front cover you'd part with cheap? I
have a large assortment of 351W, 289, 302, and Baud-knows-what covers,
but they're all for left hand pumps.