FE Power Cylinder Heads

[BigBlueIron]

Very cool stuff, what an immense amount of work and ingenuity you have put forth! My hat is off to you. And very cool the fellow that helped with the molds is an FE guy, that just makes it all the more better.

On a tour of the Caterpillar foundry in Joliet, IL I witnessed their shaker table at work. I was in awe, it was basically a large enclosed room with a conveyor belt with large voids for the sand to fall through for a floor. It was violent, entire almost red hot blocks, heads and any random thing they where casting would come tumbling in down a chute onto the floor it shook so hard these huge 6, 8, cylinder blocks bounced around several feet in the air the 12 cyl blocks didn't bounce as high lol. I was amazed that it didn't damage anything as they where still so hot.

cjshaker had a good idea about those small vibrators, I have some experience with them on dump trucks for the same purpose also with hopper trailers that carry bone meal, those are air operated from the truck supply and fit in a cradle so they can be moved easily from front to rear and stored in the truck.

[TomP]

Very cool to see this progress Jay.

[WerbyFord]

Jay,
GREAT STUFF!
Reminds me of back in school, we poured a few castings there. IIRC our challenge was aluminum bronze, notorious for having porosity hidden inside. Then we'd cut our casting up & see if it was solid. None were, of course.

That is some great stuff you are doing, thanks for all the pictures too. I continue to predict, the FE will outlast the Lima Ford, just cuz the FE covered 11 HiPo years, the Lima only two.

[Dumpling]

Be curious of the effect of putting the mold on something like a vibrating plate during the pour

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Best-Choice-Products-Full-Body-Vibration-Platform-w-Remote-Control-and-Resistance-Bands/605208345?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=1381&adid=22222222227070262234&wmlspartner=wmtlabs&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=t&wl3=178066788679&wl4=pla-312981884364&wl5=9021697&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&wl9=pla&wl10=112561937&wl11=online&wl12=605208345&wl13=&veh=sem&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIq6z069uT4AIVzUoNCh2oNAnhEAQYCyABEgLm1vD_BwE

During the pour it might compromise the sand mold, but after the pour it might help flow the metal into the mold more firmly and compactly?

Might be helpful in removing residual casting sand afterwards?

[jayb]

Does the exhaust port get machined down ?, picture could be deceiving but it doesn't look like any material for sealing the lower portion of the exhaust port to the header

Yes, there is an extra 1/4" of material on all the machined surfaces of the outside of the casting.  Once that area around the exhaust ports is machined there is a sealing flange there.

[jayb]

Question...  Where do you start the machining process?  I'm curious about how or what you machine to locate all of the critical surfaces.

Sorry, that is something I keep confidential.  It is NOT a trivial issue 

[jayb]

Another thought. On our big salt spreaders that we use at work, the kind that sit on a flat bed truck, there are "shakers" that you can mount on the side of the hopper, to keep the salt/sand from coagulating on the sides of the hopper. They're fairly small and produce a stout harmonic vibration. Something like that might also help in knocking anything loose. I don't think the vibrations are extreme enough to hurt the castings, but that may be something you'd want to ask the foundry about. It would be similar to them using the impact hammers. They work REALLY well on hard compacted salt and sand that is used in the hoppers. They are designed to be bolted on, but I wouldn't think it would be too difficult to strap one to an object.

A short video showing how they work...
https://youtu.be/VOAilFSa0_U

I use units similar to these...
http://www.vibco.com/products/vibco-featured-products/vibco-sandbuster-vibrators

Those units are 12v operation, but they do make 110 volt jobs designed for industrial applications. Just an example here, after a quick search...
https://www.clevelandvibrator.com/product/37/1176/cm-5-110v

I'm just thinking that using probes and whatnot on each head would be very time consuming, and basically a PITA, and still may be difficult to get at hard to reach areas.
Ok, I'll shut up now.

Doug, that is a great idea!  I'll bet I could make up a plate that would clamp to the casting, and run one of those vibrators on the plate to help shake out the sand.  Thanks for the info on those - Jay

[winr1]

Yay !! ... more FE stuff ..... cant wait to see the finished head !!




Ricky.

[wowens]

I commend and thank you for this "excellent adventure". I wish I had your drive.

[Cyclone03]

My dad worked for over 30 years in an investment casting foundry in soCal. I spent a lot of Saturdays going to work with him. A machined designed by my dad and another engineer/employee was called the knock out machine. It used high pressure water jets first 1500psi from a .040" nozzle,( a second at 4000psi was available for shell castings). the Knock out machine would blast the investment off of and out of the pieces in minutes. To give you an idea of the range of the company the smallest pieces they made for the aerospace industry was some wave guide bends about 1/4 wide by 1/8" high inside,(tiny for the time, 1980's) the coolest was one with a 200deg bend that required no internal machining. We ( I worked there for about a year before I went in the USAF) also made a piece for Boeing that was basically a box,finished it was about 16" cube it required a mold that weighed over 500lbs. It was really cool the parts that came out of that small foundry ,including the pieces my dad was most proud of,made of Gold,contracted by NASA (most likely a sub. for NASA) and to this day still sitting on the Moon at all the landing sites.

Any way, it was said about 10 years ago how great it is to be an FE enthusiast now look what we have and what is coming,new roller rockers,different heads and blocks, Jays intake adapter and intakes plus covers valve covers timing sets not to mention the cranks,pistons cams,roller rockers,etc.. wow! A 100% FE Engine with no Old Ford Parts!           

[Yellow Truck]

Jay, you are truly a steely eyed FE man. You do continue to astonish.

One thing I don't think I've seen you post is the target for the new heads, either expressed in application terms or power targets.

I'm assuming you are doing this to deliver something that can't easily be obtained with available products from BBM or Edelbrock.

In other words, I want some but give me a reason (tell me what kind of project I need to start so I just can't get it done without these).

[jayb]

I have multiple objectives for this head and intake combination.  One is to be able to deliver heads and intake capable of 900 HP out of the box on a 482" engine, just a good valve job and maybe a cartridge roll clean-up of the ports required.

Another objective is to make a 700+ HP, high torque 427" engine with a very streetable cam and compression, that fits completely under the hood of a 67-70 Mustang, or equivalent Fairlane or Torino.  This objective is what my crossram EFI intake is designed for.  You can make 700 HP with heads and intakes that are currently available, but you sacrifice quite a bit in low end torque and drivability.  I'm hoping to be able to change that.

Also, for a max effort engine I want the heads to be able to be ported to flow at least 475 cfm on the intake port with a 2.300" valve, and be capable of over 1000 HP, hopefully close to 1100 HP.

I am also planning at least two other versions of these heads, with different performance objectives.  I don't want to talk much about those yet because they are not yet designed, but they will be targeted towards some very specific applications.  The beauty of 3D printing the port and water jacket cores is that fairly major changes in the design can be made without the need to buy more tooling; a design has to be made, and the 3D sand printer does the rest.

I'll post more on this stuff as I get farther along on this project - Jay

[Gregwill16]

Thanks Jay for all you do for the FE!

[Joe-JDC]

Jay, I have seen 1200+hp with 475 cfm heads and sheetmetal intake, and 1150 hp with single Dominator on BBF.  Those power levels were on 605 cubic inches.  Those heads had exhaust ports that flowed 370 cfm with a 1.880 valve, and a 1.750" exhaust port exit.  It would be great to see a FE head with a round exhaust port, shaped like a typical FE, but without the water passage in the port, and exit down like a CHI Boss 302 exhaust port, or the 302 Cobra GT-40 exhaust port.  That would give the shock tower guys a better alternative to the current exhaust port exit angles.  JMO, but doable.  Joe-JDC

[jayb]

Joe, can you clarify what you mean by "exit down" for the exhaust port?  Do you mean directing the flow in a downward direction, instead of straight out of the port?  I've been thinking about that...