DeTomaso Mailing List: May 1997, Message #53
     



From: pantera@pobox.com (David Doddek)

Subject: Re: Of Fuel and Ford Metalurgy

Date: Thu, 1 May 1997 22:58:05 -0500 (CDT)



Steve wrote about Ford heads,



>  I've been told that under normal "around town" driving, no lead is not a

problem, as you tend to run rich anyway and there are unburned fuels exiting

the exhaust valve that help to lubricate the seat area in this case.

>   The problem condition is when you have the wife, mother-in-law, dogs,

kids, and coolers loaded in and are heading up the grapevine hill doing

80mph on a 105 degree day. Here you are hot and placing quite a load on

things.  (Not likely!!)

>  As for pulling an engine apart to put in hardened seats, don't do it

unless things are coming apart anyway. It will be time and money spent

better elsewhere. Like I say, we can thank Ford engineers for this probably

unintentional foresight. (I've pulled apart 428's and 390's with 80K+ miles

on them, and the cylinder walls have had from 0" to .002" taper (runnable

for another 160K+!!), where a Chevy small block will require a ridge reamer,

a rebore, and new pistons to get back in the game.)



I had a 69 302 that sucked 3 valves a 1/4 inch up into the head before I

rebuilt it.  It only had about 20000 miles on it since the leadded gass was

outlawed.  Ford heads will wear out without lead.



David Doddek     pantera@pobox.com    www.pobox.com/~pantera    217-422-3722

69 EFI Fairlane, 89 T-bird SC, 74 Twin turbo NOS EFI Pantera (I like to go fast)