which combo?

[BigMoneyHustla]

I was thinking of either porting my stock GT40 heads or buying an aftermarket set of aluminum heads and getting a new cam. I want to go with the combo that will give me the most bang for the buck, not neccesarily the combo that will give me the most power. I know I will get more power by going to an aluminum head and remove weight off the front of the car, but I think it would be cool to keep the stock look under the hood. How much would it cost to port the stock heads versus bolting on a set of aluminum heads? How much power would I see from each combo and what cam should I run? What ever way I went I would get the car dyno tuned. The car is a daily driver during the summer that sees occasional track use(drag and road course).

[Roast'em]

This is a question you need to really research based on your price range and ultimate plan for the car. There are countless 302 combo articles in all the big mustang mags with proven numbers to put you exactly in that hp range you want.

I assume you want to keep your cobra intake? Aluminum heads are not that noticeable when looking under the hood so don't worry about that. My buddy has an Sn95 like yours with aluminum GT40x heads, Cobra intake and an e cam. To tell you the truth, the performance in his car is seriously lacking. I believe it's because those cars require way more tuning than your average fox body 5.0

So whatever you do tune it properly or convert to an A9L computer.

What I would do if I had your car (assuming the bottom end is healthy) is port the heads and intake, run a really mild cam (or even the stock cam) and throw on an entry level blower like an A trim. Then turn up the boost a little with a pulley.

[93SVT]

Talk to Dan (TurboX2) hes done ALOT of heads and has ported the stock Gt-40's, his 93 cobra went mid-high 12's with ported stock heads and intake, maf, cam and a few very small bolt ons, figure your car is a bit more of a pig i would guess with your stock heads ported right, intake done right, and a good cam you should be able to get good performace out of it, good being mid to lower 13's wich lays to waist most of the cars on this board

Bill

[mnstang]

if you don't want to get real serious down the road, i'd keep the gt40s. but i wouldn't worry about keeping it looking stock cuz like rob said it's not super obvious with all the accessories in front of the heads and everything.
the porting costs really depends on who does it and what you have done while they're ported... ie valve job, new springs, valves, milling, all that adds up quick.
if you can afford extrude honing i'd do that, it is simply awesome.

if it was my car i'd probably go the aluminum route just because then you shave alot of weight off the worst part of your car to have weight... you get brand new castings, brand new parts on the heads, and still more room to grow with porting if you want.. plus then you can sell the old heads if you wanted and make some $$$$ there too.

and as far as your cam, that really depends on what you want to do. all i can say about cam selection is i'd rather have too small of a cam than too big.

[thom1301]

If you ever plan on husling anybody (either financially or just for fun), it's always nice to have the stock looking heads. Plus you know, since you have a Cobra, it may be kinda cool to be using all the original castings, if you're into that kinda thing. In a book I have on my desk, the author picked up 38 hp and 38 ft-lbs of torque by either cnc porting or extrude-honing the stock heads (there were 2 before and afters, each with similar results). This was in conjunction with shorty headers, an extrude-honed intake, and the stock cam (both before and after, so the heads were all that was changed). And of course, these were regular 5.0 heads, not the ones on your Cobra. That seemed like a pretty big gain to me. There was also no loss in power anywhere in either test. This is not always the case aftermarket aluminum heads (make sure you research port cross sectional area, as well as just port volume). There was also a cam test, and the winner was the Crane 224/232. It acutally made more torque and horsepower down low and up top (than the stock or any of the others). It beat out the SVO B, F, X, plus another Crane cam and 2 Lunati cams. I'm sorry I don't have any actual experience to share with you, but I hope this helps...
travis

[CaptCrunch]

I'm with greg... alum all the way. Raise the compression up and have a whole lot better head. An afr head out of he box is so above stock ported heads and will more importantly let you grow more.

In terms of sleeper (does anyone build these any more? sure doesn't seem like it) but they can be hidden pretty easily if you want to. One of the best keys to making a sleeper is sheeding unseen weight.

[DNeinstadt]

Originally posted by CaptCrunch

In terms of sleeper (does anyone build these any more? sure doesn't seem like it) but they can be hidden pretty easily if you want to. One of the best keys to making a sleeper is sheeding unseen weight.

I have a sleeper. It's 6 colors and it's sleeping in my garage for the last 2 years!!!

Dan

[FASTANG]

If it were up to me i would go with the aluminums. as said before, you save weight, can grow into them. i was debating the same thing and decided against it, since AFR heads are $$$$ and that was my choice. So, I'll stick w/ stock ones for now.

It seems the benefits of aluminums are far greater than working with stock ones.

[93SVT]

Originally posted by FASTANG
If it were up to me i would go with the aluminums. as said before, you save weight, can grow into them. i was debating the same thing and decided against it, since AFR heads are $$$$ and that was my choice. So, I'll stick w/ stock ones for now.

It seems the benefits of aluminums are far greater than working with stock ones.

growing into heads is a VERY VERY BAD idea, just take my car as an example, Mag artical would read - go slower then stock for 4 grand- afr dyno test inside lol