mat in tn Posted June 13 Share Posted June 13 This is more of what I did over the weekend but first time today I drove on the highway afterwards. I replaced the rear axles on my 9" rear end with new US Gear ones (they were very reasonably priced) and pressed the new SET20 bearings on. As mentioned before I decided to replace the axles because the old ones had a wobble on the driver side that I was able to observe with the rear end of the vehicle on a jackstand. The wobble is like the kind you would observe on a tire with a flat spot. I must add the bearings had slop as well, and the seal was leaking so it was just overdue. The new axles / bearings have definitely made a difference for highway. It is very smooth now, no play in the bearings, and hopefully no leaks. Wanted to share this in case anyone was experiencing mild vibrations at highway speeds on a 9" setup. taking a break. headed to new england for a few days. time to go see dad. I let him know last night and he already has three projects for me. I hope he knows how much it means to me to still be able to work with him on something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArdWrknTrk Posted June 13 Share Posted June 13 taking a break. headed to new england for a few days. time to go see dad. I let him know last night and he already has three projects for me. I hope he knows how much it means to me to still be able to work with him on something. Best of luck! The weather here in CT has been amazing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FordFETruck Posted June 13 Share Posted June 13 Best of luck! The weather here in CT has been amazing. Got my Flotek heads today and disassembled, inspected, cleaned and reassembled them everything checks out going to bolt them in the new engine tomorrow. I'm actually pretty surprised how nice they are for $459 a head. Valve job looks good as is. src="IMG_20240612_133239.jpg" border="0"/> the intake and exhaust ports are a little larger than my current Edelbrock e street 5023 heads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArdWrknTrk Posted June 13 Share Posted June 13 Got my Flotek heads today and disassembled, inspected, cleaned and reassembled them everything checks out going to bolt them in the new engine tomorrow. I'm actually pretty surprised how nice they are for $459 a head. Valve job looks good as is. src="IMG_20240612_133239.jpg" border="0"/> the intake and exhaust ports are a little larger than my current Edelbrock e street 5023 heads. Those chamber castings look really nice and clean. How are the valve sizes compared to stock? You're going to have a very healthy 351, I can tell. 😉 I have that same Snap-On (Blue Point) valve spring compressor, though mine is a little worse off from 45+ years of abuse! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FordFETruck Posted June 13 Share Posted June 13 Those chamber castings look really nice and clean. How are the valve sizes compared to stock? You're going to have a very healthy 351, I can tell. 😉 I have that same Snap-On (Blue Point) valve spring compressor, though mine is a little worse off from 45+ years of abuse! Yeah the ports look pretty good for a really budget head. The valves are 1.94/1.55" 58cc combustion chamber, 180CC intake port, 62CC exhaust, the Edelbrock heads on the old engine are 1.9/1.6", 170CC intake, 60 CC exhaust, 60CC combustion chamber, close enough. That Blue point valve spring compressor is my dads and probably 50 years old by this point, the nylon bushing likes to slide out of its housing and when that happens it gets real hard to compress since the threads are scraping the bushing hole. Really don't care much for this valve spring compressor but it rarely gets used. I tried uploading these photos earlier from my phone but it didn't work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArdWrknTrk Posted June 13 Share Posted June 13 Yeah the ports look pretty good for a really budget head. The valves are 1.94/1.55" 58cc combustion chamber, 180CC intake port, 62CC exhaust, the Edelbrock heads on the old engine are 1.9/1.6", 170CC intake, 60 CC exhaust, 60CC combustion chamber, close enough. That Blue point valve spring compressor is my dads and probably 50 years old by this point, the nylon bushing likes to slide out of its housing and when that happens it gets real hard to compress since the threads are scraping the bushing hole. Really don't care much for this valve spring compressor but it rarely gets used. I tried uploading these photos earlier from my phone but it didn't work. It seemed a pic was missing the ) What do you have for rockers and valve covers? Are you going to assemble another engine with the Eddy's or sell them on to help pay for this build? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FordFETruck Posted June 13 Share Posted June 13 It seemed a pic was missing the ) What do you have for rockers and valve covers? Are you going to assemble another engine with the Eddy's or sell them on to help pay for this build? I'm going to reuse my rocker arms off the old engine, comp full roller high energy, nothing wrong with them. I think the plan eventually is go through the old engine and put it in my plastic engine crate and save it for a rainy day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted June 13 Author Share Posted June 13 Those chamber castings look really nice and clean. How are the valve sizes compared to stock? You're going to have a very healthy 351, I can tell. 😉 I have that same Snap-On (Blue Point) valve spring compressor, though mine is a little worse off from 45+ years of abuse! Yes, those heads look great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
viven44 Posted June 13 Share Posted June 13 This is more of what I did over the weekend but first time today I drove on the highway afterwards. I replaced the rear axles on my 9" rear end with new US Gear ones (they were very reasonably priced) and pressed the new SET20 bearings on. As mentioned before I decided to replace the axles because the old ones had a wobble on the driver side that I was able to observe with the rear end of the vehicle on a jackstand. The wobble is like the kind you would observe on a tire with a flat spot. I must add the bearings had slop as well, and the seal was leaking so it was just overdue. The new axles / bearings have definitely made a difference for highway. It is very smooth now, no play in the bearings, and hopefully no leaks. Wanted to share this in case anyone was experiencing mild vibrations at highway speeds on a 9" setup. Last night I was going to quickly swap out my speedo cable as my old one was rotting and the speedometer needle was jumping around a bit. Unfortunately, the new LMC cable was too long and the speedo gear popped out. There was tension when I installed the gear and I should have known that wasn't OK. I was able to get the gear out but the retaining clip is inside the tail housing of the NP205 probably lying in the oil puddle inside that. I had to trim the new inner cable another 1/4 inch with a dremel and the gear fit just right and thank heavens I have a parts truck so found another retaining clip the speedo works now, actually rather well and smooth. Lesson learned that the gear needs to go on without tension. I will be swapping it with the proper cable soon though. Should I strive to remove the retaining clip from the NP205 tail housing? Edit: Tail housing removed and clip has been retrieved... I wanted to take the opportunity to change the plastic drive gear... but there are only remanufactured ones which are missing the empty spline in the gear (presumably an oil passage). NOS is not in stock Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scbill Posted June 13 Share Posted June 13 Yes, those heads look great! While we on the subject of heads, 1983, 4.9 I6, will later 4.9 EFI head interchange without having a rocker, pushrod, etc trainwreck? Anyone ever used a later EFI head on a carb engine? I was thinking if I found a spare head, maybe doing some polishing, duals (I have a set of EFI exhaust manifolds ) and whatever. Sometime you can run across pretty good deals at Youpull here. Bill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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