GT40 head/intake swap done... ask questions now while still fresh in my memory PICS!

Well its been about two weeks and everything is running smoothly.
Car runs great.
Idles nice
good power bump


Got gt40 heads and intake from a 1996 explorer Heads rebuilt, no resurfacing.
professional products 70mm TB
trick flow sn95 elbow
fox valve covers (longer bolts required to bolt to heads)
arp head bolts
arp intake bolts
new plugs for gt40 heads





Don't worry about the hole in the middle of the intake...
this gasket is fine.
The gasket set is from a 95 cobra


reconditioned the injectors
like 2.50 each for the o rings and cap



i cleaned all surfaces with a flat razor blade and acetone
vacuumed out all the junk with a shop vac

kept push-rods and rockers in same order as before with egg crates and a box with holes poked in it.
just number everything on the box and egg crates
i didn't change the cam so the same push-rods and rocker arms worked fine on a budget




had to skinny wheel a 3/8 chunk of the egr off to clear fox valve covers
also the trick flow elbow had this already cut off as it was used
drilled hole through both and essentially moved the lower bolt up to secure them together





used this next picture as a guide to plug and or connect the vac lines from the upper intake to the existing lines
get some extra vac line hose in the 2 sizes and use bolts to plug the ones not needed




I had to remove one of the alternator bolts and replace it with a machine screw to fit with the fox valve covers
(these are the 3 bolts that actually hold the alternator case together)

Final product




I left the egr valve connected but ditched the smog pump and tubing associated with the smog pump.
got a shorter belt from auto zone (search belt routing to find the right size)
put a bolt in the line that goes from smog pump to h pipe.
previous owner used high temp hose as connection from hard line under car to hard line on h pipe.
that is where i put the bolt and used a clamp to hold it tight.
my new TB and cold air kit just missed the oil fill tube, so i didn't have to modify that.

marked dizzy before i started
never rotated engine
put dizzy back in the way she came out
fired right up when i was done

marked balancer
got car up to temp
pulled spout connector
set timing to factory for now
done
runs great!

That is all I can think of now, any questions let me know
And thanks for all the help from you all during the swap
Doug

 

A few more pics

 

I dont have any proof from a dyno or drag strip times but
she pulls harder sooner and stays in the power possibly a little longer
same animal just meaner
sounds a little meaner too.
not a huge diff but if i had to guess
my seat of pants says 40-60 hp ish

I really need to get some gears next especially since I have 2.73's and 18in wheels
( that has got to be like a 2.55 effectively! gonna get 3.73's)

 

I was trying to get more spark
When I first bought the car it had a cylinder that was fouling the plug on # 7
figured I'd upgrade ignition, coil and plug wires to get more efficient spark
didn't seem to help
didn't hurt though either
below 3k rmp the box allows multiple spark discharge (MSD)
the ford duraspark is pretty good
imo the only weak link for up to 300hp is the plug wires.
however when i go to a supercharger in the future I have read that a MSD 6al or above is the box to get for adjustability.
the box I have was probably not needed and it was 200 bucks.

Turns out the fouling was from a valve seal...
When I did the gt40 swap all is well.

 

Money
I did this swap while I was out of work.
If I had swapped cams I would have had to get new spring kit push rods and might has well gotten new roller rockers

that would have more than doubled my cost.

oh then I might as well get a tune with all that changed...

snowball downhill in just a few steps..

next thing im not at $550 for what i did.