How much meat is in the EF xr8 heads? - Ford Forums - Mustang Forum, Ford Trucks, Ford Focus and Ford Cars

*i2ayman* · 03-04-2004, 23:06

I have an ef xr8 and want to know whether there is much meat in the heads to port them considerably? A mate of mine who replaced his ef heads with au gt40p ones has offered me his very low km heads at a very cheap price so i can have them worked on without having the car off the road for a long period.

Should i just spend my money on buying an aftermarket intake manifold and leave the heads? (looking at the professional products power polished upper / and lower for $969 (see attached link) - very similar to the edelbrock manifold

professional products pp-54020

XR8 Lamah · 03-04-2004, 23:55

Hmm Is it just me, or does that look like its intended for carb rather than efi ?

I'd try a quick search on "professional products" I seem to remember them being mentioned here before, but can't remember good or bad.

A better intake will yield gains, but the E-7's are fairly well regarded as best used for anchors. Ideally, I would look at trying for head work and intake, or new heads and intake. You could also look for AU intake manifold's (explorer) as another option that might be low cost, and reasonable results ( especially if keeping E7's ).

Unfortunately, I have no idea as to how much porting is possible on the E7's.

Gambit · 03-05-2004, 00:00

I paid not much more than that for a brand new edelbrock performer manifold.I think trickflow are even cheaper than edelbrock.If you have the money buy different heads because everyone seems to agree the E7s are crap.

EDXR8 · 03-08-2004, 03:03

There is quite a bit of meat in the EF heads so they can be ported out a fair amount. You should be able to get them to flow around the same level as stock GT40P heads (around 190cfm intake and 140cfm exhaust) which is still not great but a decent improvement over stock. If you are going to do the work yourself then its fine, but if you are paying to get it done it will probably cost the same as a set of GT40P's.

One thing on the professional products manifold, it is a really crappy knock off of the Edelbrock RPM which is too much for a 5.0L. You will end up loosing way too much low down torque. Also the quality of the casting is fairly poor with plenty of casting flash throughout the intake and other problems. Save your money and get a Edelbrock Performer 5.0L (not the RPM) or if you can find a cheap second hand AU explorer intake they are almost as good.

blueoval · 03-08-2004, 17:06

What year AU were the explorer manifolds off again grant?

EDXR8 · 03-08-2004, 20:29

They were used on all AU V8's and the 185kw EL XR8 too.

blueoval · 03-08-2004, 20:59

thanks mate. the hardest part would be finding a second hand unit for a half decent price!

Xtreme F6 · 03-08-2004, 22:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by *i2ayman*

I have an ef xr8 and want to know whether there is much meat in the heads to port them considerably? A mate of mine who replaced his ef heads with au gt40p ones has offered me his very low km heads at a very cheap price so i can have them worked on without having the car off the road for a long period.

Should i just spend my money on buying an aftermarket intake manifold and leave the heads? (looking at the professional products power polished upper / and lower for $969 (see attached link) - very similar to the edelbrock manifold

professional products pp-54020

Youlle pay 1000 dollars + for porting with flow testing and you wont even come close to having a set of heads as good as after market ones. Just save your pennies and buy alley's :)

blueoval · 03-08-2004, 22:17

Yes, save your cash or give it a go yourself!

Noddy · 03-08-2004, 23:20

Grant, what heads were used on the T3 engine? Are they worth modifying? I remember reading somewhere that they did have some minor work done to them by tickford or other suppliers.