Which heads to look for?

[SMEGMA STENCH]

Hi all. I was hoping someone here was familiar enough with the 1994-95 mustang GT motors, to tell me if there is a better set of heads that I can find at some junkyard somewhere. Perhaps they put better heads on a factory lincoln mark 8 or something... who knows. I am pretty confident in my porting and polishing skills. So I would like to just go to a junkyard somewhere and pick up a better set of heads for my 94 GT. Then I'll port and polish them myself, and bolt on a few more HP to my stang.

So are there any Ford factory heads that are better than the ones that came on my 94GT? That will fit my 94's 302, of course. And of course its also going to need to work with the stock intake and stuff.

I'm sure the cobra heads are going to be a little better, but I have my doubts that I'll find any that are separated from the engine. I'm looking for something that was pretty common, like that old Explorer intake swap trick.

[matts5.0]

Gt40

[SMEGMA STENCH]

Again I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to all this factory stuff, but weren't the GT40 heads just an aftermarket aluminum head made by ford? So if I'm right, its pretty unlikely that I'm going to come across that at the junkyard and even if I did, they'd want an arm and a leg and I wouldn't buy used aluminum anyway. No telling why they're not on a motor right now.

[TENGRAM]

Again I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to all this factory stuff, but weren't the GT40 heads just an aftermarket aluminum head made by ford? So if I'm right, its pretty unlikely that I'm going to come across that at the junkyard and even if I did, they'd want an arm and a leg and I wouldn't buy used aluminum anyway. No telling why they're not on a motor right now.

There are iron variations of the gt40 that came on Cobras and Explorers.

[Vertnut]

I would think the GT40P heads and intake off of the Explorer/Mountaineer would be a pretty decent improvement. I think the headers are a little different than the older models.

[Cooter]

man, I've been down this road so many times back in the day... you're going to be MILES ahead if you just pony up for a good set of heads. by the time you buy, port, and rebuild a set of iron heads, you're going to be so close to a set of good aftermarket heads, you'll wish you'd just bought some.

if you keep an eye out, you can pick up a good set of aluminum heads for $800ish

that may sound like a lot, but it won't by the time you build a set of iron heads

[SMEGMA STENCH]

That makes sense. I was adding up the costs and it seems to get expensive pretty fast. The only thing is, I'm scared to buy a set of aluminum heads. I have heard the horror stories of people buying used aluminum heads only to find that they're warped. Is there any way to avoid that?

[Cooter]

that's that not that big of an issue... any set of used heads you buy, I would recommend having inspected and surfaced. Aluminum heads are easier to cut than iron

[sickpony]

I have never been impressed with any of the gt-40 heads as far as bang for the buck ported stockers (e7 heads) will do the job just fine. If you are gonna spend any money you should just step up to a good aluminum head.

[SMEGMA STENCH]

that's that not that big of an issue... any set of used heads you buy, I would recommend having inspected and surfaced. Aluminum heads are easier to cut than iron

Ok to clarify. If you were going to buy a used set of aluminum heads, would you want to take them to the machine shop before you actually paid for them?

Or are you saying that you'd just go ahead and buy them, then take them to the machine shop? And that way, if they were warped or anything, you'd just have them fixed.

[Cooter]

Ok to clarify. If you were going to buy a used set of aluminum heads, would you want to take them to the machine shop before you actually paid for them?

Or are you saying that you'd just go ahead and buy them, then take them to the machine shop? And that way, if they were warped or anything, you'd just have them fixed.

I would inspect to the best of my ability and comfort level and then take them to the machine shop to have them surfaced.

If you can find somebody who will work with you on getting them to the machine shop and getting a clean bill of health, that would be the ideal situation