FE Power Tunnel Port Cylinder Heads

[c-reed]

I’ve got a new set still in the box if interested

How much?

[PLemoine]

$2500 + shipping from Riverside, Ca.

[Katz427]

I myself would like to see a combustion  chamber near 70 cc , as this works with flat top pistons, and a reasonable dish piston. At least then with a surface cut or two, one could get down to, 60 cc, if desired. Race gas is around $25 a gallon, +,
around here in north east. Flat top with iron tunnelport heads ar 86 cc, gives me around 10.2 ratio, with zero deck.

[JERICOGTX]

Kevin should just buy a set of these from you Jay, and just maybe that Cougar would run some day...

[jayb]

So a while back I sent my first prototype tunnel port head to Joe Craine, who had generously offered to port it for me to see what he could get out of it.  Joe only worked on the ports in one chamber on the intake, and only finished one chamber on the exhaust, but he was able to come up with some pretty good numbers:

Lift            Intake       Exhaust (no pipe)
.100"          78             58
.200"         155          114
.300"         227          141
.400"         285          192
.500"         330          212
.600"         357          219
.700"         379          222
.800"         390          230  (260 with pipe)

On the exhaust side, Joe flowed most of the lifts with no pipe, and as seen at the .800" lift level, the pipe definitely helps.  My local shop that flowed these heads always uses a pipe on the exhaust, so Joe's numbers are very impressive if that is taken into consideration.  Joe also experimented with adding some epoxy to the floor of the exhaust port, which apparently hurt some at first but flow later came back with some more massaging.

Also I really liked Joe's intake port treatment.  He did not do any significant enlarging of the port, which is great from a velocity standpoint. The improvements he made picked up 40 cfm from the as-cast numbers that I posted previously.  Joe commented that with more work he felt that 400 cfm is easily possible with these heads.

Joe also did some work in the chamber to open up the flow around the valves; it appears from my measurements that he went up to a 4.31 bore size.  This certainly helped the flow as well.  Bigger bores are always better for breathing.

Here are some pics of the intake and exhaust port.  I'm sure if anyone has questions about his work Joe will be happy to chime in and answer - Jay

[frnkeore]

Joe,
If you read this, it looks like some material was added to the valve guild boss or, did you just grind it in to the boss?

[Joe-JDC]

I did not add anything to the intake port.  Jay beefed up the guide and I blended around the guide.  This was a first run casting that Jay is going to update for future production.  The combustion chamber is a whole lot better than the stock Ford.  I could have lowered the exhaust valve seat ~.020", opened up the whole port on both sides and roof, and reshaped the short turn for at least another 20 cfm exhaust flow.  I always prefer to increase flow in stages instead of grinding out something that would be nearly impossible to put back.  Those heads have lots of potential for a very strong FE.  My local machine shop owner's wife passed away last month, and things were hectic to the point I didn't take the head in to cut more seats and hone the guides so I could work another cylinder for Jay.  My Neway cutters are great for touch-up on the seats after they have been cut, but not for cutting new seats.   Joe-JDC

[jayb]

Finally got my first production batch of tunnel port heads; see the picture below.  If you look closely at the two heads in the foreground you can see the difference between the stock type exhaust port and the SE exhaust port.  Both port openings are in the same position, but the SE port flows more.

I will be starting to machine these heads next week.  I am also expecting another production batch in about a month - Jay

[frnkeore]

Jay can I get my set with 5/16 valve guilds?

[jayb]

Frank, if you want 5/16" guides you would have to provide them.  One of my customers is doing that, but I don't have the details handy.  I should know in a couple weeks when he sends them to me.  Your heads are in the second batch of castings, so we have some time on that.  Send me an email in a month or so and we can figure out how to handle it - Jay

[frnkeore]

Thanks, Jay.

How low long do they need to be?

[jayb]

The ones for the 11/32 valve are 2.335" long, 0.502" OD, with a ridged top for valve seal retention.

[Rory428]

Very cool stuff, Jay, curious about the wavy valve cover rail ridge. I assume that this was due to the casting process, but wonder why it seems to"float" above the actual head casting.

[jayb]

Sorry Rory, that's a trade secret 

[1967 XR7 GT]

Frank, if you want 5/16" guides you would have to provide them.  One of my customers is doing that, but I don't have the details handy.  I should know in a couple weeks when he sends them to me.  Your heads are in the second batch of castings, so we have some time on that.  Send me an email in a month or so and we can figure out how to handle it - Jay

Here are the size of the ones I bought: 502-309-235-E-6-B and I bought 16 exh guides. I believe they were $10 each

Jay, sent me one of his 11/32 guides, here's a pic of his & mine. Jay said the slight difference isn't an issue. My guides take a .500" valve stem seals.
But would wait to purchase them until Jay gets mine mounted in the heads to be sure.



I, sourced my 5/16 guides thru https://www.cheprecision.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/che-precision-catalog.pdf