When I bought my '02 the previous owner told me that he blew out the #3 plug and had a helicoil installed. Now a year later thoughts of building another supercharged car are running through my head. I've heard the 4.6 2V responds very well to boost, but that #3 plug keeps popping up in the back of my head. Has anyone successfully ran a blower on an engine with a helicoiled plug? I know the best plan would be switch to Trick Flow heads, then boost it. But for that money I can do a full engine build and a blower on my 5.0.
I did timeserts installed from the combustion chamber side on my buddies 2002gt years ago. No problems whatsoever.
Timeserts are really good! But im thinking a timesert cannot follow a helicoil. Your helicoil will come back out, come loose, but youll be able to reinstall it, but will back out come loose. The helicoil is a quick bandaid. Works great to get back up running, but quality suffers. Forget tfs heads! Who can afford that? $2000 for heads $600 cams(mandatory) $150 heads changeover kit $600 tune Better to swap over to '04 8thread pi heads.
I have seen a few people timesert perfectly good heads for anticipation of running big boost. This was on the Windsor heads though just for piece of mind. The heli coil like said above is a good fix but I wouldn't use them on a long term boosted engine. There are plenty of Lightning owners that used them and are still boosting but I would personally not build around a head like that.
8/9thread heads Locknstich Timcert Helicoil in that order. Just make sure if you get an insert (timsert or LnS) its aluminum. That way it conducts electricity at the same rate and heats/expends at close to the same rate... I would only use a helicoil if i was on the side of the road and needed to limp to a shop. I would get a timsert if i couldn't find a LnS vendor. LnS is the only one approved by Ford.
A shop put 3 Helicoils in my flywheel once...I had a NEW clutch put in at the same time. Never again knowingly will I allow helicoils or their like. the hcoils loosened & backed out & it all failed 1000 miles from home...I found an excellent shop & paid $1000 for a whole new clutch setup & new flywheel they did quality work & it is still going years later!
I had heard of some people installing the timeserts to beef up the threads in their heads. That's what got me thinking about supercharging again. However the mechanics at my work said that a timesert can not be installed now because at had been helicoiled. Is there any easy ways to spot a set of '04 heads, or do you just have to count the threads?
They have a did part number iirc. Its very obvious with the heads off though Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk
you can install a Bigsert, which has a larger outside diameter than your average timesert. this would require you to drill the hole out larger of course, so you have to be sure that there is enough material between the spark plug hole and valve seats
The 8thread heads started to show up in trucks first. Ill post that casting # here in a bit. All the 2v engines from '05 definitely have the desired heads. Crownvics and econoline vans carried them for sometime. Ebay has plenty also averaging price of $170ea
Any thoughts on Patriot Performance heads? They are re-maned oe heads, But have larger valves and have been cnc ported. Price is $1700 without a core for stage 2. Plus all their heads have been improved to 8 thread plug holes. I figured once I buy a set of used heads off eBay, have them checked, cleaned, and rebuilt I'll be close to the price of these without getting into any port work yet. And with the price difference between these and the TFS heads I could get some Hi-Tech stage 2 cams.
Once you factor in core you can get some trick flows. Trick flows will be brand new..... Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk
I see 2 options here. Option 1 PI 8 thread heads (untouched) Option 2 TFS heads (can be ported) Leave ported pi heads alone.
