Good Buy or Not ? "Tunnel Port Top End $5,500"

[427HISS]

Seems like a good price for all parts, but I don't like buying used moving parts like the rockers, valves as you can't inspect in person.

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Tunnel Port Heads with titanium valves, Erson rockers, and the intake has aluminum oval tubes. Springs are set up for solid roller and good for .900 lift. The heads have never been damaged and are in excellent condition. They were on a 482 bottom end and it spun a rod bearing. The motor made 740 on the dyno. Parting it out.

LINK with pics-

https://www.facebook.com/groups/FordFEBigBlock/permalink/1016010315153471/?sale_post_id=1016010315153471

[scott foxwell]

For what it is it's probably a decent deal but I wouldn't waste the money unless you're building something that actually needs a tunnel port top end to be somehow period correct, or you really just want a TP top end. From a pure performance standpoint that's almost dismal power for such "exotic" parts. Springs set up for .900 lift is not a good thing if you're only running .700"....900" lift is crazy. Ti valves are great for racing but wrong for the street if not done right. There are modern heads and intakes that will make more power for probably close to the same amount of money.

[turbohunter]

With the cool TP parts floating around in another thread it's making more sense as we go, eh?
If it's your thing then scratch the itch.

[mike7570]

For what it is it's probably a decent deal but I wouldn't waste the money unless you're building something that actually needs a tunnel port top end to be somehow period correct, or you really just want a TP top end. From a pure performance standpoint that's almost dismal power for such "exotic" parts. Springs set up for .900 lift is not a good thing if you're only running .700"....900" lift is crazy. Ti valves are great for racing but wrong for the street if not done right. There are modern heads and intakes that will make more power for probably close to the same amount of money.

Dismal power? not compared to other factory parts. Probably only a high riser comes close. 
I had a factory tunnel port with all stock ford parts (the ford cam in it had .577 lift) In my 3200lb C-6 auto mustang it went 10.59, I put it in a 2800lb car with more converter and gears and it went high 9.80's. That's with no porting, stock bore and stroke with heavy (968 gram) nascar rods.

[blykins]

Tunnel Ports are my absolute favorite factory cylinder heads.  Pretty exotic parts, with tremendous power potential.

[preaction]

Brent do you have an idea where the TP heads wind up flow wise ?

[thatdarncat]

Brent do you have an idea where the TP heads wind up flow wise ?

I have flow figures at home for my unported Tunnel Port heads I can post later tonight when I'm back from helping Hemi Joel with his dragweek coupe. I believe Joe Craine had replied before that the flow on the stock heads goes away at a certain point without some knowledgeable porting.

[blykins]

Closing the port volume up by raising the floors and some careful porting will yield 380 cfm at .700".  I have made 700 hp with a 465 inch engine with modified TP heads.

Factory heads will be in the low 300's.  Exhaust side is really poor and the intake side will go turbulent very early....at around .600" lift.

[garyv]

Tunnel Ports were originally designed to run at .600 lift and do really well up to that point. After that
they will start backing up so running anymore cam than that is not going to work. There has been a lot of discussion
on this over on the old FE Forum.
The heads in question here have no flow numbers available. I asked the guy selling them on Facebook and says he lost the sheet
on them. He says Purvis Performance did the porting on them. Maybe some of you have knowledge of them. TP's I'm told are tricky
to port so someone with knowledge of them needs to do them.
My take on these parts is based on my own experience and what I have learned from some builders that have been messing with these for a long time.
The heads are set up for a solid roller and if you are planning on running this set up on the street you may well experience a
a rocker failure because of the high spring pressures required. Probably in the 625-650 range.  We had experience with this on my TP heads using a Dove set up with Harland Sharp rockers. What happened was we were unable to keep the stands from moving around.  Can't risk milling the heads to use T&D race rockers because you may end up hitting water. We ended up changing to T&D street rockers and went with a solid  flat tappet cam and it worked out well.
I think if you buy these you will need to change the springs which isn't cheap so you can run a solid flat tappet so you may have to add that cost into the equation. I'd ask if he knows the specs on the springs.
Also the intake is a single 4 and these can usually be had for a grand or less. If you could get him to budge on the price a little say down
to $4500 or so that might be ok. You are going to have to have these shipped if he's not close where you can pick them up and that won't be cheap.
Like Scott said Ti valves are overkill and while I agree other setups may make more power but were dealing with 50 year old iron here and
it does pretty well and nothing modern is as cool as this old junk.
That's my 2 cents
garyv

[thatdarncat]

Brent do you have an idea where the TP heads wind up flow wise ?

I have flow figures at home for my unported Tunnel Port heads I can post later tonight when I'm back from helping Hemi Joel with his dragweek coupe. I believe Joe Craine had replied before that the flow on the stock heads goes away at a certain point without some knowledgeable porting.

Flow figures from my unported C7OE-K heads. These were flowed at R&R Performance, the same place Jay uses. 2.250" intake valves, 1.750" exhaust valves. 3/8" valve stems.

Intake

Lift              CFM

.100              60
.200             124
.300             205
.400             242
.500             280
.600             305
.700             323
.800             325

Exhaust

Lift               CFM

.100              58
.200             108
.300             144
.400             176
.500             185
.600             190
.700             191
.800             192       

[garyv]

Those are some darn good intake numbers for an unported TP head. The exhaust side on them sure isn't anything stellar. Kind of
like all FE heads
I have a set of unported TP heads here that I need to get flowed sometime and see where they are at.
Thanks for posting those numbers.
garyv

[scott foxwell]

If you get these heads and intake, I would suggest a few things: send them to someone knowledgeable to have them checked out. Have the valve jobs checked for depth and run out, have the guide clearances checked, have them mag'd, and then gt them flowed. I have a feeling that being set up for .900" means more than a spring change. The valves must be longer than stock for the added installed height. Plan on valves, which means I would plan on a fresh valve job. You'll be lucky of the guides pass inspection. I would not run more than .002 to maybe .0022 guide clearance. For me, anything more than that is "out of service". Plan on springs for sure, which probably means new retainers and some sort of spring locator. If these heads have 3/8 valves, this would be a great opportunity to use some 11/32 valves and save some weight. Accurate flow numbers, whatever they are, mean you can get with someone like Chris Straub and really get the most out of whatever you decide you want to do; build a pump gas street engine, or something full race. He is one of the most talented cam designers I know when it comes to "odd" flow characteristics that some of these older factory heads have. He has cammed some of the most powerful FE's out there. In the end, don't worry about flow or porting or stuff like that...get the heads in as good a mechanical "blue printed" condition as you can. IMO that's where your money will be best spent and you will best preserve the value of the heads and get the best/most performance out of them.