C302B heads COMMENTS??

C-302B heads from the late '80s are arguably the best Cleveland cylinder heads ever built. They are still popular with pro racers in dirt track & other series. If you receive the heads all assembled, great. If they are bare, plan on spending about what the heads cost to complete them- the valves, springs, keepers and spring perches are all different from std Cleveland heads. It would also be a shame to run std rocker arms, so full roller rockers are needed, with Boss hardened pushrods and Ford pushrod guide plates.The cam grinder will have recommendations as to which valve springs you'll need to match his cam, but remember- for reliability, Ford says to only run springs that have a max of 140 lbs closed pressure, or the valve seats will pounbd into the aluminum heads. The intake, cylinder head and exhaust gaskets should be Fel-Pro, for the port size of your heads- the C-302Bs are designed to be ported to your specs- and few used heads are still as-cast. The head gasket must be composite, not steel, as steel will dent the soft aluminum.They also require a special open plenum intake manifold which will be 2" taller and will shove the carb backwards 1-1/2". This causes a std air cleaner to hit the engine screen and the rear decklid- a 13" dia filter in an aftermarket air cleaner, plus a large hole thru the screen (or discard the screen), will be necessary. There may be a problem with the stock throttle cable mount, as well. Your stock headers and most aftermarket units also will not fit- the C302B exhaust ports are raised 2-1/2" and the bolt pattern is altered. Some Pantera vendors sell such header systems. When you finally complete the engine, it will be about 100 lbs lighter than stock and will be capable of 500 or more horses, depending on the amount of money & time spent on the rest of the engine. But this is obviously NOT a. cheap conversion. Good luck.

I forgot- to top off this conversion, none of the stock 351C head bolts will fit, either. The aluminum heads are 1" thicker than stock iron heads, so the bolts are too short. Special bolt kits are available but studs are a good idea for these heads, and the heads CAN be removed over studs while the engine remains in the Pantera.