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Need a 32V V8 and can't wait for AV? Read on

3K views 6 replies 3 participants last post by  anakha 
#1 ·
So you want to spice up the performance of your V8 Falcon and are sick of copping flack from your rice burner mates about what a dinosaur you drive. Well here's a trick head swap that will have them spraying their Red Bull over their 5" tachos and white face gauges. Check out the 4 valve per chamber aluminium heads that are a bolt on conversion for Ford small and large block motors including our beloved Windsors.

These babies first saw press back in '98 and I have been drooling over them since I copped an eyeful in 5.0 Mustang and MM&FF magazines. Hot Rod magazine even did a dyno test on a set which blew away a top race ported 2 valve head (albeit on a Chevy). Back then Dominion Performance was doing the selling but that didn't seem to prove too successful and the original designer has taken back the rights and is selling them direct. You can go to the link below to check out the full details.

http://www.araoengineering.com/

Now if you have to ask the price you can't afford them. :( Also bear in mind that to get the best out of them you'd want a bottom end capable of revving pretty high cos that's where they really shine. Anyway, download the pdf and have a read and if that gets you excited you can pay a couple of bucks for the article in Hot Rod which is available on-line from the Hot Rodwebsite.
 
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#3 ·
Valve actuation is pretty straight forward really. If you look at the pictures in the .pdf you'll see that the rockers are setup in a shaft system so the each pushrod pushes the end of each shaft rocker actuating a pair of intake or exhaust valves.

Since I'm such a nice guy I looked up a url where you can get a look-see at the patent that was issued on this head design. Note the date it was issued - 1991! You only get to see the first page without paying for it but it does show the basic setup of the rocker design. Here is the url:

http://www.delphion.com/details?&pn=US05007387__
 
#4 ·
Ok cool, I get it now. The rocker shaft system is kind of similar to that used on other engines like Chrysler's slant 6 etc. Except pushing 2 valves instead of just the one.

So even though it seems like a great idea and big performance improvement I guess the cost on these would be sky high. Just like that overhead cam conversion I saw for old Ford V8's a long while back...
 
#5 ·
Oy yeah. These babies aint cheap. The prices they quoted back in '98 started from around US $3500. Mind you that is a completely assembled pair of heads which are cnc ported, have a complete and decent vavletrain and rocker covers. Compare that to a good set of ported race type 2 valve heads with a shaft rocker system and suddenly they don't sound unreasonable at all. This especially when you consider a purpose built engine with these heads is in the same ballpark as a moderate supercharged or turbo motor for power, while retaining excellent streetability.

Sure isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea but it provides for a nice alternative, particularly if you want a really hot N/A motor.
 
#6 ·
:What sort of induction? Available? Sheet metal ??
 
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