If or when I give up on the 5.0 in my 88 F150, I'll be installing a Spartan-remanufactured 1977 casting 351W that I have on hand from my first serious project, a 75 Granada that was wrecked last November because a distracted sixteen-year old driver ran a red light and hit me.

The engine was purchased from Advance Auto Parts to replace the dying factory 351W in the car. The engine was installed with an 85 351W HO intake, 650cfm Edelbrock carb, stock exhaust manifolds, and dual-exhaust straight-pipes with Cherry Bomb mufflers. The valve noise from the Spartan engine was tremendous, and I immediately went to adjusting the rockers. Rather than the nut loosening, the rocker stud turned around in its bore. The heads went back to Spartan, and they assured me it was a fluke.

I can't remember right now if the new heads were 77 or 78, but even with them, the engine ran badly, missing no matter what tuning measures I took, with lots of valve noise. An Edelbrock Performer RPM camshaft helped a lot, and I wound up being very happy with the engine's performence, though I never was able to keep the valves on cyl. 7 from pecking loudly.

Before this engine goes in the truck, I'd like to improve it a little, especially with an eye toward the heads. I'll be using a similar exhaust setup to the car, with stock F250 manifolds and probably more sedate mufflers. In the future, headers and an aluminum intake may be in the works. For now, I'm looking just at having some work done on the heads at the machine shop.

A valve job is the only thing I really need, but are there any other services I'll wish I'd bought? Is do-it-yourself porting a a good idea for the first-timer interested in engine longevity? Should I use the heads I have, or would there be better ones to use as cores? By better, I mean more reliable, and to a lesser extent better performing, and cheap and easy to come by at the local engine yard. Are there any easy improvements I can make to the shortblock? I've already replaced Spartan's cam and lifters, and I'm going to get new pushrods as well.

Thanks for the ideas, everyone!

 

Doing something about the heads will be a big help, especially if you are looking at buying headers and better intake later. Aftermarket AFR or similar heads are best but expensive. Expect to spend $1500 by the time you by new rockers, pushrods and guide plates.

Cheaper is to go with gt40 heads for some improvement over stock.

Porting your own isn't that hard if you take your time. You didn't mention the casting number off the heads so it would be only a poor guess to tell you how good they would be with porting. E7 heads probably the best of the factory cast iron heads. If you are interested in porting your own I have a guide on my web site . http://www.armstrong.edu/ron/auto/e7.html