VED billet FE heads?

[jayb]

Doug, thanks for the pictures.  Looking at the head, I have to surmise that they have opened it up on the intake face of the normal FE head dimension, in order to machine the water jacket spaces, and then used that bolted on plate to seal up the head.  It also appears that the water outlets are on the front of the head, which I guess would make sense since only a custom intake manifold would work on those.  I was thinking that if you were going to do a standard style FE head, that the head would have to split into a top and bottom half so that the water jacket areas could be machined, and then the two halves would be bolted together.  The way they did it would probably be easier, but would limit the intake manifold options, and no thermostat of course.

[TomP]

How would you split the head top and bottom and maintain structural integrity? The head bolts could be used to hold them together and down too but would the whole top of the water jacket come off with the valve spring pads and rocker bosses?
I think windows and plugs in the exhaust face of the head and ends would be better.

[cjshaker]

I'm just guessing here, but I don't believe the heads are meant for any street duty, only 1+minute runs for 1/4 mile cars. Hence the limited water jacket space. Again, I'm not positive, but I don't think the water jacket extends around the chamber like normal cast heads do.

What Jay suggests is certainly possible if milled bolt bosses were added to the halves in key areas, because just the head bolts alone probably wouldn't be enough to stop any warpage and/or seeping. Walls would have to be a little thicker to allow for a seal also. I don't see why it couldn't be done, it would just take some good engineering.

As for any argument that it loses it's "heritage" of being an FE, that kind of goes out the window anyway with the use of a Shelby block. They are nothing like any standard FE block that was made by Ford. For that matter, lots of performance FE engines built these days don't use a single factory piece in them, so it's all just semantics anyway.