C3AE-C heads, what can they flow?

[ToddK]

What sort of power are a set of C3AE-C heads capable of? These are the 390 heads, 72cc chambers. I'd look at upgrading the valves to 2.09"/1.65", a good valve job, bowl blend, smooth the valve guide bosses and a general port clean up. Any idea what they should be able to flow?

I'd be looking at running them on a 390, around 10 to 1 comp, solid cam(maybe a Comp 270S or a 282S), tripower intake, long cast headers, 4 speed and 3.5 gears in a Galaxie.

[jayb]

I think you can port those heads to flow a lot more air than the rest of your combination will support.  Given the rest of the components you are planning on using, you are probably looking at 375-385 horsepower.  A mild cleanup on those heads and a good valve job with the CJ valves will make them capable of supporting 450+ HP; I'd guess flow numbers in the 250 cfm range on the intake.  The heads won't be the bottleneck to your combination; the intake and the cam will be what limits the peak power.

[ToddK]

As always, I should check my facts before opening my mouth. Turns out the heads I have are C1AE-A's. Are these a decent candidate for performance with bigger valves and a clean up?

[machoneman]

Yep, the C1's are a good head as well with large ports. Have used them and sold some too where the results were quite good. But, as with any garden variety FE head, some bowl work and larger valves helps quite a bit.

Once again though, if the heads need a total rebuild (guides, valves, valve job, etc.)  get a quote 1st and compare it to a new set of Edel-B's ready to run out of the box, so to speak. 

http://mustangtek.com/FordIntake.html

[hotrodfeguy]

A,G, and R's pretty much are all the same LR port and flow the same. Good working budget/street heads.